November 10, 2006; 04:44 AM
According to hybris (www.hybris.com),
a leading vendor of e-commerce and product information management (PIM)
solutions, product recommendations alone do not give any online shop
the E-Commerce 2.0 seal: online shopping using Web 2.0 technologies
uses more than just a little interaction. hybris wants to underline
that as an e-business expert, it already has numerous customers for its
solutions, which were designed to support E-Commerce 2.0. “For us,
useful E-Commerce 2.0 developments mean that customers can make
purchases online more easily and have a fuller experience. The shop
owner’s revenue can be increased and brand empathy is improved”, said
Ariel Lüdi, CEO of hybris.
The ideal E-Commerce 2.0 application brings buyers together, using
integrated communities, reviews or “tell-a-friend” functions, and from
the dealer’s point of view reinforces the ‘grapevine propaganda’
component of the purchase – keywords ‘social commerce’: more than 1000
users are active in the online community for the scooter shop
Scooter-Attack, in order to exchange information. For the Austrian
snowboard shop Blue Tomato, visitors can publish their own experiences
and comments, in which the products mentioned are linked directly with
the shop. Both shops are based on the hybris E-Commerce solution, which
was pronounced Best Retail Technology Solution 2006 at this year’s
European Retail Solutions Awards.
In order to meet the requirements of Shopping 2.0, hybris and its
partners integrate AJAX components into the shop solutions. This
enables implementation of interactive, desktop-like Web applications
that are trailblazers when it comes to user experience and visual
design. This can include, for example, drag & drop shopping
baskets, personalised interactive content, rich media product displays,
dynamic content or affiliate functions for decentralised commerce.
Continued Ludi: “Implemented Web 2.0 functions are important for a
successful e-commerce solution, but are ultimately only one component.
It is just as important to have a uniform data basis and consistent
product information management. This is the only way online traders can
ensure that they use information consistently, that their brand
presence remains standardised and that content can be adapted to
different output channels according to the medium used. This is the
only way that today’s customer requirements can be successfully met”.
hybris’ combination of its PIM solution and Commerce Suite gives online
traders an e-business tool adjusted specifically to their needs.
Multi-source product information within the company is managed in a
central repository in a media-independent format. From here, all
downstream distribution channels can be served – from websites and
e-commerce, through e-procurement, to the various offline and online
catalogue formats - this is imperative for the synchronisation of all
information for multi-channel retailers and distributors. Consumers
profit from accurate prices and correct detail and image information in
the online shop, whilst traders can install add-on modules from the
Commerce Suite in order to transform shopping, using product advisors,
shopping lists, intelligent searches, visual product selection,
newsletters, ‘happy hour’ offers, one-click payment functions and
various multimedia content in a single shopping experience.
“The success of E-Commerce 2.0 is obvious when you look at the growth
figures for hybris customers: by implementing an e-commerce solution
based on a PIM platform, revenue using the online channel increases on
average by around 30 percent”, emphasised Ariel Lüdi.
About hybris:
hybris develops and distributes software solutions for the management
of product information and catalogue data, and the applications
employing them – E-Commerce, E-Procurement and Database Publishing. The
flexibility of the solutions enables our implementation partners to
adapt the hybris software according to the individual demands and
business processes of medium-sized to large corporations. Amongst the
companies that already trust and employ hybris software are
industry-leading businesses like Bechtle, Blaupunkt, Opel, DEMAG, PUMA,
Premiere, Inbev, Edeka, Talkline, Webasto and XXXLutz.