Recently on Twitter:

Tuesday
January 12, 2010
No Comments

Target Announces Vendors for new E-Commerce Site

Last year, Target announced that they would be ending their relationship with Amazon and bringing their e-commerce operations in-house. I only assume that many e-commerce platforms and integration partners were courting the large retailer, touting their services. Yesterday, the retailer announced the full list of vendors that will be involved in the nearly 2 year project:

  • Sapient Corp., based in Boston, as the lead partner and integrator,
  • International Business Machines Corp., based in Armon, NY, which will provide the multichannel e-commerce platform,
  • Oracle, based in Redwood City, Calif., which will provide the database platform,
  • Endeca Technologies Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., which will provide search and navigation functionality,
  • Autonomy Corp., based in San Francisco, which will provide content and digital asset-management functionality,
  • Sterling Commerce Inc., Dublin, Ohio, which will provide global inventory visibility and cross-channel order-management functionality, and
  • Huge Inc.,based in Brooklyn, NY, will provide visual and interaction design.

This is going to be an interesting project to watch and I can’t wait to see what Target and their vendors come up with. A highly visible, successful brand that is already known for a pleasant in-store shopping experience will have a very high bar to meet as re-platform their e-commerce offering.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , ,
Found under: Industry News, Platforms
Wednesday
November 18, 2009
1 Comment

Zugara and Richrelevance launch augmented reality shopping tool on Tobi.com

Augmented reality is one of the biggest buzzwords right now and people are looking for ways to bring this technology to every industry. As much as I love e-commerce, there is still a (purposeful) disconnect from the brick and mortar shopping experience, especially with apparel. I feel that when technology can bridge this gap, e-commerce sales can only grow as shoppers continue to turn online. Augmented reality is one of the technologies that, when used effectively, could do a lot to bridge this disconnect.

One of the coolest demos that I saw at this year’s shop.org was the augmented reality dressing room tool that was developed by Zugara in partnership with Richrelevance. This tool allows shoppers to “virtually” try on clothes, put together outfits, and share these items with their friends on Facebook. This is all made possible through the use of Flash, a web cam, and hand gestures from the shopper. Really awesome stuff.

This week, Zugara and Richrelevance have announced that this technology has been brought to online boutique Tobi.com. Through the application, called Fashionista, shoppers can now shop the catalog using their web cam and interact with their friends. It’s really great to see this technology go live.

How are shoppers going to react? Tough to say. This is still emerging technology but with a very long life cycle ahead of it. Augmented reality may just be entering the e-commerce arena, but expect many more of these applications in the future. For now, the Fashionista application is a great first step in implementing augmented reality in e-commerce. I can’t wait to see this app grow.

I’ve embedded a video, below, showing the Zugara demo at the Richrelevance booth from shop.org. Above is a screenshot showing the application being used on Tobi.com.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Found under: Industry News, Technology
Tuesday
September 15, 2009
Comments Off

Adobe buys Omniture for 1.8 billion dollars

Adobe, makers of Photoshop, Flash, and other software that doesn’t get paid for as often as it should, has announced that they are purchasing website analytics and optimization company Omniture in a deal worth 1.8 billion dollars.

This is a huge deal for the e-commerce industry and not just for what it means for Adobe today. This is a huge deal for the type of company Adobe can now position itself as and for where they could potentially be in 18 months.

First, realize that Omniture is not just an analytics company. Sure, that may be what they are known for – but they have many components of their software suite that work seamlessly with each other. Omniture also does merchandising, recommendations, website testing, and site survey – all tasks that are analytic driven. Many of these components are used by e-commerce retailers and I know several retailers that love their packages.

Second, realize that Adobe has already stepped into the e-commerce world when they acquired Scene7 in 2007. Scene7 is a fantastic solution for managing images for retailers. (I’m not rehashing some Adobe marketing, I’m speaking as a developer who’s used Scene7 – I really like this software). Scene7 is now used by many, many retailers around the world to dynamically serve their images.

Short term I’d expect some sort of analytics package being applied to Scene7. I’m not sure what type of analytics you’d see, but I’m sure there are metrics that can be applied. If there are metrics available, there is a marketing person who will want to analyze them.

Longer term, I think it would be killer if there was an e-commerce platform that offered seamless integration with Omniture analytics and Scene7 image hosting. Of course Adobe isn’t an e-commerce platform, but not for long. I don’t think we will see 2010 come and go without a major, major acquisition by Adobe of an e-commerce platform. I think it would make perfect sense for Adobe to grow in this world. The industry has so much growth potential and Adobe could be perfectly situated to take advantage of this. It’s almost a no brainer to me.

I have my own ideas in my head of who I think Adobe could acquire, but I will keep them to myself right now. Let’s just say, that any e-commerce platform offering an ondemand SAAS solution would be the type of company I would think Adobe would gobble up.

The next 18 months are going to be very interesting in the e-commerce world.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , ,
Found under: Industry News
Monday
August 31, 2009
6 Comments

Can Magento book 200 Enterprise licenses in one year?

Earlier this year, Magento released the Enterprise Edition of their e-commerce platform. While reading up on their integration solutions, I couldn’t help but notice some interesting numbers as part of their partner program.

Integration partners who are at the Enterprise Level must have an $8,000 partner fee and provide Varien (parent company of Magento) with a revenue commitment of $100,000. This may be in enterprise licenses or “other Varien services”. A quick glance at the Magento partners page shows that there are currently 22 Enterprise partners. For a second, let’s consider what these numbers mean if we take them at face value.

This means that Magento is seeing revenues of $176,000 in just Enterprise partners alone (this doesn’t take into considering the $4,500 & $1,500 partner fees for the Professional and Community partnership levels). 22 Enterprise partners means that Varien has $2,200,000 in revenue commitments for the year. At an average deployment cost of $11,125 (according to Magento’s own figures), Enterprise partners must move 197 enterprise licenses this year to meet their commitments.

I know that my math is fuzzy and put together using the information that is publically available. I know that these numbers don’t take into account “other Varien services”. I also know that Varien is a private company with private sales figures. However, I am really interested to hear what others think: can Magento, the quickly growing e-commerce platform, actually see 200 enterprise edition licenses in their first year of offering their Enterprise Edition?

Going one step further and assuming that the average Enterprise Edition customer launches with two production licenses (number completely made up in my head), Magento is still looking at 100 clients. No wonder they are making so much noise in the e-commerce field right now.

So what do you think? Are these numbers, taken for what they are worth, realistically achievable for this e-commerce platform? Or, considering the growth that the platform saw over the past year, are these numbers the low end of what Magento could launch?

(Of course, my numbers could be really off as well. As I said, this is all fuzzy math and estimates. If you feel I’m off base in these assumtpions, please tell me!)

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , ,
Found under: Platforms
Friday
August 7, 2009
1 Comment

Retail sales in July remain sluggish; Cash for Clunkers to blame?

Retail sales in July continued to be a mixture of disappointment and mediocrity.

Retailers catering to teens saw a mixed bag of results as teens decided to spend more money at Aeropostale (same store sales up 6%) and Buckle (same store sales up 2.8%), but both retailers missed analysts projections. American Eagle saw an 11% drop in same store sales, on top of the 7% drop they saw this time last year. Abercrombie & Fitch continued their terminal velocity fall with a 28% drop in same store sales. No good.

Macy’s saw a 10.7% drop in same store sales, JCPenney reported a 12.3% drop in same store sales, while Kohl’s managed to eek out a nearly flat month (0.4% increase in same store sales). I guess shoppers are really going nuts over that new line by Avirl Lavigne.

Besides the general state of the economy and unemployment through the course of the year, some analysts suggest that the, recently enacted and more recently refueled, Cash for Clunkers program is diverting money from the retail industry:

“One of the unintended negative side effects of the cash for clunkers program was that it’s going to remove money that probably would have been spent in retail stores and restaurants and is now going to go toward a car payment,” said Purdue Consumer Sciences Professor Dr. Richard Feinberg.

And not just “spare change.”

Feinberg estimates the nation’s retailers could lose up to $300 million a month as consumers spend their disposable income on loans instead of lunch. By the end of what’s expected to be another tough holiday shopping season, losses could add up to between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, Feinberg says.

More information on retail sales from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,
Found under: Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Economy, JC Penney, Kohl's, Macy's, Monthly Retail Sales
Thursday
August 6, 2009
Comments Off

Boscov’s to get 43.7 million in government loans

Good news for the sometimes troubled retailer:

The Boscov’s department store chain will receive a $43.7 million federal loan through a Department of Housing and Urban Development program for economic development, U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey announced today.

The 20-year loan is intended to assure the Exeter, Berks County-based department store chain continues to operate. The chain employs about 5,000 workers in Pennsylvania.

More on this from the Morning Call.

This is great news for the regional retailer who, I’m sure, can use the infusion of cash. It is also very good news for mall owners throughout the Mid-Atlantic who cannot afford any more vacant square footage in their anchor units.

I do have to say that I’m somewhat surprised at the fact that Boscov’s was able to secure a loan. With other industries receiving assistance from the government, I guess it was only a matter of time before retailers saw the same type of consideration. Is anyone aware of other retailers who have secure loans from the government to assist them through the turbulent retail economy?

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Found under: Economics, Economy
Wednesday
July 15, 2009
Comments Off

Red Bank (NJ) to get micro Staples

Red Bank Green has the news that the town will be getting a new retail tenant: Staples will open a micro copy center location sometime this Fall. The location will have a full feature copy & design center as well as carrying an assortment of the “top 1,000 products” in the store.

This is great news for the Red Bank retail community. Staples is second national retailer to embrace Red Bank in recent months, joining Urban Outfitters who will also be opening a Red Bank location sometime this Fall/Winter. Though in-town retail vacancies rose rapidly through the end of 2008 and early 2009, this is another glimmer of hope that the town may be making the turn towards better times.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , ,
Found under: New Jersey
Thursday
May 14, 2009
Comments Off

Express Lane for May 14, 2009

Few things on my radar this morning that I want to share:

Great post by Get Elastic that analyzes the checkout login process of several of the top converting sites. New users resist registering and want to check out without creating an account. Very good data and thoughts there for anyone working in e-commerce.

Not all the news about the retail industry should be bad. Seeking Alpha has a list of 10 retailers with stronger than expected first quarter sales. A slight glimmer of positive news in the midst of all the doom and gloom about the economy that is still lingering.

For the designers in the house, I really love going through the sites at Design Meltdown. Always an inspirational gallery site. Last week they posted a new collection of “super clean” websites. Just because the design is clean doesn’t mean it has to be bland. Good inspiration there.

Jeremiah Owyang is live blogging from the Corporate Social Networking Conference in Amsterdam and has a recap of the panel on digital natives. Kids born after 1980, who grew up with the level of technology, should be looked at differently by businesses and brands. This is an important segment of consumers that retailers have to be aware of and cater to. Teen retailers have been forced to get it, but how will retailers react as this generation continues to grow older?

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , ,
Found under: Advice, Design, Express Lane, Monthly Retail Sales, Retail Quarterly Results
Monday
February 9, 2009
2 Comments

16 E-Commerce Sites Ready for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is just a few days away. I wanted to see how various retailers are promoting the holiday in order to see how they are working to increase last minute sales. Below you’ll see screenshots of various e-commerce sites that are ready for the Holiday: from department stores, to jewelry, candy, and lingerie.

I find it interesting to see a holiday like Valentine’s Day play out over the web. On one hand, there is the traditional retail focus on jewelry, flowers, and accessories but they are interspersed with free shipping promotions, shipping guidelines, and gift finders. Throw in a lot of red, red, and more red and you have the state of e-commerce as we run full force into the Valentine’s Day holiday.


Continue reading this post »

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Found under: Holidays, Screenshots
Monday
February 2, 2009
Comments Off

Macy’s cutting 7,000 jobs

Another reduction in the retail workforce: this time it is Macy’s announcing a 4% reduction in their workforce, slashing 7,000 jobs. 5,100 of those are at the store level.

“Reducing our workforce is an unfortunate outcome of the current economic environment, and I am frustrated that so many of our people will be unable to move forward with us as we proceed into a very exciting future for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s,” Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren said in a statement.

The retailer estimates the restructuring efforts will reduce previously planned expenses by about $400 million a year beginning in 2010.

This is the latest in a line of retail layoffs – last week Home Depot, Starbucks, Williams-Sonoma, and Target all announced layoffs. Best Buy has also announced that they will be cutting workforce in their corporate headquarters later this month.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Found under: Current Events
« Older Entries