Core Tech Moving

Starting Monday, December 30, Core Tech, the vendor of Mailware Multi Channel Manager, will be moving to larger quarters at 1245 Pearl St. #212, Boulder, CO 80302 (866-624-5927).

House Passes Innovation Act To Squash Patent Trolls

The House of Representatives voted 325-91 on Dec. 5 in favor of the Innovation Act, which will limit activities of non-practicing entities (NPEs) that stockpile patents in order to file frivolous lawsuits looking to extort grievous settlements from hapless users.

Direct mail and marketing tech companies have been frequent victims of these NPEs, reports Direct Marketing News. Click HERE for more details.

This has been a pet peeve of mine since the 1990s, and I'm delighted to see this legislation pass the House. Now on to the Senate!

Supreme Court Declines Case Re Making Online Retailers Collect Sales Taxes

The Supreme Court today declined to interfere in state efforts to force online retailers to collect sales tax from customers even in places where the companies do not have a physical presence, or "nexus."

The case involved a decision by New York’s highest court to uphold that state’s 2008 law requiring sales tax collections. Amazon has no offices, distribution centers or workforce in New York, but the New York Court of Appeals said Amazon’s relationship with third-party affiliates in the state that receive commissions for sending it Web traffic satisfied the “substantial nexus” necessary to force the company to collect taxes.

The Quill Case
It has been 20 years since the Supreme Court ruled in Quill v. North Dakota that a state’s efforts to require tax collections from out-of-state companies violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. It said the necessary “substantial nexus” exists when the out-of-state retailer has a “physical presence” in the state.

But that decision came before the advent of eCommerce, and the New York court said the old test may now be outdated. “An entity may now have a profound impact upon a foreign jurisdiction solely through its virtual projection via the Internet,” the court ruled.

Patchwork
As noted in The Washington Post, online retailers complained that a patchwork of state laws and conflicting lower court decisions needed the Supreme Court’s attention.  The Supreme Court’s Quill decision said Congress was in a better position than the court to provide uniformity in state tax collection requirements, but there has been little progress.

The Senate in the spring passed the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, which requires companies that surpass $1 million in Internet sales outside the states where they are located to collect every state’s sales tax, but the future of the bill is uncertain in the House.

GoECart Receives 2013 Connecticut Excellence Award

GoECart is pleased to announce that we have been chosen for the 2013 Connecticut Excellence Award by the Small Business Institute for Excellence in Commerce (SBIEC).

Each year the SBIEC conducts business surveys and industry research to identify companies that have achieved demonstrable success in their local business environment and industry category. This year, GoECart has been recognized for having enhanced the commitment and contribution of small businesses through service to their customers and community.

The SBIEC released a statement saying, "GoECart has consistently demonstrated a high regard for upholding business ethics and company values. This recognition by SBIEC marks a significant achievement as an emerging leader within various competitors and is setting benchmarks that the industry should follow."

Canada Post Teams with GoECart, Improves Shopping Experience for Canadians Buying from U.S. Retailers

GoECart announced a new collaboration with Canada Post that will improve the online shopping experience when Canadians buy from U.S. retailers.

The integration of the Canada Post shipping platform with GoECart's multi-channel eCommerce platform will enable GoECart's U.S.-based retail partners to quickly retrieve shipping rates and times, print shipping labels and track shipments. As a result, Canadian customers will benefit from a transparent, hassle-free shipping and delivery experience when they're shopping online from U.S. retailers.

"Canadian shoppers want an efficient, convenient and seamless end-to-end shopping experience no matter where they shop. Canada Post is serving these customer expectations by simplifying and improving the cross-border online shopping process," says Rene Desmarais, Senior Vice-President, Parcels, at Canada Post.

"Our integration with Canada Post enables GoECart merchants to manage their order fulfillment, shipping and logistics operations in Canada with more confidence, as they are now seamlessly connected to the largest retail postal network in Canada. Shipping to Canada has become as simple as shipping to Texas," says Manish Chowdhary, CEO of GoECart.

New PCI Guidelines Go Live Jan. 1, 2014

The PCI Security Standards Council has published version 3.0 of the PCI Data Security Standard and the Payment Application Data Security Standard, both of which go into effect on Jan.1.

Note that version 2.0 will remain active until Dec. 31, 2014, to allow time for merchants to make the transition.

Version 3.0 offers more flexibility and an increased focus on education, awareness and security as a shared responsibility, according to a news release from the Security Standards Council, which stated that “Version 3.0 builds on ... feedback we’ve heard from our community... to help organizations make payment security good business practice — every day, all year round."

New requirements (as summarized by RetailCustomerExperience. com) include:

PCI DSS

• Req. 5.1.2 — evaluate evolving malware threats for any systems not considered to be commonly affected
• Req. 8.2.3 — combined minimum password complexity and strength requirements into one, and increased flexibility for alternatives
• Req. 8.5.1 — for service providers with remote access to customer premises, use unique authentication credentials for each customer*
• Req. 8.6 — where other authentication mechanisms are used (for example, physical or logical security tokens, smart cards, certificates, etc.) these must be linked to an individual account and ensure only the intended user can gain access
• Req. 9.3 — control physical access to sensitive areas for onsite personnel, including a process to authorize access, and revoke access immediately upon termination
• Req. 9.9 — protect devices that capture payment card data via direct physical interaction with the card from tampering and substitution*
• Req. 11.3 and 11.3.4 — implement a methodology for penetration testing; if segmentation is used to isolate the cardholder data environment from other networks, perform penetration tests to verify that the segmentation methods are operational and effective*
• Req. 11.5.1 — implement a process to respond to any alerts generated by the change-detection mechanism
• Req. 12.8.5 — maintain information about which PCI DSS requirements are managed by each service provider, and which are managed by the entity
• Req. 12.9 — for service providers, provide the written, agreement/acknowledgment to their customers as specified at requirement 12.8.2*

*Indicates future dated requirements that are best practices until July 1, 2015.
PA-DSS

• Req. 5.1.5 — payment application developers to verify integrity of source code during the development process
• Req. 5.1.6 — payment applications to be developed according to industry best practices for secure coding techniques
• Req. 5.4 — payment application vendors to incorporate versioning methodology for each payment application
• Req. 5.5 — payment application vendors to incorporate risk assessment techniques into their software development process
• Req. 7.3 — application vendor to provide release notes for all application updates
• Req. 10.2.2 — vendors with remote access to customer premises (for example, to provide support/maintenance services) use unique authentication credentials for each customer
• Req. 14.1 — provide information security and PA-DSS training for vendor personnel with PA-DSS responsibility at least annually

Supporting documentation, including updated self-assessment questionnaires, attestations of compliance and reporting templates, will be available in early 2014 once version 3.0 is effective.

Merchants struggle to meet multichannel payments needs

Multichannel selling is a reality for a majority of small-to-medium sized merchants, but payment processing capabilities lag far behind, according to a new research study commissioned by SecureNet Payment Systems. The study, conducted in partnership with First Annapolis Consulting, evaluated the degree to which small-to-medium sized merchants conducted business through multiple sales channels, in order to assess not only how the merchants currently process payments, but what needs weren't being met by their payment providers. The research study is available for download at: www.securenet.com/merchantsurvey2013/.

More than 60% of merchants surveyed already accept payments in more than one channel, but these merchants are not well served by the payments industry today. A key finding is that in many cases, each new selling channel requires a different payment provider; in fact, 27% percent of merchants surveyed had three or more payment processing software solutions to facilitate payments by channel. Because of the ineffective implementation of a payments strategy through a single, omnichannel payment processing provider, merchants struggle with unnecessarily complicated reporting, complex reconciliation processes and ineffective transaction pricing structures. 

Small businesses identified the two most important issues regarding their multi-channel payments as:

• Access to reporting that is easy to understand, and
• The ability to easily understand how cash flows across channels. 

Additionally, nearly 50% of single channel merchants anticipate implementing multi-channel commerce in the next five years. Among single channel merchants contemplating a multi-channel strategy, the three issues ranked most highly (important or very important) were simple technology (49%), easy integration with existing technology (46%), and a single solution for all of the merchant’s payment needs (41%). Lower pricing came in fifth, with 39% of single channel merchants indicating it was important or very important in a multi-channel solution. 

Large multi-channel merchants naturally face different challenges than small merchants:

• 64% of merchants with sales above $5 million report inventory control as a large or very large issue compared with 35% of small merchants.
• 45% of large merchants indicated that facilitating a consumer purchase in one channel and a return in another channel was a large or very large issue.

Likewise, large, single-channel merchants have a different set of concerns than their smaller counterparts regarding the implementation of a multi-channel solution:

• 71% indicated that strong technical support would have great impact on their desire to implement a multi-channel solution versus 38% of small merchants.
• 57% identified reconciliation tools as being a key to multi-channel commerce versus 27% of small, single channel merchants.
• Nearly half indicated that integration into the merchant’s other payment solutions would have a very substantial impact on their ability and desire to implement a multi-channel solution.

"This research study confirms that traditional, single channel payment partners are simply not fulfilling the needs of a large segment of American businesses,” said Brent Warrington, CEO, SecureNet Payment Systems. "The successful multichannel SMB will look for not just a payments processor, but a technology partner that can scale with a merchant as business needs change. A truly omnichannel payments solution offers multichannel merchants the most effective way to streamline payments across all channels with improved ease, speed and costs. As merchants demand better solutions, the payments industry will see more widespread change."

InOrder’s Web Cart Supports Solr Search and Facet Filtering

OMS vendor InOrder's Web Cart users can take advantage of top-of-the-line search capabilities with Solr Search and Facet Filtering.

Solr is a search platform from the Apache Lucene project. Its many advanced search capabilities include distinguishing between plural and singular search, recognizing common typos and finding results. It also supports Facet Filtering,  which helps customers fine-tune their search results by making additional selections within search results based on their individual interests.

PCI Ostriches [and Monkees]: Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

Website Magazine reports that the most recent version of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS 3.0) that requires Internet retailers to implement and perform rigorous penetration testing using different methods of security authentication and session management are not being met.

These tests are meant to protect against "man-in-the-middle, man-in-the-browser and other similar cyber-attack methods," the magazine reports, adding that "A new study from Tripwire... reveals that the retail industry hasn’t yet implemented these new security requirements and that could result in a big 'ol lump of coal come Christmas."

Reportedly,  just 41 percent of the retailers currently use any kind penetration testing to identify security risks, and "only 44 percent have either fully or partially deployed file integrity monitoring in place."

Perhaps worst of all, Tripwire determined that "62 percent of the IT professionals surveyed say that negative facts about security risks are filtered before being communicated with senior executives."

MailWare Poses the "Clearly" Challenge

Mailware recently sent out the following email: 

"Mailware has served the needs of our customers for 18 years and will continue to do so. Thousands of Mailware customers manage and ship orders, maintain inventory and serve customers using our Windows-based system.

"Cleerly is [our proposed] cloud-based multi-channel manager, order and shipping system and inventory manager. Because it is in the cloud it is agnostic (you can run it on practically any platform - Mac, PC, tablet, even a smart phone). It is priced as a monthly subscription to put it in reach of every business. And it is powerful. True multi channel management including inventory updates, shipping label printing, customer notifications and an easy to use interface means everyone can provide a transparent, professional and quick experience for their customers.

"Cleerly is fully written and ready to go. But we still have work to do. Your feedback is critical to Cleerly's growth and ongoing success. To make that possible Core Technologies is hiring additional programmers and technical support staff. We will also be announcing Cleerly with ads and forum postings. That takes capital" -- which they might be able to raise if you vote in favor of the new platform HERE.

Why not?! Go for it!

GoECart Selected 2013 Tech Company to Watch by the Connecticut Technology Council

GoECart, a leading provider of fully integrated on-demand eCommerce solutions, has been selected as the 2013 Tech Company to Watch by the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and will be among the featured companies at the 7th Annual Connecticut Innovation Summit taking place Thursday, November 7, 1013 at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT.

The CTC presents the Connecticut Innovation Summit as the ultimate gathering of entrepreneurship and growth in the state, where attendees can be surrounded with the best and brightest minds the region has to offer and meet with collaborators, mentors, and talent. Now in its seventh year, the Summit recognizes Tech Companies to Watch, celebrating the most promising companies of 2013.

"We are very pleased that the Connecticut Technology Council named us a 2013 Tech Company to Watch. This has been an exciting year for GoECart, with many successes to be celebrated," said Manish Chowdhary, GoECart's CEO. "The CTC award recognizes GoECart's commitment to delivering the best digital commerce solutions possible."

GoECart 360 provides multichannel merchants all the tools needed to run an online business, including:

All-in-One Ecommerce — A fully integrated ecommerce platform, order management, inventory management, and CRM solution for online retailers.

Amazon and eBay Integration — Merchants can automatically stream product inventory to these sites and orders synch up seamlessly with GoECart.

Multi-Site Capabilities — Multiple branded sites and microsites can be used to boost SEO and cater to multiple markets and audiences, such as B2B, B2C, and International.

Advanced Personalization — Personalization engine leverages Adobe Scene7 so retailers can offer highly customized products (e.g. engraving, monogramming, etc.).

Full Sales Tax Compliance Ready — GoECart certification with market leader Avalara AvaTax gives merchants end-to-end sales tax compliance ahead of the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013.

Distributed Web-based Order and Inventory Management — Merchants can use the built-in distributed order management system for picking, packing, shipping, drop-shipping and receiving orders and inventory, including bar-coding automation without need for expensive third-party systems.

FirstSpirit brings full CMS functionality to Demandware

Content Management System FirstSpirit is the first CMS to be listed and fully certified in the Demandware Marketplace.

According to FirstSpirit, "Consumers increasingly tune out traditional, intrusive advertising, but they tune in to the genuine customer-focused information delivered by content marketing programs.
While content marketing can take many forms, it’s critical to not overlook one of the most important channels: the point of sale. It’s not enough to just list item sizes and prices on an ecommerce site anymore. Consumers expect to see stories and useful content side-by-side with products."

FirstSpirit quickly creates "compelling and attractive content while Demandware provides a powerful omni-channel commerce platform."

Create more content in less time
FirstSpirit CMS integrated with the Demandware Commerce platform gives editors the creative freedom and usability benefits of a CMS without forcing them to jump from system to system. Time-saving features for content creation include:

• Live preview of both online store and other content elements merged together
• Intuitive user interface with WYSIWYG editing
• Full-featured media asset management with built-in editing tools
• Tools for maintaining website structure and navigation
• Graphical workflows to streamline content development processes

FirstSpirit supports formats such as HTML, XML and PDF through content marketing channels such as eNewsletters, custom landing pages, print and social media as well as smartphones and tablets. FirstSpirit also supports Demandware online stores on a global basis with multilingual support and translation management workflows.

Amazon Is On-site in Clients' Warehouses (Bedfellows Deal)

Storefront Backtalk reports that Amazon has embedded its warehouse staff inside a P&G warehouse to pick-and-pack P&G's orders submitted via Amazon. Click HERE to read more about this incestuous relationship, called "The Vendor Flex Program," that is a win-win for Amazon and P&G, but upsetting retail rivals. “Retailers don’t like things that benefit their competitor but not them,” Anne Zybowski, vice president of retail insights at consulting firm Kantar Retail, told The Wall Street Journal, as quoted in Storefront Backtalk. That's an obvious statement if I've ever read one!

An Open Letter to Meg Whitman

Now that Meg Whitman is President and CEO of Hewlett Packard, she has expressed an interest in returning to its heydey, when it "served the channel."

Indeed it did, and in the 1970s through the 1990s it was very successful with its HP/3000, a "workhorse" "minicomputer" that a half dozen or so very popular OMS vendors (we didn't call them that then) relied on. They relied on Suprtool, a flexible Swiss-army knife utility programming language supported by the HP/3000, to supplement their standard systems, and with it were able to "customize" a lot of their functionality for each user.

When Windows-based systems began to mature after Y2K, the 3000 faded from the scene. But while it was around, it was a force to be reckoned with.

If Whitman is able to recapture that kind of channel relationship in multichannel marketing (and other verticals), she will make some very large waves, indeed.

hybris ranked by Forrester Research a "Leader" in top B2B commerce suite providers

Forrester Research, Inc. has done a thorough evaluation of B2B commerce solution providers. If you want to find out which solutions matter the most, you can read "The Forrester Wave: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013.”

1. The modern Java-based architecture
2. The embedded enterprise product content management
3. The embedded and rapidly maturing order management capabilities
4. The services-oriented “Framework” (makes it easy for developers to extend and customize the solution to cater to unique B2B requirements and process workflows")

To get your free copy – and learn why Forrester Research, Inc. ranked hybris a leader among the top B2B commerce suites in the market – just fill out the form HERE.

Sanderson (UK) Acquires Cloud-based, Multichannel Solutions Experts One iota

Sanderson, the publicly-owned UK provider of multichannel retail software, has acquired One iota, a leading provider of cloud-based multichannel retail solutions.

Based in Rossendale, Lancashire, One iota helps retailers and brands keep pace with their shoppers across new and emerging technology, devices, and channels.

One iota’s offerings, which span mobile commerce, ecommerce, social media and in-store technology, enable retailers and brands to increase sales, supporting new channels and devices such as tablets, kiosks and mobile in-store assisted shopping. These can be deployed quickly and easily with rapid integration with retailers’ existing back office systems and data using One iota’s innovative Software as a Service platform "MESH."

Used by some of the UK’s leading retailers, including Littlewoods, Very.co.uk, Footasylum and Superdry, One iota’s enterprise-grade solutions host thousands of visitors on a daily basis, securely processing large volumes of transactions to deliver multichannel growth.

The Big Data Bamboozle

A recent survey by CompTIA determined that a majority of companies are "not getting enough value for their investments in big data because it's difficult to analyze all the information in real time, much less convert findings into actionable intelligence."

There are numerous avenues of comment to pursue on this subject, but the one I keep coming back to on this blog is that "Big Data" is nothing new for direct marketers/merchants, who traditionally have taken a very different approach to it than the ones currently in vogue. That different approach, which I have detailed in a previous post, is essentially to use the data related to customer and prospect activity to create customer segments with designated RFM scores and segmentation psychodemographics, rather than trying to locate where each individual should be placed in some kind of multidimensional grid of massive relevant variables.

The reason for the practical approach used by "traditional" direct marketers is that they want "actionable" data (whether it's big or not), and you can't really take action when you have more than, let's say, five to ten rankings. I'll stick with five - A through E. The A listers are your best customers, the E category is the least profitable group. When you test five offers against these five groups, you are dealing with a grid of 25 (5x5) scores, which is more than enough to identify which offers work best with which demographics and purchase histories.

The Tangled Web of Data
A lot of the so-called Big Data is tracking data based on a person's online browsing activity. You can generate a ton of this stuff in a hurry, and in the mistaken belief that it will yield value, subject it to all kinds of analysis. But in the long run, all you really need to know is whether elements viewed eventually led to a purchase, or not. Of course, if "intrusive" promotional activity based on the interim data is effective in conversion to a sale, then the real-time analysis is theoretically worth it. and the number-crunching can thus be cost-justified. This is what is most often assumed when referring to Big Data, but I think it needs to be specified better. The Big Data monster lives on the Web, and not in the entire world of marketing as a whole.

Of course, any real-time interaction, such as behavior in a retail store, could also get entangled. But to explain why much of this is probably "overkill" I will use an analogy with biofeedback. A person can, if they wish to, monitor all kinds of physical functions about themselves, from pulse rate to oxygen level, using wearable gadgets. If you permit yourself to be hospitalized, you can even monitor a lot more with bedside hook-ups, or you can have very frequent blood tests with a slew of panels for chemical analysis. And you can get your genome mapped, and do frequent breathalyzer tests, and have alerts for lead poisoning and UV exposure ... and the list goes on and on.

What for? If you are reasonably healthy, there is absolutely no point to doing any of this! Even when you are exercising, how much feedback do you really need? For aerobic exercise, there is basically one simple test: are you perspiring, or not? If not, you're probably not working hard enough.

As a side note, a lot of the profiling data that marketers use comes from ZIP Code or Census Tract data that is derived from data maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is a form of Big Data, in breadth and scope, if not in depth (and for a percentage of the data, the depth is definitely there, too). But here again, marketers simplify the data by aggregating it into a range of ZIP Code types (a dozen is fine), and this gets factored into the customer or prospect's demographic "score."

So the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) applies. And so it should. If I assign a customer to one of five rankings in a segmentation spectrum, and test that assignment with a few offers, the customer will either move up or down on the scale, or stay where they are. There is nothing very difficult about that. And that's all you need to know. It's as John Keats wrote in his Ode on a Grecian Urn: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

OMS Now Gold Partner with Magento

Order Management Systems (OMS), a Dallas, Texas-based technology company with locations also in Florida and Australia, providing an order management system platform and logistical solution for online retailers, has a new status as a Gold Industry Partner with Magento, an eBay Inc. company.

The Order Management Systems partnership with Magento supports inventory management, drop shipments, intelligent order routing, multiple warehouses, brick/mortar locations, and customer service.

GoECart Wins 'Company of the Year' Bronze Prize by American Business Awards

GoECart is pleased to announce that it has won a highly esteemed Bronze award in the 11th annual American Business Awards competition. The multi-channel ecommerce solutions provider was selected for the Company of the Year Award in the Computer Software category for companies with up to 250 employees.

GoECart's award was announced during a gala banquet on September 16th at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco. A record number of nominations were submitted this year with more than 3,200 from organizations of all sizes and from virtually every industry.

GoECart founder and CEO Manish Chowdhary said, "We are deeply honored to receive this major award from the ABAs. This has been such a remarkable year for GoECart on so many levels. The credit goes to the GoECart team for their unwavering commitment to innovation, results, and exceptional customer service even in the face of global economic and environmental challenges"

Last year, GoECart officially announced a new eCommerce suite, GoECart 360, which provides multichannel merchants with the tools needed to run an online business, including:

• All-in-One Ecommerce — eCommerce platform, order management, inventory management, and CRM work together like clockwork to provide the ultimate solution for online retailers.
• Amazon® and eBay® Integration — Merchants automatically stream product inventory to these sites and orders synch up seamlessly with GoECart.
• Multi-Site Capabilities — Multiple branded sites and microsites can be used to boost SEO and cater to multiple markets and audiences, such as B2B, B2C, and International.
• Advanced Personalization — Personalization engine leverages Adobe® Scene7® so retailers can offer highly customized products (e.g. engraving, monogramming, etc.).

Warwick Fulfillment Getting Box-on-Demand System

Warwick Fulfillment Solutions,  Horlock, MD,  is installing a ‘box on demand’ system to allow boxes to be assembled to fit the specific size of a given outbound order.  It removes any worry and cost associated with paying too much for box inventory, void filler, inefficient use of warehouse space, and many other packaging-related problems. See http://www.packsize.com/resources/videos

Customer Feedback

Tony Marchese of Morse Data, vendor of the InOrder OMS, writes on the InOrder Innovation email newsletter about Giving Shoppers What They Expect With Customer Feedback -- and provides detailed exanples, as shown below.

This issue of InOrder InOvation features details about one of our latest software updates, which we're very excited about!
 
Interact with your customers and keep them involved in the shopping experience with the InOrder Web Customer Feedback module. This new module adds a social aspect to your website that keeps your customers engaged with feedback about your products and services, comments, questions and answers.

Reviews add value to your website, and shoppers expect them. They want to know what they're buying before they buy it. They want to know if they'll like a product, how it works, and what others think about it. They also want to know about you. They look for opinions before they shop, while they're shopping, and they tell others all about the product and their shopping experience.

Customers can rate and evaluate your products, and readers can add comments. You can encourage questions and answers, reply to feedback, answer questions, or add comments to a thread. You can approve and edit reviews and comments before publishing them because you have full control over all feedback.

Use this menu-driven module to define your own feedback pages for your customers. For example, "Q&A," "Share Your Expertise," "Installation Experience," "Recipes," or even general "Community" or "Events" sharing pages.

Customer feedback builds customer confidence and trust, and you can use it to improve your customer service with responses. Returns are reduced because customers know what to expect after reading reviews. Why not let your website be the one shoppers go to for trusted information and final purchase?

Clicking the name of a reviewer displays all reviews by that person with an average rating. This average rating applies to the subject, and can be provided for a user, a product, or a hierarchy.

Readers may indicate whether or not a review is helpful with custom buttons. Votes for helpful reviews are accumulated and counted for sorting by the most helpful, least helpful, low to high, and high to low. Ratings may also be sorted by most recent, newest rating, and oldest rating.

The InOrder Customer Feedback Module can be used with the InOrder Email Communications Enhancement to increase customer participation. You can thank your customers for their purchases, send personalized Email to follow-up on orders, and invite them to rate the products they purchased or comment on existing reviews. This cutting-edge module integrates with customer service to view customer feedback, with Merchandising to view SKU feedback while working with your product database, and with Contact Management to view feedback in customer timelines.

When shoppers search for reviews and find your website in their search results, your website has a better chance of being seen. Add content and increase traffic to your website with the InOrder Web Customer Feedback module.

For more information about any of these features, call 1-888-667-7332 or send email to sales@morsedata.com

Newgistics Acquires Tacit Knowledge Consultancy

In a busy news day for Newgistics, the company has announced its acquition of Tacit Knowledge, Inc., a global digital-commerce consultancy. Tacit’s e-commerce offering includes implementation, integration, development, consultation and support services.

Newgistics Announces Strategic Partnership with Manhattan Associates

Newgistics, an SAP company and eCommerce platform provider, has announced a strategic partnership with Manhattan Associates, a vendor of logistics and supply-chain software.

Under the deal, Newgistics will add Manhattan’s Enterprise Order Management software to its end-to-end eCommerce offering, which seamlessly integrates omni-channel commerce technology with Web design, implementation, integration, hosting and support services as well as order fulfillment, parcel delivery, and returns management.

Newgistics Announces New eCommerce Solution Powered by hybris

Newgistics, Inc., a leading provider of eCommerce services for leading brands and retailers, today announced a new end-to-end eCommerce solution powered by hybris, an SAP company and the world’s fastest-growing commerce platform provider.

Newgistics’s end-to-end eCommerce solution will provide retailers with Web design, implementation, integration, hosting and support services as well as order management technology and order fulfillment, parcel delivery and returns management.

The end-to-end offering, powered by hybris, allows Newgistics to offer a fully integrated order life cycle, from customer acquisition and order placement through fulfillment, delivery and returns across channels on a unifed and highly flexible platform. The hybris B2C Commerce platform also scales with retailers as they grow, eliminating the need for growth-driven re-platforming.

Order Motion Part of NetSuite

This is not breaking news, but for the record....

In May 2013 NetSuite, a leading cloud-based software company, acquired OrderMotion, a cloud-based Order Management Solution. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We focus on the order at NetSuite,” said NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson in a recent VentureBeat interview. “Order management is at the heart of our transactions. … The transaction at the center of the business process is defining big winners.”

Although it already has its own order management system, NetSuite said it was an “important and complex business challenge” requiring outside augmentation to meet their customers’ needs, which range from eCommerce to brick-and-mortar retail to telemarketing.

NetSuite, which always lacked some critical functionality, will reportedly be using OrderMotion’s technology for continuity and replenishment, as well as supporting direct response marketing efforts. The resulting product is intended to meet the needs of eTailer as well as wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

“We’re transforming how your business operates and how your business interacts with other businesses,” said Nelson. “Customers want to transact with several different devices and they want you to remember them across devices.”

Jack Dellose Joins Warwick Fulfillment, Recreates Winning Team

Earlier this month, Mike Wilt, President of Warwick Fulfillment Solutions (WFS), announced that Jack Dellose joined the WFS team as co-owner and EVP/CFO.

Mike Wilt and Jack Dellose are no strangers to a successful fulfillment partnership. In fact, their former partnership, Interactive Marketing Services, Inc. (IMS), grew from under $4 million to over $32 million in fulfillment and customer care revenue, and from 50 to over 700 full-time employees, before selling the company to NewRoads (now GSI Commerce, an ebay Enterprise).

The success of that partnership led to a client roster that included Avon, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Godiva Chocolatier. Says Dellose: “Mike and I enjoyed success in the fulfillment industry and I look forward to building on Warwick’s successes to date. Both Mike and I feel the market has a continued need for a fulfillment expertise that realizes the difference between logistics and fulfillment, and a company that is focused on its clients and employees rather than one fixated on market caps and IPOs.”

Mike and Jack share a passion for the fulfillment industry and a business philosophy rooted in the desire to achieve long-term mutually beneficial relationships with their clients. Embracing technical solutions and maintaining a positive work environment goes a long way toward achieving these goals.

Under their leadership, many cutting-edge services and solutions have been developed by their fulfillment teams. One such example was the introduction of an innovative call center with an avant-garde approach to customer contact, effectively recreating the store environment at the customer care center so the agents felt they were part of the retail action.

Another illustration of a technology-driven solution included building a system specifically to determine the optimum packing materials to guarantee in-home arrival of food products at just the right temperature by considering weather information between shipping and destination points, as well as time-in-transit.

Notes Mike Wilt, “It was once said to me that if you survive your first holiday season in fulfillment, you will never leave it. That has proven to be the case for Jack, myself, and our team. We all share a passion for this business which we believe differentiates us. We are always looking for ways to improve our services and offer solutions that meet our clients’ needs."

Square Launches Marketplace Site

Square, the mobile payments company that offers a mobile phone-based credit card reader, has launched Square Market, an online marketplace for eSellers without the effort or expense of building and maintaining a proprietary site.

Merchants or individuals can create a profile and manage product listings with photos in just a matter of minutes. They can then use social media such as Twitter or Facebook to broadcast deals on their sites.
Square's listings are free (Amazon's are 99 cents) but Square collects 2.75 percent of the item's sale price. eBay charges up to 30 cents per item.

In addition, Square doesn't handle fulfillment. As with eBay, product shipping is the responsibility of the seller.

GoECart Wins Quality Improvement Award

For the second year in a row, GoECart, a leading provider of fully integrated multi-channel eCommerce solutions, has won the Gold Award in the 2013 Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Competition. 

The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership, Inc., founded in 1986, is America's first state-level quality award based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence.  

GoECart 360 offers the following:

• An Advanced eCommerce Platform (B2B and B2C) —Designed for speed, high-performance, and scalability
• Full Support for Personalized Products with Instant Preview — Adobe Scene7 to drive a personalization engine to offer customized products (e.g. engraving, monogramming, etc.) with instant visual "proof"
• Multi-Site Capabilities — Multiple branded sites and microsites can be leveraged to boost SEO and cater to multiple markets (e.g., B2B, B2C, international)
• Sales and Use Tax Compliance — GoECart is officially certified with Avalara AvaTax, giving merchants end-to-end sales tax compliance at no additional cost.
• Enterprise-class Back-office Tools — GoECart's eCommerce storefront communicates directly with its Order and Inventory Management Systems and built-in Salesforce.com CRM module, all driven from a single data source
• Responsive Technical Support — GoECart introduced a number of customer focused programs last year, including follow-the-sun support, enhanced training, SEO migration, social media reputation preservation, and conversion optimization consulting
• Amazon and eBay Integration — Merchants can automatically list products and update inventory to these popular marketplaces. Orders and fulfillment info is also synched up seamlessly without leaving the GoECart 360 admin panel. 

hybris named a leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for E-Commerce 2013

You can get a copy of Gartner's full report HERE.

InOrder’s Web Cart Supports Multiple Cross/Up-sell Capabilities

According to Morse Data, when customers purchase items through your online store, catalog (call center), or other channel, you can now offer multiple, additional related promotional options for each item on the Morse InOrder OMS platform.

Says Morse, "Related items may be displayed in groups on the home page and the Web cart. The main body of the home page displays those groups in rotating carousels. These groups may include items related to customers’ previous purchases, wish lists, loyalty awards, special searches, web specials, etc., and other groups defined by cross-selling types."

For more info, see http://www.getinorder.com/blog/index.php/inorders-web-cart-now-supports-multiple-cross-sell-up-sell-capabilities/?utm_source=INS1305

GameQuestDirect Implements GoECart 360

GoECart reports that one of its clients, video game retailer GameQuestDirect.com, has successfully replaced multiple operations systems with the company's all-in-one eCommerce suite GoECart 360.
 
Until implementing GoECart, GameQuestDirect used three systems to run its multi-channel retail operation: a stand-alone eCommerce solution, an independent Order Management System (OMS), and a separate shipping system. 

Since switching to GoECart, GameQuestDirect has lowered its costs by 60% while increasing order volume by 40%. 

GameQuestDirect boasts the "world's largest selection" of new and rare video games online with more than 10,000 titles for all leading game consoles. In addition to selling via its own Website, the company also sells its products through 15+ online marketplaces including Amazon.com, eBay, and Buy.com.

Order Motion Releases OMX 4.0

OrderMotion Inc., a leading cloud-based solution provider, has launched OMX 4.0, which offers new enhancements to its Order Management Solution, including dynamic kit capabilities.

Users can now customize and personalize marketing kits and offers to deliver a more personal and distinct buying experience.

With OMX 4.0, retailers are able to offer their customers the ability to order swappable items and customized items to further enhance their online shopping experience.  Continuity programs can also be customized with each shipment, providing merchandisers and marketers a dynamic and engaging process for customers.

In addition, new functionality allows Customer Service Reps (CSRs) to upsell and cross-sell new items through a “Resize” feature. Another key feature is the enhanced “Surprise and Delight” capability that allow custom configuration of standing orders to include a free gift to a customer by customer type or with a specified shipment by order number as part of a continuity program or a special offer.

OrderMotion Partners With Grand River

Grand River, Inc., a leading eCommerce developer, has formed a partnership with OrderMotion Inc., a leading cloud-based order management solution provider, to deliver eCommerce solutions to their mutual clients. 

Grand River’s services include eCommerce consulting, brand strategy, creative design, information architecture, usability expertise and system engineering. Their clients include several of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 firms and leading online merchants such as Gander Mountain, Zumiez, Steelcase, Pet Supplies Plus, Ford Direct and Lake Champlain Chocolates.

OrderMotion offers a cloud-based technology that is used to manage and integrate with eCommerce storefronts, call centers, payment processors, customer service centers, fulfillment solutions, ERPs and financial packages to provide direct-to-consumer (D2C) campaigns and order management. Their solution extends eCommerce capabilities by adding profit-generating retention tools such as auto-ship and continuity management.  With robust reporting and analytics, cross-channel self-service and CRM, as well as advanced tools for merchandise, planning & analysis (MP&A), product information management (PIM) and distributed order management (DOM), OrderMotion is a comprehensive solution that complements eCommerce platforms it works with.

“We’re excited about this partnership with Grand River,” said George Winter, vice president      eCommerce sales at OrderMotion, “and have the utmost respect for their knowledge and experience with multichannel eCommerce operations. Together we will bring our customers what we call ‘the science of retail’ – the complex mix of processes and rules that help online merchants build the seamless cross-channel experiences that power successful brands.”

JDA and RedPrairie Merge

JDA, a leader in supply chain planning, merchandising and pricing solutions has merged with RedPrairie, a major player in warehousing, workforce management, store operations and eCommerce solutions.

Hamish Brewer, CEO of JDA, will lead the combined company as its CEO. Mr. Brewer has more than 20 years of industry experience and a proven track record of successfully integrating large businesses.

RedPrairie's CEO, Michael Mayoras, will remain on the board of the combined company.

The Board of Directors of the combined company will be composed of the current members of the RedPrairie Board, including: Alok Singh, Michael Mayoras, Nanci Caldwell, Martin Hiscox, Lawrence Jackson, Thomas Manley, Peter Masucci, Tim Pawlenty and Janet Perna. Upon closing of the transaction, RedPrairie expects that Hamish Brewer will join the RedPrairie Board of Directors.

Sanderson Announces New Appointments

Sanderson, a publicly owned provider of multi-channel retail solutions, has announced new appointments in its Multi-Channel Retail business. These appointments are the latest in a series of new appointments, boosting the capacity of the Operations team during a period of continued business growth.

Jason Ayres joins as Programme Manager for the Elucid multi-channel retail solution, a new role responsible for the management and allocation of projects to the Development and Professional Services teams. Jason brings a wealth of experience in both IT programme and project management from the retail and wholesale market sectors.

Shannon Oakley has been appointed as the new client facing Project Manager responsible for the successful delivery of customer projects by the Elucid Professional Services team. A qualified and experienced project manager, Shannon has a strong background in skilfully managing and delivering a wide range of IT services projects.

Commenting on the latest appointments, Ian Newcombe, Managing Director of Sanderson Multi-Channel Solutions says: “Both Jason and Shannon’s appointments are key additions to our expanding Operations team at this exciting stage of our business development. Increasing our resource and capacity reinforces our continued focus on customer service and driving further growth in the multi-channel retail solutions market.”

The Emperor's New Clothes: Customer Experience Management

In the last couple of years the field of "Customer Experience Management" (CXM) has become a big focus for combining "Customer Relationship Management" (CRM) and "Content Management Systems" (CMS) or "Web Content Management" (WCM) with Order Management Systems (OMS), eCommerce platforms (plus mobile, tablets, etc.), and social media.

This would seem to be a nirvana of systems confluence, the holy grail of multichannel customer activity. The thinking underlying CXM is that this places the emphasis where it belongs, on how the customer navigates a Website (or possibly a store) to find what they want to purchase, and how the purchase itself can be most effectively supported and enhanced (from cross-sells and upsells to product reviews, guarantees, warranties, and so on). A lot of this, of course, will be based on analysis of customer activity, both in real-time and historically. Typical direct marketing database challenges.

One practioner refers to it as "a marriage that empowers the eCommerce platform to create experiences rather than simple transactions."

Fair enough. But there's only one problem with all of this: as Forbes pointed out a year and a half ago, "No one vendor offers all the components, though some – like Adobe, IBM, and Oracle – are working on acquisitions." I don't think any of them have achieved that goal as yet.

A Management Challenge
Which means that CXM is more of a management challenge than a systems challenge. It requires configuring each of the components to make the customer's experience as simple, straightforward, and pleasing as possible. And this is not at all easy.

Take site search, for example. In January 2011 I wrote a blog post on the subject, pointing out some of the complexities of this rather arcane functionality. Not for the faint of heart! But in many ways, site search and other "utilities" like it are probably at the core of any successful CXM suite.

Essentially, I see the problem as somehow juggling technology, statistical analysis, content, customer data and profiling, affiliate management, and corporate hierarchies on behalf of customers whose business you are competing with the rest of the world to earn and profit from. This is nothing new: back in the heyday of the specialty catalog (1975 - 1995), designers were very strategic about what they put on the catalog cover (they still are!), but that didn't mean you would always have it in stock to meet demand, or that customers would always be satisfied with their purchase. It was sometimes a "political" decision (as in "the company president and chief buyer just got back from Thailand and this is what they bought a thousand of"), and of course that is always a dicey proposition.

So CXM is going to be a work-in-process for some time to come. Maybe five years from now, with some new technology (including advances in interface tools and gadgets plus social media) and some new blood in middle (if not upper) management, things will be easier. For the time being, though, it's the same-old same-old, and CXM is just another acronym puzzle floating in the alphabet soup.

For some articles on CXM, see:
The Emergence of CXM Solutions: Forbes
Focus On Customer Experience To Navigate Digital Disruption: Forrester
The Content Repository is the Key to Customer Experience Mmanagement: mindtouch
A New King In Town For Managing e-Commerce Experiences: CMS Wire

And as always, I welcome your feedback, input, and comments. Very much so, in this case!

Dydacomp Introduces SaaS System

Dydacomp, vendor of the Multichannel Order Manager(M.O.M.) system and SiteLINK eCommerce platform, has announced its first new product in many years: Freestyle Commerce. 

Freestyle is a cloud-based order management solution for retailers who are automating order processing for the first time. It‘s functionality is intended as a subset of the existing capabilities in M.O.M., with a few new things made possible because it’s an online-only system. The system was developed from scratch, however, with no code reused from M.O.M. or SiteLINK. 

M.O.M. and SiteLINK will continue to be sold, enhanced and supported. They are Dydacomp’s core products and M.O.M. will remain their only on-premise order management software solution. SiteLINK will work exclusively with M.O.M.

Freestyle is an alternative for new customers to consider when automating their order management processes. It is not an upgrade to or replacement for M.O.M., and it is not a hosted version of M.O.M. Many of the more advanced features in M.O.M. are not initially available in Freestyle but will be added over time.

There is no end-of-life planned for the M.O.M. or SiteLINK products, either. Dydacomp intends to continue to enhance, sell and support both those products. 

With Freestyle Commerce, retailers can:

• Keep customers informed about in-stock, committed, back-ordered, packed, or shipped items
• Seamlessly integrate fulfillment operations across multiple channels into a single workflow from shopping to shipping
• Sell their entire stock or just a small subset through Amazon.
• Automatically download new orders, publish product information and synchronize inventory across channels

GoECart’s Integration with Avalara Sales Tax Solution Officially Certified

GoECart, a leading provider of multi-channel eCommerce order management solutions, has announced its official certification with Avalara, a leading provider of cloud-based sales tax automation services.

Avalara's AvaTax service helps GoECart merchants reduce audit risk and achieve compliance with a suite of automated sales tax services that make it easy to calculate tax rates, file forms, remit payments and simply reporting.

“We’re always focused on helping our clients consolidate systems and manage their businesses more efficiently,” said Manish Chowdhary, CEO of GoECart.  “Avalara’s official certification of the GoECart eCommerce and order management solution means that our clients can remain confident that they are fully up-to-date on handling today’s highly complicated and rapidly changing tax regulations.”

The integration gives GoECart merchants several benefits that include:

• A complete set of automated end to end compliance services including sales and use tax calculation, exemption certificate management, filing and remittance, and a broad array of related services
• Complete automation of sales tax compliance areas that include situs, nexus, tax tiers, tax holidays, exemptions, certificate management and product taxability rules
• Rapid application of sales tax calculations to eCommerce and call center transactions via a secure, encrypted Internet connections
• Reduction of time spent on sales tax return and RMA processing
• On-demand reports containing information necessary to prepare and submit accurate sales tax returns
• Seamless remittance payments by Avalara for each jurisdiction where the merchant has a nexus
• The ability to manage all aspects of tax compliance via familiar, web-based administration panel

Avalara’s SaaS solution provides a complete set of transactional tax compliance services developed specifically to serve the needs of small- to medium-sized businesses. Avalara CEO and Founder Scott McFarlane said, “Avalara’s cloud solutions help thousands of customers stay focused on their core businesses by eliminating the angst of a statutory requirement that has no strategic value, and we do so in a fast, easy, accurate, and affordable manner. We’re pleased to welcome GoECart into our ever expanding community."

Soldsie Receives Seed Funding

Soldsie, a service that enables purchases within comments on Facebook, has received $1 million in seed funding from institutional investors including 500 Startups, e.ventures and FundersClub. Former Facebook employees Yun-Fang Juan and Jonathan Ehrlich, Peanut Labs founder Prosper Nwankpa, and angel investors Elliot Loh and Tom Kelly also participated.

Soldsie allows brands, merchants and small business owners to use Facebook’s social features to increase online sales. The technology turns Facebook posts into digital shopping carts. Once a user has registered with Soldsie's app, commenting with the word “Sold” lets them purchase the item posted. Since its start, more than 100,000 Facebook users have registered with Soldsie's app.

On the backend, Soldsie’s platform completes the transaction and gives businesses a streamlined interface for processing and tracking sales.

“F-commerce needed a fresh perspective, and that’s what Soldsie’s technology provides,” said Alex Mittal, CEO and co-founder of FundersClub. “Cracking the code on this market would be huge, and from what I’ve seen, Soldsie is well on its way.”

How Brands Have Succeeded with Soldsie
The Soldsie platform includes more than 1,500 merchants and is currently processing over $1 million in transactions a month from clothing boutiques like Jenny Boston Boutique to professional sports teams like the San Jose Earthquakes. The platform processes payments via credit card or PayPal.. To date, more than 100,000 Facebook users have registered with the Soldsie app.

After registering with Soldsie, simply posting a photo on Facebook turns into a valuable sales tool for any business. Because Soldsie’s technology works inside of Facebook and on any device, Soldsie posts convert better than sending fans to an outside link to make a purchase. It also gives brands an opportunity to create demand that extends outside of Facebook itself.

“Before Soldsie we just weren’t engaging people enough on Facebook. We started using Soldsie about six months ago and began running Wednesday night sales to test it out,” said Jenny DeMaria, owner of Jenny Boston Boutique. “Our Facebook sales are a huge success, and they help us drive people into the store. We can’t put a price tag on the buzz these sales created.” 

GoECart Wins Stevie Award for Customer Service

GoECart has won a prestigious Gold award in the seventh annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service.

The multi-channel eCommerce solutions provider was selected for the award out of 17 finalists in the Customer Service Department of the Year — Computer Software category for companies with up to 100 employees. 

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service recognize the achievements of call center, customer service, and sales professionals worldwide. From the more than 1,100 entries submitted to this year's competition, entries were considered in 30 categories for customer service and contact center professionals. 

GoECart's founder and CEO Manish Chowdhary said, "At GoECart, customer service has always been paramount, but it is especially gratifying to receive this award after the remarkable year we had in 2012. We are very honored to be recognized by the Stevie Awards for our work in helping our clients to shine in the world of eCommerce." 

Last year was a banner year for GoECart's Sales and Customer Service on a number of levels. Highlights included:

• Market introduction of GoECart 360, the "all-in-one" eCommerce suite designed to provide multi-channel merchants with the full suite of tools needed to manage and grow an online business.
• Overall growth of the company by high double digits — with twice the number of new customers.
• An expansion of training programs to include one-on-one role-based training for new clients.
• GoECart 360 merchants collectively processed 210% more transactions during the 2012 holiday season over the same period in 2011 with zero downtime.
• A substantial increase in the company's Client Services (CS) team to support the unprecedented growth and outstanding customer support with zero employee attrition.
• Redesign and launch of the company's website http://www.goecart.com to be more customer centric.

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy put the GoECart Customer Service team to the ultimate test. GoECart's Bridgeport, CT based headquarters had to be evacuated for four business days with no power but thanks to the company's software-as-a-service model and extraordinary efforts of the customer service team, all client-facing software systems maintained 99.9% uptime and no support case service level agreement (SLA) was violated.

James McDougal, GoECart's Director of Operations, added, "I am very proud of the team and all that we accomplished last year, which is testament to GoECart's culture of innovation that values a passion for results, hard work, empowerment and initiative, teamwork, and open communication. We pledge to carry this work ethic into 2013 and beyond." 

Programmers Ain't Chefs

I recently ran across a peer-to-peer selling network called Vendly, which (to make a rhyme) ain't too friendly! It thinks the opposite, saying that unlike eBay, which it complains is "complicated," you just post a picture of stuff you want to sell (no need for those pesky details), and let your "friends" contact you to complete the purchase. Put another way, it has no method of payment embedded in the platform.

Of course, with PayPal, completing the transaction is not that difficult, but it is a completely separate step, after you have secured other details from the seller outside of Vendly.

Vendly does say it has plans to include a payment platform, but when is anybody's guess.

AlphaBeta Soup
Which reminds me of how a lot of phone apps work, all boiling down to the simple fact that developers for the last few years seem to think it is normal and SOP to put things out there for the public to use as alpha or beta testers.

I, for one, resent this. I understand that everyone is rushing to be first to market with something new, build a large base of early adopters, and try to get more funding and ward off competition before breakfast, i.e., before a better solution can be built and marketed.

Not Like Chefs
Speaking of breakfast, imagine if chefs did this. There would be no printed printed menus, and the chef would prepare something as quickly as possible, without all the seasonings or ingredients, and without waiting for it to fully cook. Throw a few sprigs of parsley onto the plate along with this mess, and hope for the best!

Bleh!

Since the stakes (steaks?!) are so high, I'm not sure there's a defendable alternative. But I'm sure I can't be the only one to be irked by this. Let me hear what you have to say: please comment!

App Privacy

Dr. Dobb's Journal has a very good summary of mobile app privacy issues, covering U.S. Representative Hank Johnson (of Georgia), who has drafted a bill aimed at trying to give users more control over their application data: The Application Privacy, Protection, and Security Act. There is also a link to a study on the subject questioning over 1,000 users by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.