Realworld ecommerce

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Real-world e-commerce

• Tony Phillips
• Project architect

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Objective

• To understand the impact of e-commerce and whats
  driving it
• To know what the key technologies and technology
  trends are

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Agenda

• Who are Quidnunc? Why do we know
  about e-commerce?
• What is e-commerce and why is it important?
• What are people doing about it?
• What are the key technologies for e-commerce?
• What are the key trends in e-commerce?

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Quidnunc who?

• e-commerce is what we do
• global e-commerce software house
• 10m turnover
• 200 people, average age 26
• vanguard technology
• mix of blue chip and dot-com clients

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What ise-commerce?
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e-commerce is...

• ...the digital exchange of value.

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e-commerce is...

• ...the digital exchange of value...
• which involves a transaction closed over the
  internet.

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The whole process
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Why ise-commerce important?
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Changing products
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New possibilities
Product unbundling
Electronic delivery
Dynamic pricing
Profile based recommendations
On-line bidding
Real-time eCare
Self service
Subscription pricing
New product bundles
Integrated supply chain
New direct channel
Post-order production
Auction based pricing
Mass customisation
Brand extension
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The ROI gold mine

• Processingof orders, calls, etc is 5 to 10
  times cheaper
• Customers up-sell or cross-sell themselves, so
  revenue per customer can be 50 higher
• Viral marketing can lead to explosive growth

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e-commerce forecasts

• e-commerce as a percentage of worldwide sales

Source Forrester Research Inc.
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Market speed

• intermediaries help consumers search and compare
  prices
• purchase decisions are made quickly
• more transparency
• less customer loyalty

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The value web
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To prosper in the new environment, an
organizations principal virtue needs to be
agility.
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What are businesses doing about it?
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Vision

• Before strategy comes vision
• lets create the same feel online as we offer
  now in the physical world

• Need to get a lot more creative
• combine brand, business objectives, unique
  qualities of each industry, technology
  possibilities

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Digital strategy

• What to do to achieve the vision
• there are already plenty of patterns to use
• these patterns can be applied to different
  businesses in creative ways
• this plus practical thoughts form the basis of a
  digital strategy

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Cannibalize your own business

• Barnes and Noble
• catalog with online ordering
• reader reviews of of titles
• steals business from traditional stores, but also
  steals business back from amazon.com

How can you compete with your new web competitors
on the web?
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Go pure cyberspace

• Egghead software
• closed retail outlets - became internet only
• deliver services and product digitally
• auctions on surplus stock

What if we made the digital world our first
priority and the physical second?
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Outsource to your customers

• FedEx
• Where is my order?

• What size of mortgage can I afford?
• Do I really need a repairman?

What do you do for your customers that they would
rather do for themselves (and could probably do
better)?
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Change the pricing model

• Priceline
• buying service for airline tickets and new cars
• reverse auctioncustomer names their price, and
  Priceline finds a major airline willing to
  release seats
• better prices for buyers, new market for sellers

Would your customers benefit from a different way
of pricingeg, micropayments or auctions?
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Make first contact

• Microsoft Carpoint
• online car salessearch inventory of hundreds of
  car dealers
• own the relationship with the customer
• aims to be the first place a car buyer visits

What is the first step your customers take in the
chain of events that lead them to buy from you?
How can you make contact with them then?
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What are the key technologies for e-commerce?
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Simple web publishing
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Architecture foundation
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Enterprise services
What are enterprise services? desk is supported
by building services heating and ventilation,
telecoms e-commerce applications rely on digital
services credit checking, customer profiling new
apps become smaller and cheaper to build
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Enterprise services and applications
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Application components
What is a component? piece of software that
provides a well-defined function via a
well-defined interface Component
technologies Microsoft COM / MTS JavaBeans /
EJB CORBA
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3-tier web architecture
FIREWALL
FIREWALL
E-COMMERCE APPLICATION SERVER
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e-commerce Tools
Strategy
Tool
Product
ATG Dynamo, MS Site Server
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Many commerce channels
stores
e-commerce
affiliates
direct mail
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Legacy integration

• Legacy systems support existing business
  operations
• eg ordering, fulfillment, marketing, financials
• key technology is XML (eXtensible Markup
  Language)
• glue that ties together disparate systems

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Fitting it all together
FIREWALL
APPLICATION SERVER
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What are the technology trends in e-commerce?
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Broadband

• Convergence of computing and consumer electronics
• streaming media to enrich consumer experience
• web access through TV cable
• web as delivery channel for digital media (voice,
  music, video etc)
• Beware the hype!

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New delivery mechanisms

• WAP is the current buzzword
• Phones, PDAs, watches all web-enabled
• UI and bandwidth limitations
• Usability challenges

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Behind the scenes web

• Pervasive, unobtrusive connectedness
• local wireless networks (eg Sun Jini)
• web-enabled appliances that are self-diagnosing
  and self-maintaining
• software agents take people out of the loop

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Interested in Quidnunc?
Talk to me Take a card and e-mail
me www.quidnunc.com