Multi channel retailers and snow storms in 26 states

Multi-channel retailers are counting the losses from the recent snow storms that affected 26 states in USA. The lost sales dollar amounts, in brick and mortar stores are staggering, ranging from hundreds of thousands dollars to even millions of dollars. Some customers were couped up in cozy homes and building snow men in their front yards. Some customers, depending on the areas where they live, were travailing in home without electricity and heat. Meanwhile, the store operations teams and finance teams at the retailers were desperately hoping the snow fall would stop, but to no avail. The upshot snow records were broken in many states.

However, one thing that was the common denominator for many multi-channel retailers is their Ecommerce stores were open and operational! Here are some questions that all multi-channel retailers need to ponder to avoid a 'deja vu':

• How many retailers captured online the lost sales in their brick and mortar stores?
• How many retailers are fluid enough with elastic supply chains to absorb all the lost sales in physical stores into their online stores?
• How many retailers, having heard the weather reports from a week or so before, proactively initiated email campaigns with percentage off and dollar off coupons to draw all those at-home customers online?
• How many retailers will report an increase in sales revenue in the next quarter by taking advantage of the snow?

If retailers don't have these capabilities, maybe it is time to strategize, invent, and take advantage of the next snow storm, online.

All the best!

Apple is definitely a cutting edge retailer

After many months, I walked in to the friendly, local, Apple Store in the mall. There weren't too many new products although the big screen iMacs are nice! The sales person was very helpful and gave all the news on the upcoming iPad. However, the thing that caught my attention was the iPod Touch in her hand. In a matter of few minutes, the Apple sales person, helped a customer purchase a few products and completed all transactions on the iPod Touch. The iPod touch unit had a barcode scanner, and a magnetic credit card reader. The application on the iPod touch was EZ Pay.

To me, this a revolution in the store Point of Sale systems. A typical cash register with bells and whistles could cost around $6000, including hardware and software etc. With the iPod touch even if the accessories cost a lot and the whole unit could be less than $1000.

If a retail store has 3 registers, the firm would spend $18000. With this iPod touch system, you could spend less than $3000. The sales person or cashier can roam around in the store. Talk to customers and help them check out in a matter of minutes.

Are the traditional Point of Sale systems going to be relics of the past? Will they end up in a museum some day? Will be very interesting to see the product evolution in the next 5 years. Will be an interesting journey for sure.

Record and Play Back

Weeks and months fly by quickly in this quantum/nano/mobile/green technology age! One of the reasons is countless number of meetings that are scheduled every day and week. These day s you can participate in 8 meetings from your own laptop or desktop, without getting up. Welcome to the world of Webex, GoToMeeting, LiveMeeting, etc.

Information overload is felt by all knowledge workers these days, especially when more work is squeezed out smaller teams. You feel like quitting meetings but you really can't because you are no longer in the know and more importantly your boss may notice your absence. You can only do so many Webex sessions a day before you start slipping on your other deliverables.

Another thing that happens frequently is, the presenter gives our all the information via PowerPoint or demonstration etc., however the people who attended the meeting go away with different takeaways. It is amazing when the same information is presented to a group of people, especially, cross functional teams, they process and understand the presented information differently.

And then there is that occasional event, when a key person, whether a technical architect or a senior director or V.P. just cannot attend a meeting or does a no-show. The whole project is delayed by a week because the meeting needs to occur for that one key missing person.

Here is a solution, insist on whoever scheduled the meeting to do the following,

1. Record the video, especially useful for software demonstrations

2. Record the audio of all participants through out the meeting

3. Make the recordings available to the team, especially to those who missed the meeting

Take away all excuses from the cross functional team, so they cannot say oh! I missed he meeting.

Simplicity versus Complexity

Humans are complex beings! There are hundreds of specialty doctors to treat one human body. Amazing amount of complexity is involved in the heart pumping blood, huge amounts of complexity is involved in the mind processing thousands of thoughts everyday, on and on. Yet when you see a human being the form and functionality are simple yet capable of tremendous ability. A person can play tennis, ride horses, fly airplanes, jump on a trampoline, swim and so much more.

Yet, day after day humans deal with software at office that is quite complex, rigid and incompatible. Although, in the last 10 years software has gotten much simpler and flexible. We are only at the tip of the iceberg. We yearn for simple, well designed, applications that are reliable, scalable, and flexible. A software can have all the bells and whistles but if no body in the office uses them, then it is of no use. Senior management must make it their goal to continually drive out complexity from software.

Here are some simple suggestions on embracing simplicity and eschewing complexity,

1. Business teams and IT should meet at least once a month for at least 1 hour to discuss the complexity in the software
2. Identify the top 2 or 3 complexities involved and brainstorm ways to try and eliminate them. Then execute those strategies
3. Brainstorm and come up with strategies to cut down the system proliferation. Then execute those strategies
4. If possible, appoint one or more point persons who will make sure the action items in this context are accomplished
5. Talk to other companies in the market place and see how they reduce complexity

E-Commerce Fraud Management companies should take cues from PC anti-virus firms

The anti-virus companies such as Symantec, McAfee, TrendMicro etc. have come a long way. With the ubiquitous network connectivity (wireless and wired) available PCs can be up to date with the latest anti-worm, anti-virus, and other security software and patches. Many times the updates are transparent to the PC owner. As the owner is working away on the PC or goes away for a break the PC stays updated with the latest security updates.

McAfee for instance has relatively new products such as McAfee SiteAdvisor that not only rates websites according to their risk profile but also protects PCs from Instant Messaging threats and Phishing treats. They claim to work with 19 search engines including the big ones such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Obviously a database is maintained by them to constant update the risk profiles of the billions of websites out there. Value added services such as these reflect a highly innovative "product management" at McAfee. Hope they and other security software companies continue to be customer centric and develop great products.

What does this have to do with e-commerce fraud detection, prevention, and management. In the former scenario, individual consumers are protected from the vast Internet juggernaut. The idea being not all emails, instant messages, websites, are to be trusted by the individual consumer! In the fraud management scenario not all site visitors can be trusted by the e-commerce site! The e-commerce company cannot blindly allow any individual consumer to transact on the website. The biggest contributor to the problem is, unless a lot of software and resources are put in place, distinguishing between malicious individual person and a bot or automatic script/program.

In the last few years many e-commerce fraud companies have poped up. Some of them are Accertify, Kount, Iovation, 41st Parameter, Actimize, Retail Decisions USA, CyberSource, and ClearCommerce etc. There are many more companies in the space.

Here are some pointers that I believe, the e-commerce fraud management companies can learn from the PC security software companies,

1. Continuously learn about the individual consumers and web bots. Aggregate the data among all their customers and keep the list of potential fraudulent customers up to date.

2. Develop software that is able to adapt and self learn as new threats arise. May mean the use of artificial intelligence software.

3. Make the creation and implementation of new fraud business rules in the fraud processing engine very easy.

4. Try to stay constantly ahead of the fraud schemers, although it is next to impossible to be ahead of Internet shysters all the time.

The e-commerce fraud management industry is poised for growth in the future and the true innovators will prosper. It will definitely be interesting to see which companies will will.

Is Customer Service An Afterthought?

For retailers with e-commerce operations, there is almost a direct correlation between promotional campaigns (web ads, email, mobile, radio etc.) and the call volume to the customer service department. In this day and age where retails present compelling "deals of the day" to customers and bombard them with emails, the customer does come to the website to save a buck or two!

And the customers pour in via all channels and try to grab merchandise things can go wrong, such as, orders not received on time or errors on website. The natural upshot of this is an overwhelmed customer service department because the customers will call in.

Here are some ways the pain points for the customer service department can be alleviated,

1. If customer is truly comes first for the company, then do things that highlight that lofty goal. When undertaking any project, whether it be adding new payment types such as, Bill Me Later, or changing returns policies, provide lot of self help tools and guidance to the customer. Any process automation or IT project should include a phase for providing self help tools to customers.

2. The marketing department has to work closely with the customer service department. This is much easier said than done. It sounds so simple but difficult to do it religiously. The problem is departments in a typical company are silo ed. Every one is busy and so people are comfortable in their own islands. Cross functional interaction is the key and must be done

3. Top management must be aligned with the "customer comes first" principle. Without the top management buy in nothing will happen. Every one can feel warm and fuzzy but nothing get done without buy in.

These three points should get any company started in scaling greater heights and truly pleasing the customer.

Case for a product manager at eCommerce companies

Depending on the size of a company, every day/week/month/quarter/six months/year, discussions arise about "buy or build". Business and IT staffers, in meetings, go off on tangents and start talking about software utopia. The reality is both approaches have their pros and cons. However, with the advent of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 software companies are creating much better than the in-house development team. In general more features, more customization options are becoming the norm of third party software products, whether it be licensed or SaaS.

One of the reasons for third party software products being better than in-house products, is that they employ "Product Managers". Typically product managers have their ear to the customer needs. They interact with all constituents that use the product in a proactive way. It is almost like a shepherd watching over his flock. Care is exercised in developing new features, fixing bugs, along with financial responsibility.

In eCommerce companies and departments you may have all folks such as business directors, IT directors, project managers, developers, enterprise architects, User Interface architects. However, a product manager is lacking. To ask the business director, or the Vice President, or the project manager to play the role of product manager for a few hours a week does not do justice to the website.

Somebody, ideally in the product manager, should be dedicated to watching over the evolution/development of web site and over navigating the difficult "conversion/increased revenue" waters.

Recently read a neat article in Inc magazine about how Reid Hoffman the CEO of Linked In hired Dipchand Nishar from Google to free him up, so he could focus on being a CEO. Reid left the core product development to Dipchand. If Reid can do it every eCommerce shop should hire a product manager!

More cool and useful features on a website equal more ka-ching, and a good product manager is invaluable in the mix.