They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but we just can’t wait to tell you about the Shop.org Summit! We were on the expo floor all three days meeting current enterprise clients and doing one-on-one consultations with prospective clients.
From what we heard, it sounds like many retail store owners took advantage of the […]
Original post by Kate
Not all ecommerce projects fit into a nice little box. Some industries have very complex sales and require advanced features like product configurators, bundling of products, accessories and services that need heavy customization. The telecommunications industry is a perfect example.
For telcos with mobile service offerings, an ecommerce platform must have the ability to support a complex sale where the customer selects a phone, a rate plan, a term length, additional services such as text messaging and caller ID, product accessories like a case or Bluetooth headset and even options like “I want to keep my own phone number” or “I don’t want my number to appear on caller ID.” It’s possible that no two product configurations are exactly the same.
The ecommerce platform must also support special promotions and customer service like upgrading a plan, renewing a contract, adding services or purchasing an additional handset.
And because there are so many steps the customer has to take, a usable site is crucial to converting new customers and keeping existing ones. Because competition is fierce, having unique features is highly important to telcos to be competitive.
If you recall our webinar The New Ecommerce Dilemma: Buy, Build, or Leverage?, organizations where the ecommerce solution required is complex, unique, requires heavy integration with other systems and is of high strategic importance — chances are slim an out-of-the-box commerce platform is going to have features exactly as you want them nor the ability to extend them to set you apart from your competition. Such a project requires a completely in house build, or an ecommerce framework that gives you a jumpstart with the basic features you need (faster time to market than build from scratch) and the ability to customize the daylights out of them.
This was the case of Telus, a leading telco here in Canada. Telusmobility.com went live a couple weeks ago on Elastic Path 6. Telus chose Elastic Path’s ecommerce framework to build its custom solution.
Here’s a little “Show and Telus” of what they built with our framework. A lot of these features I have never seen before on any other sites.
Email/RSS subscribers, can’t see video? View this post on Get Elastic.
Highlights
There’s many paths a customer might take to build a bundle, here I demonstrate starting with a plan. After you choose your plan, you’re notified that your cart is updated, and there’s a prompt to take the next step: add a phone.
If you don’t know where to start finding a phone, there’s a phone-finder tool that filters the available phones based on the features you want (about 1 minute into the video). You can view a gallery of product images by scrolling horizontally, which means less clicks to see multiple product views. You can also see 360 degree views.
Because handset prices depend on the length of your contract term, each handset requires a choice of terms and prices. Once you select your handset, the cart notification appears again with a summary of everything in your cart and links to next steps: add services or accessories.
If you select accessories, the system remembers which handset you selected and filters compatible accessories automatically.
You can edit your contract term right in the cart summary, and line items are separated into categories: Phone, Rate Plan, Services, Activation Fee and Accessories. Each category has its own return to shopping link.
How About Your Ecommerce Project Requirements
Whether you’re enterprise, mid-market or a mom and pop shop, your ecommerce project is going to have certain requirements. It’s crucial to know your requirements before you go shopping for an ecommerce vendor. The framework isn’t a fit for everybody, and just as Software as a Service doesn’t serve all needs.
Need guidance sorting out your project requirements? Don’t miss our next webinar with Fit For Commerce’s Bernardine Wu: Requirements Diligence: The Cornerstone to an eCommerce Project’s Success. This webinar will discuss:
· How to build a comprehensive requirements set
· How to incorporate workflow design into your requirements
· How to incorporate best practices into you requirements
· How to use benchmarking and market data to ensure your requirements are justified
· How to distinguish a Must-Have vs Should-Have vs Nice-to-Have
· How to leverage use cases
· What should happen after requirements are created
We hope you’ll join us.
If you missed today’s webinar Multichannel 2.0: Are you ready for the next generation of commerce channels?, stay tuned for the blog recap and webinar replay coming Friday.
Original post by Linda Bustos
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Original post by Robert Scoble
Your logo seems like such a small part of your online store. After all, your customers are looking at your products, right? A logo is an afterthought.
Your company’s logo is the most prominent form of branding your store will have. A logo can go on a receipt, a letterhead, a t-shirt, banner, […]
Original post by blogadmin
Apparently if you can finish reading this blog article start to finish, you will get more done in the day.According to a study done by the American Psychological Association, the often heralded act of multi-tasking actually ends up costing us time instead of saving it.
David Meyer, a researcher at the University of Michigan, explains how […]
Original post by blogadmin
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