Critical Steps In System Selection

As a reference for anyone undertaking the process of specifying and selecting an eCommerce solution and/or a multichannel order management and fulfillment platform, here's a summary of the key steps involved (from my Choosing & Using Direct Commerce Order Management and Fulfillment Software):

• create a Systems Project Team (which should include representatives from all relevant departments)
• produce a detailed Request For Proposal (RFP) (known as an Invitation to Tender, or ITT in the UK
• develop a targeted list of potentially qualified solution providers/vendors
• send the RFP to the vendors requesting their formal, written proposals
• score and review the vendor proposals
• develop a short list of the vendors
• invite short list vendors for a site visit
• conduct online vendor demos
• conduct on-site vendor demos for "proof of concept"
• evaluate the vendors’ implementation strategies
• evaluate the vendors' training and support capabilities
• conduct a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis
• identify the best-fit solution
• conduct user reference checks
• make a final decision
• produce an audit report of the selection process
• negotiate the contract
• notify winning and losing vendors

The book, of course, goes into considerable detail on each of these steps. But I would like to focus on the vendor demos steps here, because it is one of the more critical phases of the entire process.

There are really two types of demos required: one is a vendor-driven event in which the vendor sets the agenda and shows off the system to its best advantage. This type of demo is best done online: it saves everyone time (to say nothing of travel expenses), and if the demo reveals early on that there are significant gaps in a system, you can terminate the demo early without much inconvenience (the opposite, in fact).

The on-site demos, for those vendors who have passed the vendor-driven demo test, should be driven by you and your team, with a detailed list of features and functions you want to see demonstrated, preferably using a small sample of your own data that you have provided the vendors in advance. The important point here is to make the detailed list as meaningful as possible, focusing on mission-critical functions that are either "must haves" or "nice to haves" in running your business. Certainly the "must haves" need to be front-and-center, since you don't want to compromise on functions that are critical to your operations (including merchandising and response analysis).

Of course, any new system is going to work differently from what you are currently using. But the difference in the new system should be a step forward, an improvement, not a step backward. For instance, if you can currently achieve six steps in the order entry process on a single screen, you don't want to have to use three different screens to do those same six steps. Bear in mind, of course, that anything that was customized in your current application might have to be customized in your new application, as well, and that takes us into a completely different topic that we'll look at another day.

Questions? Give me a call at 267-987-7638. I'd be happy to talk with you about your own systems selection project.

Going Global With Art.com

Catalogue & eBusiness reports that Art.com, the company behind wall-art website AllPosters.com, has extended its online operations into Argentina, the Czech Republic and Turkey with three localized websites.

Art.com already operates localized sites for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Each site is translated into its country's respective language and currency and offers local email support.

"Art.com Inc. is now one of only a few eCommerce retailers with such a broad global portfolio of country-specific websites," Geoffroy Martin, chief executive officer of Art.com Inc. told Forbes magazine.

Seevolution Offers Real-time Site Tracking

Seevolution, now in beta, is a real-time analytics, heatmap and alert system that to visualize how visitors are using and interacting with your Website in a movable, transparent overlay. Tracked clicks and scrolling from thousands of visitors are represented visually with overlay heatmaps that display your web page's 'hot spots' as well as links, images or text that receive less attention.

From Mashable

Seeing where visitors are coming from, where they are spending the most time on your site, and why they may or may not navigate away from the site is crucial information for optimizing the user experience.

You also get Web analytics with one click via a tool panel that lays discreetly on the Web page, allowing you to monitor real analytics as it happens without navigating away from the page. Seevolution aggregates visitor behavior data and site trends in real time, so any elements that could be impeding usability are immediately apparent and relayed to you instantly via email.

Within the feed, users are organized into groups according to the behavioral characteristics that you choose: Junk, Lookers, Shoppers and Buyers for eCommerce, for instance. This breakdown provides a clear visual representation of when and where the types of visitors who are most likely to result in a sale or conversion are navigating on your site.

On Forrester's New Book: Empowered

P. P. Gownder of Forrester Research blogs that Forrester’s new book, Empowered, (which is free for U.S. based Amazon Kindle owners from September 7 to 10!) "helps companies thrive in the new era of disruptive technologies like social media and mobility."

Written by Forrester consultants Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler, Empowered tells companies "to give their most innovative employees – their highly engaged and resourceful operatives, or HEROes – the permission and tools to serve customers using these same emerging technologies....

"It also lays out a strategy for engaging your most influential customers. Consumer product strategy professionals should wield Empowered concepts for exactly that reason – to energize your best customers. In the mobile space, product strategists are looking for ideas to help them develop innovative, leading-edge applications for Smartphone users on platforms like the iPhone or Android.

"Empowered mobile product strategies entail following a modified version of the IDEA framework (laid out in chapter 3 of the book). IDEA follows a simple process: Identify mass influencers, deliver groundswell customer service to those influencers, empower customers with information, and amplify your fans. For the mobile product strategist, we've refined this a bit, as this figure shows:

Click here for a full copy of the report.

BigCommerce Offers New Release, with mCommerce Option

BigCommerce has launched its latest multi-channel eCommerce software platform designed to help small and mid-sized merchants capitalize on current industry trends such as mobile and social commerce.

The enterprise features in BigCommerce 6.0 are available in packages starting at $24.95 per month and will allow merchants to sell on Facebook, eBay, mobile devices and via shopping comparison sites such as Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Shopzilla and more.

The new release includes major features in the following areas:
•    Mobile Commerce: Customizable mobile store templates, an iPad-specific mobile store and a webkit-based design for iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Android devices to enable its more than 6,000 small and mid-sized merchants to launch mobile commerce sites. Entering a retailer’s URL on one of these mobile devices automatically redirects shoppers to the mobile-optimized site.
•    Social Commerce: Merchants can promote and sell their products on Facebook and eBay, make their own sites more social by adding Like buttons and tools that allow shoppers to share comments and product reviews, and list their products numerous popular shopping comparison sites.
•    E-mail Marketing: Merchants can automate their e-mail list development with the new SmartList technology and set up autoresponders and promotions in MailChimp to follow up with customers and share a coupon code after purchase.
•    Analytics: The new “Customers who viewed this product also viewed…” feature gives merchants valuable product search-related data and keeps shoppers on site longer
•    Shipping: Three-click integration with Shipworks
•    Product Photos: Merchants can edit images directly from the BigCommerce control Panel using Picnik.com.

An ATG study has indicated that a high percentage of mid-market eCommerce merchants are not satisfied with their current online storefronts. The new platform from BigCommerce is specifically designed to give those merchants the latest in enterprise-level features on a small or mid-sized budget, or to try them free for a 15-day trial.

Kenneth Cole: Setting Up a Dedicated mCommerce Platform

This past April, Tom Davis, VP eCommerce at Kenneth Cole, discovered that 1.5% of the apparel and accessories retailer’s revenue came from shoppers buying via the Kenneth Cole eCommerce site on a mobile phone.

“To get our site working on an iPhone is a mess,” Davis told Internet Retailer magazine, “so for people to go through the whole ordering process on their iPhone, that’s big.”

He decided to move quickly to set up a dedicated mCommerce site. Working with mobile commerce technology provider Usablenet Inc., Kenneth Cole launched the new site in July and now supports a much easier mCommerce shopping experience.

To execute an mCommerce strategy, you need not only an appropriate technology platform, but you have to learn who your mobile customer is, as well: what devices they are using and how they are behaving. In addition to product selections, do they look for ratings/reviews? Do they leave feedback? Do they want to match/group products? And so on. That will help you determine an appropriate mCommerce strategy and help you define the needs and requirements, and features and functions, you will want to support in order to execute a forward-looking mCommerce strategy.

Nokia to Acquire mComm Analytics Firm

Nokia has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Motally Inc., a privately-held US-based company.

Motally's mobile analytics service offers in-application tracking and reporting, and is designed to enable developers and publishers to optimize the development of their mobile applications through increased understanding of how users engage.

The service offering is planned to be adapted for Qt, Symbian, Meego and Java developers. Nokia also plans to continue serving Motally's existing customer base.

"The acquisition underpins Nokia's drive to deliver in-application and mobile web browsing analytics to Ovi's growing, global eco-system of developers and publishers, enabling partners to better connect with their customers and optimize and monetize their offering",  said Marco Argenti, VP Media, Nokia.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during the third quarter of 2010.

Motally Inc. was founded in 2008 in San Francisco, employs eight people, and has patent-pending technology to ensure accurate data collection and analytic reporting for publishers' mobile sites.