Electronic Commerce (Charles River Media Networking/Security)

These e-business development merchandising strategies rely on automation of product and service presentation, selection and purchasing, execution of merchandising plans such as cross-selling and special offers, and online delivery of customer support. Achieving such automation and simultaneous cost control requires absolutely accurate data. Inaccurate data translates into unhappy customers and decreased profits. So, attaining consistent, reliable data is critical to your e-commerce success. And, creating and maintaining reliable data requires effective content management.

There are two kinds of data: data about the products and services, such as name, description, features, and specifications; and meta-data, which is used to sell, deliver, and support your products, such as recommended accessories for cross-selling and taxable code and shipping weight to generate online invoices. As detailed later in the chapter, many companies have data and meta-data that are not in a form that supports full, cost-effective automation. The product data has inconsistencies and the meta-data exists as human procedures in multiple locations, or files in computer systems separated from the product data, requiring interpretation by people.

A further complication for companies intent on expanding e-business revenues and profits is that in the rush to establish an e-commerce operation, many have relied on runtime Web tools to do the preliminary buildtime data preparation. The result is that they have to spend enormous effort with their Web site design tools in reworking data and meta-data every time they enhance their merchandising programs.

In fact, online merchandising presents a range of content management challenges that aren’t easily managed with traditional product data preparation methods. Here are a few examples:

• Companies are learning that effective use of such techniques requires much cleaner and more consistent product information than appears in most catalogs or in the underlying databases.

• Effective online merchandising requires an array of techniques, such as product locators, problem solving wizards, and customer relationship tools to deliver engaging online experiences. These techniques rely on product and shopper classification methods that require new meta-data at the product item, category, and even shopper level. Maintaining these attributes expands data preparation work.

• The cross-industry trend toward faster product development and shorter product life cycles means there are more product item adds, changes, and deletes than ever before. Many merchandising managers want a way to exploit the electronic product information that manufacturers have already prepared.

• The recognized need to keep e-commerce sites fresh and attractive requires more frequent updates. Consequently, the product information and catalog design teams find themselves working continuously on the online catalogs (instead of periodically as on paper catalogs), and they need more efficient, group-friendly product information maintenance tools^[1].

^[1]“Strategies for Online Merchandising,” International Business Machines Corporation 2003, IBM Corporation, Software Group Division, Route 100, Somers, New York 10589, 2003.