Online Channel: Best Practices For Integrated CRM
Adam Sarner, CRM Analyst, Gartner
March 25, 2004
Summary: eMarketing and sales becoming more integrated, moving from tools to suites, main thrust is in using the online channel to inform and influence the off-line channel.
Three main points:
– eMarketing and sell side eCommerce is coming together: Focus on message, not just operation
– the online channel is an important enabler of offline activity
– users should shift from low level tools built on top of platforms to packaged applications and custom configurations

Most eCommerce is now focused on the operational – getting it to work. Need to focus on analysis. Gartner hype cycle – we are now in the “through of disillusionment” for CRM.
Spam is killing eMarketing: 60b emails a day by 2005, companies are not getting value from it, need to move to relevant loyalty building.
Online channel can be used to communicate with your customers, to augment the offline channel. Example: Finish Line, that made store inventory available through the eChannel (customers could check whether something was in the store), integrated the loyalty program, with a result of online sales increasing 240%.
95% of all retail transactions are done offline. The web site plays a part, but is not the end game. Coach, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Bloomingdale’s, Williams-Sonoma etc. exploit this – Coach site visitors are 27 times more likely than average Internet users to visit a Coach store.
Case: Maytag. Mind share larger than market share, customers looked at their web site to get the dimensions of their machines. Implemented a system that gave the customer leads to online retailers with cart transfer, checking up on what happened to the customer and whether the lead was converted to a sale. Idea was to transfer the high-value leads to the best lead converters.
Very advanced multi-channel strategy: Harrah’s Entertainment, a chain of casinos, tracking through loyalty cards where people are, what they do, attracting people or driving them away through changing room prices, restaurant prices, distributing freebies, etc.
Six components to sell-side eCommerce:
– catalog management
– order management
– interactive selling systems
– legacy integration
– commerce syndication
– eCommerce analytics.
Eight components to eMarketing:
– campaign management
– email marketing
– web analytics
– customer analytics
– personalization
– web content management
– advertising management/affinity marketing
– B2C sell-side eCommerce
Sell-side ecommerce MarketScope: Recommend Comergent and IBM.
eMarketing MarketScope: Recommend E.piphany
What’s next for eMarketing and eCommerce vendors?
– consolidation into suites
– the rest will be low-cost or highly specialized
– management suite will be added
– use of non-technical designers and ad agencies will get access to shape web sites directly