Posts Tagged ‘eCommerce’

INM Presenting at Webcom Montréal

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Next Thursday October 22 at 2:10 pm, I will be speaking at Webcom 2009 on the topic of “Repairing the Broken Shopping Cart” in collaboration with Stephane Lesieur from Adobe Canada. I will illustrate my point with a highly demanding consumer application, show an elegant solution using Adobe technologies such as Flex, Air and LiveCycle DS, and discuss best practices to implement such a solution.

Full details at: http://www.webcom-montreal.com

My colleague Benoit David and myself will spend most of the day at Webcom and will be delighted to meet you there. Please let me know if you plan on attending too.

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Posted in eCommerce, Rich Internet Applications | 9 Comments »

Time or Money spent? Which do consumers value most?

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Time or Money spent? Which do consumers value most?

Alice LaPlante asks that question following a study conducted by researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

So what about time saved? Is it as satisfactory? Do consumers value being able to do something fast so they can then quickly do something else? Or even do more of the same thing?

This is what Rich Internet Applications are all about: making the user experience as best as it can be, whether you are searching, learning or shopping. Good examples are RIAs built for eCommerce, to help consumers easily and quickly get what they want. The return is more conversions and loyalty, and less drop-off. Read this previously released white paper for more info.

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Posted in General | 5 Comments »

Amazon reaps the benefits of increased online shopping

Monday, January 12th, 2009

While experts predicted a decline in eCommerce sales this holiday season due to the current global economic downturn, Read Write Web recently reported, that Amazon’s 14th holiday season was its ‘best ever’ with the online retailer processing over 6.3 million orders worldwide (for one day – December 15th). Why was Amazon so successful where others weren’t? Well, it may be partly due to the company’s open adoption of new technologies to improve the shopping experience. Amazon was among the first to incorporate RIA elements into its site and today it continues this innovation with the recent addition of its Windowshop.com platform.

The market was fruitful for many retailers this year, with ComScore reporting that U.S. consumers spent almost twice as much online during the final weekend before Christmas as they did last year. However the question is will this continue?

Now that we’ve hit the post-Boxing Day season where it seems that the entire month of January has morphed into an extension of blowout sales, it will be interesting to see if retailers will begin to rethink their current eCommerce strategies and will reach out to Rich Media and RIAs as differentiators like analysts predicted last year. New methods of presenting products online, conducting transactions and delivering messages via support and sales are helping many businesses to weather the storm. Diversifying the means in which these companies spread information by reusing the tools they already have on hand such as catalogs, product guides and brochures all position them for success. As many experts have said before, the companies that integrate smart technology choices into their business model will be the survivors during this period of transition.

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Retailers Up eCommerce Spend: Focus on SaaS Options

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

A recent Internet Retailer report includes some interesting information about how retailer are addressing their eCommerce needs in today’s leaner market. While 72 percent of retailers are planning to purchase new eCommerce applications or services this year, what they are spending their money on is changing. New investments are focused on technologies that are critical and will produce the most business.

A big change is that web retailers are taking advantage of more affordable hosted software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to update their e-commerce platforms. The survey finds that 29.3 percent of merchants are implementing SaaS applications in lieu of more costly licensed software options. The on-demand SaaS options provide merchants with two key advantages, they are quick to implement and roll-out and they often provide instant access to new features.

It looks like SaaS is making inroads across many markets these days.

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Posted in eCommerce | No Comments »

Retailers Embrace RIAs

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

It looks like retailers are starting to see the true potential of rich Internet applications (RIAs). During last week’s ACCM conference in Orlando, I attended an interesting session about “Getting the best ROI from Rich Media”. The session looked at some of the key trends in retail and the predictions that industry analysts are making about the rise of rich content on eCommerce sites. Many of the stats presented focused on the number of retailers adding alternate images, video, and zoom features to their pages. However, one surprising figure that was mentioned was that 69% of the top 100 retailers are planning to add RIAs to their site in the coming year (taken from the Forrester State of Online Retail 2008 report). This includes technology such as product selectors, configurators, wardrobe tools, and more. This is a huge increase over last year. It seems that the early results from retailers that made the jump, combined with consumer reaction have caused retailers to step up to the plate.

If you are interested in learning more about Rich eCommerce, register for our free webinar An Introduction to Rich eCommerce, scheduled for Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 10 AM.

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Retailers Turn to RIAs

Friday, November 16th, 2007

With the holiday shopping season kicking into full swing in North America, it’s a good time to take a look at the online retail market.

For the first year, analysts are predicting a slowdown in eCommerce growth, which has many retailers anticipating softer results than previous years as they fight for the same pool of clients. Retailers know that they need to entice new clients over from competitors, as well as decrease drop-off from the ones they currently have, to remain competitive in a softer market.

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) have become a hot topic of conversation as retailers explore ways of differentiating themselves and making the shopping process more engaging for clients. Retailers are embracing rich content, product selection and comparison tools, visual customization tools, and streamlined shopping carts, and they’re seeing strong results.

For a more detailed look at eCommerce and RIAs, read our recent white paper, Enhancing eCommerce ROI through Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

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Posted in eCommerce, Rich Internet Applications | 1 Comment »

eCommerce SaaS for AIR Developers

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

There is a definite trend toward offering Software as a Service (SaaS). In recent weeks, we’ve seen Microsoft, Adobe, and even SAP make announcements or speak publicly about how SaaS is a fundamental part of their business strategies. Another more specialized announcement in this arena was the unveiling of eCommerce Framework by AIRApps.net.

AIRApps.net is offering Adobe AIR developers an alternative way to license and sell their applications. By providing an injectable plug-in that developers can add to their applications during development, AIRApps.net is providing developers a hassle-free way to process transactions and collect licensing revenue without having to set-up their own payment processing arrangements – which can be time consuming and costly.

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