How to Use YouTube Videos to Improve Your Google Ranking

Getting a blog post to rank in Google has become difficult. But for certain types of searches, quality videos are rising above quality blog posts in search results. And therein lies your opportunity. Here is how you can start optimizing your YouTube videos to rank on Google. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2018/40231/how-to-use-youtube-videos-to-improve-your-google-ranking

Emerging tech to meet B2B buyer expectations

It is estimated that the US alone will generate over $1.2 trillion in business to business  ecommerce sales by 2021. With a market of that size, B2B organizations need to start planning now as to how they’ll compete for a piece of that trillion-dollar share.  In order to compete, companies must differentiate – and that comes down to the customer experiences they deliver.  

B2B buyers want  the same digital commerce  experiences they are receiving on B2C channels.   

Here are three emerging tech trends B2B organizations need to include in their 2019 plans if they want even a sliver of the B2B ecommerce market in 2021.   

Mobile  

B2B buyers are spending more time on mobile devices, both personally and professionally. Plus, the workforce is getting younger with more technologically savvy employees who will expect the ease of use via a mobile device in B2B.   

Anheuser-Busch, an American brewing company, is capitalizing on mobile very well with their B2B mobile app offering, Tapwiser.  Tapwiser allows for a simpler path to purchase by enabling quick order submission via the app instead of with a sales rep. Anheuser-Busch also allows for on-demand delivery service with the Bud Light Button, a one-tap beer delivery app.

Artificial  Intelligence  (AI)  

The rise of artificial intelligence in the workforce to support and accelerate processes is rapidly unfolding.  AI allows for better automation and the use of predictive insights deliver smoother transactions and better personalization for B2B customers.  

Hill & Markes, a distributor based in upstate New York, had an inundated call center until they took advantage of AI. They launched the AI-powered messaging platform, LivePerson, to communicate with their B2B buyers online and in real-time. The AI solution empowers customer service reps with conversational marketing tools to cross-sell or upsell when inventory is out of stock.  

Machine  Learning  (ML)  

A subset of the AI phenomenon, machine learning allows for a streamlined approach to account management. ML allows organizations to utilize past and present customer data to project future behavior and commerce trends. ML can monitor customers better by delivering stronger data on who the customers are and what they want, when they want it.   

Although this is more of a B2C use case, there is a lot to be learned from Mazda and how they utilized machine learning for a new car campaign.  

The ML technology crawled across various social media networks, searching for the right people via their posts with the right preset indicators (content) to be selected for a promotion during SXSW. Mazda was then able to locate who the key influencers were to include in their new car promotion at the event.  

B2B organizations can learn from this data-centric approach and how Mazda was able to personalize content to better engage with a very specific crowd vs a general audience segment. Investing in ML will give B2B organizations the data and opportunity to  better understand their  buyer persona.

The post Emerging tech to meet B2B buyer expectations  appeared first on Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog.

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The Most Expensive States to Run Search Ads In [Infographic]

How does the price of search ads vary among US states? Which states tend to be the most expensive for different verticals? To find out, SEMrush analyzed search ads run in all 50 US states for 86,000 keywords in 17 industries. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2018/40169/the-most-expensive-states-to-run-search-ads-in-infographic

Dependency Upgrades: why commerce software engineers need a policy and process

For most commerce software engineers, dependency management includes upgrades and best practice suggests upgrading dependencies proactively. In order to ensure a smooth process and one that is maintained properly, it is best to have a well-defined policy and process.  

Why you need a policy and  process  

All software depends on other software to accomplish useful tasks. Even the smallest  hello world  program depends on the libraries of the language it is written in. Typically, as a piece of software  gets more sophisticated it depends on more third-party software or libraries. Leveraging existing third-party libraries is a standard practice for  commerce engineers  to enable faster development.    

However, vulnerabilities and bugs of dependencies become vulnerabilities and bugs of the software the dependencies are included in. As a result, dependencies must be chosen with due consideration, and constantly monitored.  Best practice is to not only upgrade dependencies proactively, but to also be on the latest versions of libraries as often as possible.

Why Upgrade Dependencies?  

The single biggest reason for upgrading dependencies is  security. Most software has vulnerabilities that are gradually fixed over time. Upgrading dependencies, is  the  simplest way  to avoid security issues. The latest versions can introduce new vulnerabilities that are not yet discovered. However, it is still safer to upgrade in order to fix known vulnerabilities. 

Most of the  changes between versions  are  bug fixes  and  performance improvements, that’s another good reason to upgrade. In recent tests, a docker version upgrade gave a significant boost to the performance numbers.  

Other reasons to upgrade include being able make use of new features, avoiding giant upgrade steps as it is always easier to update in smaller increments, and it is also easier to upgrade a single dependency if everything else is up to date.  

Upgrade Experiences
Commerce software developers should be upgrading dependencies on a regular basis.
Here are a few examples of good, bad and ugly dependency upgrades  that inform the upgrade process.   

The Good  

Overall library upgrades  should be  smooth or have relatively few issues. Good libraries maintain backward compatibility, and provide suitable replacements for any APIs that are deprecated. As a result, upgrading such libraries should  involve  only  minor code changes. Good migration guides, and well-crafted deprecation warnings  make this process relatively painless. Recent examples of these include various Apache Commons libraries,  Mockito,  and  RxJava.   

The Bad   

Every now and then an upgrade does not go according to plan, and unexpected issues arise due to not having the bugs or changes well documented.   Recent example of this occurred with an upgrade to Guava version 25.  Guava upgrades are typically seamless and  jumping to version 25 was expected to be a simple version bump.  

However, intermittent errors occurred in performance tests because of a misbehaving cache. The intermittent nature of the errors meant that they were difficult to track down, resulting in a days-long test to locate the issue. To allow enough time to deal with such surprises, it is best to do upgrades at the beginning of a release cycle.

The Ugly  

Sometimes  an upgrade can get ugly.  This is typically the case when a number of dependencies have to be upgraded in lockstep. This problem will be  exacerbated  if regular upgrades are not done, and several upgrades of versions need to take place in one go.  

As an example, a recent Spring upgrade required upgrading Cucumber. Upgrading Cucumber required upgrading Spring. Also resulting in needing to upgrade Camel, Junit,  Servicemix, and Gemini. Attempting to untangle this dependency web was challenging.    

Automation  

Upgrading dependencies is not the most exciting work for a commerce  engineer. To ensure upgrades are quick and happen often, it is strongly recommended to leverage all automated tools available.  

For example, Versions Maven Plugin is best to use for maven projects  to generate reports listing the libraries that have new versions available. The plugin can also auto-upgrade the versions directly in source code. Most languages and frameworks have similar tooling available.  

It is worth noting to only use the auto-upgrade feature to do revision, and minor version upgrades. These upgrades are typically quick and require minimal code changes. Overall, the plugin is a huge time saver.  

A major version upgrade is often a more conscious decision to upgrade with the understanding that such an upgrade will require some work.  

New vulnerabilities are discovered  every day, and it is hard to keep up with without some  automation.   

Use a security and  license  compliance  tool, e.g. Black Duck, to  identify vulnerabilities and license compliance issues in the open source libraries.   

Lastly, it is recommended to create a robust suite of functional and performance tests that ensure library upgrades do not have negative consequences.  

The Upgrade Process – what a strong process looks like  

1. Identify the libraries to be upgraded.  Leverage an automated tool in this step. Most languages and frameworks have one. E.g. Use Versions Maven Plugin  for Maven projects.   
2. Ensure version being upgraded to does not have known security vulnerabilities, and license issues. Before changing a single line of code one can verify candidate versions using a security compliance tool  e.g.  Black Duck.  
3. Do the bare minimum code change to upgrade the version i.e.  fix  any compilation errors, and any  functional  test failures. Don’t try to use any new features at this point.  
4. Verify performance. Run your whole performance test suite.   
5. As much as possible, do the upgrades at the beginning of  a  release  cycle  to give  you  time to live with any surprises that might come up.   
6. As an optional exercise – use the new features. Take a look at release notes of the new versions, check if there is anything that catches the eye and would be helpful. Use your judgement to determine if it might be useful to spend a bit of time on this.  

In  closing, be sure to continue to learn from experiences and fine tune this process.

The post Dependency Upgrades: why commerce software engineers need a policy and process   appeared first on Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog.

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Did Nike just unlock the code for the future of retail?

Originally reported at Fast Company

Nike’s six-story, NYC-based flagship store just opened (November 15, 2018) and with it a plethora of digital features have been rolled out in-store. According to Nike’s Chief Design Officer, John Hoke, the future of retail is a mix between digital and physical.

And it looks like they’ve accomplished just that – aiming to make shopping in-store as convenient as shopping online.

The store definitely offers an experience and even addresses the quick in-and-out convenience sought after by most of today’s consumers. For those who don’t want to deal with the crowds but need to try on items before placing their online orders, Nike’s flagship store offers “Speed Shop” – allowing shoppers to reserve shoes online to try on in-store.

According to Fast Company, shoppers select the shoes online, head into the flagship store where the ‘Speed Shop’ area has marked a locker with the shopper’s name that is then unlocked with their phone. After the right pair is selected, shoppers use their phone to checkout, never needing to stand in line and are in and out of the store in minutes.

On top of all that ease, the Speed Shop is located in the store’s basement with its own separate entrance making it even that more convenient and seamless for shoppers.

So, what’s the actual key to unlocking that future of retail code? It’s the brand’s app.

“Nike app’s retail mode pops up when it recognizes that a user has entered a retail store. Retail mode allows customers to request items, unlock their locker, and checkout in-store.” (Fast Company) Retail mode does more than just work within Speed Shop, it also enables shoppers to scan QR codes on mannequins and have all articles of clothing appear on their phone or even request to have them sent to a dressing room to try on.

The best part of the app is that you no longer need to stand in line to complete your purchase. All POS is done within the Nike app using the same payment methods as online. For those shoppers new to the mobile app checkout and payment process, Nike’s flagship shop has also included designated self-checkout points.

For all the digital and physical convergence to work, shoppers need to have the Nike app, be Nike members (it’s free), and allow location tracking.

“This is a great extension of an overall experience with Nike. It blurs the lines between the digital shopping channels and the tangible nature of interacting with the brand in the store. I expect to see more and more branded manufacturers and retailers making investments like these to create a unique overall brand experience,” said Harry Chemko, CEO, Elastic Path.

Nike is definitely setting the bar and setting it high with experiential shopping and building that consumer relationship beyond just the physical store.

The post Did Nike just unlock the code for the future of retail? appeared first on Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog.

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Do I really have to lose my “head” to replatform my commerce solution?

If you want to stay competitive, the answer is yes.

Replatforming any technology solution is never an easy undertaking – humans by nature are opposed to any kind of change, especially one that could cause major disruptions. Therefore, discussing the notion of replatforming your commerce solution is usually brought on with some protest.

However, there is a customer-centric commerce platform revolution unfolding and it’s all powered by APIs. An API-first,“headless commerce” solution is becoming the go-to commerce application for modern, cutting-edge brands and service providers.

The monolithic commerce solutions that exist today were built back in the ‘90s when there was only one digital touchpoint to worry about – the web.

• Intershop, 1992
• IBM WebSphere Commerce, 1996
• Oracle Commerce (formerly ATG), 1997
• SAP (formerly hybris), 1997

Today, consumers use an average of six touchpoints to make a purchase.

With today’s emerging technologies and the ever-growing consumer touchpoints, it is not enough to just upgrade your current monolithic commerce system. Yes, some of the monoliths are beginning to add API functionality, but they are doing so as an afterthought. They were never intended or designed to be headless, and their APIs are disjointed and not optimized.

If you select to upgrade your legacy system and go through the long and expensive migration, your organization will still lack the competitive edge – and worse yet, you’ll eventually just have to start from scratch and replatform anyways.

Progressive Transformation

For years, practitioners’ only option for replatforming was the “rip and replace” approach, but this does not have to be the case present-day. Moving to an API-driven, headless solution allows for a “phase out” approach when replatforming; or a progressive transformation.

A progressive transformation with a headless solution allows you to start small with a single segmented touchpoint, product or region, and migrate at your own pace.

So how do I get started?

Rather than replacing your existing platform, you’ll want to stand up the headless solution alongside it and move application integrations one at a time over to the new commerce functionality while keeping the back-end systems where they are.

Before you begin the migration, you should identify all your current systems of record for products, customers, and fulfillment. This will help you develop a better picture of how to align your roadmap for them with where your new commerce platform will take you.

• Where is your product information kept? Is it stored in a home-built system, or in spreadsheets—and ask yourself where and how it will be stored a few years from now.
• Where are your customer records kept? Are you currently using a third-party CRM or an in-house system? What level of interoperability do you hope to have between your CRM and your various channels?
• What state is your ERP in, and what’s your roadmap for it?

Next, you’ll also want to examine your segmentation potential. The more you can segment your touchpoints, product lines, and geographic regions, the more agile and flexible you’ll be in the marketplace.

• Which geographic regions are you operating in now, and which regions do you hope to be operating in one or two years in the future? Do you have a plan for payments types, payment gateways, and tax provider software in these various regions? Getting these in place can take time.
• Do you plan to add new channels or touchpoints?
• What’s your plan for mobile?

After all that is sorted out and the new commerce platform is in place, it will be time to migrate. This is where the phased approach or progressive transformation takes hold. All the while be mindful of how these changes will impact your own organization, whether you’re replatforming or going through any other business transition.

When headless commerce replatforming is done correctly, positive results are achieved immediately, with minimal negative impacts and the shortest path to revenue. With an API-driven headless solution, you build what you want, when you want. You’re no longer limited to the capabilities of your monolithic platform, but rather build with your customers’ expectations guiding the way.

The post Do I really have to lose my “head” to replatform my commerce solution? appeared first on Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog.

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Is Your Commerce System Vulnerable to Meltdown on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? (UPDATED)

Last year’s holiday shopping season was another record-breaker. Adobe reported that the 2017 holiday ecommerce revenue climbed to $108.2 billion, beating what was previously forecasted by $1 billion. On Black Friday alone, a record $5 billion was reported in sales.

Unfortunately, like the year prior, not all brands and retailers were ready for the surge in traffic.

Calvin Klein, Ted Baker, Macy’s, and Lowe’s, all experienced online technical issues. Websites lagged or crashed. Some customers couldn’t even log on. Others had a cart full of items that they couldn’t pay for, some even saw their items disappear and replaced by someone else’s selections. Many frustrated netizens took their complaints to social media, but for every person who bothered to tweet, dozens more simply took their money elsewhere.

Readying for the flurry

According to the Forrester 2018 Holiday Outlook Report, online retail sales will increase this year by 14% and companies have worked hard over the past year to optimize every part of the shopping journey to win, serve, and retain customers during this often make-or-break shopping season.

Raw computing power has become commoditized to the point where there is little benefit in owning and running infrastructure to handle super high traffic on just a few days of the year. For companies that experience highly variable computing loads, the cost of maintaining on-premise servers just to cover those high load days, is senseless. Retailers are preparing for Black Friday surges in ecommerce system traffic with demand-based computing clouds like Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provide unlimited dynamic scaling. Computer capacity is adjusted according to demand, protecting both customer experience and costs since companies don’t pay for servers sitting idle in low season.

Companies using clouds like AWS to run their critical commerce infrastructure are also buying the expertise of the world’s top technology infrastructure platform experts. They’ll ensure new technology innovations are implemented as they arise.

The blurry season

Not only are total sales going to increase, but lines between physical and digital experiences continue to blur, putting more pressure on underlying commerce systems. Even brick-and-mortar shoppers use their mobile to check reviews or compare prices. Many retailers also use mobile presence technologies in-store. These customer tracking systems can provide contextual information to a commerce system that can then offer discounts via SMS or an app as people browse. Some stores have cut down lines by giving staff mobile point of sale devices.

All these technologies depend on reliable and scalable bandwidth in store as well as a commerce system that can handle digital and physical store purchase surges. With a unified transactional layer for online and in-store purchases, shoppers experience consistent products, pricing and promotions regardless of sales channel. Combine this with the power of AWS and the entire commerce infrastructure can easily scale as demand skyrockets. Checkout line clogging up? Add more mobile checkouts help line bust. Don’t have the right item in store? Let customers purchase anyway and ship it directly to their house. The flexibility that a unified commerce layer provides customers allows your company to solve the bottleneck problems that might sour their experience with your brand.

As commerce becomes more and more connected throughout the customer journey whether digital or physical, all transactions will go through a central system. Commerce systems running on a platform that offers guaranteed dynamic scalability will ultimately win out because they will be able to keep up with the unpredictable peaks of the holiday rush.

The post Is Your Commerce System Vulnerable to Meltdown on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? (UPDATED) appeared first on Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog.

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