In my last post, we outlined the reasons why so many retailers fail to take advantage of the e-commerce opportunity and concluded that any solution for driving e-commerce sales growth must provide consumers with superior search capability, personalized promotions, value and convenience. Additionally, the solution must be able to provide all of this in real-time. After all, for a $3 billion online retailer, the stakes are high with just a mere 2% increase in online sales conversions, from 3%

“We make some of the best known brands in the world, and those brands are used by 2 billion people every day.”

– Unilever

Few industries reach out to and impact the lives of more consumers every day than the Consumer and Retail Industries. Yet the industry’s transformation from Mass Marketing to 1:1 Marketing is mostly all hype with dramatically negative bottom line results. Let’s begin by considering the current state of the Consumer and Retail industries:

• Despite billions of dollars

“Nordstrom kicks its omnichannel strategy to the curb” – George Anderson, RetailWire

Few topics are as hyped up as omnichannel in Retail – or as difficult to execute successfully. Part of the problem depends on where you sit within the organization. Marketers view this as a consumer issue, in-store this is a merchandising and fulfillment issue, online this is a website design and e-commerce execution issue, and of course there is also a supply chain and fulfillment angle. Next is your