Digital Commerce

“Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal Yahoo...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:04:17 -0800

“Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe More
Kara Swisher, allthingsd.com

Courtesy of a plethora of very irked Yahoo employees, here is the internal memo sent to the company about a new rule rolled out today by CEO Marissa Mayer, which requires that Yahoo employees who work remotely relocate to company…

I am not sure how I about this. Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo — Which Extends Beyond Remote http://flip.it/BCc4p I understand that software development projects in an agile framework are a easier to manage face to face. That being said taking away a benefit such as working from home can negatively impact morale and motivation. It will be interesting to see if Marisa sees any backlash from the Yahoo crowd.

Drinking The KoolAid At Google’s ‘Take Your Parents...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:00:43 -0800

Drinking The KoolAid At Google’s ‘Take Your Parents To Work Day’
Meghan Casserly, forbes.com

“I’m here to thank you for your crazy genius parenting,” said Andy Berndt, the director of Google’s Creative Labs in welcoming the nearly 300 Googlers and their parents gathered at the company’s 8th Avenue headquarters to mark the…

This is pretty darn cool. Young workers at Google brought their parents to work one day http://flip.it/OWiTq

Google Commerce Search Shutting Down

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:31:00 -0800

Google Commerce Search Shutting Down :

I really wish that Google would do a better job managing their products that are used by large corporations. It is one thing to shut down an imaging sharing product or social media service used by the general public. Large corporations often have business processes built around 3rd party products like Google Commerce Search.

My major complaint is that other companies like Hybris had gone to great lengths & significant expenditure to integrate their eCommerce platform with Google Commerce Search. This integration was an attractive part of the Hybris value proposition for us, a SaaS search solution fully integrated into the Hybris management cockpit was very attractive.

I can only imagine how frustrated the current crop of Google Commerce Search customers are. Migrating away from a search technology is trivial in comparison to other aspects of an eCommerce website but I am sure those businesses have higher priorities than evaluating and integrating with another search provider.

Google you are better than this, your products are some of the best in the world, built by the smartest software engineers in Silicon Valley. You can do a better job of managing your product road-maps to avoid things like this in the future.

HTML5 vs. Apps: Why The Debate Matters, And Who Will...

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:49:17 -0700

HTML5 vs. Apps: Why The Debate Matters, And Who Will Win
Business Insider, businessinsider.com

Tech/Media
HTML5 is a new technology that allows developers to build rich web-based apps that run on any device via a standard web browser.
Many think it will save the web, rendering native platform-dependent apps obsolete.
So, whi…

Etsy unveils its infrastructure (and its Supermicro love) By...

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:26:13 -0700

Etsy unveils its infrastructure (and its Supermicro love)
By Derrick Harris, gigaom.com

Etsy shared the details of its hardware architecture on Friday, showing the world a whole lot of Supermicro servers running everything from web servers to Hadoop. At this point, software is the name of the game at webscale, so hardware openness is…

Interesting insight into a large scale site’s infrastructure.

Hybris Vs WebSphere Commerce

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 11:14:00 -0700

Recently I had the opportunity to do a deep dive analysis and evaluation of 2, of the top 3 eCommerce packages on the market. IBM Web Sphere Commerce & Hybris Multichannel eCommerce. The other comparable product is ATG and since it’s recent acquisition by Oracle was not a consideration.

Both packages that I evaluated have their relative strengths and weaknesses. Neither one is completely superior to the other, choice comes down to the unique needs of your business.

WebSphere Commerce:

Pros:

1. Powerful “out of the box” capability. If your business is more of a traditional eCommerce vertical you may not need much customization.

2. Acquisition of Sterling Commerce provides a best in class OMS. While not a part of the WebSphere Commerce product, the integration is pre-packaged.

3. “Nobody ever got fired by using IBM”.

4. Documentation is easy to use and access from anywhere.

5. Their “Smarter Commerce” strategy makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.

6. Integration with Coremetrics is tight and opens up a lot of opportunity to improve digital marketing.

Cons:

1. Content Management (WCMS) is quite weak and will most likely require a 3rd party product to fit the needs of your content developers.

2. WebSphere Commerce OMS capability is weak, will likely require the additional Sterling Commerce OMS product at additional cost and integration complexity.

3. IBM’s strategy has long been to buy technology companies and “Integrate” them with WebSphere Commerce. This strategy is great for marketing and quickly adding capabilities but is a huge problem for their customers. Maintaining the integration between all of these products is a lot of overhead. A survey of WebSphere Commerce users indicates an overwhelming percentage of them are on versions at least 2 major releases back. Upgrading the product is a significant undertaking.

3. The product architecture EJB requires a fairly highly qualified and expensive engineering team to customize and maintain.

Hybris:

Pros:

1. Highly flexible platform built on the Spring architecture.

2. The Product Content Management (PCM) capability is best in class. Managing structured or unstructured data in relation to a product catalog is very powerful.

3. WCMS is good out of the box, the UI is a little clunky but once you get used to it the capability is powerful.

4. The Hybris production was built with internationalization in mind, adding multi-currency and multi-language is straightforward.

5. Great consulting firm partnerships for implementation and integration.

6. Recent acquisition of iCongo greatly improves their OMS capability.

Cons:

1. The administrative UI is clunky, Hybris is aware of it and has greatly improved it but there is room to improve here.

2. Product documentation is lacking, most of their information is exposed through a Wiki and quite technical in nature.

Measuring a brands social performance

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:42:01 -0700

The other day I had coffee with some developers from the Dachis Group and discussed a new SaaS product they are offering. Based on an index called the Social Business Index or SBI that provides deep analytics on a company’s social performance.

The product is called SPM or Social Performance Monitor that is a “subscription based Saas application that tracks your brand’s social activities against crucial brand marketing business outcomes like: brand awareness, brand love, brand mindshare and brand advocacy.

Unlike alternatives that focus on simplistic stats in a vacuum, Social Performance Monitor gives you specific metrics correlated to your brand marketing business outcomes and benchmarked against your competitors relative performance, industry peers, and worldwide best in class.”

The beauty behind this system is the ability to pull all social engagements from your company into one aggregated view. This has huge potential for firms that do not have a central “Social Media Management” group.

Given the disparate groups operating social media accounts it is incredibly difficult for an organization to understand and measure their social performance or message. As the old saying goes “You cannot manage what you cannot measure”. Often times the message is inconsistent and there is no good way to aggregate a firms social performance. The SPM system holds a lot of promise and is something certainly worth evaluating for your business.

Codecademy is a great way to get & stay sharp

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:47:24 -0700

When I first heard of Codeacadmey I did not think that it was anything worth exploring especially since it was in an article from a political figure claiming he was learning to code with it.

To my surprise the tutorials are not only relevant but somewhat challenging and a great way for someone that knows a little about front end development to get to the next level of skill. It is also a great way for a senior level developer to keep their foundation skills sharp in a fun way.

Since I signed up for an account I have gone through the HTML and CSS tutorials and I must say they taught me some things that I did not already know. The Javascript tutorials are also excellent and getting better by the day.

The teaching theory of doing versus reading or listening comes into play here, the tutorials give you a place to practice in a live environment.

Fulfillment/Delivery - Flexible fulfillment is a big hit with Lowes.com shoppers - Internet Retailer

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:27:03 -0700

Fulfillment/Delivery - Flexible fulfillment is a big hit with Lowes.com shoppers - Internet Retailer

Mobile Commerce - Mobile local ad spending to soar 539% from 2011 to 2016 - Internet Retailer

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:23:23 -0700

Mobile Commerce - Mobile local ad spending to soar 539% from 2011 to 2016 - Internet Retailer

Nike + Fuel Band = Brilliant Digital Marketing

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:21:50 -0700

I have to preface this post by stating that I work for Nike but that in no way influences my opinion on the Nike + Fuel Band product and it’s associated digital applications.

This product demonstrates a new way for Nike to digitally engage with their consumer and a great way to challenge and motivate people to be active. The iPhone app and Bluetooth integration with the device make keeping data synchronization very easy.

To track and measure your progress the http://nikeplus.nike.com website provides an easy to use and understand dashboard that is fun to interact with. The integration with the Nikestore.com shop makes it easy and seamless for consumers to view and purchase fitness related products.

The integration with social media Facebook & Twitter provides another way for users to challenge one another and further interact with the Nike brand.

The product helps make you aware of how active you are (or are not) during the day and helps make mundane tasks like walking the dog fun.

Netflix opening up their "secret sauce"

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:54:07 -0700

Netflix opening up their "secret sauce"

Is Amazon's dominance in Digital Commerce stalling or pushing innovation?

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 01:21:37 -0700

Is Amazon's dominance in Digital Commerce stalling or pushing innovation?

Sephora's iPhone Mobile Application

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:02:00 -0700

I had an interesting discussion with some folks in Sephora’s eCommerce division this week regarding their mobile app strategy. Their mobile app is one of the better commerce enabled mobile apps that I have seen.

While I am personally not in their target demographic I can really see how this app will help drive consumer loyalty through convenience and targeted promotions. The level of engagement that a native app can offer versus the mobile web is superior at the present time. Given the advancement in web development (HTML5 etc) that may not be the case for long but right now it is. This app offers a whole host of features that take advantage of their loyalty program.

Netflix Engineer Daniel Jacobson: The API at the Root of Your Business

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:33:17 -0800

Netflix Engineer Daniel Jacobson: The API at the Root of Your Business:

The first place I had ever seen an API actually at work was as part of an operating system. It was a strange OS at that, a permutation of CP/M that used a graphical front end called GEM, which would later be ported to the Atari ST. The definition was explained to me like this: An “interface,” as everyone knows, is a specification for how electrical components interconnect. Well, now it’s possible for an application program - the part that does what users need - to interconnect with the operating system, which does what the computer needs. This way the operating functions don’t have to be built into every program, they can just be handed off to the OS and the connection will look seamless. The principle was called a layer of abstraction. It was 1984, and it was the first time I’d heard the term.

It would be wrong to call the concept “revolutionary,” unless you measure time in units of eons. Nearly three decades after its introduction, only recently have businesses come to realize how widely this architectural principle could be applied. No longer do complex processes have to be bound to precise, policy-intrinsic procedures. If teams can work independently, and computer resources devised to suit each team individually, then all that needs to be specified is the exchange of information between them.

Nike.com ran the fastest in 2011

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:15:18 -0800

Nike.com ran the fastest in 2011:

So nice to see the results of my team’s hard work in 2011

What is the future of eCommerce?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:52:00 -0800

A lot of people are asking the question what is the future of eCommerce? What is going to drive top line growth in the future? Much of the eCommerce infrastructure in place today has been there for the better part of a decade and no longer creates a competitive advantage.

Incremental upgrades in site experience, order fulfillment and marketing will always help drive incremental growth but not at the levels they used to.

Social commerce and mobile commerce will certainly play major roles in the future of eCommerce. Getting closer to the consumer and knowing them like a family member will be a big driver in eCommerce in the next 18 - 24 months. As consumers have more and more choices they will side with the brands that market to them in accurate and targeted ways.

A brand that sells baseball gloves, basketball shoes, golf cleats and balls has a huge opportunity for cross channel marketing if they know their customers well. Chances are very good that the same consumer will buy a pair of basketball shoes and golf cleats from the same brand. In many large corporations they have not taken full advantage of this opportunity.

The art of the product launch

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:18:00 -0800

No brand on earth launches a product like Apple but Nike is pretty close and getting better all the time. You can count the number of brands on one hand that generate a rabid following willing to spend days camping out in frigid temperatures, just to be the first on their block to own the brands shiny new object.

Two of Nike’s recent high profile product launches the Air Jordan Retro “Concord”

and Fuel Band #makeitcount digital sport product are both highly visible examples of Nike’s improvement at launching products through omni-channel retail. Both products were launched on Nike’s eCommerce site NikeStore.com with resounding success in terms of consumer demand and site performance.

Bringing a product to market with an extreme level of digital consumer demand does not happen by accident. Nike’s digital marketing team is one of the best in the business, the @nikestore Twitter account has 234,000 followers and continues to grow.

Nike ran into a problem in 2011 with it’s eCommerce site from the sheer demand for the Air Jordan Retro “Cool Grey” product. The product released on nikestore.com at 9:00 PM PST on 12/23/2011 and within a few minutes brought the site down. Marketing had whipped the masses of sneakerheads into such a frenzy that well over 100,000 unique users slammed nikestore.com right at 9:00 PM PST. It was too much for the site to take, the web servers were clogged with requests. Needless to say it was a long night for the web operations team.

Fast forward to 2012, Nike made some significant strategic upgrades and changes to it’s eCommerce infrastructure. Migrating from an all Adobe Flash experience to an HTML experience greatly enhanced overall performance. Significant investment in physical infrastructure has helped the site scale to meet the high rush of demand that the Jordan products create.

New Relic is awesome

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:27:18 -0800

While attending the O’Reilly Velocity Conference in June I visited a demo booth for a monitoring tool called NewRelic. http://newrelic.com/

Most monitoring tools that I have worked with in the past took more time to setup, configure and figure out how to use than they were worth. This tool is different, completely cloud based service with the exception of the software agent that you install in your application server.

The level of end to end insight into your application is as good or better than many enterprise grade tools. I would highly recommend this product for any eCommerce shop.