7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
1/7
1Dierentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce Imperative
Contents
Creating One Experience for Customers 2
Brand Consistency 2
Real-Time System Of Reference 2
Continuous Customer Engagement with Mobile 3
Open Foundation 4
OmniCommerce Maturity Model 4
Services 5
Lifecycle 5
Global 6
Localized 6
About hybris 7
Differentiated Commerce:The OmniCommerce Imperative
How the Convergence of Digital and PhysicalCommerce is Driving the Future of Commerce
Physical and digital commerce are converging at an incredible pace driven byhighly connected customers who demand experiences that adapt to their modeof purchasing and shopping. This opens the door for a new imperative known as
OmniCommerce, which favors a customer-centric approach over channel-specificprocesses. Success in commerce now depends on real-time views of customers,inventory, and data to build an intimate understanding of their commerce behavior.Implemented correctly, an OmniCommerce business model and platform boostsorder amounts, optimizes lifetime customer value, and fosters gains in loyalty andcustomer intimacy.
Emerging commerce technologies that are robust, flexible, scalable and channelagnostic are enabling companies to capitalize on the physical and digital conver-gence, and deliver a differentiated commerce experience.
This paper explores how OmniCommerce enables businesses of all types and sizesto keep up with today's highly demanding customers and describes growth oppor-tunities that are available through embracing a new way of conducting commerce.
7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
2/7
2Dierentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce Imperative
must distinguish itsel consistently wherever a customers
engage the brand and companies are investing heavily and
changing business models to respond to that change.
In the retail industry, this change in customer relationship is
being acknowledged (see let side o the gure below). Silos
are out, brand consistency is in. Brands need to be consis-
tent across all physical branding elements: in-store signage,shel labels, catalogs, and product displays; their digital coun-
terparts: product content, visual assets, price and promotions
on own sites and marketplaces; and across all accessible via
smartphones, tablets, PCs, and kiosks.
Real-Time System Of Reference
Customers now demand immediate response, want oers
served up when they want them, and expect companies to be
responsive to their preerences, not just their purchase history.
Just as brands want a single view o their customer, the cus-
tomer wants a single view o them; including products, pricing,
promotions (even comparisons to a companys competitors!),
inventory availability at preerred locations, their own orders
and their recorded preerences.
How businesses respond to these demands are key in determining
the winners in commerce. Even though these requirements are
seldom supported, even in part, by legacy commerce platorms,
companies need not ace a daunting rip and replace systems
approach; instead, companies need an integrated system o
reerence that sits above traditional transactional and less agile
systems o record, such as ERP. An integrated system such as
this shares the required inormation in real-time at the point
o need to the customer, sales associate or ulllment person.
It also is a workhorse which synchronizes with older, legacy
systems around basic transaction elements, and can provide
much richer customer engagement without requiring immediate
displacement o established systems.
Creating One Experiencefor CustomersIn moving rom channel-centric business models to one where
customers can expect a relevant, contextual and consistent
experience across every channel, companies need a single
commerce technology platorm that:
Enables brand consistency, in terms of the context of
underlying assortments, offers, promotions content and
policies, across all customer touchpoints
Provides a real-time system of reference that enables
single views of product, pricing and promotions, inventory,
orders and customers
Incorporates mobile as essential for continuous customer
engagement
Is built on an open foundation that easily integrates legacysystems as well as emerging touchpoints and experience-
focused technologies
All o these platorm unctionalities are needed to achieve optimum
levels o customer engagement and commerce eectiveness.
Brand Consistency
Establishing consistent brand messaging and dierentiation
is becoming more dicult as consumers develop impressions
about brands rom inputs and infuencers outside a marketers
control, such as social communities, orums, and product
ratings and reviews. Further, companies traditionally have
been able to oer distinct channel (whether physical or digital)
assortments, prices, and promotion policies while remaining
in-step with individual channel competitors. But customers are
orcing a change: they dont see channels; thereore, a brand
Crosschannel Opportunities "Very Important"The Opportunity Dened Customer vs Product
Create a single brandidentity across channels
Leverage customersknowledge and inormationassets across channels
Use the digital channels toprovide rich content aboutour products and services
Use the digital channels tobuild a sense o "commu-
nity" around our Brand
Allow the customer topurchase, take delivery, orreturn the product throughthe channels o their choice
Improve operationalexecution across allchannels
Allow inventory allocatedor one channel to be usedor another channel'sulllment
Winners Others
85 %
74 %
74 %
82 %
79 %
69 %
70 %
79 %
74 %
57 %
58 %
74 %
56 %
50 %
Omni-Channel 2012: Cross-Channel Comes o Age 2012 Benchmark Report RSR Retail Systems Research Nikki Baird and Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partners June 2012
7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
3/7
3Dierentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce Imperative
This means rich support or both, internally and externally
sourced product content, access to large data stores o
structured and unstructured data, and unied order processes
that synchronize with underlying ulllment and supply chain
systems. It also means that ulllment moves beyond channel
silos. As shown in the right side diagram page 2, retailers see
the need or seamless channels, either to save the sale in
the case o a stock-out in a store, or ulll a sale made online.
Continuous Customer Engagementwith Mobile
According to Mobile Commerce Forecast, 2012 to 2017, by For-
rester Research1, the exponential growth o mobile commerce
is transorming customer shopping habits. The report ound
that mobile retail and travel spending increased by 80 % in
2011 and is projected to more than double by the end o 2012.
It also shows that retail represents mobile commerces astest
growing category, generating $ 25 billion in 2017.
There are 3 major roles or mobile in an OmniCommerce
uture:
Provide a touchpoint or on-the-go customer when they
want to research, decide, and locate products and services
Bridge all possible touchpoints or continuous on-line and
o-line engagement with customers
Open commerce pathways that are time and location
aware but gated by person or machine
Mobile devices can enable and accelerate competitive intensity;
they weave together your ofine and online customer activity
but also position your competitor only a click away.
1 Forrester Research, Inc., August, 2012.
Consumers Now Expect
OmniCommerce Capabilities
Recently, hybris commissioned a survey o more than 500
consumers in the U.S., across income levels and ages,
with an equal distribution o genders. The survey oundthat shoppers now routinely expect that their avorite
retailers will be accessible to them anytime, anywhere,
via any channel:
Almost hal (45 %) o respondents indicated that
in-store pickup options or online purchases were
most important.
Nearly a third (28 %) o consumers selected in-store
returns or online purchases as most valuable.
Source: hybris 2012 Order Management Consumer Survey
E-Commerce Site Integration in IR 500
Source: Social Commerce IQ: 8thBridge, December 11, 2012
Implication? Future commerce platorms must connect easily to evolving applications and networks as there will always be a
rising star in any given year, just as many o the hot brands engaged their customers on Pinterest or the rst time in 2012.
As Facebook seeks to translate its social media users into a social commerce users, some relative newcomers, like Pinterest,
have received more avorable ratings. Forrester Research noted, user receptiveness to product marketing on Pinterest is
about double (42 %) that o Facebook (22 %) in useulness or product discovery. Regardless o which is more eective in social
commerce, integration to social media and social commerce sites are oten required or todays brands. The chart bellow
illustrates how mainstream integration such as sharing via social media has become. It also highlights how relatively new
platorms such as Pinterest and Facebooks Custom Open Graph gain adoption quickly in todays market.
Ratings &Reviews
77 %
Like Button onProduct Page
64 %
Twitter ShareButton
61 %
Pin It Button
51 %
Google+Button
36 %
Facebook Logineither Websiteor Social App
12 %
Facebook SocialExpression(Custom OpenGraph)
4 %
WebsiteSocial App
4 %
7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
4/7
4Dierentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce Imperative
OmniCommerce Maturity ModelIn a relatively short period o time, commerce has seen signicant changes and advancements rom traditional selling strategies o thepast decades. It has moved rom big box ormats (stack it high and let it fy) that streamlined supply chains and economies o scale to
drive down prices (while simultaneously expanding assortments), to Internet-only models without a physical component but with equally
ecient supply chains ocused on personalized delivery o individual orders.
In the diagram below, the horizontal arrow under the pyramid depicts traditional physical relationship sellers on the let retailers,
distributors, and manuacturers who operate brick-and-mortar stores, branches, wholesale warehouses, or distribution centers.
Some may also use printed catalogs or direct sales personnel targeting consumers and businesses. On the right are newer, digital,
e-commerce or m-commerce enterprises that dont have many physical assets, stores, or branch locations. These include web-based
digital properties, kiosks, and television-based shopping channels where customer interaction is 100% virtual.
As internet penetration has ramped up, there has been movement upward and across this continuum as traditional brands have trans-
ormed more narrow channel-centric models into multi-channel, cross-channel orms to dierentiate themselves using combinations
o physical commerce and digital commerce such as buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS).
However, physical and digital businesses now need to move beyond multi-channel and cross-channel ormats, and disparate technology
platorms. In order to secure their position one o the commerce leaders o tomorrow, companies must dierentiate their commerce
oerings by implementing an OmniCommerce business model.
Selling VehiclesPh sical Di ital
OneExperience
ChannelCentric
CommerceDifferentiation
Omni-Commerce
Multi/Cross-Channel
Traditional
OmniCommerceTMMaturity Model
- Store/branch- Catalog/Flyer- Sales Reps
- Website- Mobile- Kiosk
- BOPIS- Endless aisle- Customer
linkage
- Services- Lifecycle- Localized- Global
Evolving
Open Foundation
OmniCommerce strategy requires a strong and open oundation
that consists o two key elements:
Native support by the commerce platorm or all physical
and digital touchpoints
Ease in connecting to new and legacy external applica-tions, networks, and data stores
A common core that seamlessly executes across a variety
o rapidly evolving devices, orm actors, and selling tools is
essential to serving customers in the manner they demand.
Many location-specic technologies were built or standalone
operation with periodic updates. Endpoints, such as point-o-
sales devices or a sales reps order book, are now migrating
to new, end-to-end processes and platorms.
Ease o connecting is also key to the next generation o commerce
platorms, whether it is integrating with older enterprise systems
or linking with ast evolving technologies. When customers dis-
cover a compelling experience through a new technology, their
pace o adoption and that o sellers can be extraordinary, as
happened in Social Media with Pinterest. Supporting both legacy
and emerging technologies requires commerce platorms to
have open, fexible architecture built on modern technology.
7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
5/7
5Dierentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce Imperative
Services Oering high-touch personal services to
customers, staves o commoditization.
Liecycle Greater ocus and interaction on the customer
journey throughout the entire product liecyle.
Global Compelling revenue growth opportunities liebeyond most companies home markets.
Localized Capturing customers across every stage o
the purchase liecycle and serving up highly personalized,
interactive and localized experiences.
Services
Commerce based on high-touch personal
services (such as call center, concierge
shopping, etc) oers companies a path to
combat the commoditization o productsresulting rom e-commerce transparency
and site prolieration. Brands can bundle
services to dierentiate products warranties, installation,
subscriptions, automated replenishment orders, design services,
remote video chat, among others. For some industries, such as
mobile telecomm providers, Maintenance Repair and Operations
(MRO), and Do-It-For-Me in home improvement, the service oer
can be key to a sale.
Oten, the services oered may not have a discrete price; rather
they are part o a total customer service experience as custom-
ers are supported with sales associates armed with technologies
Services Market as an Untapped
Opportunity
According to the U.S Bureau o Economic Analysis, $ 10.7
trillion o the $ 15.1 trillion produced in 2011 went toward
personal consumption, o which goods contributed just
under a quarter, or $ 3.6 trillion (split among non-durable
goods at 16 % and durable at 7 %). However, more than$ 7 trillion in services was produced in 2011, reaching
46 % of GDP.
B2B plus B2C
The spectacular rise o consumer acing internet compa-
nies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and other smal-
ler consumer web companies has kept attention on B2C.
Nonetheless, Forrester estimates that by the end o 2013,
customer-acing ront-end B2B eCommerce will reach$ 559 billion, more than double the US B2C eCommerce
at $ 252 billion.
and inormation previously only used in call centers centers
which in turn are becoming robust solution centers that can
operate in both assisted and sel-service modes.
Either way, services can be the deciding actor or the increas-
ingly time-starved customer.
The commerce platorm must enable service oers as it:
Enhances connection to customers during and ater
the product purchase
Simplies the process or conguring, pricing, and quoting
products/service bundles
Oers an extension o the brand relationship that may
be hard or competitors to replicate
Addresses the relatively underserved commerce support
or this huge, complementary market
Lifecycle
Companies today have many models or
managing product liecycles, rom ull
vertical integration to a dedicated ocus
only on manuacturing, wholesaling, or
retailing. But as consumers use social
media and other emerging communi-
cation vehicles to engage with brands,
and as brands begin to collaborate and connect more directly withend-consumers commerce activity is increasingly moving rom
B2B or B2C toward B2B2C.
Differentiating Factors for Greater Growth
Just as there are our core elements or creating one experience or customers, there are our key elements that can can
assist businesses in ampliying their growth and establishing dierentiated commerce:
Services Lifecycle Global Localized
7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
6/7
6Dierentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce Imperative
It is easy to see this transition with established brands like
Amazon soliciting eedback and crowdsourcing digital con-
tent production or their Original Instant Video content or with
services like Kickstarter or Quirky who unction to establish
these engagements with emerging products and startups. Major
brands, who previously sold their products exclusively through
dealer networks and whose websites were ocused on product
inormation, now oer highly interactive brand-ocused experi-ences that allow consumers to purchase rom them directly. The
same sites also now oer consumer-like experiences to their
dealer networks.
Key to moving toward a higher level o active liecycle engagement:
Customers provide input into product design or assortment
Product visual and content assets are shared across web
sites and users generate content
Upstream brand owners increasingly have direct connec-
tions to end customers
This same consumerization is changing the B2B landscape
rapidly: B2B customers expect to be served with the same ease
o access and the same kind o control that consumers are
demanding. So whether you are a business in a B2B setting who
wants upstream control or are vertically integrated and want to
share assets across your operations, the commerce platorm you
choose must support a liecycle view.
Prof. Alex Pentland on Reinventing
Society in the Wake of Big Data
Recently I seem to have become MIT's Big Data guy, with
"Forbes" calling me one o the seven most powerul
data scientists in the world. I believe that the power o
Big Data is that it is inormation about people's behavior
instead o inormation about their belies This sort of
Big Data comes from things like location data off of your
cell phone or credit card, it's the little data breadcrumbsthat you leave behind you as you move around in the world.
as quoted in Edge, December 5, 2012
Consistent, global commerce assets suited or rapid expan-
sion in any country or region
Easy access to key technology support in-country or through
a ollow the sun remote model
Partners who support local greeneld operations, e. g. or
local ulllment, until scale is achieved.
Global growth is becoming one o the astest ways or a com-
pany to capitalize on new sources o revenue, as companies can
establish a commerce presence even prior to a physical location
presence. Nonetheless, eective brand management requires
global consistency. A commerce platorm must enable manage-
ment o languages, pricing, currencies, payments, taxes, product
lines, channels, and delivery methods as well as local customs,
habits and brands that dier rom region to region.
Localized
Localized commerce revolves around
capturing a customer across every
stage o the purchase liecycle and
using data-driven intelligence to serve
up highly personalized oers based
on GPS-dened customer location or
expressed preerences. It is the ideal
practice or brands interested in achieving a highly integrated lev-
el o OmniCommerce maturity, and can help businesses launch
targeted marketing initiative based on a sharp understanding o
buyer behavior.Global Growth
Global business-to-consumer e-commerce sales will
reach $ 1.25 trillion by 2013, base on a report by the Inter-
active Media in Retail Group (IMRG), a U.K. online retail
trade organization. B2C e-commerce sales in 2011 were
$961 billion, an increase o close to 20 % rom a year ear-
lier Chinas e-commerce sales grew more than 130 % in
2011. The United States remains the worlds single biggest
e-commerce market, IMRG says, ollowed by the United
Kingdom and Japan. IMRG estimates that growth rates in
those countries will be approximately 10 15 % a year.
There is no denying that local is having a transormative impact
on commerce even with niche solutions and social networks o
today. But the right commerce platorm needs to provide not
only a base to or big data insights across multiple touchpoints;
rather, localized commerce should:
Set a context in time, such as a point in a purchase cycle
Provide the context o a product solution or a local market
Aggregate local demand to enable scale eciency or
physical commerce locations
Global
Revenue growth opportunities available
from moving beyond the home market
are so compelling that manufacturers,
brands and retailers cant afford to wait to
make globalization a top priority. The abi-
lity to develop a global in a box template
for worldwide expansion is key to initial and ongoing replication
of global growth. Gone are the days when the assumption was
that an international brand would be a winner by default in a
new country. Given the intensity of market pressures and growth
imperatives, companies need a platform that has:
7/29/2019 Hybris Whitepaper omniCommerce
7/7
7Differentiated Commerce: The OmniCommerce ImperativeVersion: May 2013 Subject to change without prior notice hybris GmbHhybris is a trademark o the hybris Group. Other brand names are trademarks and registered trademarks o the respective companies.
Germany hybris GmbHNymphenburger Str. 8680636 Mnchen
Canada hybris Canada,Inc., 999 de MaisonneuveBlvd. West, 3rd Floor,Montral, Qubec, CanadaH3A 3L4
Australia hybris Austra-lia PTY Limited, Level 20,Tower 2 Darling Park, 201Sussex StreetSydney, NSW 2000
Austria hybris AustriaGmbH, Kirchengasse 481070 Wien
Benelux hybris Nether-lands B.V.Herengracht 2821016 BX Amsterdam
Brazil hybris SotwareBrasil Ltda., Av. NacoesUnidas, 14171 - Andar 15,Morumbi, CEP 04.794-000
Sao Paulo SP
France hybris AG1 Rue Deves92200 Neuilly-Sur-Seine
Great Britain hybrisUK Ltd.5th Floor, 2 CopthallAvenue
London, EC2R 7DA
Hong Kong hybris HongKong Ltd., 66/F, TheCenter, 99 Queens Road,Central
Italy hybris AGPiazzale Biancamano, 820121 Milano Brera, Italia
Japan hybris Japan K.K.Holland Hills Mori TowerRoP 502, 5-11-1 Torano-mon, Minato-ku, Tokyo105-0001
Nordics hybris SotwareAB, Fallhammargatan 872133 Vsters
Poland hybris sp. z o.o.ul. Zygmunta Starego 11a44-100 Gliwice
Switzerland hybris AGBahnhoplatz6300 Zug
United States Boston hybris US, 470 AtlanticAve, 4th Floor, Boston,MA 02210
United States Chicago hybris US, 1 SouthDearborn, Suite 2100,Chicago, IL 60603
About hybrishybris helps businesses on every continent sell more goods,
services and digital content through every touchpoint, channel
and device. hybris delivers "OmniCommerce": state-o-the-art
master data management and unied commerce processes that
give a business a single view o its customers, products and
orders, and its customers a single view o the business. hybris'
omni-channel sotware is built on a single platorm, based on
open standards, that is agile to support limitless innovation,
ecient to drive the best TCO, and scalable and extensible to be
the last commerce platorm companies will ever need. Both
principal industry analyst rms rank hybris as a leader and
list its commerce platorm among the top two or three in the
market. The same sotware is available on-premise, on-demand
and managed hosted, giving merchants o all sizes maximum
fexibility. Over 400 companies have chosen hybris, including
global B2B sites Starbucks, W.W.Grainger, Houghton Mifin
Harcourt and Thomson Reuters as well as consumer brandsBridgestone, P&G, Toys R Us, Levi's, and Galeries Laayette.
hybris has operations in 15 countries around the globe.
hybris is the uture o commerce. For more inormation,
visit www.hybris.com
The Future of Commerceis OmniCommerceAccording to B2C Commerce Suites, published by Forrester
Research2, 56 % o businesses are accelerating their invest-
ment in scalable commerce technology platorms, with 18 %
increasing this more than 20 % in 2012. Interestingly, 46 % o
companies are planning to upgrade their commerce platorm
in the next two years a statistic that highlights the industrys
commitment to systems that support an OmniCommerce strategy.
Technology is only one piece o the puzzle. True OmniCommer-
ce maturity can be achieved only i companies display a whole-
hearted commitment to the customer experience across every
aspect o the business. For commerce enterprises, this requi-
res adapting organizational structure to support and champion
this new strategy, and prioritizing the brand over disparate,
channel-specic processes. It also means embracing systems
that oer inventory visibility, real-time inormation and a single
customer view, and adapting emerging technologies that res-
pond to diverse customer needs.
Ultimately, OmniCommerce maturity depends on an agile,
scalable approach and the desire to embark on a business
evolution where the customer truly is the highest priority,
and the sellers core raison d'tre.
2 Forrester Research, Inc., September, 2012.