Cover image for The e-commerce arsenal : 12 technologies you need to prevail in the digital arena
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The e-commerce arsenal : 12 technologies you need to prevail in the digital arena
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Publication Information:
New York : AMACOM, 2001
ISBN:
9780814406236

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30000005166677 HF5548.32 G87 2001 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

A look at 12 Web technologies that companies need to make their site stand out from the competition. This book explains that useful and tangible benefits, such as instant e-mail to confirm an order, will help turn the cybervisitor into a loyal and regular customer.


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Booklist Review

The international outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas reports Internet companies have laid off more than 41,500 persons in the last 13 months. In December alone, 10,459 more Internet employees faced unemployment, and nearly 20 percent of so-called dot-com businesses folded this past year. One explanation for this decline is simple--these companies did not have enough customers! Here, now, two authors show how to attract and keep customers; Gutzman identifies tactics and Seybold lays out strategy. Gutzman is an Internet consultant and the author of books on HTML, ColdFusion, and Frontpage. She highlights 12 new or emerging technologies that "enable a Web site to do something that's tangibly valuable to customers." These technologies are grouped among three applications: driving traffic (getting users to visit the site), site functionality (enabling shoppers easily to find and buy the products they need easily), and customer service. Included are the latest developments in search engines, viral affiliates, shopping wizards, real-time presales chats, etc. Gutzman offers plenty of examples of how these technologies work, and she makes a strong argument for outsourcing site development to ASPs (application service providers). Seybold heads her own "worldwide business and technology strategic consulting and research firm," and she looks to her successes with a wide range of clients for examples to illustrate her points in this follow-up to her best-selling Customers.com (1998). Her key argument is that companies should no longer be valued by traditional accounting measures. She makes the case for tracking "customer capital," which includes customer retention rates, profits per customer, growth in customers, etc. Seybold focuses on the music industry and the "free" distribution of digital music to demonstrate another of her principles--that the customer is now in control. Her third proposition is that "customer experience matters," and she details eight steps toward delivering a "great branded experience." --David Rouse


Table of Contents

Prefacep. XIII
Acknowledgmentsp. XV
Part I The E-Commerce Climate
1 The Struggle for Survival Onlinep. 3
The Causes of Competitivenessp. 4
Increased Customer Expectations: The Consequence of Competitivenessp. 6
Don't Hurdle; Pole-Vaultp. 6
Baby, You Can Drive My Carp. 12
Opportunities for Those Who Come at the Eleventh Hourp. 13
What Are Investors to Do?p. 13
Narrowing the Fieldp. 14
2 The Recipe for Successp. 15
Driving Trafficp. 15
The Sitep. 22
Customer Servicep. 25
Turnkey Growthp. 26
Part II Technologies for Driving Traffic
3 Search Engines for Customer Acquisitionp. 31
Search Engines versus Directoriesp. 32
Submitting Your URLp. 37
How It Works Todayp. 40
Winning Strategiesp. 41
Outsourcing Your Web Positioningp. 53
Resourcesp. 54
4 Viral Affiliates Programsp. 57
Cost of Acquisitionp. 57
Affiliate Programsp. 58
Viral Marketingp. 61
Case Study: OurHouse.comp. 63
Loyalty Programsp. 65
How Viral Affiliate Networks Should Workp. 68
Resourcesp. 68
5 Listfeed Programs and XMLp. 71
Knowing When to Bring Them to You and When to Go to Themp. 71
Aggregatorsp. 72
Listfeedsp. 77
The What and Why of XMLp. 79
Categorizing Productsp. 80
Universal Shopping Cartsp. 81
Case Study: NIC Commercep. 82
Resourcesp. 83
6 Targeted Electronic Direct Mailp. 85
Customer Loyaltyp. 85
Getting the Listp. 86
Compiling Customer Profilesp. 88
Honing the Messagep. 90
Case Study: Garden.comp. 92
Cost Effectivenessp. 96
Testing the Messagesp. 96
Event-Driven E-Mailp. 97
Case Study: Musiclandp. 98
Why Not Send the E-Mail Yourself?p. 100
Resourcesp. 101
7 WAP-Enabling for M-Commercep. 103
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)p. 104
After the WAP: IMT-2000 (aka 3G)p. 105
Wireless for Messagingp. 106
How Web Surfing Differs from Wireless Web Surfingp. 107
Profile: Internet2Anywhere (In2a)p. 108
Going Mobile the Easy Wayp. 110
Do-It-Yourself Mobilep. 112
Click-to-Voicep. 113
Case Study: GiantBear.comp. 114
Resourcesp. 115
Part III Technologies for Making Buying Easier
8 Personalization for Customer Loyaltyp. 119
Overt versus Covert Personalizationp. 120
Overt Personalizationp. 121
Motivating Shoppers to Give You Their Preferencesp. 127
Covert Personalizationp. 128
Case Study: G.U.S. Home Shopping Limitedp. 129
Profile: Net Perceptionsp. 130
Profile: Shop Tok's TokAdvisorp. 132
Profile: Angara Converterp. 134
Profile: Blue Martini Softwarep. 135
Resourcesp. 136
9 Shopping Wizards and In-Context Searchp. 139
Who's Shopping Onlinep. 140
Shopping Wizardsp. 142
In-Context Shopping Capabilitiesp. 145
Profile: Soliloquyp. 147
Natural Language Search Toolsp. 148
Profile: Ask Jeeves E-Commercep. 149
Knowledgebasep. 151
Resourcesp. 151
10 Globalization and Multicurrency Capabilityp. 155
Minimum Requirements to Compete Globallyp. 156
Profile: From2.comp. 159
Profile: E-Commerce Logisticsp. 161
How to Be a Major Player in a Marketp. 162
Profile: Uniscapep. 163
Profile: Welocalize.comp. 167
Resourcesp. 169
11 Real-Time Access to Inventory and Order Statusp. 171
Product Informationp. 172
Order Informationp. 175
Customer Informationp. 179
Resourcesp. 183
12 Robust Content-Management Systemsp. 185
Customizationp. 186
Baseline Featuresp. 187
Profile: NCompass Labsp. 188
Profile: FatWirep. 195
Differentiating Featuresp. 196
Profile: BroadVisionp. 196
The Importance of Your Vendor Relationshipp. 199
Why Not Custom-Build?p. 200
Internationalized Solutionsp. 200
Resourcesp. 201
Part IV Technologies for Customer Service
13 Real-Time Presales Chatp. 205
Online Support Optionsp. 206
Presales Support versus Customer Servicep. 210
Real-Time Chat: Help When It's Neededp. 213
Service with a Smiley Facep. 215
Knowledge(base) Is Powerp. 218
How Real-Time Chat Worksp. 219
Resourcesp. 224
14 Multichannel Customer Service Systemsp. 229
Customer Service as Differentiatorp. 230
Building a Customer-Centric Organizationp. 231
What "Multichannel" Really Meansp. 232
The Isolated Data Phenomenonp. 233
What Is CRM?p. 235
CRM versus ERPp. 236
Selecting a CRM Vendorp. 237
CRM at Workp. 239
Building the Relationshipp. 241
Resourcesp. 242
Part V Turnkey Growth
15 Outsource Everythingp. 245
Why Outsource?p. 245
Case Study: Paytimep. 250
Case Study: Ask Jeevesp. 251
Case Study: eWonder.comp. 252
The Ins and Outs of Outsourcingp. 253
In Celebration of ASPsp. 256
No Longer Vogue with the Venture Capitalists--So What?p. 258
16 Feed the Lionsp. 259
Guard Your Crack in the Sidewalkp. 261
The Service Economyp. 262
Everyone's Doin' Itp. 264
Case Study: Web Trends Live/Click-Stream Analysisp. 264
Case Study: E-Commerce Support Centers/Customer Servicep. 265
Case Study: Digital Impact/E-Mailp. 266
Case Study: The Kringle Company/Private-Labeled Personalized Lettersp. 268
Epilogue: A Baker's Dozen: Alternative Payment Systemsp. 271
Consumers Are Rarely the Victims of Fraudp. 272
Protecting the Merchantp. 273
Alternative Payment Systemsp. 280
Major Payment System Vendorsp. 281
Resourcesp. 285
Notesp. 287
Indexp. 291
About the Authorp. 303