Elastic Path Gives Online Retailers Competitive Edge During Holiday Season

Elastic Path Gives Online Retailers Competitive Edge During Holiday Season

"..we have seen a 25 percent increase in online shopper conversion from browsers to buyers-unbelievable." - I Want One of Those!

Vancouver, BC, Canada, December 13, 2006 -- According to the National Retail Federation, online shopping has now grown to the point where the average consumer will spend about one-fourth of their total holiday budget (estimated at $791.10) shopping online. To capture this rapidly growing customer base, etailers are implementing creative marketing campaigns such as personalized "gift finders" that connect consumers with the perfect gift quickly.

Elastic Path customers such as I Want One of Those! (Iwantoneofthose.com) and Electricshopping.com have implemented Elastic Path’s flexible ecommerce platform to strengthen their visibility and offering with optimized search engine rankings, stored purchase histories, saved customer shopping carts and enhanced merchandising and promotion options.

I Want One of Those! and Electricshopping.com are leveraging Elastic Path’s flexible ecommerce platform to make holiday shopping easier. Both retailers allow shoppers to "browse" for items based on the personality or hobbies of the people on their shopping list. For I Want One of Those!, Elastic Path delivers filterable, in-site search and navigation, helping shoppers find gifts based on characteristics such as "party animal," and "couch potato." Similarly, Electricshopping.com allows consumers to narrow down gift options by inputting basic criteria such as gender and price point. By connecting consumers with the right gift quickly, Elastic Path is helping retailers maximize the value of each customer.

"As we are seeing both the numbers of online browsers and buyers increase every year, we wanted to provide our tech savvy customers with an enjoyable and seamless way to do their holiday shopping — it was par for the course to implement a gift finder feature that would not only enhance the online customer experience but make searching for the ideal gift that much easier," said Rob Levy, managing director of Electricshopping.com. "By using Elastic Path’s out of box functionality, it was effortless to create a site that’s both appealing and interactive; allowing us to fully engage our customers and quickly connect them with the perfect gift."

"In providing our customers with an optimal online shopping experience, it was a natural step to incorporate a fun holiday gift finder feature complete with pull down categories such as price, gender, personality, gift category and occasion," said Sagar Vadher, head of IT for I Want One of Those!. "With Elastic Path’s ecommerce platform, it was refreshingly easy to add the new gift finder feature to our site. Since implementing Elastic Path’s ecommerce platform in fall 2006, we have seen a 25 percent increase in online shopper conversion from browsers to buyers—unbelievable."

"The holiday season is the pinnacle profit point for most etailers and the practice of enabling customers to "browse" just as you would at a traditional brick and mortar store is playing an increasingly important role in attracting and retaining customers," said Jason Billingsley, vice president of marketing at Elastic Path. "Our platform is designed to help retailers easily connect with consumers to drive sales and increase profits."

Elastic Path released Elastic Path 5 this fall. This re-engineered platform delivers a powerful promotion rules engine, innovative search engine marketing functionality, faceted in-site search and navigation, and full web services capabilities to online retailers. The platform’s flexibility and significantly lower price point, as compared to competitors, help online retailers drive profit — not just revenue. Elastic Path 5 includes the AJAX-powered Elastic Path One Page which creates an optimal checkout experience and enables returning customers to complete an order with a single click.

About Elastic Path Software
Elastic Path Software provides a flexible ecommerce platform that gives enterprises the capabilities and control to deliver innovation in a complex environment. The Java-based platform enables integration with SOA environments and rapid development of custom features. Enterprises can now quickly adapt ecommerce tactics to gain a competitive advantage. Companies such as Aeroplan, Time Inc, and Samsonite use Elastic Path for maximum control over their evolving online stores. For more information, please visit https://www.elasticpath.com.