Data Backup Digest

While the popularity of the modern online storefront is quickly catching on amongst retailers and consumers alike, the small and medium-sized businesses that are responsible for operating these sites often run into problems when trying to get a handle on the amount of big data their company is suddenly generating on a daily basis. Proactive and diligent e-commerce managers can prepare themselves by utilizing services like Sitecore Commerce for their merchandising and customer service needs.

In fact, those who are in the industry might already be familiar with the Sitecore name. As they've been around for a while, they've already been able to establish a reputation in one of the fastest and diversified industries. Sitecore Commerce is not exactly new to the scene, but a recent update, released just after the New Year, adds some significant enhancements to the company's flagship service.

A shortlist of upgrades includes management of the complete order lifecycle, increased support for the delivery and entitlement of digital goods, enhanced pricing capabilities and a streamlined developer interface the utilizes the Microsoft ASP.NET framework. In addition, the machine-learning algorithms seen in the newly implemented Path Analyzer are a great way to track purchase habits and improve customer conversions.

Sitecore Commerce is currently the only cloud-based system that facilitates full-scale customer service management that is available to marketers and merchandisers. With the ability to accommodate content generation and management, online advertising campaigns and e-commerce in one platform, the service certainly outlines the entire customer experience on behalf of it users. The result is a highly intuitive, streamlined and accessible interface that houses more power under the hood than it initially showcases.

Ryan Donovan, senior vice president of product management with Sitecore, explained the need for a centralized repository that stores critical data related to e-commerce, Internet marketing and customer profiles. He was quoted as saying: "In a world where consumers are mobile and operating in real-time, brands are expected to deliver personalized customer experiences in context across any channel, but are frequently challenged with separate systems like commerce, web content management, and marketing automation systems. Sitecore Commerce solves the problem of the fragmented customer journey, thereby driving better insights and business results."

One method Sitecore uses to achieve such a high amount of synchronicity and centralization is the fact that they treat online content and e-commerce as a single entity. This allows for greater integration, brand development and marketing consistency across all platforms. Not only does this maximize profits on behalf of Internet retailers, but the improved customer experience offered by each company can boost the reputation of a niche that has suffered from some setbacks as of late.

Sitecore currently works with nearly 5,000 companies, including such prolific names as Carnival Cruise Lines, American Express, Pet Supplies Plus and more. To find out how Sitecore can help you achieve your goals in e-commerce, or to find out more details about Sitecore Commerce or any of their other products and solutions, please visit their official website at www.sitecore.net.