Sheplers is a leading western wear retailer that has been in business for over 100 years. They have successfully transitioned to being an online retailer, with over 60% of traffic to their website coming from new visitors. Sheplers uses testing and personalization platform Monetate to test different elements of their website to improve conversion rates and reduce cart abandonment. Their initial tests resulted in a 3.33% increase in conversion rate. Sheplers continues to use testing to better understand customer interests and customize their online shopping experience based on how customers enter the website.
11 Tips For Improving International E-Commerce ConversionsFilipp Paster
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A Gudie to SEO & Marketing Investments for eCommerce WebsitesEsferasoft Solutions
Everyone knows that eCommerce is a huge business. At a web development company in India, through a definitive guide, we are taking you to dive into the concepts of SEO & Marketing investments for eCommerce websites.
A presentation on Amazon's Corporate Branding. The information in the presentation is collated with the help of both primary and secondary data and is not sponsored by Amazon. It covers Corporate identity, communication strategy, governance and other aspects related to public relations, investor relations, advertising, marketing, etc.
Get Retail Smart - A fresh look at Amazonemmersons1
This week, we take a look at some of Amazon's most recent experiments to see what we could learn about the Everything Store and what it means for businesses across all industries going forward.
Eight proven steps to drastically improve your e-Commerce conversion rates. Learn about semantic, natural language and conceptual search and how to apply it to your site.
11 Tips For Improving International E-Commerce ConversionsFilipp Paster
White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space. White space.
A Gudie to SEO & Marketing Investments for eCommerce WebsitesEsferasoft Solutions
Everyone knows that eCommerce is a huge business. At a web development company in India, through a definitive guide, we are taking you to dive into the concepts of SEO & Marketing investments for eCommerce websites.
A presentation on Amazon's Corporate Branding. The information in the presentation is collated with the help of both primary and secondary data and is not sponsored by Amazon. It covers Corporate identity, communication strategy, governance and other aspects related to public relations, investor relations, advertising, marketing, etc.
Get Retail Smart - A fresh look at Amazonemmersons1
This week, we take a look at some of Amazon's most recent experiments to see what we could learn about the Everything Store and what it means for businesses across all industries going forward.
Eight proven steps to drastically improve your e-Commerce conversion rates. Learn about semantic, natural language and conceptual search and how to apply it to your site.
4 Questions About Amazon.com that Every Marketer Must AskOgilvy
4 Questions About Amazon.com that Every Marketer Should Ask
By Sean Muzzy, CEO, NA, Neo@Ogilvy via Ogilvydo
Click here for more about Continuous Commerce™: http://bit.ly/1gKiRXv
Amazon's Purchase of Whole Foods - Impact on Advertising and Marketing Indust...Carter Jensen
Presentation video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXIWcKyIpT8
In what was the biggest purchase in Amazon history, the online retail giant swallowed up grocery chain Whole Foods for a small sum of 13.7 billion dollars.
The news streamed in last week was very well documented but, with this massive move into grocery, what does this mean to us in advertising? What about the companies our agencies represent?
This keynote covers the perceived strategy behind this acquisition and focuses on how this move is set to change the categories and brands we work with each day.
5 Consejos Para Crear Una Experiencia Excepcional de eCommerceClikéalo WSI
El comercio electrónico no es un fenómeno nuevo, pero tampoco es algo que las empresas pueden permitirse el lujo de ignorar. Si usted tiene productos o servicios que los clientes desean, usted los debería ofrecer a través de una plataforma en línea. ¿Entonces que debo considerar para tener una tienda en línea exitosa?
Esta guía gratuita de 22 páginas es un gran recurso para ayudar a las empresa que quieren ofrecer una excelente experiencia de comercio electrónico a sus clientes. Con ella usted aprenderá:
1. Las razones por las cuales la experiencia en su tienda en línea es la parte más importante de su estrategia de comercio electrónico.
2. Cómo hacer que su marca sea transparente.
3. Consejos para disminuir significativamente la tasa de abandono del carrito de compras.
4. Las mejores prácticas para crear una experiencia de comercio electrónico inolvidable en plataformas móviles.
Consulte nuestra guía de comercio electrónico para empezar a mejorar la experiencia de sus clientes en línea y atraer nuevos consumidores.
GRA whitepaper - Amazon's Impact on AustraliaRebecca Manjra
What will the imminent arrival of Amazon mean for Australian companies? A question that is no doubt keeping many Australian retailers awake at night.
We address their concerns in a new whitepaper Amazon – Impact on Australia, examining what we know about Amazon and therefore its motivation for entering the Australian market. From here we look to the future by drawing comparisons with Amazon’s impact on Canada – a country of similar size and geographical vastness. As Amazon roll outs over time, we identify which Australian companies will be impacted and when.
We look at Amazon’s competitive advantages and the likely impact this will have on local retailers. With a relentless focus on customer experience and innovation Amazon has a highly personalised and predictive supply chain model. In order to survive and co-exist with Amazon, Australian retailers will need to lift their maturity level in all supply chain areas (strategy, operations planning & execution).
To help Australian retailers become ‘Amazon Ready’, we have included a four-stage ‘Online to Omni-Channel Supply Chain Maturity Model’.
Amazon: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime // Customer Value SeriesLHBS
Experts predict that Amazon is going to become the most valuable company in the world this year. No other online retailer comes close to the e-commerce giant. With the introduction of Amazon Go, a new technology that provides a checkout-free shopping experience, the retailer is pushing further into the physical realm, setting new standards for the future of brick-and-mortar.
Amazon is striving to be “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company”. In this report we will shed light on how the e-tailer actually creates value for its customers in four interrelated but distinctive areas: core product innovation, added-value services, shopping experience and communication.
----
At LHBS, we believe that brand or business strategies need to be prescriptive not just descriptive. A strategy needs to drive action through meaningful Customer Value Propositions. That’s why we work with our Customer Value Proposition Canvas as a navigation system for bringing strategy to life. We’ve created the Customer Value Series to analyze and share how leading companies bring their Customer Value Propositions to life through their core products, added value services, the customer journey and communication.
This issue highlights AMAZON.
We hope you enjoy this deck and are able to be inspired by it in your innovation process.
In this period of increasing commoditization, organizations are under enormous pressure to do more with less. As customer expectations continue to raise and budgets are squeezed, the quality of the customer experience has emerged as one of the most important factors in a shopper\'s purchasing decision. This session will explore powerful tactics and tools to strengthen your brand proposition in a way that is relevant and meaningful to your shoppers.
360 Degrees of Marketing: The Retail RevolutionFITCH
Wineries have an opportunity to differentiate with an Experience Signature. Michelle Fenstermaker presents at the Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium 2016.
Amazon.com - Company Analysis (OD & HRM)Nikhil Saraf
Amazon.com - Company Analysis
Answers the following:
- How did the organization start and evolve
-What were important organizational points of change?
-How did these changes impact the organization?
-What were the organizational responses to these important points of change?
-How did these responses change the organization?
The Berlin spring drinks invite you to discuss and explore service innovation in the retail sector. What are business challenges? What are emerging drivers? What behavioural changes can be observed?
Guest speaker Johannes Wrubel, an independent brand consultant, will give an introductory talk. Afterwards a hands-on session will make the topic tangible for you. It’s followed by open mingling at the beautiful Fjord Berlin office.
Tracking the customer journey is becoming more difficult. Today’s consumers engage brands on multiple platforms, often moving through several digital touchpoints before they are ready to buy.
Therefore, the concept of omnichannel marketing has risen, allowing businesses to embrace the change to address two critical aspects of modern marketing – technological innovation and customer experience.
How to merge brand and performance marketing through contentClark Boyd
In the modern consumer journey, there are dozens of interactions with a brand before a purchase is made. Brands must therefore ensure that their messaging is consistent in tone and tailored to the consumer's needs at each stage. This presentation looks at how to do this across social media, SEO, and paid search.
4 Questions About Amazon.com that Every Marketer Must AskOgilvy
4 Questions About Amazon.com that Every Marketer Should Ask
By Sean Muzzy, CEO, NA, Neo@Ogilvy via Ogilvydo
Click here for more about Continuous Commerce™: http://bit.ly/1gKiRXv
Amazon's Purchase of Whole Foods - Impact on Advertising and Marketing Indust...Carter Jensen
Presentation video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXIWcKyIpT8
In what was the biggest purchase in Amazon history, the online retail giant swallowed up grocery chain Whole Foods for a small sum of 13.7 billion dollars.
The news streamed in last week was very well documented but, with this massive move into grocery, what does this mean to us in advertising? What about the companies our agencies represent?
This keynote covers the perceived strategy behind this acquisition and focuses on how this move is set to change the categories and brands we work with each day.
5 Consejos Para Crear Una Experiencia Excepcional de eCommerceClikéalo WSI
El comercio electrónico no es un fenómeno nuevo, pero tampoco es algo que las empresas pueden permitirse el lujo de ignorar. Si usted tiene productos o servicios que los clientes desean, usted los debería ofrecer a través de una plataforma en línea. ¿Entonces que debo considerar para tener una tienda en línea exitosa?
Esta guía gratuita de 22 páginas es un gran recurso para ayudar a las empresa que quieren ofrecer una excelente experiencia de comercio electrónico a sus clientes. Con ella usted aprenderá:
1. Las razones por las cuales la experiencia en su tienda en línea es la parte más importante de su estrategia de comercio electrónico.
2. Cómo hacer que su marca sea transparente.
3. Consejos para disminuir significativamente la tasa de abandono del carrito de compras.
4. Las mejores prácticas para crear una experiencia de comercio electrónico inolvidable en plataformas móviles.
Consulte nuestra guía de comercio electrónico para empezar a mejorar la experiencia de sus clientes en línea y atraer nuevos consumidores.
GRA whitepaper - Amazon's Impact on AustraliaRebecca Manjra
What will the imminent arrival of Amazon mean for Australian companies? A question that is no doubt keeping many Australian retailers awake at night.
We address their concerns in a new whitepaper Amazon – Impact on Australia, examining what we know about Amazon and therefore its motivation for entering the Australian market. From here we look to the future by drawing comparisons with Amazon’s impact on Canada – a country of similar size and geographical vastness. As Amazon roll outs over time, we identify which Australian companies will be impacted and when.
We look at Amazon’s competitive advantages and the likely impact this will have on local retailers. With a relentless focus on customer experience and innovation Amazon has a highly personalised and predictive supply chain model. In order to survive and co-exist with Amazon, Australian retailers will need to lift their maturity level in all supply chain areas (strategy, operations planning & execution).
To help Australian retailers become ‘Amazon Ready’, we have included a four-stage ‘Online to Omni-Channel Supply Chain Maturity Model’.
Amazon: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime // Customer Value SeriesLHBS
Experts predict that Amazon is going to become the most valuable company in the world this year. No other online retailer comes close to the e-commerce giant. With the introduction of Amazon Go, a new technology that provides a checkout-free shopping experience, the retailer is pushing further into the physical realm, setting new standards for the future of brick-and-mortar.
Amazon is striving to be “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company”. In this report we will shed light on how the e-tailer actually creates value for its customers in four interrelated but distinctive areas: core product innovation, added-value services, shopping experience and communication.
----
At LHBS, we believe that brand or business strategies need to be prescriptive not just descriptive. A strategy needs to drive action through meaningful Customer Value Propositions. That’s why we work with our Customer Value Proposition Canvas as a navigation system for bringing strategy to life. We’ve created the Customer Value Series to analyze and share how leading companies bring their Customer Value Propositions to life through their core products, added value services, the customer journey and communication.
This issue highlights AMAZON.
We hope you enjoy this deck and are able to be inspired by it in your innovation process.
In this period of increasing commoditization, organizations are under enormous pressure to do more with less. As customer expectations continue to raise and budgets are squeezed, the quality of the customer experience has emerged as one of the most important factors in a shopper\'s purchasing decision. This session will explore powerful tactics and tools to strengthen your brand proposition in a way that is relevant and meaningful to your shoppers.
360 Degrees of Marketing: The Retail RevolutionFITCH
Wineries have an opportunity to differentiate with an Experience Signature. Michelle Fenstermaker presents at the Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium 2016.
Amazon.com - Company Analysis (OD & HRM)Nikhil Saraf
Amazon.com - Company Analysis
Answers the following:
- How did the organization start and evolve
-What were important organizational points of change?
-How did these changes impact the organization?
-What were the organizational responses to these important points of change?
-How did these responses change the organization?
The Berlin spring drinks invite you to discuss and explore service innovation in the retail sector. What are business challenges? What are emerging drivers? What behavioural changes can be observed?
Guest speaker Johannes Wrubel, an independent brand consultant, will give an introductory talk. Afterwards a hands-on session will make the topic tangible for you. It’s followed by open mingling at the beautiful Fjord Berlin office.
Tracking the customer journey is becoming more difficult. Today’s consumers engage brands on multiple platforms, often moving through several digital touchpoints before they are ready to buy.
Therefore, the concept of omnichannel marketing has risen, allowing businesses to embrace the change to address two critical aspects of modern marketing – technological innovation and customer experience.
How to merge brand and performance marketing through contentClark Boyd
In the modern consumer journey, there are dozens of interactions with a brand before a purchase is made. Brands must therefore ensure that their messaging is consistent in tone and tailored to the consumer's needs at each stage. This presentation looks at how to do this across social media, SEO, and paid search.
Outside of the Apple Stores - the highest performing stores in the history of retailers - the retail market has hit a quandary: e-commerce has seen year-over-year increases of retail market share and brick and mortar locations are left wondering what to do next.
eCommerce offers and promotions - an Anchanto Documentdevin simon
Nobody is alien to the fact that offers and promotions play a significant role in attracting eCommerce customers. Additionally, implementing these time-sensitive campaigns especially around festivals & special sale seasons can significantly boost revenue & also attract customer referrals.
Get this compelling whitepaper to know how you can manage highly successful eCommerce promotional strategies across multiple sales channels.
Is your company ready for Christmas? Our free retail guide is full of helpful tips and tricks to make sure that you have your marketing covered from A-Z.
How Data Science can increase Ecommerce profitsRomexsoft
Want to increase your sales? Here’s a detailed case study on how ecommerce companies can leverage profits with machine learning algorithms.
Here you can find a more about Data Science for Ecommerce - https://www.romexsoft.com/blog/ecommerce-conversions/
Igniting Summer Sales: Marketing Strategies for a Successful SeasonKlaviyo
Summer’s right around the corner, and the competition for your customers’ attention is hotter than ever as brands increasingly shift their focus to ecommerce. Are you equipped to see record-high sales?
Join BigCommerce and Klaviyo as we unpack the latest trends in consumer behavior and what they mean for your brand’s summer sales strategy. You’ll explore ecommerce growth trends by vertical, email marketing engagement tactics practiced by top DTC brands, and the new state of relationship-building that consumers expect from ecommerce brands.
Plus you'll hear from Solo Stove, a global leader of portable stainless steel wood-burning stoves and fire pits. Tune in to discover the brand’s marketing game plan, and hear how they plan to drive sales all summer long.
Whether it's your main season or your makeup season, summer's the time to deliver unforgettable customer experiences.
Remodista RetailSource Paper - A New Chapter in Customer EngagementRemodista
Imagine a brand as a story told through the many channels that we, as marketing leaders, weave together to make a marketing strategy. Just like a novel from a best-selling author, your story needs to be cohesive. The arc needs to span the chapters, and the characters need to be fully fleshed out. Many marketers attempt to be captivating, relatable storytellers, but it too often feels as if they skipped something important from print to screen, or from store to tablet.
Today’s consumers, no matter where, when, or how they connect with your product, expect stories to be personalized and consistent. Strategizing a marketing approach can be as simple as reconsidering the journey of your main character—the consumer.
20 Conversion Rate Optimization Experts Share Their Top Tip for eCommerce Rejoiner
The team at Rejoiner.com asked 20 of the world's top conversion rate optimization experts to share their top tip for making your eCommerce website convert. The responses were amazing and we assembled them in this SlideShare. Advice includes topics related to A/B testing, usability, metrics, cart abandonment, design philosophy, customer experience & more.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
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.
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/
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
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
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.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
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.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
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
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
2. Sheplers Whitepaper
OVE R 1 0 0 Y EA R S O F SM A RT M A R K E T ING
E X E C U TI VE S UM M A RY :
As a retailer that has been around for over 100 years, Sheplers has a wealth of
marketing and merchandising experience. The company, whose name has become
synonymous with western wear and cowboy boots, is now using that experience to
craft cutting-edge online retailing practices built around testing, targeting, and
personalization of website content and features. This whitepaper describes how
Sheplers has been using Monetate to put its ambitious online retailing plans into
action to improve online revenue, customer acquisition, and other key metrics.
3. Sheplers Whitepaper
A. BAC K GRO UN D
From modest beginnings in 1899 as a saddlery in Wichita, Kansas, Sheplers has become a leading retailer of western
wear, which the company defines broadly as: "apparel and accessories for the country/western lifestyle, including
traditional cowboy wear, fashionable western wear, country-inspired casual wear and authentic work gear."
More than a dozen Sheplers stores can be found in seven states across America. The flagship Sheplers store in Wichita
is today a landmark on the city's Western Heritage Tour. The company also has an extensive direct mail catalog offering.
Since 1998, Sheplers has enabled customers to shop whenever it is convenient for them, from just about any place in
the world, thanks to the Internet and the company website at www.Sheplers.com. Sheplers also makes extensive use of
email for marketing and merchandising. The net effect is a commanding presence in the world of western wear retailing,
across America and around the globe (about a quarter of the company's online revenue is from international sales).
Although the company's roots in retailing can be traced back to the nineteenth century, Sheplers was one of the first
retailers to adopt a twenty-first century approach to online marketing and merchandising. According to Sheplers' Chief
Operating Officer Mark Hampton, the transition to being an Internet business offers both advantages and
disadvantages:
"Online you have competitors both vertically and horizontally. Just about everyone wears shoes, but the percentage who
wear cowboy boots is relatively small. So I would characterize our market as a vertical, composed of narrow categories
like cowboy boots and western shirts. That means an inherently smaller online audience than horizontal competitors like
Amazon.com and Zappos, companies that are selling things across broad categories, like books,
music, and footwear in general."
As search technology has evolved, the ease with which consumers can find specialty items—for
example, snip toe alligator boots—has compensated for the existence of online superstores that
attempt to sell anything and everything (for the record, the first three organic results in Google for
snip toe alligator boots right now belong to Sheplers). In other words, the company was quick to
see the benefits of search engine optimization and pay-per click-advertising. According to
Hampton:
"Early on we started building our website for good organic search results. We got into PPC early
and in a big way. We paid a lot of attention to conversion and custom landing pages. In fact, we
Snip Toe Alligator Boots
still have over 300 customized landing pages specifically for top search engine keywords."
4. Sheplers Whitepaper
B. T E S TI NG , T E S T IN G , 1 - 2 -3
Sheplers aggressive approach to search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising has paid off. Today, around
60 percent of traffic coming to sheplers.com is coming there for the first time, in other words: new visitors. That is good
news because it means the company is continuing to reach people who potentially can be converted into new
customers. So the question then becomes: How do you make sure you convert as much of this new traffic as possible
while continuing to provide a satisfying site experience to established customers? For Sheplers the answer was a simple
3-step process:
Test the key elements of conversion, including the landing page experience;
1 product location and selection, the add-to-cart process; and the checkout
process.
Implement test winners so that changes identified as beneficial can begin
2 earning incremental revenue as soon as possible.
Monitor the results to make sure that any changes you make continue to
3 pay off.
Although Sheplers has an experienced team of in-house IT experts running the website at sheplers.com, managing this
type of testing project through traditional IT channels can take a long time. Sheplers wanted to test aggressively, with
instant feedback, so the company turned to Monetate.
When Sheplers installed Monetate's testing and targeting platform it decided the first task should be to make the
purchase flow as smooth as possible. Reducing friction in the item selection and checkout process can increase both
revenue per session and average order value as well as reduce cart abandonment rates. Before targeting more visitors
“
with promotional messaging that encourages them to buy, you want to make sure it is easy for them to do just that, to
follow through on the course of action you are trying to nurture, namely adding items to the cart and checking out.
“
Monetate really understands the challenges faced by multichannel
retailers today. They have developed a unique marketing-oriented
solution that smooths the path to coordinating content and messaging
across all channels.
Bob Myers, CEO, Sheplers
5. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y # 1 : G E T T H E C A R T R IG HT
The primary goal of this first series of tests was to improve purchase flow and reduce the cart abandonment rate. A
variety of screen elements were tested and changed. The effect of removing certain steps in the checkout process was
also tested. For example, what happens when you let customers check out directly from the cart page instead of having
to click "Checkout" after reviewing their cart?
During a test period of 10 days, the various changes made by Sheplers SHOPPING CART CONVERSION RATE
resulted in a much lower cart abandonment rate and a 3.33 percent
increase in conversion rate. While that might not seem like a large
number, the annualized projection of incremental revenue generated by +3.33%
these changes was a seven digit number (ample enough to eliminate any
lingering skepticism about the value of testing).
Sheplers is not inclined to say exactly what changes were tested during
this friction reduction testing cycle, however, if you look at the
sheplers.com checkout page today you can see that it is a model of
simplicity which follows many of the best practices in user interface Original cart Optimized cart
design while maintaining the company's unique style and visual branding.
The approach taken by Sheplers, to test some of
the basic elements that influence conversion and
purchase flow, is itself a best practice in
marketing optimization. After all, you don't want
to expend a lot of effort persuading people to put
things in the shopping cart if clumsy processing
then causes the cart to be abandoned.
6. Sheplers Whitepaper
C . DI GGI NG DE E P E R: B RA ND S & C A TEG OR IES
In developing it's website, Sheplers has wisely leveraged the lessons learned from many decades of brick-and-mortar
retailing. The design of a real-world retail store is based on how most shoppers travel through the store to find what they
want. Merchandising in the store aims to prompt purchases by presenting tempting offers at appropriate points in that
journey.
The brick-and-mortar shopping
experience actually offers some
advantages over online shopping
says Hampton. For example,
customers can feel fabrics and
try on boots. But an online store
can do something that no brick-
and-mortar store can do:
"rearrange the store to fit
customer needs and intent,
customizing the shopping
experience based on which
'door-to-the-store' they enter
through."
Consider someone who enters
the Sheplers online store by
clicking through from a search for
"boots on sale." Now compare that site visitor with someone who searched for "Tony Lama exotics." One can assume,
since Tony Lama is a brand of boot, that both people have some interest in buying boots. However, one can infer
significant differences between the two visitors with respect to product category, brand, and price range. Boots are a
product category. Tony Lama is a brand. And "sale" is a price, or at least an expression of preference for a lower price.
Even before the Internet, smart multichannel retailers like Sheplers were analyzing statistical synergies between brands,
price ranges, category purchases, and so on. According to Hampton the company has been working for some time to
"leverage these synergies online in terms of what we show to different customers on the website."
7. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y 2 : M IX IT UP
Sheplers decided to use Monetate to capture preference and intent inferred from traffic sources such as pay-per-cick
advertising and organic search, then use that information to customize website content. For returning visitors Monetate
also feeds data about past product views and purchase behavior into the customization mix.
Sheplers tested this strategy by making modifications to the home page for people expressing interest in leather
outerwear like leather jackets and coats. The impact of these customized content changes was a 48 percent lift in
conversion rate. In other words, visitors who were presented with the customized content chose to make a purchase
almost 1.5 times more often than the control group (a subset of people who were not shown the custom content even
though they met the criteria).
48% Higher conversion rate lift
Home page without targeting Home page targeting user preference
Even though this test was targeted at a relatively small segment of shoppers—those expressing interest in leather
outerwear through PPC clicks and keywords in search—the annualized incremental revenue lift from this strategy was
projected to be worth six figures. Needless to say Sheplers continues to test and implement different ways of
customizing content based on customer brand and category preferences.
“
“
When you are trying to deliver the best possible website experience to
each and every customer, with a minimum of pain, Monetate is a huge
asset to have on your side.
Bob Myers, CEO, Sheplers
8. Sheplers Whitepaper
D . HE AD W E S T W IT H G E O- T A R G ETIN G
Through its operation of brick-and-mortar stores over many decades, in numerous states, Sheplers has learned that
tastes vary by region, even in a relatively narrow vertical market like western wear. Cowboy boots with pointed toes might
sell better in some states while other states prefer snip toes. Justin boots are big in the Northwest. Wrangler jeans are
more popular than Levis in some states. Hampton calls this "brand pocketing."
Justin Boots in
the Northeast
Snip toes in
the Northwest
Pointed toes in
the South
Not surprisingly this phenomenon of brand pocketing is also found in online retailing where some brands, products, and
categories are more popular and convert better, according to geography. The geo-targeting technology built into
Monetate has enabled Sheplers to leverage these geographical preferences.
Geo-targeting means changing the content of your website based on the location of the person looking at it. This is
possible because, whenever you visit a website from your desktop, notebook, net book, or other device, the web server
detects the IP address of the device. That can be used to determine your general location. The usefulness of this
information can be illustrated with a simple yet profitable example that leverages the fairly universal shopper preference
for saving money.
9. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y 3 : T A X E S IN TEXA S?
Geo-targeting can be used to increase conversion by saving customers money, namely the sales tax they might avoid
paying on their purchase from your website based on their location. These days, shopping by price is almost
synonymous with shopping online and Shepler's customers are no exception. Sheplers knows that many shoppers
carefully weigh all the factors that affect the final cost of their purchase, including sales tax. Since the sales tax payable
on web purchases can be up to 10 percent and varies by shopper location, Shepler's has adopted what can only be
described as an online retailing best practice: Let visitors know up front if their purchases are likely to be "tax free."
This is not only helpful in closing
the deal, but if you point out the
potential savings as soon as
shoppers land on your site, rather
than waiting until they get to the
checkout page, it can reduce
bounce rates. Above you can see
a simple creative that Sheplers
displays on the home page
whenever Monetate's geo-
targeting capabilities indicate a
site visitor is located in a state
where the company does not
collect sales tax.
Actually, the creative above is not
as simple as it looks. The name of
the state is automatically inserted
into the graphic by Monetate at
the time it is rendered, thus avoiding
the need to make separate creatives for all the states to which the messaging applies (dynamic rendering of text based
on targeting variables is just another way in which Monetate improves productivity and helps you save on internal
resources).
6.48%
Revenue Per Session Increase
As for the value of this strategy, tests showed that revenue per session rose 6.48 percent when these tax free creatives
were rolled out (as measured against a control group). For Sheplers that translates into a projected annual revenue
increase well into six figures, achieved without discounts, or free shipping, or anything else that would erode margins.
10. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y 4 : L E T ' S G E T LOC A L
Shepler's is now experimenting with changes to the home page content based on visitor location and what the company
knows about buying preferences in that location. For example, if you are shopping at Sheplers from a state with a
marked preference for Wrangler you might see Wrangler products above the fold when you land on the home page.
While the company is not prepared to detail the results of these tests, partly because they are ongoing, it is clear that the
strategy pays off when you get it right.
For example, changing the sheplers.com home page for visitors from Japan produced a conversion rate improvement of
116 percent. If you are inclined to think that a doubling of conversion rate is an exaggeration we should point out that
many other Monetate clients have seen comparable results from country-specific targeting. The World Wide Web truly is
worldwide and it turns out that a lot of people outside America like to buy from America (remember that 25 percent of
Sheplers' revenue is international).
Would it be worth customizing content for visitors from different countries or regions or states if you had to implement the
necessary site changes piecemeal through your IT department? Possibly not, but rolling out this kind of targeting with
Monetate is literally a few minutes of effort, and that is Marketing department effort, on Marketing's schedule, not an IT
project that has to be placed in the IT queue.
11. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y 5 : G E O- T A RGETIN G C ON VEN IEN C E A N D
C OMP LI ANC E
A third benefit that Sheplers has found in geo-targeting is improving the site experience by hiding items that a shopper
cannot buy. For example, various laws are in effect that limit the distribution of certain "exotic boots" to some locations,
like California. It is also illegal to ship some exotic boots from America to other countries. Hiding items that cannot be
shipped to a customer's location reduces shopper frustration and calls to customer service.
Sheplers has even used Monetate to help out the IT department.
There are times when a website has to be taken down for
maintenance purposes. Those times are different in different
locations. For example, if you are taking the site down at 1:00 am
Central time that is 11:00 pm Pacific time. Sheplers has used
Monetate to display a banner that warns shoppers about downtime in
their time zone, dynamically generated from the "local time" targeting
variable.
12. Sheplers Whitepaper
E . CO NVE R SION T H RO UG H C U R A TION
All of these targeting capabilities and merchandising
strategies come together when you look at how
Sheplers is using two complimentary technologies
that are on the cutting edge of digital marketing:
badging and curation. In this context curation means
identifying items that are deemed worthy of greater
attention and badging means visually highlighting
those items.
Why are curation and badging important to online
retailing? Consider the fact that Sheplers stocks 10
categories of Work Boots. In the "Pull-on" sub-
category alone there are 60 different styles. When a
shopper gets to a web page with 60 choices, it helps
to know which items are new, which are best sellers,
top-rated, and so on. Fortunately, Monetate
technology makes that easy, whether you're selling
boots or jeans or western shirts.
Of course, if you had to create new product shots
every time the curation changed then badging would
be prohibitively expensive. That's why Monetate developed technology that can
automatically display small images, the badges, on top of your original product images.
The Monetate marketing platform will do this on your website according to whatever
business rules you lay down. For example, if a product SKU is in a list called "new" or
"on-sale" then Monetate will float the appropriate badge over the image of any product
whose SKU is on the list. You can tell Monetate to do this
whenever such a product is displayed, or only on certain
pages, such as a search results page.
13. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y 6 : RE S P E CT T HE B A D G E
Badges are a digital reincarnation of the age-old merchandising strategy of calling attention to specific products within a
range of goods, such as items that you are particularly keen to sell. And badges are effective: adding bestseller badges
on category pages at Sheplers produced a conversion rate lift of more than 3 percent. The deployment of "Savings"
badges on category pages increased average order value by 2 percent. Using a "New" badge on product detail pages
produced a 1.63 percent increase in the "add to cart" rate. Individually, these might not seem like big percentage
increases, but taken together the annualized revenue increase from these badging campaigns is a seven figure success
story.
1.63%
Increase in add to cart rate
It should be noted that the bestseller badge is a little smarter than the others. While the "New" badging is triggered by a
list of SKUs that Sheplers uploads through its Monetate dashboard, Monetate curates the best selling products
automatically because Monetate knows what is being sold and when.
A simple business rule triggers display of the bestseller badge when an item crosses the predefined threshold for
bestseller (for example, the 10 most frequently purchased items in the last 30 days). In other words, Sheplers can just
set this merchandising campaign and forget it. As customer buying habits change, so does the bestseller badging,
without consuming any additional resources.
Sheplers knows that badging pays so it is using Monetate to get even smarter, combining geo-targeting with its
accumulated understanding of brand synergies to present different bestsellers to visitors from different states, based on
what is selling best in the visitor’s state.
14. Sheplers Whitepaper
F. TH E S H I PP IN G N E W S
When we asked Sheplers' COO, Mark Hampton, where he saw
Monetate making the most difference to the company, he pointed to
shipping. Obviously, shipping is a key factor in the online retailing
equation, an equation that is different for each retailer.
Take the case of Zappos, an online retailer that is more horizontal than
vertical, selling every type of footwear. Free shipping and free return
shipping are a big part of the company's business model and
marketing strategy. Clearly there are costs associated with that strategy,
beyond the shipping costs themselves. Return rates at Zappos are
reported to be high, partly because some people intentionally order
multiple styles in multiple sizes and return most of them.
Any online retailer who is considering offering free shipping needs to
proceed carefully, paying close attention to the effect on both the top
line and the bottom line, overall revenue and net profit. One strategy is
to offer free shipping selectively. According to Hampton:
"We have determined, with Monetate tests, the importance of free shipping offers to leverage the top line and the
incremental contribution."
Free shipping can
increase the top line but
will also raise costs.
That’s okay if the
bottom line keeps
growing.
A key variable in the shipping equation for Sheplers turned out to be location. Detailed analysis of sales figures revealed
a group of states converting at lower than average rates. The company suspected the presence of primary retail
competitors in those states was the culprit, with Texas being one example. It made sense for Sheplers to target those
states with free shipping offers and see if that produced a significant lift in conversion and top line revenue while tracking
net contribution to the bottom line.
15. Sheplers Whitepaper
C AS E S T U D Y 7 : F RE E S HIP P IN G SOMEW HER E
With its geo-targeting capabilities, Monetate enables online retailers to test and execute a wide range of shipping
promotions. These include reducing or dropping the shipping charges based on distance from warehouse, distance
from competitors' stores, or location within a particular region, metro area, county, ZIP code, or state. Shipping can be
reduced or waived for all purchases for a limited time, all orders over a certain amount, all orders of a particular brand or
category, and so on.
Getting Monetate to tell
shoppers from Texas that they
get free shipping while
showing different messages to
shoppers from other states is
very easy. The big question
for Sheplers was the net effect
on revenue. Would the
increase in sales pay for the
cost of the free shipping?
In a situation like this you
need your testing platform to
be nimble. You also want it to
report results in real time. In
other words, you want to be
able to see the effects of the
targeting immediately and
quickly turn it off should those
results prove negative.
Monetate lets you do that, but
fortunately Sheplers did not
have to turn the test off early.
After four days the Monetate
dashboard showed a 57 percent increase to the top line.
Sheplers was also seeing a 20 percent increase in net contribution even though it was paying for shipping. The test
proved the value of offering free shipping to shoppers in states where the company faced strong competition. As a
bonus, in addition to the very positive financial numbers, this test showed that the strategy produced a 48 percent
increase in new customer acquisition. Annualized contribution to the bottom line? Sheplers prefers not to say, but it is
reasonable to assume that this strategy was a Texas-sized success.
20%Increase net
48% Increase new customer acquisition
contribution
16. Sheplers Whitepaper
G. T H E R O U N DUP
From the case studies described here you can see the breadth of Sheplers’ implementation of Monetate and get some
idea of it's impact on Sheplers’ business processes and performance. In addition to the various strategies described
above, Sheplers uses Monetate on a regular basis for traditional A/B split testing to decide on the best creatives and
other variables. For example, the company recently decided to try a different design for its "Percentage Off" badges. The
winner produced a 4 percent revenue improvement over the loser and an annualized revenue improvement projected to
be well into seven digits.
When we asked Mark Hampton to summarize the benefits of deploying Monetate he summed it up in two words:
information and partnership. Then he elaborated.
Information: "The accuracy and detail of the information that Monetate
1 provides to the business is not only more informational than that available
from standard analytics packages, it is directional. In other words, it is
helping the company decide the direction to take in order to take its
marketing to the next level."
Hampton points to the availability of real-time data on multiple parameters when testing and targeting in Monetate,
parameters like bounce rate, new customer generation, average order value, revenue per session, and cart
abandonment.
"Monetate is not only telling me if what I am doing is profitable but it is also indicating why it's profitable. You can tell if a
test is reducing the abandon rate or speaking more effectively to a new customer than it is to a returning customer. Data
like that points you in the direction of how you can do even better."
17. Sheplers Whitepaper
Partnership: Although Monetate's software is very easy to install and use,
2 Hampton says Sheplers is deriving a lot of benefit from the working
relationship the company has developed with the Monetate Strategic
Service Team.
"These guys help us stay focused on moving forward, not just making changes and measuring them, but deriving
learnings and implementing them."
Hampton cites the early testing on the shopping cart as an example. Those tests indicated a need to make changes,
and Sheplers implemented them. But in some other areas, like badging bestsellers, Hampton says the Monetate team
acted as "the forward scout" and encouraged experimentation to prove the value of changes that can go on to become a
permanent part of the site design.
In summary says Hampton, "Before Monetate, we were forced to do our own tests or just guess. Faster testing and more
tests has freed up development time to do other things. Monetate lets you prioritize. For us, further personalization is the
next big thing, based on what people have viewed or are looking at. And with Monetate we are ready to take it on."
After more than 100 years of retailing, Sheplers is a great example of an established enterprise that is looking to the
future, pushing the envelope of digital marketing and merchandising, and reaping rich rewards where others have yet to
tread. “
“
Monetate gives us the ability to test everything in real time, against a
control group, under the exact same conditions as the target group;
and that gives us a lot more speed and confidence when making
marketing decisions.
Bob Myers, CEO, Sheplers
“
“
The longer we work with Monetate, the more we learn about our
customers and how to apply that knowledge to further improving our
return on marketing spend.
Nick Bomersbach, VP, Digital Commerce, Sheplers