The UK eCommerce community is blooming.  And although I couldn’t be there, I am told you needed no more evidence of this than at Internet Retailing 2008 (IR2008) where networking, buzz & innovation met with ideas, insight and research.  Salmon had three clients presenting in the conference.

The first stream was devoted to discussing the hot topic of providing rich customer experiences – and you can read a session review here. It studied the technical, marketing and operational issues related to rich media.

In this stream, Salmon customer Oliver Bishop, the e-Business Technical Architect from AkzoNobel Decorative Coatings, presented on “Making product choices simpler using RIA technology.”  The latest relaunch of dulux.co.uk has taken advantage of Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology to help customers to choose the colours they love and products that are right for the job.   This is achieved using functionality like Ajax, drag and drop and DHTML extensively within the site to create an interactive scrapbook, moodboard and the ability to upload and decorate photos of their own rooms.  Oliver’s presentation covered how Web 2.0 technologies can enhance the experience for your customers.

Stream two looked at second mover advantage on the web – and focused on the approach taken by retailers who have launched transactional websites only recently; and how they have taken advantage of their second mover position to succeed.

In this 2nd stream, Wendy Derbyshire from Scotts & Stow told delegates how the company had been running nine sites on four different platforms and faced a huge range of legacy issues and a major challenge to consolidate everything into one technical base that could underpin the whole business.  Scotts decided to bite the bullet and embark on a major project (with Salmon and SAFE™ – read the case study) to put in place one infrastructure for the whole business.

And then there was Stream three, which examined the latest trends in multiple channel retailing, i.e. Moving beyond multichannel to true, integrated “cross channel” solutions (is it me or does this makes our 2005 seminar series “eCommere Junkies: Cross Channel Retail” look impressively visionary?).

In this final stream Argos’ presentation looked at “Customer centric multi-channel development“.  There is no doubt Argos is recognised as pioneering new approaches in multi-channel high street retailing, introducing concepts (and delivering them with Salmon’s help) such as in-store reservations via web, phone and text, in-store stock-check and quick-pay kiosks, all tied into the overarching online experience and offline catalogue.

It’s funny.  You can have the biggest booth in the exhibition hall and learn to talk a good game.  But nothing compares to the experience you get from actually living, breathing and delivering state-of-the-art eCommerce.

Right now, it seems, nothing fires up a design debate better than the term ‘Web 2.0′. For every positive argument for features like drag and drop – there is a counter argument relating to conversion rates. For every advocate of a single page checkout – there is the overall Customer Experience to think about. And so it goes on: semantic web, widgets, mashups or folksonomies etc….lets not even go there.

But the debate, and the point at which web design is at today, does mask the simple rule that great web design is (and always has been) about implementing appropriate design – as opposed to doing simply what is technically possible.

Yesterday, two more insightful pieces emerged that might well fan the flames of debate for a while yet, with both pieces sitting on the ‘pragmatic but effective’ side of the fence.

First up e-consultancy reported how Argos is beating their competition with “user friendly web design” (disclosure: this is a design implemented by Salmon). And secondly, Mike Southon (in an FT piece) in reference to Will McInnes (from NixonMcInnes) debates a possibly counter-intuitive suggestion of “having an ugly but effective website.”

What is clear is that if you are investing in web design you need a thorough, detailed, holistic understanding of web 2.0. And because every brand is different, finding out where to draw the line between ‘appropriate’ and ‘possible’ is a smart move indeed.

An interesting piece by Avinoam Nowogrodski, the CEO of Clarizen, a provider of project execution solutions in CRM Buyer today.

As Avinoam correctly points out, much is being made of Web 2.0 and the implications for businesses and customers alike.  I’ve long since lost count of the items I’ve read describing the benefits of new personalization technologies, user-generated content, social networking, RSS, and Ajax-based user interfaces etc.  And rightly so.  But it is really fascinating to see Web 2.0 focused on from a new angle for a change.

eCommerce projects & Project delivery.  A subject close to our heart.

Avinoam points out that, “the convergence of SaaS (Software as a Service) and Enterprise 2.0-based collaboration technologies has produced the next generation of project management applications”…..<and that>…..”the next generation of project systems provides a significant advantage for companies in completing their complex e-commerce projects on time and increases their competitive edge.”

Good stuff.

Online retailers are upping their game as shoppers become increasingly savvy and demanding about their internet shopping experience.

Companies are making improvements to give customers a positive and more sophisticated online experience, according to a study of 150 retailers by Forrester Research and online retail network Shop.org.

It found that over the next year, internet retailers are focusing on site design and performance, improving the efficiency of online marketing and improving cross-channel integration.

Executive director of Shop.org, Scott Silverman said companies are investing in new features to keep customers coming back with homepages everywhere getting major facelifts.

The vast majority of companies surveyed (88 per cent) said improving product detail pages will be a priority for the next year with better integrated customer ratings and reviews, images and photography.

On their homepages companies will focus on top sellers, ‘what’s new’ sections and introduce more drop-down menus and roll-over lists in navigation areas.

Companies also aim to improve customer service, with 33 per cent planning to invest in live chat tools and 53 per cent looking to improve customer check-out facilities.

Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said it is encouraging so many companies are planning to integrate customer feedback as it will boost their ability to improve their service.

The survey also found email marketing is seen as the most effective tool for customer retention, with 51 per cent of retailers saying emails sent to customers about new products are very effective.

But many respondents feel web 2.0 and social networking tools are relatively unproven as they are still in their infancy as marketing tools.

<From silicon.com>