The heart of the manufacturing world was the first region to feel the effects of the pandemic. While we have seen some stabilization, many challenges remain in terms of pricing, reliability, and the supply chain itself. Let's take a closer look at these challenges to better understand how best to navigate sourcing essential products from Asia in the current landscape. [More...]

Some years ago, Marc Benioff told me he was not interested in developing back office apps that would compete with SAP and Oracle in the ERP and finance market. Many people, myself included, looked askance at that idea and wondered out loud how the company would continue to grow because, hey, there's front office and back office and nothing else right? Nope. [More...]

Shoppers are starting to come back to their favorite brick and mortar storefronts as the pandemic restrictions allow consumers to exit from lockdown. But the impact of COVID-19 has etched some far-reaching changes in the retail industry that will not set back the strides online shopping has gained since March. That is a conclusion clearly visible in research published last week by TrustRadius. [More...]

Marketers at B2C companies realize that personalization is key to business, but they are having problems implementing personalization strategies, according to a recent survey by Adweek Intelligence in association with IBM Watson Advertising. "Defining personalization has to start, stop and be continuously refined through the sole lens of the customer," Liz Miller, a principal analyst at Constellation Research advised. [More...]

The cloud is an essential component of all e-commerce sites. Not all clouds, however, are created equal. The key thing here is reliability. Making sure that the cloud service and Service Level Agreement (SLA) are right for your business may not be clear before you enter into a website development contract. [More...]

If you search for "why CRM fails" you get over three million results. Analysts report that close to half of all CRM projects fail and about 40 percent of CRM software purchased goes unused -- because sales teams don't want to use software that makes them glorified data entry clerks and still doesn't "work." As a CRM industry veteran, this ongoing failure rate hits close to home, and in my experience is much higher. [More...]

In the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic this spring, entrepreneurs Rebecca Cahua and Vivian Qu joined forces, skills, and teams to create and bring to production a reuseable nanofiltration mask that combines a high level of filtration with breathability and comfort. The E-Commerce Times spoke with Cahua and Qu to hear the story behind their new mask. [More...]

Online sales are projected to surge even after America reopens for business. "One of the first things companies will need to do is make sure their technology infrastructure is equipped to handle the increase in traffic," Ryan Gellis, Founding Partner at RMG Media, told the E-Commerce Times. "The best marketing campaigns are only as good as the weakest infrastructure to support them." [More...]

Accuracy means getting the right answer. Precision is about getting the right answer time after time. In a CRM situation an algorithm that gets the right answer is accurate and nice (we got the deal!) but if the business process supported by CRM has a lot of returns or unhappy customers, it's not very precise. [More...]

Amazon is rolling out a system that combines artificial intelligence and augmented reality to help workers maintain social distancing in the workplace. The new system has been deployed at a handful of Amazon buildings, but the company plans to deploy hundreds of the units in the coming weeks. Augmented reality is used to create a magic-mirror-like tool that enables workers to see their physical distance from each other. [More...]

A new e-commerce partnership could bring 1,200 Shopify small business sellers to the Walmart Marketplace this year. Walmart's top e-commerce priority for years was to build a marketplace customers would trust. The company has joined forces with Shopify, an all-in-one commerce platform used by more than 1 million businesses, to open the Walmart Marketplace to its sellers, said VP Jeff Clementz. [More...]

Online medical appointments have become commonplace during the pandemic, and they're likely to continue, even as in-person medical visits resume. The convenience, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of telemedicine will make it a vital part of comprehensive medical care in the digital age. "Both patients and providers can benefit," said Mia Finkelston, MD, medical director at Amwell. [More...]

Verint has announced new capabilities within its workforce management solution that automate compliance with CDC guidelines to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection as employees transition back to the workplace. New workflows automatically create a comprehensive schedule that is prescriptive, while including traditional workforce management criteria such as skill level, channels and peak hours. [More...]

The COVID-19 pandemic will be one of the defining events of our lifetime. The economic consequences will last years and forever change consumer behavior. Over the last 30 years, experts have been studying the slow burn of consumer adoption of new technologies. Never have we witnessed adoption rates accelerate to the degree we saw in the last 60 days in e-commerce and video-conferencing. [More...]