This document discusses the opportunities and challenges of expanding e-commerce operations globally. It notes that while a one-size-fits-all approach is declining, setting up country-specific sites presents challenges around language localization, product differentiation, customer service, and complex supply chains. The document then provides an overview of market trends in online retail, including growth in Asia, preferences for local language and customs, and the increasing globalization and localization strategies of large retailers.
E-commerce in fashion industry
Apparel & accessories sales in US: Apparel has become an online success - Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer.
Fashion emerges as best-performing segment of ecommerce in UK - IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.
Southeast Asia startup investments 2013: It’s all about e-commerce, fashion and women: Mobile commerce, online retail, payments, C2C marketplaces, flash sales.
eCommerce Benchmark for the Fashion Industry:
Where does the traffic come from in fashion? - Direct, Paid, Organic, CPS, CPC, Viral/Social, E-mail newsletter; social and viral media play a much bigger role in fashion.
Conversion ratios in fashion retail.
Platform for your e-store – why Magento?: Shopify, SquareSpace, Tictail, Magento; Bonobos, Nike, Christian Louboutin, MyTheresa.
Magento Enterprise Customer Success Story GANT: High performance and visual inspiration, Full screen experience, Custom campaign modules, Look book, Customized checkout, Flexible landing and content pages, Integration with multiple warehouse and ERP systems, Access rights management across multiple sites/stores, Localized payment and shipping methods;
290% increase in conversion rate, 13% increase in traffic, 35% reduction in page load time, 50% decrease in hosting costs.
Why choose Responsive Web Design?: U.S. Mobile Commerce Activities
Divante for fashion: SOLAR Company Case Study: http://divanteltd.com/blog/complex-e-commerce-implementation-fashion-brand/ .
6 Content Marketing Trends To Look Out For Beyond 2021PaulDonahue16
Content marketing plays a pivotal role in running a business. If you are a business owner, understanding the trends working well for other brands can help you achieve your business goals, such as generating leads, improving conversions, and increasing sales.
https://advdms.com/blog/6-content-marketing-trends-to-look-out-for-beyond-2021/
GroupM Brand Safety Playbook For MarketersSocial Samosa
This brand safety report released by GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, offers new category-specific recommendations for marketers on the future of brand safety.
“TO STUDY THE GROWTH OF E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA”PRABHAT PANDEY
E-commerce can be divided into 7 subsections:/
History of E-Commerce / SWOT Analysis of the E-commerce Industry / Growth in sale of the E-commerce Industry / Future Growth Prospects of Indian E-commerce Sector / Reasons for Growth of E-commerce Sector in India: / Financial Analysis of E-Commerce Industry / TOOLS OF E-COMMERCE / RESEARCH METHODOLOGY of E-commerce / a Descriptive study about E-Commerce Industry.
E-commerce in fashion industry
Apparel & accessories sales in US: Apparel has become an online success - Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer.
Fashion emerges as best-performing segment of ecommerce in UK - IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.
Southeast Asia startup investments 2013: It’s all about e-commerce, fashion and women: Mobile commerce, online retail, payments, C2C marketplaces, flash sales.
eCommerce Benchmark for the Fashion Industry:
Where does the traffic come from in fashion? - Direct, Paid, Organic, CPS, CPC, Viral/Social, E-mail newsletter; social and viral media play a much bigger role in fashion.
Conversion ratios in fashion retail.
Platform for your e-store – why Magento?: Shopify, SquareSpace, Tictail, Magento; Bonobos, Nike, Christian Louboutin, MyTheresa.
Magento Enterprise Customer Success Story GANT: High performance and visual inspiration, Full screen experience, Custom campaign modules, Look book, Customized checkout, Flexible landing and content pages, Integration with multiple warehouse and ERP systems, Access rights management across multiple sites/stores, Localized payment and shipping methods;
290% increase in conversion rate, 13% increase in traffic, 35% reduction in page load time, 50% decrease in hosting costs.
Why choose Responsive Web Design?: U.S. Mobile Commerce Activities
Divante for fashion: SOLAR Company Case Study: http://divanteltd.com/blog/complex-e-commerce-implementation-fashion-brand/ .
6 Content Marketing Trends To Look Out For Beyond 2021PaulDonahue16
Content marketing plays a pivotal role in running a business. If you are a business owner, understanding the trends working well for other brands can help you achieve your business goals, such as generating leads, improving conversions, and increasing sales.
https://advdms.com/blog/6-content-marketing-trends-to-look-out-for-beyond-2021/
GroupM Brand Safety Playbook For MarketersSocial Samosa
This brand safety report released by GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, offers new category-specific recommendations for marketers on the future of brand safety.
“TO STUDY THE GROWTH OF E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA”PRABHAT PANDEY
E-commerce can be divided into 7 subsections:/
History of E-Commerce / SWOT Analysis of the E-commerce Industry / Growth in sale of the E-commerce Industry / Future Growth Prospects of Indian E-commerce Sector / Reasons for Growth of E-commerce Sector in India: / Financial Analysis of E-Commerce Industry / TOOLS OF E-COMMERCE / RESEARCH METHODOLOGY of E-commerce / a Descriptive study about E-Commerce Industry.
This article presents and discusses the different business models adopted by e-commerce firms. It addresses the
issue of the business model, concerning the revenue-generating model, marketing-related costs, logistical
problems, risk of fraud and the demand for investment in technology. Some of the models are profitable and most
are not. The world is experiencing a sharp increase in this sale channel, but many operations are still losing a lot
of money
Hamburg based secondary research company yStats.com has released a new report on B2C E-Commerce. The “MENA B2C E-Commerce Report 2014” indicates that Middle East and Northern Africa are among the most dynamic regions in global E-Commerce, with still more growth expected in coming years.
LAS CLAVES DEL ÉXITO EN LA GENERACIÓN DE UN CANAL DE VENTAS POR INTERNET, SOL...Marcos Pueyrredon
Material de apoyo utilizado por el experto internacional Enio Harbin, WebSphere Commerce Manager para Latinoamérica de IBM en el panel "LAS CLAVES DEL ÉXITO EN LA GENERACIÓN DE UN CANAL DE VENTAS POR INTERNET, SOLUCIONES PARA ACELERAR LA OFERTA EN LOS NEGOCIOS ONLINE" que que se llevo a durante el III Congreso Latinoamericano de Comercio Electronico Ecommerce LATAM 2009 (www.ecommercelatam.org) realizado el 2 de diciembre del 2009 en Hotel W de la ciudad de Santiago, Chile. Si usted esta interesado en acceder a mas informacion, material y videos del panel y el resto del Congreso ingrese en http://www.comunidadebusiness.com/group/ecommercelatam2008
Given the MakeMyTrip & JustDial IPO’s, Interest in Consumer Driven Ecommerce has increased both from Investors and Entrepreneurs. At the same time reports of Accounting Harakiri & Amazon’s announced Entry have cast a doubt on the monetization capabilities. This report studies Ecommerce in India and attempts to draw parallels within Sectors and Geographies to identify Investment opportunities
Festive shopping digital commerce research-WATInsights Report 2021Social Samosa
The report ‘Digital Commerce in India - Festive season shopping’ provides consumer and business insights to its audience and explores the components of digital commerce in India.
The Global Evolution of Digital Commerce and MENA e-Commerce 2013Melih ÖZCANLI
MENAP B2C e-Commerce Overview 2012:
Focus on Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan
Containing statistical data, trends, barriers and opportunities for B2C e-Commerce, Economic Overview, Key Economic Indicators, Retail Sales and Country Information
by
1) IORMA
2) IMRG
3) Tejuri.com
Ereputation Intelligence for your big data journeyM Kadi
Big Data applies to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used traditional techniques to capture, manage, and process within a tolerable elapsed time . This is where ERI builds a solid grounding and design infrastructure to drive this innovation forward and boost better outcomes
This article presents and discusses the different business models adopted by e-commerce firms. It addresses the
issue of the business model, concerning the revenue-generating model, marketing-related costs, logistical
problems, risk of fraud and the demand for investment in technology. Some of the models are profitable and most
are not. The world is experiencing a sharp increase in this sale channel, but many operations are still losing a lot
of money
Hamburg based secondary research company yStats.com has released a new report on B2C E-Commerce. The “MENA B2C E-Commerce Report 2014” indicates that Middle East and Northern Africa are among the most dynamic regions in global E-Commerce, with still more growth expected in coming years.
LAS CLAVES DEL ÉXITO EN LA GENERACIÓN DE UN CANAL DE VENTAS POR INTERNET, SOL...Marcos Pueyrredon
Material de apoyo utilizado por el experto internacional Enio Harbin, WebSphere Commerce Manager para Latinoamérica de IBM en el panel "LAS CLAVES DEL ÉXITO EN LA GENERACIÓN DE UN CANAL DE VENTAS POR INTERNET, SOLUCIONES PARA ACELERAR LA OFERTA EN LOS NEGOCIOS ONLINE" que que se llevo a durante el III Congreso Latinoamericano de Comercio Electronico Ecommerce LATAM 2009 (www.ecommercelatam.org) realizado el 2 de diciembre del 2009 en Hotel W de la ciudad de Santiago, Chile. Si usted esta interesado en acceder a mas informacion, material y videos del panel y el resto del Congreso ingrese en http://www.comunidadebusiness.com/group/ecommercelatam2008
Given the MakeMyTrip & JustDial IPO’s, Interest in Consumer Driven Ecommerce has increased both from Investors and Entrepreneurs. At the same time reports of Accounting Harakiri & Amazon’s announced Entry have cast a doubt on the monetization capabilities. This report studies Ecommerce in India and attempts to draw parallels within Sectors and Geographies to identify Investment opportunities
Festive shopping digital commerce research-WATInsights Report 2021Social Samosa
The report ‘Digital Commerce in India - Festive season shopping’ provides consumer and business insights to its audience and explores the components of digital commerce in India.
The Global Evolution of Digital Commerce and MENA e-Commerce 2013Melih ÖZCANLI
MENAP B2C e-Commerce Overview 2012:
Focus on Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan
Containing statistical data, trends, barriers and opportunities for B2C e-Commerce, Economic Overview, Key Economic Indicators, Retail Sales and Country Information
by
1) IORMA
2) IMRG
3) Tejuri.com
Ereputation Intelligence for your big data journeyM Kadi
Big Data applies to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used traditional techniques to capture, manage, and process within a tolerable elapsed time . This is where ERI builds a solid grounding and design infrastructure to drive this innovation forward and boost better outcomes
In 2008, Razorfish explored The Future of Retail for JCPenney. We noted the increasing complexity and sophistication of the global marketplace, and that retailers who have embraced change—leveraging the power of new technologies and media spaces, while putting the customer’s needs, wants, and desires at the center of the experience—have flourished.
For 2010 and beyond, we have updated and broadened this study to provide our point of view on The Future of CRM in general. It is our belief that this discipline offers brands of all kinds the most comprehensive way to thrive in a chaotic marketplace, to take advantage of new technologies, and to leap on important trends and ride them at their crest. CRM is also the master key to picking out high value customers—the ones with influence as well as loyalty—and engaging with them in a sustained fashion.
Europe cloud crm market is expected to grow $12.0 billion by 2024DheerajPawar4
[131 Pages Report] Europe cloud CRM market size, analysis, trends, & forecasts. The global market for europe cloud CRM categorized by vertical, nonprofit & country.
Europe cloud crm market is projected to register a moderate 5.86% cagr in the...DheerajPawar4
[131 Pages Report] Europe cloud CRM market size, analysis, trends, & forecasts. The global market for europe cloud CRM categorized by vertical, nonprofit & country.
[Report] Indian Marketers are Ready to Adopt and Integrate Digital Marketing ...Social Samosa
Adobe released the second annual Adobe APAC Digital Marketing Performance Dashboard, in partnership with Adobe. A six-month in-field program comprising quantitative and qualitative surveys, the study benchmarked the levels of adoption, traction and success of digital marketing
Retail Omni Channel Commerce Platform IndustryAryanRaj496746
Retail omni channel commerce platform has gain popularity in recent times. It helps companies to manage their customers' data and manage their needs easily. In this report, you will find an introduction about retail omni channel commerce platform, latest news in industry, and detail about Delvens' market research report on global retail omni channel commerce platform market.
How Mobile is Transforming Enterprise Customer ExperienceOisin Lunny
I was delighted to present a webinar about "How Mobile is Transforming Enterprise Customer Experience" with TMC Net, on behalf of OpenMarket.
The one-hour webinar explored how to fully integrate mobile messaging into a customer engagement processes, using a new approach to customer service.
This webinar also shared practical steps for designing new and differentiating experiences that will attract and retain customers, including best practice examples of how OpenMarket customers have re-engineered specific touch points for mobile engagement.
Topics included:
The benefits of superior customer experience
Improving customer experience with mobile
How customer experience spans the entire lifecycle
Using mobile messaging to improve specific customer touch points
Delivering relevant content via mobile across the enterprise
How to get started with mobile
The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed consumers to ask what they want from companies and how they rate companies for customer service. And we asked company executives about their attitudes to customer service and how well they think they are doing in joining up all of the new technologies in use today.
To survive and thrive in the age of the customer,
businesses must become digital. While many
firms believe they have a digital strategy, few
are thinking about truly digitizing their business
strategy. Yet the pioneers of the digital revolution,
be they B2B or B2C firms, are driving increased
revenues through a superior digital customer
experience and are increasing efficiency and agility
through digital operational excellence. This report
outlines the driving forces behind digital business.
This is an update of a previously published report;
Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for
continued relevance and accuracy. We revised
this edition to factor in new ideas and data.
Building Next-Gen Enterprise Using Digital TransformationNIIT Technologies
This paper encapsulates the importance of Digital Strategy in building a brand and providing the fuel to fire growth in enterprise businesses. Gone are the days when online channels were used as mere travel booking tools. As we move into an era of the hyper connected world, businesses can no longer see technology in isolation. High expectations of ‘digitally aware’ travelers and the large amount of information available pose a unique challenge. Enterprises need to analyze if they have really been able to derive maximum potential from this digital surge, and turn it into a competitive advantage in their favor.
Europe cloud crm market report by marketsand marketsDheerajPawar4
Europe Cloud CRM Market by Vertical (Nonprofit and Higher Education), Nonprofit (Education, Research and Innovation, Social Affairs, Children and Youth, Art & Culture, and Others), and country (UK, Germany, France, and Switzerland) - Global Forecast to 2024
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Welocme to ViralQR, your best QR code generator.ViralQR
Welcome to ViralQR, your best QR code generator available on the market!
At ViralQR, we design static and dynamic QR codes. Our mission is to make business operations easier and customer engagement more powerful through the use of QR technology. Be it a small-scale business or a huge enterprise, our easy-to-use platform provides multiple choices that can be tailored according to your company's branding and marketing strategies.
Our Vision
We are here to make the process of creating QR codes easy and smooth, thus enhancing customer interaction and making business more fluid. We very strongly believe in the ability of QR codes to change the world for businesses in their interaction with customers and are set on making that technology accessible and usable far and wide.
Our Achievements
Ever since its inception, we have successfully served many clients by offering QR codes in their marketing, service delivery, and collection of feedback across various industries. Our platform has been recognized for its ease of use and amazing features, which helped a business to make QR codes.
Our Services
At ViralQR, here is a comprehensive suite of services that caters to your very needs:
Static QR Codes: Create free static QR codes. These QR codes are able to store significant information such as URLs, vCards, plain text, emails and SMS, Wi-Fi credentials, and Bitcoin addresses.
Dynamic QR codes: These also have all the advanced features but are subscription-based. They can directly link to PDF files, images, micro-landing pages, social accounts, review forms, business pages, and applications. In addition, they can be branded with CTAs, frames, patterns, colors, and logos to enhance your branding.
Pricing and Packages
Additionally, there is a 14-day free offer to ViralQR, which is an exceptional opportunity for new users to take a feel of this platform. One can easily subscribe from there and experience the full dynamic of using QR codes. The subscription plans are not only meant for business; they are priced very flexibly so that literally every business could afford to benefit from our service.
Why choose us?
ViralQR will provide services for marketing, advertising, catering, retail, and the like. The QR codes can be posted on fliers, packaging, merchandise, and banners, as well as to substitute for cash and cards in a restaurant or coffee shop. With QR codes integrated into your business, improve customer engagement and streamline operations.
Comprehensive Analytics
Subscribers of ViralQR receive detailed analytics and tracking tools in light of having a view of the core values of QR code performance. Our analytics dashboard shows aggregate views and unique views, as well as detailed information about each impression, including time, device, browser, and estimated location by city and country.
So, thank you for choosing ViralQR; we have an offer of nothing but the best in terms of QR code services to meet business diversity!
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Secstrike : Reverse Engineering & Pwnable tools for CTF.pptx
Do u want to go e commerce?
1. Do u want to go e-commerce?
SEARCH – EVALUATE - IMPLEMENT
RETAIL INDUSTRY
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
2. Confidentiality Statement
The information contained in this document is proprietary and confidential. This document, in whole or in part, may not be copied or disseminated to any third party without
the express written authorization of Kumaran Systems Inc.
"Confidential Information" means any secret or proprietary information relating directly to Company's business and that of Company's affiliated companies, including but not
limited to products, research programs, specific software, algorithms, computer systems, object and source codes, pricing policies, technology, employment records and
policies, operational methods, marketing plans and strategies, product development techniques or plans, technical processes, designs and design projects, and other business
affairs of Company and Company's affiliated companies.
The recipient must keep strictly confidential all Confidential Information and will not, without the Company’s express written authorization, signed by one of the Company’s
authorized officers, use or sell, market or disclose any Confidential Information to any third person, corporation, or association for any purpose.
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
3. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Imran Shah Head - APAC Business, part of the Media and Telecommunication Practice at Kumaran Systems Inc., responsible for shaping and executing business turn-
around strategy. Execution focus has been on New Market Sensitization & launching New Service Offerings - managing the entire Lead to Cash cycles for the
Telecommunication Vertical and can be reached at imran.shah@kumaran.com
KUMARAN SYSTEMS INC.
Kumaran Systems, founded in 1990 at Toronto, Canada with global delivery centers across Americas and India is a Major Software Services and Solution provider.
With 20+ years of customer orientation, over 1600 engagements across Media, Telecom, Education, Shipping and Banking & Financial services spread across the globe.
Kumaran stands as a key advisor to some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in their business driven technology enablement drive.
Kumaran Systems growth has been evolutionary that began with Migration Products to address industry challenges for legacy modernization to a Business driven Technology
enabler aligned to focused verticals. Over the past two decades Kumaran System customer orientation has enabled its recognition as a major Technology enabler across
industry segments delivering enhanced business value for its clients across the globe
Kumaran System Customer Orientation is driven by a global delivery business model giving its customers to choose between an Onshore-Nearshore-Offshore mix. The
delivery models enable multilevel touch points between the client, partner networks and Kumaran Systems enabling business driven customer sensitivity and agility.
With 500+ employees across the Globe, Kumaran Systems offers comprehensive capabilities, resources, facilities (Onsite, Offsite and Offshore) and highly skilled personnel to
meet your complex challenges for multiple domains and industries
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
4. Do u want to go e-commerce?
As eCommerce extends the reach of regional business to the global marketplace, merchants are presented with huge revenue and growth opportunities. Until recently,
organizations often engaged in eCommerce by building a single Web site and then driving traffic to it from around the world.
While some companies still rely on this model, the one-size-fits-all approach is increasingly being displaced by cross-border eCommerce. In this scenario, optimized, country-
specific sites and eCommerce solutions are deployed for each major market. For example, iconic American motorcycle company Harley-Davidson now has 25 cross-border
sites around the globe.
Country-specific sites work better to attract and service customers in those countries than the multinational approach, but they present a host of challenges for merchants
unfamiliar with the territory. The challenges include maintaining information in multiple languages, greater product differentiation, customer service issues and a more complex
supply chain. Additionally, the business must deal with a host of payment-related issues, including increased fraud risk, currency conversion, merchant banking relationships
and regulatory requirements.
This paper is for any business that is either already engaged in global commerce or is considering expanding beyond current domestic markets. We intend to give you – our
reader – a prescription from market dynamics to the right eCommerce strategy enablement for your Brand
Market Forecast
Though developed economies continue to look weak, the worst of
the 2008-2009 global financial crises appears to have passed.
Thanks in part to government stimulus programs; the retail and
consumer product sectors globally have seen a return to growth
in 2010. Although Asia's retail market was not spared the
slowdown cause by the financial crisis, the region has rebounded
well, particularly relative to Western Europe and North America
As we look back on the year 2011, eCommerce organizations
continued to expand their global reach. A growing number of US
and European retailers started shipping internationally. Brands
enabled eCommerce on their own websites in new markets and
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
5. launched online stores on marketplaces in multiple countries. Other companies with an interest in global eCommerce used the
year to gain insights into new markets, determining which ones to prioritize in the years ahead.
For many companies, however, the globalization process is still just beginning. Aside from a handful of companies that operate
eCommerce sites around the world, few companies have a truly global online footprint. The growing number of US- and
European-based companies that ship internationally will see revenues increase from these markets, but will start to hit a
language ceiling: Close to two-thirds of online consumers in both France and Germany, for example, agreed with the statement, “I
only shop from websites in my native language.” In the UK, the percentage is close to three-quarters.
Even as sales through traditional channels declined, online retail formats provided some respite for retailers as global online retail
sales grew by 14.5 percent in 2009 to reach $348.6 billion USD1. Electronics was the largest segment in global online retail
sales, contributing around 22.6 percent. While the online retail sales sector continues to outperform, its magnitude remains small
with 2.5 percent of total global retail sales. On an average basis, globally, online sales account for 6.6 percent of total sales for
the top 100 retailers in 2009.
The US remains the biggest market for online retail with 37.2 percent market share. Total spending reached $129.8 billion USD in
20093, marginally lower than $130.1 billion USD in 2008. A high level of product differentiation together with low fixed costs and
dynamic market revenue growth is seen in the US market. However, it also creates competition in the market with a large number
of active players and the absence of consumer switching costs.
The online channel is outperforming wider retail as it has a number of counter-recessionary characteristics. The online channel offers considerable benefits to retailers.
Relatively low operating costs (compared to an equivalent store network) allows them to pass benefits to customers in terms of low cost, and can be operated 24x7. The rise in
Internet penetration and a change in view of consumer mindsets is happening as more consumers feel more comfortable purchasing and using their credit cards online.
In summary, the Internet has evolved into an important retail channel. An increase in tech-savvy consumers, an increase in Internet access and growing confidence in payment
security and privacy have advanced this retail channel.
Between 2005 and 2009, the global Internet population increased from 1 billion to more than 1.6 billion and by 2014 it is projected to grow by another 42 percent, reaching a
level of 2.3 billion1.
Most of the growth in online population is expected to come from the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, which had very low Internet penetration levels of 19.7 percent as of
June 2010. These regions will represent 54.9 percent of the online population in 2014, whereas North America and Europe will represent 34.1 percent. Other emerging Asian
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
6. countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia are expected to have nearly 10 percent of global online users by 2014, but Apple is the only online retailer in the US which operates
a transactional Web site for these countries.
While Internet penetration growth does not show a direct relationship with online retail market growth, online retail market dynamics will change as the global Internet
penetration changes, boosting international expansion for most retailers.Also, the level of adoption of online shopping does not always reflect the level of online spending. For
example, North America has one of the highest online spending rates per person, while the overall penetration of online buyers is relatively low compared with other markets.
Along similar lines, Asian e-commerce giants such as Japan and South Korea are climbing the levels in online spending because of improved access through technology and
wider selection of online stores. Altogether, the market potential is huge with increasing Internet penetration levels.
Traditionally, there was a tendency among online retailers in terms of not changing content according to local requirements and languages. This strategy had its disadvantages
in terms of repelling customers who were not comfortable with the English language and standard layout across the globe. It catered largely to English-speaking markets.
Today, however, online retailers are adopting the strategy of "localization", i.e. Web sites with local languages along with regional customs — even if with a small amount of
content at first. These retailers are better equipped to take the advantage of an increasingly diverse global online user base than their counterparts with English-only Web sites.
It is worth noting that there is a strong preference for local-language content in European markets such as France, while more than 95 percent of online users indicate a
preference for local-language content in Asian markets such as Japan and Korea2. Even though localization strategy is being adopted by the global retailers, a lot still needs to
be done. For example, while 5 percent of the global population speaks Arabic, just 1 percent of online content is estimated to be available in the language.
Similar to local language preference, customer behavior and expectations also vary across countries. More customized online strategy is required for the regions such as the
Middle East or Latin America. Indeed, companies have started operating localization initiatives such as IP mapping techniques to localize prices, directing customers to local
stores with products on display in the local language and having a local office in the country. Strategies of localizing content and understanding online customer behavior and
preference are likely to boost online sales.
With all these inhibitors, in the long run, the keen interest in the Web in the post-recession economy and the growth spurt in Web-related technology will continue to drive the
growth of the online retail segment, subject to the online business innovations by e-retailers. With its clear price advantage over the bricks-and-mortar channel, online retail will
become more attractive to recession-hit shoppers. By 2014, global online retail sales are expected to be $778.6 billion USD3, increasing at a CAGR of 22.2 percent. The major
regions such as US and Western Europe are forecast to reach $248.7 billion USD and $158.5 billion USD by 2014, respectively.
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
7. The Retail Industry
The retail industry is composed of individuals and companies engaged in the sale of finished products to end-user consumers. It implies that retailing is the final step in the
distribution of merchandise—the last point in the supply chain—connecting the bulk producers of commodities to the final consumers, Retailing covers diverse products such
as food, apparels, consumer goods, financial services, leisure, etc.
Considering the nature of the business, retailing is extremely competitive and the failure rate of retail establishments is relatively high. While price is the most
important arena of competition, other factors such as location, selection and display of merchandise, attractiveness of the establishment and reputation also matter.
Retail is usually classified by the type of products as follows: - Food products - Soft goods: clothing, apparel and other fabrics - Hard goods (hardline retailers):
appliances, electronics, furniture, sporting goods, etc.
Traditionally, the retail business was dominated by smaller family-run or regionally targeted stores, but this market is increasingly being taken over by multinational
conglomerates such as Wal- Mart and Sears, indicating the era of “retail globalization.”
These larger retailers have managed to set up huge supply/ distribution chains, inventory management systems, financing pacts and wide-scale marketing plans. This dynamic
nature of the retail business has created different business models and a wide range of new formats such as vending machines, door-to-door and telephone sales, direct-mail
marketing, online retailing1, and traditional formats such as discount houses, specialty stores, department stores, supermarkets, and consumer cooperatives. This has led to
the emergence of multichannel retailing, which refers to the concept of selling goods through multiple channels rather than just one, such as traditional stores.
Global retail sales declined 3.7 percent in 2009 to 13.9 trillion USD1. While sales for 2009 were low, it is worthwhile to note that sales of the global retail industry have
doubled since 2003 when worldwide retail sales were $7 trillion USD.
Along with sales growth, profitability for most retailers was also sharply affected. Profit margins of the 200 largest retailers in the world fell to 2.4 percent from 4.1
percent during fiscal 2008-09 with more than 30 retailers reporting operating losses2. This trend affected almost every retail category and geographical area except
Africa and the Middle East where retailers saw an increase in profitability.
The composition of the top 10 retailers in the world remained the same in 2009 compared to the previous year. This group now accounts for more than 30 percent of
total retail sales of the top 250 retailers. Wal-Mart remained the world’s largest retailer, ahead of Carrefour Group.
In major markets such as the US and UK, retail spending is expected to decline, while emerging markets such as China and India should have strong growth in 2010.
There are signs of improvement for US consumers, but the recent destruction of wealth is expected to limit consumer spending. Asia is believed to represent the best
growth prospects for retailers and consumer-product companies in 2010.
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8. Among developed countries, the UK continues to lead the world as the most international retail market. Europe maintains its ability to attract the world’s top retailers in
2009, with 58% of the world’s top 250 retailers having a presence in Europe. The UK outperformed other major European economies such as Spain, France,
Germany and Italy, ranking first among the top 15 most
international retail markets. European retailers are more prone to
globalization than American retailers because they face
restrictions on development in their home markets. In France, due
to regulations, hypermarkets cannot open new stores in their
home market easily. Consequently, they principally seek growth in
other markets. This is why the lion’s share of global retailers is
based in Europe. The US was 10th globally, with 39% of
international retailers. This can be attributed, at least in part, to the
size, maturity and strength of its domestic market. US retailers
tend to penetrate their vast national market extensively before
considering international expansion. Although Europe continues to
dominate, with eight out of the top 15 most international retail
locations, emerging economies such as China, Russia and the
UAE have gained significant ground in the past 12 months.
According to a recent survey of 60 retail executives from around
the world3, the BRIC4 region remains the highest priority markets
for retail expansion, with nearly 80 percent of respondents citing
one of these markets as part of their firm’s plans for short-term
international growth. Along with developed market players,
emerging market-based local retailers have begun expanding
outside their region. In a similar survey, 92 percent of respondents
from emerging markets are looking to expand beyond their home
market, with close to 30 percent of those saying a developed
country is among their top three expansion targets. These
emerging market retailers are using their unique insights into local business and culture to expand regionally in a trend that will impact the global retail landscape. In
addition, retailers are looking for a shorter payback period of three years, compared to five to seven years in 2005.
Despite the global economic slowdown, many retailers such as cash-rich private companies have continued their expansion plans throughout the past 12 months. A
survey of 280 retailers5 saw them expand their international presence by two more countries than in the previous year. This was primarily in clothing, footwear and
accessories.
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9. Rise of online retailing 2012 will not be the year that eCommerce organizations blanket the globe
Global online retail sales grew by 14.5 percent in 2009 to reach 348.6 billion USD8. with localized offerings – they will, however, continue stepping into
Electronics is the largest segment in global online retail sales, contributing around international waters. Next year we expect to see:
22.6 percent.
More brands will sell direct in international markets. It is now
The US is the biggest market for online retail sales with 37.2 percent market share,
commonplace to see large consumer brands operating their own
whose total retail e-commerce spending reached 129.8 billion USD in 20099, eCommerce-enabled sites in markets such as the US and the UK.
marginally lower than the 2008 level of 130.1 billion USD. A high level of product However, only a handful such as Dell and Burberry operate transactional
differentiation together with low fixed costs and dynamic market revenue growth is websites in dozens of markets around the globe. Next year, an increasing
seen in the US market. However, it also creates rivalry in the market as a large number will look to extend their reach online globally, with brands
number of players are active along with the absence of consumer switching costs. expanding beyond French-, German- and English-language eCommerce
sites in Europe, and increasingly enabling transactional sites in Asian
Online retail sales still account for only 2.5 percent of total retail sales on a global
markets such as Korea and China. Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at
basis. On an average, online sales account for 6.6 per cent of total sales for the top this topic in our upcoming report, due out within the next few weeks.
100 retailers in the world10. Hence, most retailers have yet to make a strong online International shippers will focus on consumers in specific markets. A
push through multi-channel retailing. growing number of online retailers embraced international shipping this
By 2014, global online retail sales are expected to be 778.6 billion USD11, past year, with well-known US brands such as Crate and Barrel, Williams-
increasing at a CAGR of 22.2 percent. To sustain this level of sales, internet Sonoma and Bloomingdale’s all launching global shipping in 2011. In
penetration in North America, Europe and Asia- Pacific is expected to increase by 2012, however, retailers will start to target customers in specific countries.
The era of simply shipping to dozens of global markets while paying little
10.6 percent, or no attention to any individual one will give way to a more focused
approach. Companies will invest more in localized landing pages, spend
more on paid search and create shipping promotions targeted at
Growth Drivers shoppers in key markets. The most aggressive of the international
shippers will look to improve the customer experience in their most
The Internet has evolved into an important retail channel, with millions of online consumers lucrative global markets by exploring local fulfillment options.
across the globe turning to it to make their purchases. Despite the financial crisis and eCommerce companies’ “Tier 1” markets will include multiple emerging
markets. In the past, eCommerce globalization for many companies
recession, the Internet and other new channels continue to drive long-term shifts in con-
meant launching a handful of sites in North America and Europe, with
sumers’ purchase behavior and the way products and services are distributed. Japan frequently representing the sole eCommerce offering in Asia. By
2012, however, eCommerce organizations with global aspirations will
Convenience, value, and selection – key catalyst for growth: The online retail have put the big emerging markets on their list of the most strategically
channel has consistently outperformed in comparison to store growth and important markets, lavishing funds on teams in or preparing to launch in
weathered the recession well because most consumers are valuing low and these countries. Brands selling through traditional offline channels
transparent prices, convenience, and comprehensive assortment of goods and recognized the importance of emerging markets many years ago: In
services. As per the survey1 conducted in the North American region which is the 2012, these markets will be equally important in brands’ online initiatives.
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
10. largest market for online retail, 67 percent of online buyers find the products online that they cannot find in stores easily; 65 percent of the US-based Web buyers buy
the products online as they save time by shopping online, and 63 percent of Web buyers find better deals online.
Increase in global internet penetration: Between 2005 and 2009, the global Internet population increased from 1 billion to more than 1.6 billion and by 2014, it is
projected to grow by another 42 percent, reaching a level of 2.3 billion2. While Internet penetration growth does not have a direct relationship with online retail market
growth, online retail market dynamics change as the global internet penetration changes. Also, rapid expansion in online population boosts international expansion for
most retailers.
- Most of the growth in online population is expected to come from Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions, which has a very low internet penetration level
of 19.7 percent as of June 2010. These regions will represent 54.9 percent of the online population in 2014. Compared to this, developed regions such as
North America and Europe will represent 34.1 percent of total population in 2014 against their proportion of 41.3 percent in 2009.
- Other emerging Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia are expected to have nearly 10 percent of global online users by 2014, but Apple is the only
online retailer in the US which operates a transactional Web site for these countries.
Furthermore, the level of adoption of online shopping does not always reflect the level of online spends. For example, North America has one of the
highest online spending rates
- per person, while the overall penetration of online buyers is relatively low compared with other markets. On similar lines, Asian e-Commerce giants such as
Japan and South Korea are climbing the levels in online spending because of improved access through technology and wider selection of online stores.
These new online shoppers today certainly enjoy a far richer e- Commerce experience than the consumers had 10 years ago.
Altogether, the market potential is huge. Online retailers who want to capture the growing number of online users — and their growing funds spent
online — will need to look beyond the markets of North America and Europe and think globally about their online strategies.
Region wide/customized strategy: In simple words, localization is expected to boost the online retail market. Traditionally, there was a tendency among online retailers
in terms of not changing content according to local requirements and languages. This strategy had its disadvantages in terms of repelling customers who were not
comfortable with the english language and standard layout across the globe. It catered largely to English-speaking markets. However, nowadays, online retailers are
adopting the strategy of “Localization” i.e. websites into local languages along with regional customs — even if with a small amount of content at first. These retailers
are better equipped to take the advantage of an increasingly diverse global online user base than their counterparts with English-only Web sites.
- There is a strong preference for local-language content in European markets like France, while more than 95% of online users indicate a preference for
local-language content in Asian markets like Japan and Korea3. And while 5% of the global population speaks Arabic, just 1% of online content is estimated
to be available in the language.
- Similar to local language preference, customer behavior and expectations also vary across countries. A more customized online strategy is required for
regions like the Middle East or Latin America. Indeed, companies have started operating such online initiatives tailored to individual markets in the region
along with a local office in the country.
- Strategies of localizing content and understanding online customer behavior and preference are likely to boost online sales.
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
11. So what is 2013 bringing the world of eBusiness technology?
Can eBusiness stand the heat and share the love? CEOs everywhere are waking up to eCommerce’s role across channels. eCommerce is one of a small number
of bright spots in 2011, with year-over-year numbers ranging from +15 to +25%. It is no longer a rounding error on the year end results. As a result, investment in
eCommerce and how it integrates to and within other channels has skyrocketed in priority. (CEOs still think in “channels”, for now.) eBusiness leaders and their
technology peers suddenly find themselves tossed in the back of a getaway car. Suddenly there is lots of cash, urgent deadlines, unclear direction, and lots of people
yelling directions at each other. Who is driving this thing? Educating senior leadership on what agile commerce means, setting a technology direction, and planning a
transformation roadmap will be critical to a successful, organized getaway. (See below for the analogy)
Mobile commerce is ready for its close-up. 2011 was the year that mobile commerce proved itself. Traffic and sales through smart phones and tablets have
registered meaningful numbers. It is not uncommon for clients to describe mobile commerce in the 5-15% of web traffic with conversions in the 75% of web range
(Them's real dollars, my friend). Often this is with companies’ still delivering terrible user experiences flush with Flash, roll-overs, and static templates that were
designed for 19” monitors not your smartphone. In 2012 expect mobile commerce to hit the mainstream as devices gain share, and customers become comfortable.
Gone are the questions of whether customers buy via mobile. eBusiness leaders are responding by significantly raising their investments in mobile commerce, tripling
or quadrupling mobile commerce budgets to add or redo sites and apps. And don’t think this is just a retail or B2C thing, mobile will penetrate every business and
customer interaction and impacting multiple customer touch points.
APIs, APIs, Oh My. APIs are nothing new. But in 2012 it will become a key topic for business leaders needing increased flexibility from their technology platforms and
applications. Adding new customer touch points, driving integrations across channels, and mashing up your business with new partners will accelerate investment in
APIs. This will drive a lot of business to commerce services providers and third-party API management companies to help develop and manage APIs that will be used
internally and increasingly externally. Your IT department can develop an API, but are they going to support it and drive it? eBusiness leaders will need to add a new
hybrid role of the API manager who will combine product management, developer, marketer, and business development skills. Yet another role it will be hard for the
eBusiness leader to hire for.
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12. Evolving Niche Markets of Interest
I. m-Commerce
A number of retailers and third-party developers have introduced mobile applications that give consumers powerful new shopping tools and added convenience. But most
retailers are either standing on the sidelines or in the midst of planning their mobile commerce strategy.
m-commerce which began in the last decade, similar to mobile banking, has expanded very little. Despite the massive numbers of mobile users in the US and UK,
those using their phones to make purchases is still few. Tepid demand among consumers, technological limitations and lack of standardization in application has
constrained the widespread proliferation of m-commerce. Currently, web-enabled mobile phone users are using their devices to get weather forecasts, read news, find
movie times and bank online than to buy products.
While m-commerce is still immature and the least commonly preferrred customer service channel, retailers are showing interest in this channel with the idea of getting
support from mobile commerce and promotional efforts. As per a study by the National Retail Federation in the US, 74 percent of online retailers either have in place
or are developing mobile commerce strategies, while 20 percent have already implemented their complete plans.
Also, people who download mobile applications, including shopping apps, are a highly coveted consumer segment. Mobile buyers tend to be repeat purchasers with a
higher order value than the average consumer, and it can be important for them to complete transactions with ease even if it means spending more. As per mobile
payments firm Billing Revolution, on-the-go consumers are happy to purchase small-ticket items like pizza and movie tickets through the mobile. According to
Millennial and comScore research, there is a new retail audience that can only be reached through mobile and that means it is imperative to invest now in mobile for
this holiday season or risk missing out on revenue that can only be tapped through mobile in 2010.
Hence, a number of recognized retail brands have launched mobile commerce programs so they can be where their customers go. In m-commerce, eBay is the
outstanding leader with their iPhone application launched in 2008, and Blackberry and Android applications that launched in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, the company
saw more than 600 million USD in goods sold via the mobile application, which was a 200 percent increase from 2008. On new launch, MLB Advanced Media, the
Philadelphia Phillies and Aramark have started allowing consumers to use their iPhone to order food and have the items delivered to their seat. Sears has effectively
used mobile for customer service by sending text alerts to confirm that a Web order is ready for in-store pickup and allowing customers to contact customer service
via their mobile device by SMS, phone, or email.
Going forward, by 2015, shoppers from around the world will spend about 119 billion USD on goods and services bought via their mobile phones3. In the US alone,
mobile shopping rose from 396 million USD in 2008 to 1.2 billion USD in 2009, and is forecast to reach about 2.2 billion USD in 2010.
II. Online grocery shopping
Online grocery shopping has continued to experience a rapid evolution in recent years, facilitated by the ongoing development of the internet and related technologies such as
mobile communications. From a consumer perspective, the convenience factor of placing an order online and having goods delivered to the door is perhaps the biggest appeal
to consumers looking for ways to save time or have physical difficulty of carrying products.
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13. The UK is the most developed online grocery market globally, with 15 percent of adults who have shopped for their groceries online in 2009. The UK market had
grown at a CAGR of 24.9 percent during the period of 2004 to 2009, reaching a level of 7.8 billion USD in 2009 and with expectations of reaching 11.8 billion USD by
20144. Another major market is the US, which is also catching up with online grocery shopping habits. With its vast online population, the US tops the online grocery
shopping arena with a total market size of 9.1 billion USD in 2009. However, the per capita spending is still less for US consumers when compared to the UK market.
However, one key difference with grocery products is freshness: many consumers still prefer to see the produce before purchase, which remains a significant hurdle
for the development of the online market. Furthermore, the time lag between placing the order and delivery means that online grocery purchasing only fits with regular,
planned shopping rather than impulse or top-up shopping.
III. Online healthcare
Online healthcare helps online consumers: Nowadays, healthcare consumers gather information online which includes healthcare related information and services, looking for
doctors, researching medicines, sharing personal health details and tracking health conditions for themselves. While consumers are becoming more self-reliant and
empowered, healthcare providers are beginning to offer their services online and learning how to become more consumer-focused.
Given this evolution, online healthcare marketers in the US have the opportunity to build a bridge between healthcare providers and patients. It is estimated that the
market for Electronic Health Records will reach about 5 billion USD, by 2015, according to Kalorama Information. In order to capture this vast potential, Google and
Wal-Mart have together invested significantly in online healthcare services.
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14. Challenges – Linking the real and virtual world
As anyone who has participated in setting up international businesses or cross-border Web sites will tell you, these are non-trivial endeavors. Most successful eMerchants will
say it is well worth the effort, but newcomers will face a few challenges.
Language: Modern content management systems make handling multiple Web sites in different languages easier than before. Nonetheless, all content needs to be
initially translated, then localized and then tested to make sure it is appropriate for the country or locale. This goes for site content, shopping carts, sales comparators
and other related tools.
Local product differentiation/inventory issues: Obviously, Amazon does not want to feature Japanese books on its French Web site. The same applies to other
companies that must maintain multiple SKUs, product descriptions and images, safety and regulatory guidelines, and other information on multiple sites.
Distribution/shipping costs/timing: To launch eCommerce in a new country, retailers face a host of local and global supply chain issues, including transportation,
logistics and warehousing. This is why many companies, especially smaller ones, rely on outsourced regional experts known as third-party logistics (3PL) companies.
These companies handle distribution, warehousing, inventory management and even enterprise resource planning (ERP) system management for a fee.
Local competition/pricing: Obviously, each local market is competitive in its own right. For large eMerchants, like Nokia, these differences can be startling. For
example, in Europe, mobile phones are largely sold independent of carrier plans or promotions. In the U.S., this is completely different and most phones are
purchased “bundled” with carrier plans. Marketers, webmasters and others involved in cross-border sites must be constantly attentive to the latest changes in
localized consumer habits, Web traffic, promotions, and other related marketing and sales issues.
Customer service: Historically, the online channel was developed as a self-serve model for consumers who had little expectation of customer service or support.
That has changed—customers now expect brick-and-mortar levels of service from eMerchants. So, how is customer service handled? Is it facilitated by a 24x7x365
centralized facility, or by a string of regional centers? What about returns, or the “reverse supply chain” as it is called? These are just two of the many important in-
country customer service issues that must be handled
Currency Conversion: The cost of currency conversion is usually borne by the buyer—rarely by the seller or merchant. So, if German buyers want to buy an
American item that is offered for sale only in U.S. dollars, then they pay a fee to have the currency converted to euros on their next card statement. Of course,
depending upon exchange rates at the time, they may wish to pay directly in euros, if that is an option. Until recently, merchants could offer consumers few choices for
currency conversion or purchasing options. This inhibited global eCommerce by effectively passing on currency surcharges to consumers. That problem is rapidly diminishing,
because currency conversion options are now easily available from eCommerce providers like First Data and others. This enables cardholders to make an informed decision
during the checkout process to either pay in their own currency at a competitive and fully disclosed exchange rate inclusive of any fees, or to allow the card association to
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15. convert the transaction at an unknown exchange rate and assess a conversion fee. The proliferation of choice and customer control is expected to rapidly accelerate global
eCommerce.
Taxes (VAT):Value-added tax (VAT) is a tax paid by buyers located in the European Union, Canada, Australia and many other countries. If you sell online to
someone located in Europe, you have to calculate the VAT and pay it to the country in which the item was sold. Complicating the issue, each country can set its own
VAT rates. The good news for the merchant is that the buyer pays the VAT. The bad news is that merchants have to collect it and submit it to the proper authority.
One of the advantages of using third-party payment networks is that they can handle these complex VAT issues for you.
Global Network of Acquiring Banks:To conduct business online and accept credit cards and some other forms of payments, merchants must establish merchant
banking relationships. The merchant’s bank is known as the acquiring bank, and the consumer’s bank that issued the credit card is known as the issuer bank. To
provide global eCommerce services, many companies have traditionally set up relationships with multiple acquiring banks in the various regions they do business in.
Sometimes this is because it was the only viable solution. In other cases, foreign countries may insist upon an in-country banking relationship as a prerequisite for
doing business in that country. Merchants often pay a price for these multiple banking relationships in the form of higher fees as well as the increased complexity of
reporting and managing multiple relationships. Next-generation eCommerce infrastructure is now providing for a single acquiring relationship, which is helping to
reduce the cost and complexity of global eCommerce.
Fraud and Credit Risk Prevention: With the increased sophistication of hackers and the proliferation of stolen identities, global merchants must protect themselves
with better mechanisms for mitigating fraud and reducing risks. Fraud prevention and reduction is one of the most important aspects of global and cross-border
eCommerce for merchants. Online fraud is still relativelyhigh. For example, according to a 2008 Association of Financial Professionals (AFP) Payments survey, in
2007, 10 percent of organizations that accepted electronic payments from consumers were victims of attempted or actual consumer fraud. There are many fraud-
prevention methods, including address matching, card security code validation and explicit password authorization. The critical decision for merchants is to choose the
right technique or techniques that will minimize fraud but not result in too many false positives that turn away honest customers. Merchants must also be sure to
choose a solution that accounts for the nuances in fraud activityand compliance standards across different geographies and cultures.
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16. Evaluation considerations - E-Commerce Platforms
I. Scalability
1.1 Will the site perform efficiently through traffic peaks and valleys?
Scalability may be one of the most overused terms in IT marketing. Software makers would have you believe that every application ever written was destined to be scalable
from inception. But if any application has to be scalable, it is certainly a major e-commerce Website. Sluggish internal applications are annoying, but unresponsive customer-
facing applications will frustrate your customers, drive them to your competitors, and kill your online business.
An e-commerce Website is only as good as its ability to handle its peak traffic. As your Website popularity increases, it needs to scale with minimal effort so you can avoid
incurring disproportionate infrastructure management costs.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, look for businesses that are similar in size and profile to yours. Ask yourself the following questions:
What is the peak number of visits (or open sessions) the site has supported?
How many orders per day does the site take?
How many page views per visit does each visitor make on average?
How big or complex is the product catalog, and how many categories, products, and stock-keeping units (SKUs) are in it?
What is the average response time of the home page and typical detail pages?
How much hardware, software, and infrastructure are required to handle these volumes?
II. The Product Catalog
Will today’s catalog schema meet tomorrow’s demands?
Your product catalog is the online repository for every item you sell. It has to effectively promote the items you most want to push, and simultaneously help your customers find
the items they are looking for. But poorly constructed product catalogs can be rigid and uncompromising, especially if the product attributes you want to store don’t naturally
align with the definitions set in your e-commerce application. To make an inflexible product catalog accommodate business realities, companies end up misusing data fields,
filling irrelevant mandatory data fields with gibberish, duplicating data in multiple places, and inventing esoteric codes to artificially accommodate information the catalog
doesn’t natively support.
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17. It can be difficult to predict what kind of products you will be selling in the future, and what other applications may need to populate your catalogs. You have to prepare for the
unknown. The combination of an inflexible application and short-sighted business planning results in potentially catastrophic inflexibility. Companies lose the agility needed to
quickly adjust offers and promotions and to continually adapt to changing e-commerce business needs.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, understand how flexible the product catalog really is. Ask yourself the following questions:
Can the catalog represent different types of products with different attributes, and what are the limitations?
How many product categories and subcategories will the catalog support?
Can a single product or subcategory exist in multiple categories without data duplication?
Can different catalogs be defined for purposes other than a business-to-consumer (B2C) store?
How easy is it to relate accessories and create bundles?
III. Business User Control
Will my application directly empower my merchandisers, marketing managers, and other business owners?
Many IT managers long for a world where there are no demanding business users. They long for the end of business requests that seemingly come from left field, or arrive
urgently at the last minute. They crave a way to offload day-to-day updates and edits back to the business. Many e-commerce applications require IT resources for daily
maintenance, let alone major projects. As a result, your business users are totally disconnected from the daily workings of your e-commerce site. They send their change
requests to IT, and IT has no choice but to react. IT has difficulty planning and prioritizing, as they deal with a continual barrage of urgent high-priority updates.
But business users like to take control, and every task that they can safely do themselves means one less task that IT will have to do.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, you must make sure that the application you choose will be technically and architecturally sound with proven capabilities. But also
look for tools that your business managers can use themselves. Ask yourself the following questions:
Can product and category managers control their parts of the catalog?
Can merchandisers define promotions and discounts on products, orders, and shipments without IT involvement?
Can a targeted e-mail campaign be sent without IT extracting the customer lists?
Can executives pull their own standard reports, and even create their own new ones?
Can business users directly manage critical and constantly changing content such as the home page?
Can business users do all these activities with the confidence that they won’t “break” the Website?
IV. Search
How easily can customers find what they want, and how easily can I promote the products I want to push based on customer searches?
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18. The search box is often the first tool an e-commerce customer uses. There was a time when expectations of search were pretty low. Today, users expect search to not only
find but also guide them to the products they’re looking for. A search experience that really works for your customers can significantly increase online revenue. However, your
own site search is just one piece of the puzzle. External search engines such as Yahoo! and Google also need to find your products. This causes headaches for site managers
with dynamically generated e-commerce pages, because search engine spiders are likely to misinterpret what they find on a dynamically generated page. As we all know from
our own online experiences, there is nothing more frustrating to customers than searching for but not finding something that we know is on your site somewhere.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, look for business controls that support a compelling and personal search experience. Ask yourself the following questions:
How easily can I integrate an e-commerce search experience into my online store?
What product attributes can customers search on?
What happens if customers search using terms that are similar to but not the exact words of my product descriptions? What if they make spelling mistakes?
Can I learn about my customers based on their searches?
Is the search engine preintegrated and catalog aware?
Can I present relevant promotions as customers search my site?
What business control do I have in creating filtering and navigation paths?
How easily can external search spiders index my dynamic site?
V. Agility
How easily can I implement business requests to monitor and respond to an individual Web visitor’s behavior?
Imagine this scenario and see if it rings any bells: The marketing team of an electronics e-tailer wants to push high-definition televisions (HDTVs) over the next two weeks. For
every Web visitor who looks at more than five HDTVs and for whom they have an e-mail address, they want to send an e-mail presenting the special offers.
IT: Sounds doable with a little coding.
Marketing: Here’s a new wrinkle—we want to send the e-mail to anyone viewing the five HDTVs within the two-week period, not in a single session.
IT: That’s trickier. We’ll need to store and increment a value, which means a database schema change.
Marketing: We don’t want a customer to receive more than one e-mail if they look at ten HDTVs.
IT: This is turning into a pretty big effort for a two-week promotion. I’m not sure I can even get the changes complete and tested in two weeks.
Marketing: We want a report on results.
IT: You’ve got to be kidding me!
Similar dramas are played out in every online business. IT is frustrated that marketers don’t appreciate the difficulty of implementing their requests, especially with their tight
time frames. But this type of business need is exactly what e-commerce platforms must support. In an ideal world, an e-commerce application would implement these kinds of
requests without any page, code, or database changes. A manager would simply describe what to monitor and what should happen when the application finds activity that fits
the criteria. The application would take it from there.
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
19. When evaluating e-commerce applications, look for a solution that can monitor customer activity on your site, and can then take action based on identified behavior. Ask
yourself the following questions:
What Website behaviors can be easily monitored?
Is monitoring restricted to a single Web visit, or can it span multiple sessions?
What automatic actions can I take once I recognize a desired behavior?
How do I manage business rules and marketing scenarios?
Most importantly, how much time and resources will be required to implement these activities, and can they be reused?
VI. Reporting and Analytics
Do I have all the features I need to understand my online business?
Your e-commerce Website stores a treasure trove of information about your customers, their behavior, and their preferences. But businesses typically struggle to figure out
how to leverage the business value this data holds. Configuring your site to capture and log all the available information can be an arduous job, especially when the data is
coming from a large variety of sources. Furthermore, you may be using the data in different ways over time, and you may need new information to drive specific campaigns.
Or, you may want to base campaigns on different behavior from what you’ve been tracking.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, remember that you can’t control what you can’t measure. Having rich insight into the running of your online store is critical to your
ongoing success. Ask yourself the following questions:
How does the site capture and store both historic and behavioral data?
What insights can I get from customers’ searches?
What preintegrated tools extract business intelligence from this data?
What reports and dashboards offer visibility into my business?
How easy is it to monitor business metrics like conversion rates and average order sizes?
Do the reports allow me to drill down to find the data behind the results?
How easily can I create ad hoc reports to get quick answers to specific questions?
Can I merge Web data with my non-Web data to see a multichannel view of my business?
VII. Standards
Is the application built on a standards-based platform?
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20. You’ve probably seen some nice applications that solve all sorts of business problems, only to later discover that they were coded in a language, database, or framework not
supported by the skills of your people. If you adopt the application and train your staff to support it, they’ll be concerned about career limitations by tying themselves too closely
to this esoteric solution.
E-commerce is no longer a renegade outpost of IT. It’s a fundamental, mission-critical organization within a business’ systems portfolio. It must run on a standards-based
platform that can be supported by standard skill sets across the organization and in the wider marketplace. You’ll want the flexibility to go to a broad selection of agencies and
systems integrators for development. In today’s enterprise applications, the technology playing field has narrowed to either a Java/J2EE or Microsoft .NET architecture.
Furthermore, industry analysts such as Gartner strongly recommend that businesses adopt a “buy” rather than a “build” approach when looking for e-commerce applications.
VIII. Integration
How easily can the application integrate with my other systems?
The e-commerce Website, once a standalone silo, is now a highly integrated application that touches many other systems and processes. The team that develops and
supports it contains a mix of technical and business professionals who drive an important part of the corporate strategy. As businesses become more imaginative about how
they mix their Web channel with other customer touchpoints, clean and easy integration is mandatory. Just about every element of an e-commerce application may be either
self-contained or driven by other systems.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, look for modularity, which will let you customize or tweak each individual aspect of the application to meet your unique business
requirements. In addition, with a modular solution, you won’t compromise the integrity of the rest of your site in the process. Ask yourself the following questions:
Where does the application store customer data?
Which system owns the master product catalog?
for in-store pickup or returns processing?
IX. Interoperability
Does the application function within a service-oriented architecture?
Many forward-thinking businesses want their different applications to be able to “play together” so that new composite applications and businesses processes can be quickly
assembled to increase market competitiveness. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) and the ability to wire applications together based upon a Web services backbone will be
important elements in improving a business’s ability to respond to changing business conditions. Your e-commerce application may be an integral part of any such architecture.
This is true both for the data your e-commerce application stores (such as information on customers, products, and pricing) and for the business processes it supports (such as
order placement and inventory updates).
When evaluating e-commerce applications, look for flexible enterprise architectures and think carefully about how the application can interoperate with other systems. Ask
yourself the following questions:
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice
21. Can the application support business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) business processes?
Can the application support other interactions beyond shopping, such as Web self-service or customer care?
What information in the e-commerce application is presented through Web services, and how does the application do this?
Which business processes are available as Web services, so that other applications can easily invoke them?
How can the application connect to my enterprise SOA, to stay aware of important business events happening elsewhere in my business?
X. Synergy
Will the application support business models beyond B2C e-commerce?
IT organizations everywhere are looking for every opportunity to maximize their technology investments across their enterprise. Some are recognizing similarities among the
solutions for different business channels, including B2C Websites, different brand sites, small business e-commerce sites, enterprise accounts portals, and channel partner
portals. They imagine that it might be easy to consolidate these channels onto a single platform. Although initially your business probably selected an e-commerce application
based on its ability to meet the needs of one part of your business, it’s a good idea to look at where and how that application could support your other business relationships.
Simple B2C e-commerce applications are built to support individual customers, orders, and credit cards, but business relationships can get much more complicated than that.
When your top-tier business accounts buy in volume from you, they don’t want to enter a credit card number for every order they place.
When evaluating e-commerce applications, expect that you will eventually want to leverage your e-commerce application investment in other parts of your business.
Understand how the application can support those requirements up front. Ask yourself the following questions:
Can the e-commerce application support customer profiles and organizational profiles such as an “account” or a “business”?
Can different contract types, catalogs, price lists, and discounting structures be set up, perhaps for every company I do business with?
Can the application support tiered and volume discounting structures?
Can purchase limits and approval processes be easily implemented?
Can purchases be made against cost centers and purchase orders, as well as be followed up with invoicing?
Conclusion
When so many e-commerce applications appear to share the same set of functions and features at the “checkbox level,” the real differences don’t become apparent
until you examine the fine print. With a heritage of powering the e-commerce sites of some of the largest businesses in the world, and with best-in-class ratings from leading
analysts, Kumaran Systems can expertly guide you through the key questions to ask and criteria to consider as you prepare to invest in an e-commerce platform that will help
your business succeed in a competitive market.
Thought Leadership Kumaran Media & Information Communication Technology Practice