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Online Retail
Accelerate Online Retail by Delivering a Fast and Reli-able Consumer Experience
Akamai in
As worldwide broadband penetration increases, so do consumer expectations.
Fortunately, Web 2.0 has arrived. Web 2.0 is a key reason that consumers are
increasingly turning to the Web for entertainment and information, and as their
primary shopping channel. As a retailer, Web 2.0 offers you an unprecedented way
to interact and connect with shoppers, build stronger brand loyalty, and encourage
repeat purchases.
But while this revolution has enhanced your interactions with customers, it has also
shifted the balance of power to consumers. Through social media – such as user-
generated content and social networks – your customers can instantly share their
experiences – both good and bad – with others around the globe. Collaboration,
sharing, and community are the consumer requirements for today’s online retailers,
with rich internet applications enabling site differentiation.
Embracing Web 2.0 and Increasing Revenues What does this mean for you? It means you have to use Web 2.0 to your advantage.
Fortunately, a host of technologies allow you to do just that. A new generation of
Web applications called Rich Internet Applications – created using sophisticated
technology such as Macromedia Flash, Flex, and AJAX – enables rich interactions and
tailored experiences. Other technology, such as RSS, allows you to distribute positive
consumer reviews to relevant sites, such as shopping and travel sites.
What all of these technologies have in common is dynamically generated content
– that’s what enables rich interactions, social networks, and personalized experiences.
And it’s what is behind retail applications such as product confi gurators and store
locators – applications that are more important now than ever. After all, more and
more consumers are researching products on the Web before making their purchase
from a store or in a showroom.
SAMPLE COMMERCE SITE APPLICATIONS WITH DYNAMICALLY-GENERATED CONTENT
• Product confi gurator • Reservation system• Shopping cart• Store locator• Search• Real-time product catalog• Dynamic image rendering
Web 2.0: A New Era in Retail
“As Europe’s number one IT reseller, it is essential that our online channel works to our customers’ advantage as well as supporting our sales. Using Akamai means that we can offer e-mail image downloads to our customers and support online marketing campaigns that are both innovative and effective, giving our customers quick downloads and performance as well as a secure and reliable online experience. This is achieved without the huge infrastructure expenses that would normally be associated with our rapid growth.”
Robert Muir
European e-Commerce Manager, Misco
One-third of broadband consumers will wait no longer than 4 seconds for a page to load before abandoning the site.1 Jupiter Research
While dynamically generated content offers an unprecedented opportunity to
engage with your consumers, rendering pages on-the-fl y can lead to delays—and
even failures—in delivering content. And when you deliver dynamic content and
applications from your site, it places tremendous stress on your Web infrastructure. On
top of that, you must contend with Internet issues that are beyond your control. Such
problems may mean that prospects and customers experience poor performance – if
they can access your site or applications at all.
The fact is that traditional Web infrastructure does not cope effi ciently or cost
effectively with the highly variable and unpredictable nature of consumer demand –
especially in the era of Web 2.0. This unfortunate reality can turn the most successful
product promotion into a company’s biggest nightmare. As an overwhelmed Web site
buckles under heavy demand, hoards of frustrated and angry customers are left in its
wake.
Or consider this – what if 50% of consumers using your online store locator plan to
make an in-store purchase? If your store locator isn’t working, they might just turn to
your competitor instead. The same can be said of your shopping cart application – if
transactions are sluggish, your customers might decide to shop elsewhere.
When it comes to delivering dynamically generated transactions and interactive
content, your Web infrastructure must provide superior performance for all
consumers, regardless of their location. Your site must also scale to handle high traffi c
load during peak usage periods. And it needs to be available to your customers 24x7,
regardless of conditions on the Internet. Strong site performance and availability
enhance the customer experience and decrease the likelihood of abandonment. This
translates into increased conversion rates and revenues for you.
WITH AKAMAI, LEADING LABEL MAKER MANUFACTURER DYMO CORPORATION IMPROVED SITE PERFORMANCE, RESULTING IN:
Delivering Dynamically Generated Content: The Challenges
“We implemented Akamai Online Commerce in late September, Three weeks later we noticed a substantial downtick in our shopping cart
abandonment rate.”
Gavin Galtere
Director Network Operations, FootSmart.com
65% of online shoppers would stop or reconsider shopping at a company’s physical store if they had a poor online experience.2 Gomez. Inc.
85% 12% 10–12% Increase in online sales
Increase is site conversion rate
Increase in average order size
“Simply put, over our two years of experience with their services, Akamai consistently delivers 15% more buyers. It’s clear that our decision to work with Akamai back in 1999 is still one of the best business and IT decisions we’ve made”
Val Agostino, Director of Software
Applications, eBags
Akamai Dynamic Site Solutions enable you to accelerate dynamic, highly interactive
Web sites – making the Internet a reliable and effective channel for conducting
business. Built on the Akamai Platform – the most pervasive platform for content
delivery and Web site acceleration – the solution extends retail Web sites and
applications to the Internet edge. This means your content and applications are closer
to your consumers. Dynamic Site Solutions accelerate the end user response times
associated with today’s dynamically-generated applications as well as the interactivity
between the consumer’s browser and the site. The result is higher availability, superior
performance, and greatly increased scalability for your retail site.
Why Retailers Choose Akamai
Akamai Dynamic Site Solutions have helped many of the world’s leading retailers
embrace Web 2.0 and increase revenues. In fact, Akamai serves content and
applications for more than 300 of the world’s leading retailers, including the top 5
global e-retailers. The following case studies are examples of the many retailers that
have realized success via the Akamai network and Dynamic Site Solutions.
With Akamai Dynamic Site
Solutions, you can successfully
use Web 2.0 technologies to
enhance consumer interactions,
build stronger brand loyalty, and
increase revenues. Benefi ts of
Dynamic Site Solutions include
the following:
The Akamai Solution for Retail Success
Benefi ts of Akamai Dynamic Site Solution
“Our clients expect us to deliver quality video content where and when they need it, and in volume, so for us having Akamai as part of our delivery platform was the obvious choice.”
Steve Masters, Managing Director,
Laptopshop
“Increased site speed undoubtedly has been a major contributor to all of the benefi cial effects we’ve seen on our sites over the past few months. Without Akamai, there is no way that a 100% increase in online bookings could have occurred.”
Scott Ohman, Manager E-Business
Commercial, Cathay Pacifi c
SPEED
Dynamic Site Solutions accelerate the
delivery of both static and dynamic,
application-generated content, even
if it is uncacheable. The solution can
even manage application data calls
from the edge of the network, such
as for infrequently changing data that
is not time-sensitive. And it can apply
these technologies to dynamic content
associated with personalization. Dynamic
Site Solutions can even increase the
effective download speed of your
application content to consumers, as well
as accelerate the display of entire pages
– no matter what’s on the page. Even
during peak traffi c to your site, Akamai
ensures predictable site performance.
SCALABILITY
The solution absorbs your peak traffi c
– regardless of the number of site
visitors or their location – and eliminates
as many calls back to the origin as
possible. The large, globally distributed
EdgePlatform network enables this and
relieves you of the need to purchase
additional infrastructure
What’s at Stake?
“Because the site performs better, our customers’ shopping experience is more enjoyable, and that translates into increased sales.”
Mark Richardson, Creative Services
Director, Sierra Trading Post
“Apple and Akamai have consistently delivered the highest performance, highest quality streaming video and audio over the Internet.
Philip Schiller, SVP Worldwide Product
Marketing, Apple
According to IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), a quarter of all UK purchases
will be carried out online or via a mobile device by 2009. The IMRG also predicts that
e-retail sales in 2007 will rise by 40% to £42 billion and will account for nearly 40%
of all UK retail sales by 2020. If 2006 is any indication, this trend will impact retailers
signifi cantly. Here is just a sampling of how shoppers behaved in the UK in 2006:
90% of shoppers researched goods online – then bought them offl ine
And these trends will impact retailers in a range of industries. Consider what consumers are buying online in the UK4:
52% of consumers planned to reduce their high-street spending in lieu of online purchases
£30 billion of offl ine retail sales were impacted by Internet information, research, or incentives
Over half of adult Internet users buy holidays online
Around 1 in 5 users buy their groceries online
53% buy music and fi lms
AVAILABILITY
Regardless of what type of content you
are serving, your site must be available
for consumers to take advantage.
Unfortunately, Internet outages – beyond
the control of any single Web site – are
unpredictable and potentially costly in
terms of revenues and customer loyalty.
Dynamic Site Solutions identify and avoid
Internet problems by leveraging Akamai’s
globally distributed network of servers
coupled with advanced intelligent routing
technology. A failover option allows your
dynamic content to be delivered, even
when your origin site is unavailable.
SECURITY
In spite of the fact that your site and
applications are increasingly at risk
of outside attacks, you must ensure
uptime. But as a retailer operating on
razor-thin margins, you have to do this
without adding expensive equipment,
software, and personnel, or deploying
mirrored sites. Dynamic Site Solutions
uses techniques that deliver your content
and applications with the greatest speed
and reliability, even in the face of attacks
that affect the performance of the entire
Internet.
CONTROL
To fully benefi t from extending
dynamic content and rich Internet
applications across a distributed
network, you must maintain control
of your content. Akamai enables
you to confi gure how your content
is cached and served. You also have
access to reporting and alerting tools
that deliver insight into how your
extended content and application
infrastructure is functioning at all
times.
90% 52% £30
Around a third of Internet users purchase books, clothes, and sporting goods
35% buy tickets for events online
A fi fth of people buy their insurance online
1 in 3 Internet users buy computer software online.
When Marks & Spencer decided to enter the world of online commerce, it faced a
daunting challenge: living up to its reputation for high quality, value and service in
an entirely new channel. Part of the strategy called for making the online shopping
experience as rich and personal as possible, with thousands of high-quality images,
shopping tools, and other bandwidth-intensive features. What’s more, the retailer
needed to ensure availability and high performance through a variety of seasonal and
marketing-driven traffi c spikes. This included a series of online-only 20% discount
days that would be promoted via TV, radio, and print advertising—as well as online.
Why Retailers Choose Akamai
Akamai Acceleration Boosts Marks & Spencer’s Online Orders by 100%
“In 2005 we would not have been able to achieve what we did without Akamai. It is the cornerstone of our online business.”
Ian Christie, Head of IT Solutions, Marks &
Spencer Group
• Increased customer order rates by 100%
• Achieved a fi ve-fold increase in visitor traffi c and bandwidth capacity
• Improved page download times for 56K modems by 35%
Marks & Spencer implemented the Dynamic Site Accelerator solution and realized the following results:
• Gained capacity to process 300% more orders per hour during special promotions
• Exceeded previous daily trading revenue records by over 200%
Redcats® USA (formerly Brylane) is America’s Specialty Catalog and E-Commerce
Leader™, with 10 catalogs and 12 e-commerce sites representing well-known brand
names such as Chadwick’s of Boston, Lerner Catalog, Jessica London, and Lane
Bryant Catalog. In 2003, Redcats USA was experiencing exponential growth across its
family of Web sites, putting a strain on its infrastructure and creating a tremendous
workload for the IT staff. As traffi c surged with each new catalog released and
high-resolution images taxed their existing infrastructure, Redcats USA needed a
solution that guaranteed a quality online experience without breaking the bank. After
considering the deployment of a dedicated group of image servers to quickly and
reliably serve images, Redcats USA approached Akamai for a more holistic solution.
Why Retailers Choose Akamai
Redcats® USA Delivers Superior Online Experience for E-commerce Success
“Any serious business with an online strategy needs to consider the benefi ts of using Akamai’s solutions and services. I don’t know how we could accomplish what we do today without using Akamai. It’s the equivalent of a company not using a phone system. You simply need it to run your business.”
Alex Betancur, Vice President of Online
Technology, Redcats USA
• Quickly and reliably serves more than 200 million pages views per month
• Enables Redcats USA to capture more online sales
• Supports marketing campaigns, peak traffi c, and traffi c growth without operational costs
Akamai Dynamic Site Accelerator fi t the bill perfectly, allowing the retailer to realize the following results:
• Allows Redcats USA to provide a superior online experience
• Reduces Web infrastructure costs and simplifi es management
• Enables fast time-to-market for new brands
• Upholds brand image
As the largest hotel fi rm in the world, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) fi lls
535,000 guest rooms in 100 countries with 120 million customers each year. And
as an e-commerce industry leader, IHG was the fi rst to offer online reservations in
the hotel industry, and the fi rst to enable customers to review, cancel, or modify
reservations online regardless of the origin of the reservation. How does IHG support a
high level of functionality for such a large and geographically dispersed user group? It
partners with Akamai.
IHG recognized early that customers equated its ability to deliver excellent service
online with its ability to provide great guest experiences in the hotels themselves.
As part of a larger strategy to ensure excellence across all operational areas, IGH
deployed Akamai Dynamic Site Accelerator. The solution ensures that booking
applications and customer support tools work without fail. It also ensures that
users can easily take advantage of enhanced site functionality, richer content about
the company’s hotels, and useful personalization enhancements that make travel
management more convenient. “Akamai has had a positive impact on our Web business, which has translated into increased revenues for InterContinental Hotels Group.”
Dell Ross
Director of Global E-Commerce Services,
InterContinental Hotels Group
InterContinental Hotels Group Improves ‘Look-to-Book’ Conversions and Increases Online Revenues
Why Retailers Choose Akamai
• Increased online sales due to measurable improvements in page download time, transaction processing speed, and overall site availability
• Signifi cantly improved “look-to-book” conversion rate
• $3.5 million in reservations booked online each day
With Dynamic Site Accelerator, IHG saw the following results:
• 70% of bookings done via Web
• Site performance and availability upholds brand image
• Support peak traffi c without additional infrastructure
• Recognized by Keynote as having fastest site in industry
• Can support global customers without fail
In 2001, Sony Corporation and Ericsson formed Sony Ericsson Mobile
Communications to deliver accessible mobile multimedia communication solutions
to customers worldwide. Part of the initial sales effort of the joint venture was based
on providing an exceptional online experience to a growing customer base. That’s
why Sony Ericsson chose Akamai EdgeSuite to ensure consistent, reliable, and secure
delivery of its Web site content—and meet an aggressive launch schedule without
additional Web infrastructure build-out.
Realizing the importance of differentiation, Sony Ericsson quickly set out to develop
innovative, practical online applications such as a dealer locator, phone confi guration
tools, and screen image downloads—all to help its customers gain the most from their
phones and, in turn, drive customer loyalty. A high level of functionality – combined
with ease of use and reliable performance – became the driving force behind all
of Sony Ericsson’s Web sites. However, maintaining adequate performance for
increasingly complex Java-based applications proved diffi cult. The company quickly
dismissed the build out of data centers in several regions to support content delivery
to its international customer base. Instead, Sony Ericsson chose Akamai to both
extend and simplify a Web infrastructure that currently supports more than 60 sites
and millions of visitors each month—saving millions of dollars in the process.
Sony Ericsson and Akamai Launch a New Age in Mobile Communications
Why Retailers Choose Akamai
• Improved performance worldwide by reducing dealer locator application response time by over 400%
• Increased online application availability from 92% to 100%
• Realized substantial infrastructure savings from reduced bandwidth, hardware, networking, and maintenance costs
• Offl oaded nearly 100% of Java application server processing to the Akamai network
With the Akamai solution in place, Sony Ericsson realized the following benefi ts:
• Reduced cost per user session by 33%
• Simplifi ed e-business infrastructure (reduced servers by 65%)
• Streamlined application maintenance and content management to support corporate goals
• Enabled faster time-to-market and lower development costs through reuse of object-oriented development components
• Helping Sony Ericsson build brand equity through premium services
“It’s of critical importance that Sony Ericsson leverage the Internet’s reach and economies of scale to enhance existing business processes and uncover new opportunities. EdgeComputingSM for Java will allow us to deploy applications that meet our requirements for 24/7 global business operations.”
Mats Frisk, Core Application Architect,
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications
In January 1999, Victoria’s Secret aired its fi rst-ever Super Bowl commercial,
announcing a live Webcast of its Spring Fashion Show. The ad generated millions
of hits on www.VictoriasSecret.com within minutes, and the live Webcast drew a
record-breaking 1.5 million visitors worldwide. Success on this scale posed signifi cant
technical challenges, and many potential customers were unable to participate due to
the site’s inability to support the traffi c bursts.
In planning their next major online event, the 2000 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
Webcast live from Cannes, Victoria’s Secret faced a choice: purchase and deploy an
immense number of servers to handle short-duration, high-traffi c events, or look
for a more cost-effective solution to provide capacity on demand. They turned to
Akamai, in partnership with IBM, to help deliver an incredible user experience through
improved traffi c management and faster content distribution. By deploying Akamai
EdgeSuite and Akamai Streaming, the client team ensured that the glamorous, high-
quality images and video that represent the Victoria’s Secret brand would load quickly
and reliably – through any traffi c conditions.
Victoria’s Secret Web Site Raises the Bar on Customer Experience with Content Delivery from Akamai and IBM
Why Retailers Choose Akamai
• Building brand equity with high-quality images
• Record traffi c from improved site performance
Specifi cally, Victoria’s Secret saw the following results:
• Saved 1 million dollars in infrastructure investments
• Freedom to focus on functional site enhancements that grow the business
“It’s one of those great situations where everybody wins. Akamai enables VictoriasSecret.com to effi ciently distribute content for our global e-commerce site while reducing the load on our infrastructure. This provides customers a fast, seamless user experience.”
Chris Evans
Webmaster, VictoriasSecret.com
Deliver a Great Online Shopping Experience with Web 2.0 and Akamai
While competition for customers is increasing, so are consumer demands. With
Web 2.0 technologies, you can create an experience that takes advantage of the
latest online trends – and that satisfi es consumer expectations. But delivering that
experience in a way that assures a seamless and consistent experience is another
matter. Reliably and quickly delivering the dynamically-generated content that fronts
the majority of Web 2.0 technologies is beyond the means of any retailer’s Web site
alone. Fortunately, there’s Akamai Dynamic Site Solutions.
With Akamai Dynamic Site Solutions, dynamically-generated content is delivered
quickly and reliably – for each consumer. The solution enables you to accelerate your
transactional and highly interactive Web sites securely – making the Internet a reliable
and effective channel for conducting business. With Akamai Dynamic Site Solutions,
you improve the speed, availability, scalability, and security of your site – all while
maintaining full control over your content and applications.
Dynamic Site Solutions supports the successful Web 2.0 applications of many of the
world’s leading retailers. Whether it’s helping Marks & Spencer increase online orders
by 100%, allowing the InterContinental Hotels Group to deliver booking applications
and customer service tools without fail, or enabling AUDI AG to offer enhanced model
confi gurators and promotional microsites, the Akamai solution helps ensure e-retail
success.
To fi nd out more about how Akamai can help you deliver a great online shopping
experience for your customers, visit www.akamai.com.
Take the Next Step
“ Since implementing Akamai, our Website performance and availability have signifi cantly increased, and both Comet and its customers can have confi dence in the Comet Website as a secure and available environment to purchase goods online.”
Phil Smoker
e-commerce IS controller, Comet
“ It is an important part of Boots’ business planning to increase the proportion of our business coming from online customers. We have seen real performance improvements to our website since we started to use Akamai’s services. As we move through 2007 we anticipate seeing an increase in the contribution that our online business will make to our overall growth.”
Russell Harte
Business Systems Manager at Boots
“Only Akamai allows us to guartantee full availability of our servers from the instant that the customer wants to place an order online. This is the case, no matter how heavy the traffi c is, even during the holiday shopping rush.”
Guillaume Poitrat
Direction des Etudes DARTY
“ The Akamai solution corresponds precisely to what I wanted: the best availability for our Website at the best price. Without Akamai, it would have been necessary to increase the number of our servers by a factor or 10, or even more.”
Stéphane Rios
Responsable Technique de
RueDuCommerce
Akamai® is the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business
processes online. Thousands of organizations have formed trusted relationships with
Akamai, improving their revenue and reducing costs by maximizing the performance
of their online businesses. Leveraging the Akamai EdgePlatform, these organizations
gain business advantage today, and have the foundation for the emerging Web
solutions of tomorrow.
Akamai Technologies GmbHPark Village, Betastrasse 10 b D-85774 Unterföhring, Germany Tel +49 89 94006.0
U.S. Headquarters 8 Cambridge Center Cambridge, MA 02142 Tel 617.444.3000 Fax 617.444.3001U.S. toll-free 877.4AKAMAI (877.425.2624)
www.akamai.com
About Akamai
Akamai is “The Trusted Choice for Online Business.”
For more information, visit www.akamai.com
“Akamai supported 4X the normal traffi c load on BestBuy.com, serving over 6.5 billion total hits for the month — 95% of all of the total traffi c requests. By reducing the load on BestBuy.com servers the company signifi cantly increased conversions and revenues, while avoiding costly, complex infrastructure buildout that would have remained largely idle for the rest of the year”.
Tom Mundt, IS Director, BestBuy
©2007 Akamai Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in partin any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Akamai, theAkamai wave logo are registered trademarks.Other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.Akamai believes that the information in thispublication is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice.