PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD New Pig had a problem with its customers. Many of them preferred ordering products the old-fashioned way: thumbing through the printed Pigalog and picking up the phone.
"When we put up our e-commerce site, some customers used it, but it just didn’t have the same experience as calling our phone number," said Tammie Shoop, e-commerce marketing director for the maker of industrial absorbent products.
This problem was not unique to New Pig. While retailers selling books and shoes and other consumer goods have done well moving their customers to the Web, manufacturers that market their industrial-type products directly to users and distributors have met some resistance to online shopping.
New Pig set out to change that. The company thought it could offer its quarter-million customers and distributors a better shopping experience that included faster searching for products, targeted offerings, easier returns and special pricing for some site visitors. Shoop and her team also wanted to be able to take advantage of new ways to reach buyers, including social media tools.
Using IBM's WebSphere Commerce, New Pig was able to quickly build five e-stores, each with custom-tailored catalogs; create new sites for distributors; and implement marketing capabilities (including a Twitter feed, corporate blog, Facebook page and product reviews).
Shoop said they chose the WebSphere software, which is part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, because it provided much of the functionality they were looking for right out of the box. "We were able to leverage a lot of the functionality across all those [five] stores," Shoop said. "Deployment was much faster because they could "develop it once, [and] utilize it multiple times."
New Pig wanted customers to be able to see total costs for their orders (including taxes and shipping) and, if applicable, get special prices that weren't available to everyone. Products can now also be pitched to buyers based on geographic location; for example, in the United States, descriptions would include details about compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration or Environmental Protection Agency requirements--information that people in Canada or the U.K. would not need. That sort of multichannel customer segmentation was essential, and Shoop said they couldn't do that with their original Web software.
Facilitating integration with other platforms, like Bazaarvoice and social media, was also a reason New Pig went with WebSphere Commerce, Shoop said. "We were really looking for a partner that was willing to work with a smaller company like New Pig and really bring on a lot of things we’d never been able to do by ourselves."
Results indicate New Pig is managing to wean more of its customers from the past. "We did a survey with our old Website, and only 54% of the customers said that . . . using the Website was better than using the phone. And after we went to WebSphere, we did a survey, and now 70% of our customers are saying . . . using the Website is better," Shoop said. "We do see a lift in our Web sales, and a lot of that comes from the different ways that we’re targeting customers."
The New Pig Website's page of porcine humor might also be helping.
IBM expands global cloud capabilities with advanced #SmartCloud services & new customer adoption http://t.co/qpbR1XxK #ibmcloudStill confused to think of your #cloudmoment! Here are some good quotes that can help you think of your own http://t.co/3dsI0nO6 #ibmcloudRT @Shubhs77: I experience #cloudmoment whenever I upload my Daddy's fav songs/files on the Dropbox installed on his phone. He just need ...Good morning @cloud_indonesia! When have #cloud touched your life? Share your #cloudmoment! Check out our more at http://t.co/J4nxZKQZWe've launched a new site with stories of the moment cloud "clicked" for folks. Check it out & share your #cloudmoment! http://t.co/J4nxZKQZGood Morning from Asia/Pacific! #ibmcloudThat's it for me! More updates from the #IBMcloud Forum Chicago coming your way tomorrow. Over to Asia/Pacific.@RCChicago Thank you!*Brand new* video: Innovate without boundaries and harness the power of cloud >> http://t.co/gxSPLFbL #ibmcloudLots of #cloudmoment stories here today @RCChicago. http://t.co/X1JRs370
Like us on Facebook 
Follow us on Twitter 
Get the Smarter Tech Newsletter 
Register to view the archived "Data Center Optimization Techniques: Stop Wasting Time & Money" eSeminar
Register Now > 
