Today’s online customers are empowered like never before, engaging with organizations across a range of touchpoints and enjoying the benefits that come from greater price transparency, increased access to information, and personalized content from their social networks and online communities.

1. BUSINESS WHITE PAPER
Contextual e-Commerce: The key
to an optimized e-Commerce channel
www.coremedia.com

2. BUSINESS WHITE PAPER
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
THE CONTEXTUAL JOURNEY
Today’s online customers are empowered like never before, engaging with companies
across a range of touchpoints and enjoying the benefits that come from greater price
transparency, increased access to information, and personalized content from their
social networks and online communities.
E-Commerce growth shows no signs of slowing — despite the recent financial downturn.
According to eMarketer forecasts, retail e-Commerce in the U.S. is set to grow by
43.4 percent by 2015, with three out of every four of those who go online in the U.S.
actively making purchases on the Web.1 It’s clearly not just a U.S. phenomenon either,
with the Chinese e-Commerce market set to be worth $311 billion by 2015.2
However, to be competitive on the Web — and to optimize the conversion of online
engagements into profitable interactions — companies need to integrate contextaware applications into their online engagement strategies. These applications must
address factors such as mobility, social networking and location awareness. Adapting
the customer experience to the customer’s needs and situation — the essence of
contextualization — is proving to be a critical element of any successful customer
engagement approach.
It’s also important that companies move beyond simply engaging with customers on
a transaction-by-transaction basis, and start focusing instead on how context can
truly enhance — and extend — the e-Commerce experience for both businesses
and consumers.
In this paper we will show how a consistent, contextual approach to online
engagement for both businesses and consumers can positively impact the
e-Commerce experience at critical points in the buying cycle. We’ll also examine how
companies can integrate contextual into their broader Customer Experience Management (CXM) approach to effectively create a “self-reinforcing” feedback loop that
delivers support at every stage of what Forrester Research describes as the “journey
towards user context.”3

3. Context redefines consumer expectations
With the continued growth of online retail activity, there’s a growing recognition that the
e-Commerce experience has evolved away from the basic transactional interactions that
were typically conducted from PCs via Web browsers.
Mobile commerce is the most significant factor in this transformation. The Nielsen Company
predicts that by 2015 smart phones will be the primary enablers of consumer shopping
engagements and that new technology innovation will generate additional opportunities
for retailers and manufacturers.4 A recent report by ABI Research also reported that mobile
shopping will reach $163 billion worldwide by 2015, representing 12 percent of all global
e-Commerce turnover.5
This is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior that is dramatically changing the way
companies need to approach their customer relationships. The increasing connection
between mobile phones and social networks also presents challenges for companies.
According to a 2011 report from Citi Investment Research, Facebook accounts for
14 percent of time spent online in the U.S. — that’s up from 8 percent in 2010, and nearly
twice as much share as Google, its nearest competitor.6 And people are increasingly using
their smartphones to access their social networks. eMarketer estimates that a little less
than 82 million consumers in the U.S. (26% of the population) will access social networks
from their phones this year, rising to nearly 117 million by 2014.7
In addition to mobile and social growth, we’re also seeing a growing interest in locationbased data, which enables companies to respond to consumer requirements based
on where a customer actually is, right now. Google’s announcement of its “contextual
discovery” strategy shows that they have clearly recognized that the data generated by
location-aware mobile devices can help deliver real context in terms of push-enabled
Google results. Similarly, services such as Tripit and FourSquare offer whole new levels of
contextual data that companies can factor into their customer engagement activities.
Forrester Research draws many of these elements together in a 2011 report, where it
highlights technology solutions “that allow business to manage and optimize the customer
experience through content management, customer targeting, analytics, personalization,
and optimization across online, mobile and Internet-connected device touchpoints.”
Forrester goes on to define the latest generation of Customer Experience Management
(CXM) activities as an approach that “enables the management and delivery of dynamic,
targeted, consistent content, offers, products and service interactions across digitally
enabled consumer touchpoints.”8
3

4. BUSINESS WHITE PAPER
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
Integrating multiple technologies to create a
contextual e-Commerce approach
Analyst firm Gartner Group predicts that the worldwide net economic effect of contextaware computing will exceed $140 billion per year by 2015, and that context will become as
influential to mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines now are to the
Web. Gartner goes on to project that over the next five years, context will emerge as a game
changer in e-Commerce and mobile commerce, with emerging context-enriched services
using location, presence and social attributes and search to anticipate end visitors’ needs.9
By 2015, a combination of emerging technologies and services — including augmented
reality browsers, new display technologies, enterprise applications, devices, content
management and service providers — will lay the groundwork for enterprises to address
every stage of the e-Commerce lifecycle in light of visitor expectations.
In order to manage these evolving expectations and remain competitive, companies
must be able to manage and deliver targeted content experiences, including contextual
e-Commerce content, to any consumer touch point on any network-enabled device.
Typical areas of application will include:
JJutting “social commerce” functions to work by creating public communities
P
on Facebook and Twitter, building out Facebook stores, delivering content on
sites such as YouTube, and integrating social content into the mix
JJeveraging advances in mobile technologies, smartphones and tablets
L
to take advantage of mobile Web applications, including contextenriched and location-specific services, to create more sophisticated,
situation-aware functions, offers and experiences
JJ anaging the Customer Interaction Lifecycle across key marketing,
M
sales and service functions to create fully integrated, intuitive online
experiences for customers
JJ eploying a contextual e-Commerce approach to synchronize,
D
update and optimize digital content so that when a customer’s
needs or context changes, companies can quickly adapt and
ensure customer engagement
By leveraging these different technology approaches, companies can deliver
an enjoyable online experience that goes beyond their consumers’ initial
sales and service expectations. However, given the functional range of today’s buying
experience, companies will inevitably need access to considerable integration expertise if
they are to offer an experience that fully combines key e-Commerce, Web, CRM, back-office
and fulfillment elements. As online
experiences become increasingly driven by business processes and transactions,10 websites
can no longer exist in isolation from the rest of the business. Gartner has already identified over 60 separate e-Commerce technologies that can be applied to the contextual
e-Commerce challenge, which it groups into seven key areas: e-Commerce components;
the customer Web experience; marketing; sales; service; mobile and social CRM.11
An integrated approach to contextual e-Commerce.
4

5. Mapping the e-Commerce lifecycle
In identifying the role of contextualized solutions across the e-Commerce lifecycle, it’s
important not to underestimate the scale of the challenge. Forrester Research has
outlined four key phases of the contextual journey for enterprises: the initial “Mastering
of the Basics,” subsequent layering in intelligence, breaking out from traditional PC
contexts, and eventually embracing motion as a control mechanism.12
While contextual e-Commerce can clearly be applied to streamline specific stages of the
buying cycle, the longer-term winners will be those companies that move more quickly to
integrate and apply this technology approach across the entire lifecycle. Contextual
e-Commerce solutions will be fundamental in delivering relevant editorial content,
targeted e-Commerce offers and personalized support programs that can be combined
to create more lasting and profitable engagements.
In doing so, companies will also need to balance the potentially differing goals of
e-Commerce, marketing and service management. E-Commerce, for example, seeks to
increase conversion rates to capture maximum revenue and reduce the individual cost of
sales, while marketing aims to engage customers with rich, personalized experiences, and
also find ways to optimize their marketing spend through deeper customer intimacy. In the
service arena, however, the goals reflect both approaches, with the challenge being to retain
high value customers while still reducing the cost of service and educating customers to
solve their own problems if possible.
Clearly, delivering an excellent online customer experience is essential in achieving any of
these objectives, but it has to be consistent, repeatable and deliverable across these core
e-Commerce, e-marketing and e-service disciplines. Whether the customer engages at the
point of sale, via their mobile, by contacting a call center, on a website, by using a kiosk,
via e-mail or through one of their social networks, the experience has to be seamless across
these multiple channels.
The reality today is that consumers are increasingly comfortable with multi-channel
engagement. They may first become interested in a product or solution after being targeted
by an e-mail campaign, then check the offer in more detail online, and perhaps go over
the specifics with their friends and peers on Facebook. Before making a buying decision
they might check online reviews and feedback, actually make the purchase on their mobile
device, and then collect their order from a retail outlet.
5

6. BUSINESS WHITE PAPER
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
Contextual e-Commerce scenarios
With continued growth of online retail spending, the e-Commerce experience has quickly
evolved beyond simply transacting; consumers are increasingly going online at every stage
of the e-Commerce lifecycle to discover new products, conduct research and make price
comparisons, as well as to exchange feedback with friends and peers.
This extended online presence creates an ideal opportunity for retailers to forge deeper,
stickier and more profitable relationships with their customers. However this will require
a more comprehensive and context-aware e-Commerce platform that can support multiple
Web channel processes while still dynamically personalizing each customer’s online
experience.
While many of today’s Web applications offer e-Commerce capabilities that are enriched by
some e-marketing functionality, it’s rare to see an approach that factors in comprehensive
product marketing content, or that extends support along the buying lifecycle to address
ongoing service requirements or scheduled upsell activity. Companies that succeed in
integrating comprehensive content management into this mix, and support their
customers’ context — regardless of their location or channel — will enjoy significant
competitive advantage.
More advanced companies will quickly identify how context can impact the e-Commerce
experience in a diversity of ways throughout the customer buying/engagement cycle —
from initial product discovery through to ongoing support and product upsell strategies.
Possible contextual e-Commerce applications include:
JJ
Targeted e-Commerce content based on CRM data, and customer purchasing histories
JJ onducting research and price comparisons using a combination of retail Websites,
C
social media recommendations and mobile Web apps for remote access
JJ
I
mprove conversion rates by delivering contextual editorial content based on location,
time-of-day, purchasing history, and stated preferences
JJ ifferentiated “special offers” depending whether the consumer is in-store, at home,
D
in a competitor’s store
JJersonalized recommendations based on Likes/Recommendations of Facebook friends
P
JJ
I
mproved support thanks to more context-aware service staff
JJxchanging feedback on websites and social networks
E
6

7. Contextual e-Commerce requires an integrated
approach
With the rapid growth of online retail spending, the e-Commerce sector has realized that
the traditional online distinctions between B2B and B2C are fading away — along with
the need for separate Web channels and parallel processes. The requirement now is to
build on a single e-Commerce, e-marketing and e-service platform that addresses all key
target audiences:
JJ onsumers – allowing consumers to enjoy quick, easy and consistent online
C
experiences across multiple touch points
JJ usinesses – helping companies to leverage powerful and convenient self-service
B
Web solutions — and manage all sales and service interactions from a single place
JJ eb Channel Managers – easily set-up and manage their Web presence with simple,
W
step-by-step website management
Analysts such as Gartner project that such context-enriched services will begin with
more basic, single scenarios — such as location — and will then evolve into more complex
deployments that integrate multiple context sources such as location, presence and group
behavior. They estimate that, longer term, such context-enriched service will be
transformational — representing the next frontier for business applications, platforms
and development tools.13
As a result, companies will need to offer an experience that fully combines key e-Commerce,
Web, CRM, back-office and fulfillment elements. This demands an integrated approach that
can deliver contextual e-Commerce functionality seamlessly, ready-to-run and integrated
directly with existing enterprise ecosystem solutions — including inventory systems,
customer relationship management (CRM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems, and more.14
Gartner estimates that most companies’ e-Commerce initiatives can have “as many as 15 to
20 primary or core integration points to complete a business process,”15 so it’s increasingly
important for businesses to work with e-Commerce solution providers that can deliver close
integration with core enterprise applications such as CRM and ERP — particularly as the
potential number of customer touchpoints — and hence integration points — increases.
7

8. BUSINESS WHITE PAPER
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
CoreMedia and IBM® WebSphere® Commerce:
showcasing contextual e-Commerce with
CoreMedia LiveContext
CoreMedia, with more than 17 years of experience in delivering online platforms for
leading enterprise brands, provides precisely the kind of integrated e-Commerce solution
that businesses need and are demanding in order to address contextual challenges.
IBM® WebSphere® Commerce software is a powerful customer interaction platform for
online and cross-channel commerce designed to transform commerce by placing the
customer at the center of business operations. With powerful, out-of the-box capabilities
and easy-to-use business user tools, WebSphere Commerce software offers reliability and
flexibility that can scale to address the requirements of virtually any business. To further
enhance its capabilities, IBM has partnered with CoreMedia to fuel the delivery of highly
relevant, contextual Web experiences.
CoreMedia LiveContext enables companies using WebSphere Commerce to optimize
their cross-channel performance by infusing every aspect of their customers’ online
experience with rich contextual content. Thanks to CoreMedia’s distinctive ability to
orchestrate content, effectively manage context, and optimize the online customer
experience, CoreMedia and IBM are able to assist organizations in realizing the full
benefits of an integrated and optimized online customer experience capability.
Working together, CoreMedia and IBM provide a dynamic e-Commerce experience
management solution to drive brand building and enrich the product catalog, with
tools that ensure maximum flexibility of design and layout.
8

9. Shop categories
Image Maps
for Products
eMarketing
Spots
Slide shows
and videos
Social
Content
Promotions
Contextual
Content and
Recommendations
Product Teasers
with Prices
Editorial
Content
Home page and brand page enhanced with integrated contextual, social, and media content. They are shown as an
example for the purposes of this document only. Note that blue represents IBM, and green represents CoreMedia.
9

10. BUSINESS WHITE PAPER
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
Conclusion
Thanks to the distinctive ability to orchestrate content, effectively manage context,
and optimize the online customer experience, CoreMedia is able to assist companies
in realizing the benefits of an integrated, centralized e-Commerce approach.
For consumers, the emergence of a new generation of context-enriched online services
that leverage factors such as the customer’s social aspects, search preferences, presence
status and location are set to offer a much more enjoyable and relevant online experience.
For companies and their service providers, contextual e-Commerce opens up the opportunity to secure new levels of customer engagement and loyalty — and this is set to prove a
key differentiator in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace.
By incorporating relevant content into product data to create stickier and more informative
browsing experiences for current shops — and by attracting new visitors searching for more
engaging content, online retailers can really start to optimize the performance of their
e-Commerce channels.
1
eMarketer forecast, March 2011.
2 Credit Suisse China 2015 report, as reported in Forbes, January 4, 2011.
3 CMO: The Future of Mobile is Context, Forrester Research report, July 2011.
4 The Nielsen Company, Retail 2015 Forecast, June 24, 2010.
5 ABI Research, www.abiresearch.com.
6 Investment Research and Analysis quoted on All Things Digital: “The Facebook chart that freaks
Citi
Google out,” September 26, 2011.
7 http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Americans-Social-on-Their-Phones/1009247.
8
“The Emergence of Customer Experience Management Solutions,” Forrester Research, August 2011.
9 The 2011 Gartner Scenario: Current States and Future Directions of the IT Industry, Gartner, January 2011.
10
Web Content Management Will Weave Its Way Into More Enterprise Applications, Forrester,
March 2010.
11 Gartner, Hype Cycle for E-Commerce, 2011, August 2011.
12 Forrester, CMO: The Future of Mobile is Context, July 2011.
13 Gartner, Hype Cycle for E-Commerce, 2011, August 2011.
14 The Online Customer Engagement Software Ecosystem, Forrester, February 2010.
15 Gartner, Hype Cycle for e-commerce, August 2011.

11. Germany, Switzerland, Austria
CoreMedia AG
Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 18
20459 Hamburg
Germany
Tel + 49 .40.32 55 87 .0
The Americas
CoreMedia Corporation
118 Second Street, 5th Floor
San Francisco CA 94105
USA
Tel + 1 .415 .371 .0400
CoreMedia Corporation
1001 N. 19th Street, Suite 1200
Arlington VA 22209
USA
Tel + 1 .703 .945 .1079
Europe, Middle East and Africa
CoreMedia Ltd.
90 Long Acre
Covent Garden
London WC2E 9RZ
United Kingdom
Tel + 44 .207 .849 .3317
Asia Pacific
CoreMedia Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.
25 International Business Park
#0–106 German Centre
Singapore 609916
Tel + 65 .6562 .8866
For more information, please visit our website: www.coremedia.com
Email: info@coremedia.com
Copyright 2014. CoreMedia AG. All rights reserved. IBM® and WebSphere ® are registered trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”) in the United States and in several other countries. 0114-BP-EN-ECI001