Last week,
Yonge Street was invited to attend an information session by IBM outlining the company's various ecommerce and mobile platforms available to small and large businesses. It featured a panel discussion that included Trevor Newell, president of
Shop.ca, the fastest growing ecommerce site in Canada. The company is Canada's largest online shopping destination, currently selling more than 15 million products and is set to sell more SKUs than Walmart, a staggering feat considering Shop.ca is less than a year old.
The story was featured briefly at IBM Connect down in Orlando, prompting IT Business to interview the Toronto-based entrepreneur about Shop.ca's early success. Newell credits IBM's WebSphere Commerce platform as part of it. The Toronto-built platform is the most "used ecommerce platform of the top 100 retailers," the article says, citing Sears, Nokia, Ikea, Sony, Staples, Canon and more among its customers.
"With a team of less than 10 we deployed Web Sphere platform in less than nine months," Newell told IT Business. "That was unheard of in IBM, they didn't think we could do it."
Shop.ca also credits the site's cache capabilities, increasing inventory, loyalty programs, and social media integration as key elements. The article writes, "Shop.ca used its IT team to build out a loyalty rewards bank. It includes a currency system with credits and debits guided by a rule set. It rewards users when a friend buys something they recommended with a 1 per cent commission. So far, the program has awarded more than $3 million to member's accounts."
Read the full story
here.
Original Source: IT Business