E-Commerce IntegrationBlueport.com

This week IBM announced its plans to acquire Sterling Commerce, an e-commerce company and provider of cross-channel fulfillment solutions, for $1.4 billion. While IBM already participates in e-commerce with its WebSphere division, the integration of Sterling Commerce will add collaboration, communication and integration solutions for fulfillment, as well as a stellar client list with more than 18,000 customers worldwide, including 80% of the Fortune 500 list.

From a technology standpoint Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM's WebSphere division noted that the cloud computing model which Sterling employs is attractive to IBM. He also noted that many of IBM’s current customers are looking for easy-to-scale solutions, which make them great candidates for migration into the cloud.

From an industry perspective, it’s great to see giants like IBM expanding their reach into e-commerce as it further validates our fast-growing industry. The move will help IBM to better position itself against the likes of tech giants HP, Cisco, and SAP.  It also represents a greater business goal of the company, which is to grow through acquisition. IBM has said that the company plans to spend $20 billion on acquisitions by 2015 and its purchase of Sterling Commerce is certainly a good start. 


Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

 

E-commerce 1.0 = Duplication:  Stranded on E-commerce Island, e-commerce teams often build redundant staff, processes and infrastructure.   Perhaps through lack of understanding of a chain’s existing processes or thinking they have a better way, they create new e-commerce processes and strategies for critical multichannel retail operations.   For first wave categories, this may not be so bad – the processes are simple and the risk of customers seeing multichannel inconsistencies minimal.  Capturing the potential of big ticket e-commerce, on the other hand, requires an integrated rather than duplicative approach.

Big Ticket E-commerce = Integration:  Leverage existing people and their retail expertise wherever possible for your big ticket e-commerce strategy.  Use the same data and processes as the rest of the retail chain, simplifying coordination.  Once you’ve identified existing assets, then (and only then) evaluate and augment these assets, adding resources only as needed to fill e-commerce-specific gaps.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
 

Many retailers believe that in order to implement successful online commerce solutions, they need to build them from the ground up, which can be a logistical nightmare. That’s not necessarily the case, as some solutions have the ability to easily integrate into your existing infrastructure, simplifying the entire process. 

Blueport Commerce knows big-ticket businesses are, by definition, complex and unique. We strive to match our technology platform and services to your particular business model, rather than trying to fit it into a commodity-focused, inflexible platform that doesn't meet your needs. At Blueport, we aim to simplify ecommerce logistics and integrate your e-commerce with a complete multi-channel strategy.

Our platform is the beginning, not the end, of bringing your unique business online. As a comprehensive solution, it allows us to focus on what we do best — tailoring it to your unique needs, processes and peculiarities. Each of our integrations is a structured process, designed to marry our online technology and expertise with your understanding of your market and your business.

At Blueport, we pride ourselves on being different from other e-commerce companies. We’re more than simply a back-end system that retailers can plug into. We believe that technology and integration only opens your online store. Expertise in managing that store is what drives results.

Blueport's e-commerce services team ensures you get the benefit of our ten years of experience in big-ticket retail when marketing, merchandising and operating your online store. We know the unique aspects of these considered purchases, from imaging to marketing to customer support, and we'll work with you to develop those programs for your e-commerce efforts.

Our mission is to help you capture the e-commerce opportunity as part of an integrated multi-channel strategy. At Blueport Commerce, we're a turnkey solution specialized for big ticket that ensures your transition to e-commerce is easy, worry-free and profitable. By combining the industry's most advanced technology platform for localized, big-ticket retail, dedicated integration services and personalized service packages, Blueport Commerce can port your unique business to a ready and willing online marketplace.

We like to think we’re the complete e-commerce package. Let's talk.

Blueport Commerce approaches technology with the wisdom of maturity.  The Blueport technology team has experience in the e-commerce space dating back to the 1990s and has experienced firsthand the full panoply of technology hype from that era and since.  With this experience we conservatively maintain loyalty to cost effective e-commerce applications while aggressively adopting proven new technologies.

Our core infrastructure is based on products from Microsoft, Adobe, HP, Cisco, F5, and Akamai.  We utilize Microsoft’s .Net software development platform and SQL Server database engine as the foundation for our proprietary e-commerce platform.   Visually engaging client side e-commerce applications are built with Adobe Flash.  We implement secure connectivity with a range of Cisco IOS products.  Our server farms are principally made up of HP servers running Microsoft Windows.  We manage demand for our client web portals with F5 load balancers.  Akamai provides us with geographic edge caching of content.  None of these technology partners were born after Y2K but all are excellent with proven staying power.

Our e-commerce platform, shared by all of our clients, represents 10 years of evolution shaped by the unique requirements of “big ticket” e-commerce - from local branding, regional product availability, regional pricing and sale events, coupons, consumer financing, variable lead times, and the CRM and CMS systems to support them.  With this library of processes and functionalities available to us, we can focus on the unique requirements of our clients rather than reinventing these complex processes or trying to repurpose an “off the shelf” e-commerce platform designed for simpler transactions.

Our custom platform can also adapt easily to partner systems.   The long service technologies making up our core have naturally evolved integration pathways with most other competitive products.  We leverage these to work freely with partner systems rooted in Oracle, IBM, and other, less well known companies.
 

If you're in charge of store operations, you may not know what to think about ecommerce integration, or how to present it to your commissioned sales team.

You may ask yourself, ‘Won't my sales staff lose customers to the web?’

This is a common concern, and one that sales managers should address with their teams prior to implementing a multi channel e-commerce strategy. The reality is that for many retail categories, especially big-ticket, the greatest benefits of going online happen in stores. This may sound counterintuitive, but because big-ticket retail is fundamentally local and stores play a critical role. E-commerce stores become a powerful tool to help stores compete in their local markets rather than a national channel that bypasses them.

Online efforts serve to drive store traffic, generate leads and consummate online transactions — cost effectively and measurably. Many retailers have found that this to be true. Specifically, for every online order, 5 or 6 directly trackable orders are placed in stores by people who first registered online. And these are only the customers who provided us with their names online — the real impact in your stores will actually be an order of magnitude larger.

With a managed ecommerce solution, your stores gain customers of the best kind — educated consumers who have found exactly what they want online, and simply want to see the item in person in your stores and complete the transaction with a live person.

 

• Merchandising products that are challenging to sell online because they are expensive, unbranded, not well understood or highly customizable
• Managing shipping requirements and costs for products that have complex delivery requirements that can't be met by standard parcel services
• Integrating franchise or co-op models where brand, product offering and distribution is controlled locally by independent dealers
• Greater emphasis on cross-channel shopping

• Localization
• Custom System Integration
• Online Merchandising
• Online Marketing
• E-Commerce
• Order Tracking
• Franchise/Co-op Extranet
• Store Intranet
• CRM & Email Marketing
• Inventory Management

At Blueport Commerce, our ten years of experience in big-ticket, localized retail allows us to understand your business and apply technology intelligently — not just hopping on the latest technology bandwagon, but finding solutions that work for your unique managed e-commerce retailing needs.

Blueport Commerce works with you to review your site strategies and programs, as well as with other technology providers to guarantee your customers the highest quality hosted e-commerce solution available, and to guarantee you the highest e-commerce returns possible – including leads to your local stores. We keep on top of the latest technology so you don't have to. We find the best providers, test them against our unique consumer profile, and adopt or develop best in breed e-commerce technologies to meet your needs. 

Key features include:

• Website Development – Blueport Commerce works with you over the course of our agreement to add new features and functionality to your e-commerce platform.
• Partner Plug Ins – Blueport Commerce includes leading technology providers into our platform, driving down your costs through our scale and integrated platform.
• Custom Integration – Blueport Commerce integrates with your retail systems, enabling cross-channel shopping and simplifying its management.

Lighting One’s business doesn’t fit the standard e-commerce model. 

As the nation’s largest independent group of specialty lighting stores with more than 140 showrooms, Lighting One faced the unique challenge of maintaining the company’s brand identity while empowering the individual showrooms with the ability to manage their unique local markets. Lighting One partnered with Blueport Commerce to take advantage of our powerful and proven e-commerce platform that enables each store to modify branding, pricing and selection in their local markets on the fly.

Through our unique franchise module, we developed fully-integrated e-commerce websites for each independent location, including store–specific URLs and site content, custom pricing and promotions, and order management.  

This integrated system enables every Lighting One store to maintain its unique local identity, while taking advantage of the massive scale of the Lighting One cooperative. For example, Brose Electric Shop, a Michigan-based Lighting One dealer, never had an e-commerce website of its own and began generating revenue almost immediately upon going live on the new Lighting One site powered by Blueport Commerce.
 

• Multi channel Sales – Allow customers to view branded sales events, including promotional pricing and event materials that coordinate with TV, print and store visuals.
• Dynamic Fliers – Feature your print fliers and catalogs online, with complete multi channel marketing integration.
• Multi channel Coupons – Allow customers to use coupons to receive discounts, bonus items, free shipping or other custom offers online.
• Financing – Allow customers to finance their orders with the same deferred payments offered in stores.
• Custom Pages – Provide your customers with pages promoting retailer store events and allow them to enter in-store contests online.