Getting the customer experience right for crossborder e-commerce is the next challenge for retailers. How the customers engage with the retailer — if they can do it via an elegant and user-friendly web interface, conduct transactions in their own language, pay the way they want to, and get the goods they want in compliance with… read more >
In the customer-centric era, success will come to those who can truly put the customer — not tools or technologies — at the center of everything they do. Organizations should carefully evaluate how they can help marketers optimize the core web channel and remove barriers to success, such as time-consuming implementations, long delays to launch… read more >
The forces of digital disruption have toppled established business models, magnified the significance of digital channels and competences, and initiated the “customer-centric era.” CMOs and their marketing organizations would seem to be ideally positioned to lead organizational response, as they typically own the customer relationship and have developed sophisticated methods for understanding and communicating with… read more >
Digital disruption has been particularly hard on companies in the mid-market. Competitive advantages historically based on regional/local presence, distribution, long-standing customer relationships, or even partnerships with larger enterprises are no longer sufficient. With multiple channels such as mobile and social and new processes like inbound and content marketing, it is no wonder that mid-market companies… read more >
The few years since the introduction of the smartphone have brought unprecedented and unforeseen change to the business environment in nearly every company. Technology innovations such as mobile computing, analytics, cloud, and social platforms have empowered consumers in both B2C and B2B contexts, and fundamentally inverted the relationship between buyers and sellers. Looking forward to the business environment in… read more >
The forces of digital disruption have empowered consumers and inverted the power relationship between buyers and sellers. Competitive advantages based on manufacturing, distribution, and IT are no longer sustainable. Customer loyalty has all but disappeared; buyers can and will shift their allegiance immediately if disappointed. In the era of the empowered consumer, business success depends… read more >
The ability to effectively manage relationships with prospects and customers can make or break an organization. Unfortunately, there is currently no “one-size-fits-all” solution to managing these experiences, which means Customer Experience Management (CEM) is hard, complicated, and very new. In this Insight Paper, Tim Walters makes the case for CEM by explaining that empowered customers,… read more >
The marketer’s job has never been harder. The proliferation of consumer touchpoints and the adoption of disruptive technologies such as smart mobile devices have vastly increased and complicated the marketer’s workload. In response, today’s marketers can draw upon an ever-growing arsenal of software solutions, but the very real danger is that marketers and their IT… read more >
The debate over suite versus best-of-breed solutions has raged since the introduction of enterprise resource planning (ERP) suites in the early 1990s, pitting integration and consistency against functionality and innovation – at least according to the classical terms of the dispute. Highlights: Suite versus best of breed: A timeless debate revisited Understanding and meeting the… read more >
Does the mobile shift mean that “fixed” websites are in radical decline? Or is mobile properly seen as “just another channel”? Both of these perspectives have their merits, but they both fail to fully grasp the nature of the transformation that is taking place today. The mobile shift marks an evolutionary leap to the era… read more >
