E-Commerce
E-commerce, a growing extension of marketing automation and sales automation, drives sales by closing the deal through automated payments via e-commerce platforms. Here, find the latest news and strategies for deploying e-commerce business.
Top Stories
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News
05 Dec 2022
Salesforce CEO exodus: Taylor, Nelson, Butterfield out
Salesforce is once again a single-CEO company. Bret Taylor has resigned, with plans to pursue a new venture. Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Dec 2022
10 e-commerce marketing strategies for your business
Marketers have myriad tools in their belts -- from SEO to influencers to technology and tools. These strategies can improve anyone's e-commerce marketing plan. Continue Reading
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Guest Post
07 Nov 2022
Top e-commerce challenges for 2023 and how to overcome them
2023 will bring many e-commerce challenges that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, like international trade and rising customer expectations. Here's how to overcome them. Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Oct 2022
B2B vs. B2C e-commerce: What's the difference?
B2B e-commerce websites offer many ways to reach agents, whereas B2C sites prioritize self-service. E-commerce leaders must build their websites to meet their customers' needs. Continue Reading
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News
26 Aug 2022
Cloud e-commerce revives product information management tech
E-commerce managers have dusted off a tech oldie: the PIM system, 1990s tech that predates the internet's mass adoption. The new tools, of course, are way cooler. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Aug 2022
Top 10 e-commerce software companies
E-commerce platforms can help organizations design and operate engaging online shops. Companies like SAP have offerings for large enterprises, whereas GoDaddy and Wix target SMBs. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Aug 2022
Key steps for an e-commerce planning process
E-commerce can help organizations grow their business online, but the venture brings the most success if planned properly. These steps can start organizations on the right path. Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2022
Salesforce adds headless commerce capabilities
Salesforce enables 'composable commerce' -- headless e-commerce, where users bring their own interface designs -- for large brick-and-mortar retailers and online-only sellers. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jul 2022
SAP green CX tech aids sustainable retail, B2B sales
SAP users can tackle sustainable e-commerce -- and be accountable to customers wary of 'greenwashing' -- with a bundle of Qualtrics, CDP, e-commerce and other tech tools. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jun 2022
Salesforce users get more low-code automation, including RPA
Salesforce integrates MuleSoft RPA and Composer with Salesforce Flow, which avails low-code process automation and bot creation to line-of-business users. Continue Reading
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News
08 Jun 2022
Salesforce moves forward with controversial NFT Cloud pilot
Salesforce integrates with TikTok and adds marketing and e-commerce features to its platform -- including NFT Cloud, which sparked controversy earlier this year. Continue Reading
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News
06 May 2022
Square exec discusses metaverse, electronic payment trends
Millions of physical and online merchants use Square's payment processing services. We discuss retail tech trends with Roshan Jhunja, Square head of retail. Continue Reading
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News
02 May 2022
Metaverse shopping 101, from Forever 21's Roblox store creator
The founder of the agency behind Forever 21's Shop City explains what it is -- and what it isn't -- and what retailing in the metaverse will eventually look like. Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2022
AI virtual assistant grooms skier experience at Snowbird
Using an AI-powered chatbot designed with the friendly likenesses of avalanche dogs, the famed Utah ski resort is able to quickly respond to customers' questions. Continue Reading
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News
22 Apr 2022
Retailer: Informed humans still the hottest e-commerce trend
Sweetwater, the largest online audio gear and musical instrument retailer, uses AI to augment -- not replace -- its agents. Mike Clem, chief growth officer, explains why. Continue Reading
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News
30 Mar 2022
New Google Cloud retail tool targets search abandonment
The new tool is aimed at providing better results for online shoppers. It understands user intent and context, provides results for broad inquiries, and includes semantic search. Continue Reading
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News
29 Mar 2022
It's coming: The wild world of metaverse shopping
Gap and PacSun lead the way in NFT experiments, as retailers and analysts ponder the revenue potential of selling virtual products in the metaverse. Continue Reading
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News
11 Jan 2022
Instacart, McDonald's, Target share digital marketing strategies
Customer experience leaders discuss strategies to accommodate customers who want contactless shopping, those who want in-person sales, and everything in between. Continue Reading
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News
29 Nov 2021
Technology drives holiday shopping for retail, e-commerce
Black Friday e-commerce sales maintained 2020 gains. Retail traffic is up but hasn't rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Technology, supply chain, COVID-19 variants all factors. Continue Reading
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News
09 Sep 2021
Infosys releases headless commerce services bundle
Infosys breaks down Skava, an e-commerce startup it acquired in 2015, into e-commerce, marketing and merchandising microservices, and renames it Equinox. Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2021
Adobe, Salesforce expand health clouds
Adobe releases Experience Manager for Healthcare and plugs its CDP into marketing and clinical data; Salesforce releases healthcare features. Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Jul 2021
Brands opt for headless e-commerce vs. traditional commerce
For large enterprises, headless commerce breaks down websites into user-friendly modules marketers can update. SMBs can also use it, paired with WordPress and other simple tools. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jun 2021
E-commerce giant Shopify upgrades Liquid, dev tools
Buoyed by the pandemic e-commerce boom, Shopify rolls out upgrades for no-code, low-code and pro-code offerings for its web platform -- and rewrites APIs to make stores faster. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jun 2021
SAP Spartacus, headless and Commerce Cloud take center stage
In the wake of the pandemic, SAP users focus on e-commerce, and SAP puts new emphasis on headless configurations as well as its Upscale Commerce package. Continue Reading
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News
02 Jun 2021
Salesforce plugs CDP, WhatsApp into marketing, e-commerce
Salesforce connects its CDP to its platform's customer loyalty tech; Marketing Cloud integrates WhatsApp, SnapChat ads and Datorama advanced analytics reports. Continue Reading
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News
02 Jun 2021
SAP Upscale Commerce gets reboot
SAP relaunches its Upscale Commerce, first released three years ago to little fanfare, to a broader midmarket base to compete with Shopify's top-end offerings. Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Apr 2021
How post-pandemic B2B e-commerce tech stacks will look
What will B2B e-commerce look like in the post-pandemic world? Experts and tech leaders share how COVID-19 fueled big changes and what's next. Continue Reading
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News
18 Feb 2021
Amazon bolsters e-commerce for small business with Selz buy
Australian e-commerce platform Selz may have caught Amazon's attention because it employs Liquid, Shopify's template language, which will simplify migrations. Continue Reading
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News
08 Feb 2021
Adobe releases headless commerce developer tools
At its developer conference, Adobe debuts Experience Manager features to enable faster headless e-commerce deployments and GraphQL functionality for content personalization. Continue Reading
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News
14 Jan 2021
Capitol riots spark e-commerce terms of service enforcement
Shopify, Salesforce and Google take action in wake of Capitol riots, as adware and customer experience platforms play an uncomfortable role in political events and discourse. Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2020
Holiday e-commerce set to surge
Adobe looks at e-commerce trends to predict holiday buying, while Salesforce surveys thousands of B2B buyers and consumers about what motivates their buying choices. Continue Reading
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News
08 Sep 2020
Salesforce e-commerce capabilities to expand with Mobify
Salesforce beefs up its headless e-commerce platform capabilities for enterprise retail customers with the acquisition of Mobify, a Canadian headless commerce hosting vendor. Continue Reading
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News
18 Aug 2020
E-commerce business growth slows, but still a boom period
As the world partially reopens businesses shuttered due to the pandemic, new e-commerce tech investments may make gains from earlier this year permanent. Continue Reading
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News
21 Jul 2020
Salesforce beefs up e-commerce order management features
Salesforce adds B2C-friendly order-management features to support internationalization of e-commerce, as well as pre-built integrations to channels such as Google and Instagram. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jun 2020
As stores reopen, e-commerce is king in luxury retail
Brick-and-mortar stores are reopening, but that doesn't mean retailers should lessen focus on online experiences. Olivela, a luxury retail company, strategizes for beyond COVID-19. Continue Reading
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News
17 Jun 2020
Magento e-commerce content tools get Adobe AI boost
Adobe connects its Product Recommendations engine to Magento Page Builder to give users a no-code AI tool that offers different products to different customer segments. Continue Reading
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News
09 Jun 2020
Pandemic e-commerce trends point to massive growth
The pandemic caused consumers and businesses to form new online buying habits; now e-commerce is booming. That trend will hold for a year, or maybe forever, experts said. Continue Reading
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News
29 May 2020
Facebook Shops, Salesforce deliver quick e-commerce tools
During pandemic stay-at-home orders, Salesforce, Facebook and Instagram capitalize on the digital sales boom that resembles a three-month holiday surge that hasn't let up. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 May 2020
6 key benefits of headless commerce
Traditional e-commerce changed how businesses could sell products, but with headless commerce, organizations can better personalize the customer experience. Continue Reading
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News
07 May 2020
Salesforce Lightning App Builder adds low-code forms features
Salesforce Lighting App Builder will include oft-requested low-code features for building complex forms that previously required developer coding to create and update. Continue Reading
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Feature
01 May 2020
Email, social media marketing strategies adjust amid COVID-19
Businesses lean on email, social media marketing and softer brand messaging to keep customers engaged while the coronavirus keeps the world quarantined at home. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Apr 2020
3 tips for adding e-commerce to an existing website
While many businesses realize the necessity for e-commerce functions on their websites, they should be sure to focus on the customer journey and maintaining consistent experiences. Continue Reading
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Feature
26 Mar 2020
Top 3 ways to increase engagement in e-commerce
Engagement is a key component of relationships between customers and businesses, and it is essential for fostering an exceptional customer experience. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jan 2020
Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle launch retail customer experience tools
Retailers get new tools from leading customer experience platform vendors to better compete with online-only rivals. Continue Reading
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News
10 Jan 2020
Elastic Path acquires Moltin for headless commerce, microservices
Elastic Path's headless approach to e-commerce takes a step in the SaaS direction as it acquires Moltin, which specializes in microservices to enable online sales. Continue Reading
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News
16 Dec 2019
Episerver expands B2B e-commerce footprint with Insite acquisition
Episerver's latest purchase expands its DX platform. It follows a trend of web CMS companies moving into territory dominated by Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft and SAP. Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2019
Rent the Runway CEO discusses IT challenges, CX strategy
Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman shares the company's CX strategy, describes its customer data collection and use, and addresses recent IT upgrade challenges. Continue Reading
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News
22 Oct 2019
Adobe updates Magento Commerce, adds Amazon and Azure hooks
Adobe continues to support Magento Open Source but adds Azure support and AI tools only to the commercial version of the vendor's e-commerce platform. Continue Reading
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News
10 Oct 2019
Salesforce Lightning Order Management boosts e-commerce
Salesforce extends Customer 360 capabilities with a bundle of APIs to help users manage and track e-commerce orders and provide more detail to the customer as orders are picked, packed and shipped. Continue Reading
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News
22 Aug 2019
SAP Product Content Hub underpins CX initiatives in C/4HANA
SAP SaaS tool integrates AI, APIs for pushing updated product content to e-commerce sites. It also gives sales, marketing and service teams using C/4HANA access to the content. Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Aug 2019
7 ways to improve your retail sales
Retailers, especially traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, need to throw caution to the wind and follow these seven tips to spur sales and provide remarkable retail. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jun 2019
Target glitch pits e-commerce vs. POS customer experience
Big-box retailer Target's checkout outage showed how e-commerce systems can fill in when POS systems fail. They're not quite ready to supplant POS -- but they're getting there. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2019
Adobe debuts Qualtrics plugin, Magento-Amazon D2C features
Adobe moves forward with an SAP Qualtrics plugin to measure voice of the customer on Experience Platform and strengthens Magento customers' Amazon presence with new features. Continue Reading
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News
11 Apr 2019
Google Cloud for Retail debuts, Contact Center AI makes inroads
Google takes on cloud competitors by making an AI-rich home for online and bricks retailers with new suite. Also: Google Call Center AI extends to Genesys, Avaya, Salesforce, more. Continue Reading
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News
10 Apr 2019
Reimagined customer experience mobile apps driving new sales
Mobile and lightweight web apps aren't new. But digital teams driving demand generation is new, thanks to marketing automation platforms that can personalize the pitch. Continue Reading
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News
28 Jan 2019
Adobe Magento Commerce Cloud adds progressive web apps
Adobe is upgrading its e-commerce product by adding AI-fueled image-search capabilities and progressive web application building tools to Magento Commerce Cloud. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jan 2019
CX strategy a vital part of modernizing a business
Consumers are providing retailers with more data than ever before, with expectations that they will receive a personalized experience. But that can be challenging for retailers. Continue Reading
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Podcast
14 Jan 2019
Salesforce e-commerce upgrades put focus on mobile
Salesforce Commerce Cloud mobile-centric, consumer-focused upgrade unveiled at NRF 2019 conference, including Einstein Visual Search and Einstein Recommendations. Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Dec 2018
Customer data to play important role in CX software in 2019
Analysts see customer data continuing to be the main objective for CX companies, and that integration between platforms and third-party applications will grow in importance. Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Jul 2018
Augmented reality in retail transforms customer experiences
Retailers like Hershey's are experimenting with augmented reality to take the customers' experience beyond a smartphone screen and drop it into their living rooms. Continue Reading
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News
23 May 2018
Adobe acquisition of Magento puts Salesforce in its sights
Adobe looks to challenge Salesforce by adding e-commerce capabilities into its CX suite of products, just months after Salesforce doubled down on e-commerce with CloudCraze purchase. Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Feb 2018
Blockchain loyalty programs building future of customer experience
While blockchain platforms are still under construction and use cases are still being written, Hooters invests in its own. Others -- including employee rewards -- are to come. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Oct 2016
Omnichannel data at core of new commerce offerings
SAP's Beyond CRM initiative and Salesforce's Commerce Cloud are going after customer data silos and trying to create a truly omnichannel picture. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Jul 2016
Salesforce rallies in retail with purchase of Demandware e-commerce
Now that Salesforce has purchased Demandware, it's positioned to compete with vendors like Oracle and even Amazon for market share. Continue Reading
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Answer
14 Jul 2009
Three management tips for overseeing call center agents on night shift
There are psychological and medical challenges for call center agents working the night shift. Hear management tips from Donna Fluss for managing night shift call center agents. Continue Reading