Commerce and Transaction Systems
Commerce and other forms of online transaction systems are a rapidly expanding solution category. Fueled by the market capitalization and increased venture funding, thousands of companies are setting-up online storefronts. Unfortunately, most only create the storefront and forget about the rest of the store and their customers' needs. In particular, it is easy to buy or build a system enabling an individual or a company to sell things online. Simple cataloging and sales programs are available off-the-shelf and through store services at directory sites, such as Yahoo. But, building and maintaining a store is much more than merely making the sale itself. Merchandising is usually not a component of these transaction systems, nor is anything that approximates building a relationship with a customer.
Few online commerce sites build shopping experiences that even attempt to rival those in traditional "brick and mortar" stores. Instead, they seek to take advantage of the medium to offer capabilities that physical stores cannot (such as immediate notification of inventory, reminders of reordering or special offers, quick ordering, etc.), but often to the benefit of themselves, not their customers. To date, online stores function fairly well for those customers who already know what they want. For the vast majority of customers who are "shopping" (comparing products, prices, benefits, or other factors, or those who needing some explanation, convincing, or elaboration), online stores are not fulfilling their needs like traditional ones can.
Features of commerce solutions include:
- Fulfillment Systems
- Ordering and Tracking Systems
- Customer Information Management Systems
- Transaction (shopping cart) Systems
- Credit Card Verification and Ordering Systems
- Secure Transactions
- Data Warehousing
- Cataloging Systems
Online commerce solutions are often coupled with other types of online solutions, including any of those listed here, in order to be more successful. Simpler commerce systems are among the easiest to build from available tools but the more complex, rich, and successful merchandising sites are much more difficult to create. This is mostly due to the rarity of models to follow and lack sophisticated tools to allow true merchandising and the development of rich customer relationships.
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