A Passion for Customer Satisfaction

November 4, 2011

Business Partner Zobrist Consulting Group, Inc. Smarter Commerce Capability Authorized   Target Industry Consumer Products   Retail   Travel & Transportation   Life Sciences   Business Applications Inventory Visibility   Mobile and Social Commerce   Customer Behavior Analytics   Cross-Channel Commerce   Products IBM Coremetrics Web Analytics   IBM WebSphere Commerce Enterprise     IBM WebSphere Commerce Express     IBM WebSphere Commerce Professional    For more information on this and other Business Partner Solutions, please refer to the   Industry Solutions Catalog!

Zobrist Consulting Group, Inc.:  Smart Merchandiser   Business Challenge To drive ecommerce sales, there are many reasons to carefully control how products are displayed, including avoiding spotlighting merchandise that’s out of stock and to presenting popular items upfront.  A merchandiser who wants to influence product ordering, usually has to manually add a sequence number to each product in the category database, so keeping track of the order becomes cumbersome and time-consuming.  Additionally,  layout challenges for the web store go hand-in-hand with the need for back-office analytics. To position a product effectively, retailers must consider each product’s actual sales as well as its conversion rate, online ratings and reviews, seasonal demand, and marketplace sentiment. Retailers need tools that allow them to really “listen” to customers, in order to react quickly to trends, spot the hot sellers and plan more effective campaigns. Solution With the Smart Merchandiser graphical interface, a retailer can visually lay out the physical display of merchandise on a web page, kiosk or mobile device. At the same time, integrated data sources feed into the merchandising process so the merchandiser can use that information to make smarter decisions on how to organize and present products online. The information is presented in multiple layers of data, including:  color information, sales, web analytics, conversion rate, ratings and reviews, social media buzz, and inventory data. When the right layout is achieved, the data is easily submitted to the database with the proper sequence order.   Value Proposition Smart Merchandiser streamlines workflow and increases sales by providing critical business intelligence to assist in merchandising decisions for online stores. It allows the online retailer to present merchandise in the most strategic way, to optimize the shopper’s experience and facilitate the highest possible conversion rate. It also decreases the amount of time required to execute ecommerce product management activities from days to hours.   For questions about this and other IBM Smarter Commerce Business Partner Solutions, please contact Kristen Meyer. About the Business Partner Zobrist Consulting Group, Inc. is a leading services provider dedicated to developing eBusiness applications on the IBM platform. We implement award-winning solutions that drive sales and business efficiency which garnered the IBM WebSphere Commerce Foundational Leadership Award. Zobrist was recognized with the 2011 IBM IMPACT Best of Show Award and the 2011 IBM Beacon Award for “Best Industry Solution for Retail”.  Our focus on innovation and customer satisfaction combined with industry-leading IBM technology means that we deliver solutions that perform.   For more information, please contact: Teresa Zobrist (877) ZOB-RIST or (877)-962-7478 contactus@zobristinc.com    -or-   Dick Legault, +1 972 561 6003, rlegault@us.ibm.com   Craig Singler NA, Channel Sales Executive

Smart Merchandiser: A Partner Solution for the Distribution and Industrial Sectors