CRM & me: E-Commerce Management

Five months from now my life will change drastically. I will become a mom for the first time. As I like planning certain kind of things, I want to prepare myself as well as possible. I decided to give a try at today's world of online shopping. Many baby shops give a full online catalog and offer you to decide, compare, choose and pay online.  Once you are pregnant there are so many things which need to be taken care of, that checking out shops and buying necessary baby material online seems like the perfect choice. 

Full of excitement I positioned myself in front of my computer and started my search for baby products. The first web shop I came across was not clear at all; there were no hierarchically structured product search, no free form search, no pictures available and everything seemed all over the place. Questions immediately came to mind. Is this shop trustworthy? will my goods arrive on time? will it be the right goods? are the prices correct?... Let's say that I was not convinced. Moving on to the next web shop. Aha! This one was more clear. After browsing around the shop and comparing different products online, I decided to place my order. I checked out the shopping cart and paid online. Once this was done I received an email with my order number and the date on which I would receive my newly bought baby bed. 

One month passed and still no sign of the baby bed. I called the service centre of the shop and apparently something went wrong and there was no follow up whatsoever on the orders;  there even was no stock on my product!

I was shocked by the fact that things are still going so inefficiently when it comes to web shop implementation and follow-up of web shop orders. Distorted by my profession as a consultant I could not help thinking that this never would have happed if the companies from which I visited the web shop had implemented SAP Web Channel Experience Management. 

If the first company had used WEC E-commerce they would have offered me a clear product catalog. I would have had the possibility to browse to the products based on a hierarchical structure. I also would have been able to perform a free form live search, I would have started typing a search term into the search field and hits would have been shown as soon as they are available. In this way I could have found my product much easier and faster. I also would have had the possibility to compare the products and maybe some promotions would have been available. 

If the second company had used WEC E-commerce they would have offered me the possibility to view the product availability. At least I would have known that the product was out of stock and it would have taken the company more time to deliver the product. Clear information for your customer is a must! 

Finally the baby bed arrived just in time for birth! ï»¿

- Stefanie Reynaert, SAP CRM CONSULTANT ï»¿