Marketing Reasons To Choose WebSphere Commerce
The following summary is a list of marketing features found in the IBM WebSphere Commerce platform that may be beneficial to you as you expand your online business.
INTERNATIONAL SITES.
Each online store can be configured to handle commerce from a global perspective.
• Supports 25 currencies – DEM, EUR, FRF, GBP, USD …
• Supports 13 languages – English, French, Japanese, German, Korean, Spanish …
• Multiple payment methods – credit card, check, COD, gift card, PayPal, PO, BillMeLater …
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
An extensive set of content marketing and promotional capabilities are available right out of the box.
• Product recommendations based on purchase history, cart contents and registration data
• Dynamic product recommendations based on shopping behavior (click-stream analysis)
• Display ad/banner advertisements to increase awareness for upcoming events (Memorial Day)
MULTIPLE BRANDED SITES
Create micro sites to share common store assets; keep capital and operations costs down.
• Create multiple branded sites – each with its own UI, pricing, shipping, taxes
• Maximize the sharing of digital assets – duplication costs are greatly minimized
• Control – maintain centralized control over brand, product integrity and sales execution
MULTIPLE SALES CHANNELS
Allow the customer to make purchases from the channel that best meets their needs.
• Multi-channel shoppers spend 2-4 more times than single channel shoppers
• One master catalog for all your web stores – eliminate inconsistencies for product data
• Omni-channel presence – call centers, kiosks, mobile devices, point-of-sale, social, Web
SALES CENTER
Increase the overall sales of your service representatives (CSR).
• Order management – CSR can add to or cancel an order just placed by a customer
• Increase profitability – CSR can up-sell and cross-sell to a customer on the phone
• Report on revenue and profitability for each CSR
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
If your product pages are not indexed by search engines, you won’t be on anyone’s buy list.
• More than 70% of customers land on an eCommece site using a web search
• SEO delivers over half of your new customers; half of all in-store sales are Web influenced
• Utilize prebuilt SEO features to attract more site visitors and increase your market share
INTERNAL SITE SEARCH
Use advanced site search techniques to quickly get the right product into the shopper’s hands.
• Shoppers can select multiple product attributes to drill down and return a shorter list of products to review
• Prioritize and sort results based on user-defined business rules by inventory, price, brands, product ratings
• Type-ahead and autocomplete features for search terms has a higher conversion rate than the average visitor
SOCIAL COMMERCE
Supports the use of social media to facilitate the marketing and selling of products online.
• Storefront integration to Facebook allows shoppers to share their product purchases with friends
• Social sharing of blogs, photo galleries and product review content to enhance the user experience
• Shoppers use remote widgets to share products on social sites to be purchased for them by friends (wish list, gift registry)
MOBILE COMMERCE
Online storefronts must be designed with mobile devices in mind, since over 50% of traffic is mobile.
• The Aurora store is built with responsive web design to optimize the user experience for mobile shoppers
• SMS support for order notifications and marketing promotions to smart phones and tablets
EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
Manage e-mail campaigns based on customer purchase history or registration information.
• Preview completed e-mail before it’s sent – improve quality, accuracy of your message
• Detailed tracking tells you if the e-mail reached its target, was read and who opened it
• No involvement from IT is required
STORE LOCATOR
Inventory visibility across local stores to meet customer’s preference and merchant’s business goals.
• Buy on mobile, pick up at local neighborhood store – inventory visibility across all retail outlets
• 70% of consumers expect brand digital channels to know their in-store product availability
• Store information (hours, address, etc.) and GPS store locator
COREMEDIA COMMERCE COMPOSER - PREBUILT INTEGRATION
A page layout editor for business users to develop web pages themselves versus relying on IT.
• A single CMS platform for all your digital marketing and eCommerce catalog needs
• Preview the entire website for desktop and mobile devices within the page layout tool
• Doesn’t require HTML skills or the need for an IT developer to build out pages for your site
MANAGEMENT CENTER
Marketer’s tool to manage digital content, A/B testing and other online business tasks and activities.
• Create and manage master and sales catalogs for your primary and secondary sites
• Build and manage merchandize promotions using a calendar feature to keep efforts organized
• Manage user-defined shopping workflows triggered by abandoned cart or social participation to drive conversions
PERSONALIZATION
Deliver personalized marketing content according to the preferences of a buyer or shopping persona.
• Personalized content can target nonregistered users based on browser history and cart contents
• Direct specific content to registered users based on their interests, preferences or buying habits
PERSISTENT SESSIONS
Persistent sessions add value to the overall customer experience.
• Guest customers will have their previous shopping cart restored on subsequent visits
• Registered users choose to be remembered to resume an existing shopping experience
• Enable “remember me” sessions by selecting the check box on the login and registration page
COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES
Business users can more effectively control and manage their online store changes.
• Marketers can test, approve and schedule site updates (pricing and product updates)
• Business users decide and schedule what site changes go into production and when
• No involvement from IT is required – marketers can implement site changes on their time table
Need help with your WebSphere Commerce platform? We are a full-service team of eCommerce experts with affordable solutions that produce immediate results based on a proven methodology and eCommerce best practices. Our senior-level employees are proficient in emerging technologies, industry trends and marketing tactics.
