On-demand e-commerce company Venda has teamed up with m-commerce tech company Digby to develop a unified platform that that allows vendors to co-ordinate how their customers do business with them through stores, online, catalogues and mobile – and help businesses leverage the power of social media in the shopping experience.
Venda AMP – powered by the Digby Mobile Commerce suite – is a feature rich mobile portfolio that is integrated with the Venda Enterprise e-commerce platform to make a seamless solution, supported by Venda’s global customer support organization, provides brands and retailers with a unified platform to connect with their audience and customers, delivering unique and personalized shopping experiences anywhere, anytime.
And that means that not only does the customer get a more unified view of the company regardless of the channel they come in on, but also it gives businesses a head start in integrating social media into the e and m-commerce mix.
Social and mobile are fundamentally changing the way consumers interact and shop. According to a recent survey of 1,052 consumers conducted by Deloitte LLP, 21% of consumer shoppers have used a web-enabled mobile phone to assist them in shopping. The survey also reported that 36% of those surveyed have used their phone to go to a web site to shop for products or services.
Brands and retailers must harness the opportunity mobile presents in a comprehensive and scalable manner to match customer expectations. Most current mobile commerce offerings deliver generic first-generation mobile sites that are hard-coded to web sites. Venda AMP allows brands to fully deliver a cross platform personalized commerce experience to any customer at any location. And like all Venda offerings, Venda AMP leverages an underlying SaaS model that ensures clients receive future-proofed, enterprise-scale technology supported by a global development and client care network, giving them the autonomy to more effectively manage their front-end user experience.
“Digby and Venda are collaborating on all things mobile, enhancing the retail shopping experience regardless of time or location,” says Dave Sikora, Founder and CEO of Digby. “Venda understands the need to deliver scalable and powerful solutions that grow and extend a brand’s customer engagement. Leveraging the Digby Mobile Commerce Suite, we look forward to answering the call for true, multi-channel mobile commerce through our work with Venda.”
Digby’s focus on retail aligns with Venda’s legacy of enabling a deeper and richer approach to commerce for brands, explains Sikora. “Integrating seamlessly with inventory, catalogue and historical order information housed in the Venda platform, Venda AMP will drive brand efforts to identify, customise and incentivise a customer while they are in-store, at home or on-the-go for dramatic improvements in the customer experience.”
Using Venda AMP merchants can do a wide variety of things, including running geo- and time-specific marketing and eCommerce programs with location targeting capabilities, delivering highly-personalized and sophisticated “Rich Mobile Web” experiences and delivering fully transactional mobile services that allow search, shopping, buying, paying and customer service.
The offering also adds in to the mix In-store check-ins with timely and personalised offers pushed directly to a users device; bar code scanning for pricing and comparison information via mobile phone cameras to share with friends via Facebook and; wish-list and registry management, product reviews, order status and stock availability.
“Our vision for hosted e-commerce is to free our clients to engage with their customers in a more meaningful, direct and cost-effective way, making Digby’s mobile technology a perfect strategic fit in terms of features, operations, support and cost,” says Jeffrey Max, CEO of Venda. “Brands that thrive in the future will embrace mobile as a unifying customer experience, and with Venda AMP they will be able to focus on delighting customers with the comfort that our platform will continue to scale and mature alongside their business.”
