Social Media, eCommerce Platform Flexibility and Omni-Channel Commerce are Top Trends at IRCE 2012

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) June 12, 2012

For the fifth consecutive year, eCommerce consultancy FitForCommerce (http://www.FitForCommerce.com) lent its expertise to the annual Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE), the largest eCommerce industry event of the year, which began June 6 in Chicago at McCormick Place West. As the company chosen to run the conference’s help desk, located at the epicenter of the exhibit hall, FitForCommerce is in a unique position to learn from both retailers and vendors about the hottest topics in eCommerce today.

Having discussed retailer concerns with over 1200 conference attendees, several trends emerged through throughout the week of events:

• FitForCommerce consultants noticed a consistency in retailers wanting to understand and best manage omni-channel businesses. This includes understanding the true impact of web influenced sales on the retail stores channel, building a business case to convince senior management of the importance of marketing across channels, and effective ways to attribute demand across channels.
• In addition to the proven necessity of diligent requirements gathering and vendor selection in eCommerce platform technologies, a new dimension has emerged: flexibility. Ecommerce platforms with flexibility such as open APIs, web services, and pre-integrations – even completely open source architectures – built into their underlying structure can enable retailers to avoid the constant time and money drain of re-platforming every two years, which over half of merchants are currently planning to do.
• Retailers’ expectations around social are evolving. While the jury is out on ‘F-commerce’ – many retailers have dialed back or eliminated their efforts to actually sell on social sites – the importance of social platforms in the marketing and customer relationship management mix is undeniable. The realization now is there is much more effort and complexity associated with leveraging social than expected, and no proven formulas for success.

At the conference’s Help Desk, FitForCommerce also provided 38 single-page Best Practices and Key Questions primers across a variety of important eCommerce solution categories. The most popular Best Practices this year included Multi-channel, Site Search, SEM, SEO, Site Design /User Experience, Mobile and Social. Access to these Best Practices is available at http://www.eCommerceKnowHow.com.

Printouts of several FitForCommerce whitepapers on Mobile Commerce, Fulfillment, and Product Information Management also proved popular. All whitepapers are available for download at http://www.FitForCommerce.com.

On June 5, FitForCommerce founder and CEO Bernardine Wu moderated the day-long Technology Workshop on the topic of Previewing Cutting-Edge Technologies. The well-attended workshop featured 15 speakers presenting their perspectives on topics from content and asset management, to the engines behind marketing technologies. For a copy of these presentations, please email joliver(at)fitforcommerce(dot)com.

Often referred to as an eCommerce “life coach and matchmaker,” FitForCommerce helps eCommerce and multichannel business grow and connects them with best-fit eCommerce solutions and providers.

About FitForCommerce
eCommerce companies must invest in eCommerce capabilities, technology, operations and staff in order to ensure success in today’s competitive marketplace. Developing and executing an eCommerce strategy involves mastery across many disciplines and dependencies external vendors and solutions – a constant struggle for many retailers and manufacturers. FitForCommerce has become recognized as the leading boutique eCommerce consultancy by helping hundreds of online and multichannel retailers and manufacturers develop eCommerce strategies, select ‘best-fit’ vendors and solutions, and increase sales and profits. Utilizing their extensive hands-on eCommerce experience, proprietary methodology of eCommerce Diligence™ and online tool eCommerceKnowHow.com, FitForCommerce is the go-to resource for both retailers and the providers who support them.

Media Contact:
Jen Oliver media(at)fitforcommerce(dot)com +1.973.379.7399

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