DOB O ONIN N IN MONTS - eCommerce | Personalization O ONIN N IN MONTS ... AND RUG COMPANIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, ... -Nancy Bullock, Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce, Design

© 2017 Kibo Software, Inc. kibocommerce.com

DOUBLE YOUR ONLINE REVENUE IN 12 MONTHSHow emerging brands and retailers can reach their best year yet

Some of the greatest innovations in retail are being made by emerging brands: Manufacturers and small retailers with unique, useful products that resonate with consumers both online and in stores. These growing merchants are agile, willing to experiment and they are looking to the future—whether that is moving into the realm of retailer by opening their first store, exploring franchising, adding other channels besides Amazon and eBay marketplaces or evolving their dealer and distributor network.

But moving to this next step in the retail evolutionary ladder is not without its challenges. Most emerging merchants are looking to scale rapidly, while still maintaining a bootstrap mentality (and budget). Here are the most common struggles for retailers and branded manufacturers:

Ý Accomplish more with what you have. Most emerging merchants are looking to maximize time, people and processes so they can run efficiently

Ý Outgrown your basic eCommerce website. Your platform with its 14-day free trial and selection of 100 templates no longer supports your increased traffic, brand loyalty and customer retention goals

Ý Need for more robust tools. Your teams need to be empowered to optimize merchandising, promotions, and discount, enable next-generation personalization reviews and advanced SEO, decrease shopping cart abandonment, and support responsive design.

Ý Manage inventory across all channels. Your organization adds new fulfillment locations to your mix (whether that is more stores, more warehouses, more drop ship vendors or a combination)

Ý Improve in-store capabilities. Adding capabilities such as endless aisle, ship-from-store, store transfers, point of sale, save the sale, in-store pickup and endless aisle

Ý Satisfy your customer. Seamless omnichannel shopping experience across all your physical and digital touchpoints is a must with today’s demanding customers.

Growing at scale is best achieved by implementing the right tools and technology. When merchants can automate previously manual processes, increase brand reach and improve visibility between growing channels, they can grow faster and more efficiently. But implementing new technology comes with an accompanying price tag, so how can you get the most bang for your buck?

Kibo White Paper Double Your Online Revenue in 12 Months


In this white paper, we explore the technology features that deliver the highest ROI to your organization, and the best omnichannel experience to your customers—maximizing your time and investment.

UNIFYING YOUR TECHNOLOGYIt is a common belief that implementing omnichannel requires numerous technology systems: point of sale (POS), order management, eCommerce, personalization —the technology list goes on. Unfortunately, most emerging merchants don’t have the expertise or resources to manage a slew of different platforms, so they have to make the difficult decision of whether to hire, contract or go without.

Fortunately, there is a solution. A few progressive commerce vendors offer a unified technology stack with everything on one centralized platform. Not only does a unified platform eliminate information silos, brittle integrations, enable management of multiple systems and duplicative data, but unified platforms are designed to help handle the auxiliary aspects of running your business, such as credit card processing, fraud prevention, website security, hosting, maintenance, upgrades and design. Who has the staff or bandwidth to take all this on themselves?

Additionally, a unified platform provides a better shopping experience for your consumer by streamlining the process from start to finish. With a technology system that recognizes a customer when they first arrive on your website, then continues that relationship across every touchpoint (including mobile devices, call centers and in the store), your organization can deliver the personalized touch that today’s demanding consumer has come to expect.

ADD CONFIGURABILITY, NOT CUSTOMIZATIONAt this point in a merchant’s growth curve, there is a need for more than starter templates and basic out-of-the-box offerings. But on the other end of the scale, emerging merchants do not need all the customization offerings that a behemoth retailer would require. Growing brands and retailers need the ability to easily configure their system, without involving a developer, outside consultant or IT team.

Too often, customizable features can end up being very expensive. Any change you need—whether that is an outside consultant to help make a large customization, a small follow-up change requiring additional contractor hours, or assistance upgrading to a new version—requires another dip into your pocketbook. A much better solution for an emerging merchant is to leverage a configurable platform that encourages and supports the ability for regular business users to make changes quickly and easily.

ADD AGILITY: KEEP PACE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERSEmerging merchants are typically agile in nature. Their nimbleness and flexibility is one of the dominant traits that positioned them for this leap to the next level. So implementing



technology that is not equally nimble can be an inhibitor, rather than a growth factor.

But what exactly does it mean to say your technology is agile? Agile technology traditionally allows merchant to easily make changes themselves, without IT involvement. It allows the merchant to keep pace with the speed of the consumer. Updates and improvements are quick to implement and allow you to run efficiently. For example, agile technology enables your organization to:

Ý Offer individualized shopping experiences based on an automated machine learning engine that adapts in real time

Ý Easily pick, pack and ship a ship-from-store order by any retail associate, regardless of their training level

Ý Simply change a promotion or discount on the fly

Ý Quickly update or promote merchandising to reflect a trend

Ý Turn on/off a store for ship-from-store with a click of a button to support traffic and inventory needs

SCALE YOUR BUSINESS: TECHNOLOGY THAT GROWS WITH YOUArguably, one of the worst things an emerging merchant can do at this point is to invest in a platform that will only support growth for another year or two. Growing companies need to look at technology that will support them over the next 5 years, not just the next 18 months. Emerging merchants may need to make a greater investment upfront to implement a more robust platform, but they will be making a long-term decision that supports growth of the company for years to come.

How can you tell if you are evaluating a growth vendor? First, look at their hosting options. Legacy, on-premise solutions are slow to update and evolve. With a cloud-based commerce suite, you will always be up to date on the most recent tools and features. Second, research the vendor’s partner network. Is the vendor constantly looking to partner with other innovative, growing vendors in order to offer their customers a best-of-breed solution that keeps them competitive? Smart merchants future-proof their businesses by investing in a platform that supports their processes, growth, and unforseen needs for the long term.

WE HAVE BOTH RETAIL STORES AND WE PARTNER WITH MORE THAN 1,000 FURNITURE AND RUG COMPANIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, BUT COMPANY C IS A VERY SMALL COMPANY. THE WEB TEAM IS ONE PERSON, MYSELF, SO WE REALLY NEEDED TO FIND A SYSTEM THAT COULD BE AUTOMATED AND STREAMLINED AND VERY EASY FOR ONE PERSON TO MANAGE. WE WANTED TO TAKE OUR COMPANY TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND WITH KIBO, COMPANY C HAS REALLY GROWN AND I SEE A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD OF US.

-Debbie Caamano, Web Marketing Manager, Company C



TAKING THE STEP: BEGIN YOUR INVESTMENTThis is an exciting time to be an emerging retailer or brand manufacturer. Retail technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace to keep up with demanding consumers’ needs and it is no longer just the Goliath retailers of the world who can take advantage of good commerce technology. By investing in a technology stack that is unified, configurable and designed to keep you agile, emerging merchants can maximize their time, people and processes to deliver superior omnichannel experiences across all touchpoints. Your best year is ahead—Take the step today and get started.

DESIGN TOSCANO IS A VERY SPECIALIZED COMPANY. WE ARE SMALL, BUT MIGHTY, AND WE REALLY WANTED TO FIND A GOOD PARTNER THAT COULD HELP US GET ONLINE AND SUPPORT OUR CATALOG BUSINESS WITH ANOTHER CHANNEL. KIBO ALLOWS SMALL COMPANIES LIKE DESIGN TOSCANO TO STAY COMPETITIVE AND TO PLAY IN THE SPACE IN A WAY THAT WE COULDN’T IF WE HAD TO DO IT ALL ON OUR OWN.

ONE OF THE GREAT FEATURES OF KIBO IS OUR ABILITY TO CONTROL SO MUCH OF THE EXPERIENCE IN MERCHANDISING AND MARKETING OUR PRODUCTS. IN THE ECOMMERCE SPACE, YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO GO FAST AND GO TO MARKET QUICKLY. KIBO ALLOWS US TO BE HANDS ON AND REALLY GET UP PRODUCTS QUICKLY AND IN A TIMELY FASHION. WE’RE ALMOST AT A POINT WHERE WE ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO DOUBLE OUR GROWTH IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS AND WE CAN DO THAT BECAUSE OF KIBO AS A MAIN PARTNER.

-Nancy Bullock, Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce, Design Toscano



Kibo is a leading omnichannel commerce platform for retailers and branded manufacturers with over 800 customers fulfilling orders in 75 countries. Clients achieve optimal performance and loyalty through truly connected customer experiences across customer devices and retail touchpoints. Kibo’s unified approach includes a leading ecommerce platform, big data 1:1 personalization, mobile POS, and distributed order management delivered via a modern, cloud-based infrastructure. The Kibo platform can scale as clients grow their business while maintaining a low cost of ownership and faster time to market than other solutions. Kibo enables you to reach higher peaks of sales and customer loyalty. No matter the challenge, Kibo powers your success.

ABOUT KIBO

To find out more about Kibo, call 877-350-3866 or visit www.kibocommerce.com

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Building a Business Case for Omnichannel Commerce

Avoid the Pitfalls of Retail: Technology with a Unified Commerce Platform

Documents

DOB O ONIN N IN MONTS - eCommerce | Personalization O ONIN N IN MONTS ... AND RUG COMPANIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, ... -Nancy Bullock, Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce, Design