160 Presentation

Why Amazon is Not Enough: 

Why Amazon is Not Enough Towards the future of eCommerce and the Web Brett Lider 07 March 2005

Agenda: 

Agenda Foundations of Future Web What is the Future Web? Broad overview of Future Web’s composition Infrastructure Components A Future Web Architecture Deep-dive into one potential Web 2.0 application: C2B Better Bookshelves – a proposed C2B initiative IA’s and Future Web: a match made in heaven

Why Amazon is not enough, part 1: 

Why Amazon is not enough, part 1 It doesn’t really know you Has so many of the pieces, but not enough of the whole Siloed technical platform are what cause this Approaching the limits of traditional CRM/personalization How many eCommerce sites are in a similar position?

Defining the Future – Web 2.0: 

Defining the Future – Web 2.0 From the golden source, Wikipedia: Web 2.0 defines a newer incarnation of the World Wide Web typified by the transition from the typical website hosting HTML/XHTML pages, to a platform that provides a point of presence (sometimes known as a Web portal), from which any of the following interactions may occur: Syndication of content using XML based formats such as RSS, RDF, Atom, and others Aggregation of content published using XML based formats such as RSS, RDF, Atom, and others Publishing of invocation endpoints for XML based Web services (these may be of the SOAP/WSDL/WS-* variety of RESTian XML-RPC) Conventional publishing of HTML/XHTML documents Exposure of WebDAV based resources and collections

Some Components of Web 2.0: 

Some Components of Web 2.0 Social Networks (SN) Desktop information Browser history Tastes and preferences Analog information

Practical use of Social Networks: 

Practical use of Social Networks A marriage of “working your network” and sending a resume into the void It’s still a lot of work just for this…

Access to the desktop: Blinkx: 

Access to the desktop: Blinkx Retrieval: people don’t remember where they saw it – web or desktop?

Access to the desktop: Google: 

Access to the desktop: Google Search – what can my desktop files do to help me find what I need on the web?

Access to the desktop: Music: 

Access to the desktop: Music All about me and my music

Access to the desktop: Music Commerce: 

Access to the desktop: Music Commerce All about what Apple wants to sell me

Tying desktop music data to the web: 

Tying desktop music data to the web Tracking, community, recommendations

Integrating browser history data: 

Integrating browser history data Remind me where I have been, what I have searched on

Web-based bookmarks: 

Web-based bookmarks Universal bookmark access, sharing, community

Web-based archiving: 

Web-based archiving Killing link-rot dead

Physical history data – web and desktop: 

Physical history data – web and desktop Who have I been hanging out with? What have I been meeting about?

Integrating non-digital information: 

Integrating non-digital information Delicious Library and other “collection management” tools help us curate our material goods

Why Amazon is not enough, part 2: 

Why Amazon is not enough, part 2 Aside from A9, what is Amazon doing to bring these concepts to the eCommerce experience?

A Vision of Web 2.0 for eCommerce: 

A Vision of Web 2.0 for eCommerce C2B Customer-to-Business

What is C2B?: 

What is C2B? C2B is the empowerment of customers with their past purchase and preference data, allowing them to share it when and with who they desire C2B is the platform businesses can use to deliver products with more resonance and to target customers with more value than ever before C2B is superior to the promise and practice of CRM because it provides a more complete consumer perspective and deeper insight

C2B: Customer-to-Business: 

C2B: Customer-to-Business One customer to many businesses Inverts the pyramid Allows information reuse, a key metric in getting people to contribute it B2C and traditional CRM are not good enough anymore A Customer’s interaction with Vendor X is a subset of that person’s activities The superset is richer and its completeness is invaluable Vendor-Vendor “coopitition” for customer data is key to getting access to the superset (C2B: a.k.a. CMI – Customer-Managed Interactions) data customer customer data user online retailers

Why is C2B important?: 

Why is C2B important? Analysts describe the increasing demands from consumers that businesses must know them to earn their business Consumers will demand a more and more personal relationship over time Gartner and the usual suspects Micro-markets, narrow-casting, and one-to-one messaging are the marketing Holy Grail The Harvard Business Review just ran an article on C2B, hailing it as the heir to CRM They call it Customer-Managed Interactions - CMI

Visualizing C2B – a complete picture of a customer’s purchases: 

Visualizing C2B – a complete picture of a customer’s purchases Online retailer

Visualizing C2B – a complete picture of a customer’s purchases: 

Visualizing C2B – a complete picture of a customer’s purchases Gifts Library, school, Work, personal loan Brick and mortar Other online retailers Online retailer

Visualizing C2B – a complete picture of a customer’s purchases: 

Visualizing C2B – a complete picture of a customer’s purchases Gifts Library, school, Work, personal loan Brick and mortar Other online retailers Online retailer Are you marketing based on this? Or this?

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy: 

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy Online retailer 1. Online retailer purchases (and data)

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy: 

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy Online retailer 1. Online retailer purchases (and data) 2. Recommendation Merchandising (and quality)

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy: 

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy Online retailer 1. Online retailer purchases (and data) 2. Recommendation Merchandising (and quality) 3. Recommendation-based purchases

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy: 

The Status Quo in Recommendation-Based Merchandising: Crappy Online retailer 1. Online retailer purchases (and data) 2. Recommendation Merchandising (and quality) 3. Recommendation-based purchases Strength of relationship:

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way: 

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way Online retailer 1. Library, school, Work, personal loan data 1. Brick and mortar purchase data 1. Gift data 1. Other online retailer purchases data 1. Online retailer purchases (and data)

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way: 

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way Online retailer 1. Library, school, Work, personal loan data 2. Recommendation Merchandising (and quality) 1. Brick and mortar purchase data 1. Gift data 1. Other online retailer purchases data 1. Online retailer purchases (and data)

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way: 

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way Online retailer 1. Library, school, Work, personal loan data 2. Recommendation Merchandising (and quality) 3. Recommendation-based purchases 1. Brick and mortar purchase data 1. Gift data 1. Other online retailer purchases data 1. Online retailer purchases (and data)

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way: 

Recommendation-Based Merchandising the C2B Way Online retailer 1. Library, school, Work, personal loan data 2. Recommendation Merchandising (and quality) 3. Recommendation-based purchases 1. Brick and mortar purchase data 1. Gift data 1. Other online retailer purchases data 1. Online retailer purchases (and data) Strength of relationship:

“Future” C2B: Trusted 3rd Parties: 

“Future” C2B: Trusted 3rd Parties My Library (all media types) My Preferences My Network Stuff host (trusted 3rd party) Online retailers

“Future” C2B: Trusted 3rd Parties: 

<-> Recommendations <-> Recommendations “Future” C2B: Trusted 3rd Parties My Library (all media types) My Preferences My Library & Preferences My Network Stuff host (trusted 3rd party) <-> Recommendations User Profile Anonymizing filter (optional) User Profile User Profile Aggregated Recommendations Online retailers

“Future” C2B: Trusted 3rd Parties: 

<-> Recommendations <-> Recommendations “Future” C2B: Trusted 3rd Parties My Library (all media types) My Preferences My Library & Preferences My Network Stuff host (trusted 3rd party) <-> Recommendations User Profile Anonymizing filter (optional) User Profile User Profile Aggregated Recommendations Recommendation-Based Purchases Online retailers Recommendation-Based Purchases

Example: Amazon.com “Better Bookshelves”: 

Example: Amazon.com “Better Bookshelves” A proposal for improving CD, DVD, Game, and Book recommendations To evaluate the business case: estimate the audience and the value 55% of families own a digital still camera Portion who are Amazon customers Portion who would be interested in the BB program Portion who would be able to complete the BB process Estimated incremental sales based on a richer user profile

How the Better Bookshelves program works: 

How the Better Bookshelves program works 2. Image auto-rotated 1. Image uploaded to Amazon servers (or processed client-side) 3. Image processed for individual book spines 4. Book spines OCR’d (or image comparison performed) to get book titles THE MUSEUM AT PURGATORY THE BEAUTY SUPPLY DISTRICT McSWEENEY’S QUARTERLY CONCERN ISSUE FIVE D(:IROTHY PARKER Complete Stories 4a. If OCR technology used, extracted book titles compared to known list of book titles and best matches generated Next page

How the Better Bookshelves program works (cont.): 

How the Better Bookshelves program works (cont.) 5. Customer reviews suggested titles and approves them: The Museum at Purgatory (Byzantium Book) Complete Stories Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer McSweeney's Issue No. 5 (McSweeney's Issue, Volume 5) 6. Titles added to “Items you own” page and influence recommendations 7. Recommendations improve, driving more sales!

More C2B examples: Netflix vs. Walmart: 

More C2B examples: Netflix vs. Walmart Lowering switching costs

More C2B examples: Travel business vs. Travel business: 

More C2B examples: Travel business vs. Travel business Getting a better deal by showing a business my full profile Understanding the potential value of new customers One year’s reservation emails: United Orbitz Travelocity Europcar Hertz Expedia

C2B is coming: 

C2B is coming It has a community of business academics around it People are actively thinking about C2B as a business It has clear advantages over monolithic CRM approaches to the same issue, but leverages CRM approaches It gets businesses out of data warehousing and focused on service and the relationship Risky, but competition will bring it about

Why Amazon is not enough, part 3: 

Why Amazon is not enough, part 3 Amazon is not enough because it could be so much more The same goes for eCommerce and the Web

Wrap-up: 

Wrap-up Web 2.0 can make things like C2B possible Sites and businesses need to start thinking about the opportunities in this By being on top of this, IA’s can be agents of some serious innovation “Be it, don’t dream it”

Contact: 

Contact Brett Lider blider@gmail.com Y! and AOL IM: brettlider C2B Blog: www.brettlider.com

References: 

References A9, A9 Toolbar Amazon.com Apple iTunes & Music Store Audioscrobbler Blinkx (desktop search) CMI/C2B mailing list Evite Gartner Google Desktop Search Harvard Business Review (direct article link) iTunes Music Recommendation System LinkedIn Netflix Slogger Walmart