Mens Et Opera - Reloaded

I recently had a chance to briefly speak with Adam Jacobs, MD and founder of The Iconic .  He’s a young and bullish entrepreneur who is doing a great job at cracking the serfdom of Australian shoppers created by the likes of David Jones and Myer. I asked him how he manages his “free three-hour same day delivery” service for those products that are on demand, i.e. not physically stored in the warehouse but still available on the website. I admit the question was thought-provoking because it brings up one of the challenges retailers face when they have a drop shipping program in place. But what's drop-shipping anyway? Imagine the possibilities for retailers to display a product on their digital channels without having it in their inventory. Exciting? Welcome to drop shipping! What has it got to do with The Long Tail? For those who have missed out the debate on ‘the long tail’, this is my capsule summary: retailers can grow sales in two ways, a) selling fewer popul...

How to help senior management understand the Web and adapt the business, culture, teams and workflows accordingly? No fluff, no theory — just techniques and strategies that worked in practice, and showed results.  This is the brilliance of Boag’s book. I normally find myself skimming business and marketing books, gleaning what I need. But I couldn't just glance at this one. Paul’s book  comes at a great time for me. I am staggered by the number of times I come across extremely obvious cases where a better digital adaptation would bring about superior customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. You see companies still battle with Omni-channel, in-store wi-fi, personalized product information, poor mobile presence, etc. One can think of these issues as just technical inefficiencies that will soon or later be overcome. Here is where Paul hits hard. He argues, that the Digital is fundamentally a cultural change. The hierarchical structure of (large) organisations doesn't si...

The newsletter I publish every month is actually a 4-page flyer with unique content to subscribers. I would like to invite you to subscribe. Or at least try it for few months and see whether it aligns with the world you are in now. Coming soon for all subscribers: White Paper -   Speaking to the C-suite about PIM What’s at the top of the C-level agenda and how PIM added value aligns to strategic vision. The form is on your right. Thank you. Michele

Hunter Valley, Australia Back from a fantastic 3-day event about online retail here in Australia. I wish I had the time to write an account of what I've learned, people I've met, and more importantly the great wine I tasted :-) One keynote session that I attended to was presented by a PIM vendor. I found it fine and informative. I also very much welcomed the effort of not mentioning the capabilities of their product and all the fluffy spin that you generally hear from vendors. Chapeau! However, in a split second she deftly found the opportunity to recommend retailers to forget the long tail and focus on the ‘head’. It is this focus on the head, the argument goes, that gives you a solid foundation to sell more. I have two problems with this argument but first of all, I'd encourage you to read what I wrote about the long tail here and here . In addition to that, I also have some reservations about the long tail strategy but they are of a completely different nature...

Social PIM is a term that has  recently   been growing in popularity and I suspect that it will be acquiring new meanings in the near future. I caught up with Kate Koltunova , CEO and founder of Actualog . She is a very motivated and determined individual with her own views on what social PIM is. I hope you enjoy her insights as I did. Michele: Let’s start with the basics. What is Social PIM, anyway? Kate: You see, today ‘social’ is an all-encompassing term and you will be very hard pressed to find a common definition…which is OK. My personal flavor of ‘social PIM’ is very simple. To me, PIM is a catalyst for collaboration among those who know product information better. We call these individuals Product Experts. The ‘social’ dimension is the common effort of the experts to come up with perfect, accurate, and fresh product information. M.: Interesting  flavor  of ‘social’ indeed. Could you give us an example? K.: I certainly can. Take a gas sensor. It ...