Ever since the days when the wandering nomad drove his camel across the desert to haggle in the oasis bazaar, shopping has involved more than just gathering necessities.
Shopping is first of all a feast of the senses. For the nomad, this meant brightly colored cloth wafting in the dust-choked air, the cries of street vendors and the braying of donkeys, the smell of smoky lamb brazing over coal. Today, we call this a compelling shopping experience.
Then, too, shopping offers the opportunity for serendipitous discovery. The nomad may think he needs only one jug of olive oil, but a merchant has a proposition. "Tell you what, my friend," he whispers confidentially. "If you buy two jugs, then you may also have this beautiful red cloth to take home for your wife." Today, we call this merchandising.
Such were the forces that pulled people into the bazaar in old days, and its attractive power remains undimmed today. But few of the digital moguls hoping to capture even a tiny fraction of the US$2 trillion plus in US retail spending have a clue as to how these underlying dynamics of shopping might work in the cyberspace bazaars of tomorrow.
EShop Inc. of San Mateo, California, believes it may have an answer. Its software offers electronic retailers and online services tools that enable them to creatively sell their wares, and offer digital shoppers a compelling online experience.
"So much of what is envisioned as electronic commerce is really just a scrolling list of products," says eShop's 30-year-old CEO, Matt Kursh. "That may be fine for certain things, like discount software. But that's not selling; it's taking orders. And it won't work in the mass market."
EShop has developed a multipart software system that enables merchants to custom-design the look and approach of their virtual stores, thereby offering their own branded shopping experience to consumers through online and cable services. It licenses its technology to online services as well as to merchants - 800-FLOWERS, Tower Records, and Lands' End are three early customers who will open their virtual stores this month on AT&T's new Personalink service.
Using the "eShop Builder" Windows-based graphical application, retailers can create a simulated shop with 3-D views of navigable aisles.
"There's nothing else out there that does what eShop does," observes 800-FLOWERS's Elaine Rubin. "We designed an interface oriented around various emotional occasions: click on the `birthday party,' for instance, and you're greeted with the sights and sounds of a party, where you can see various flower arrangements appropriate to that occasion."
EShop's software contains a high-level language, ShopScript, that allows merchants to create personal shopping assistants - sales clerks - with distinct "personalities" to provide customized information and product recommendations to shoppers.
And the software provides detailed customer tracking and profiling data that allow retailers to target certain customers for specialized promotions.
"It'll tell us if a customer lingered over an item but didn't buy it," explains 800-FLOWERS's Rubin. "The next time that person enters our online store, the personal shopping assistant can offer the same item to that customer for 10 percent off and maybe close the sale."
What does eShop think of the privacy concerns raised by software this sophisticated?
"They're huge," concedes Kursh. "Normally we don't meddle in how merchants use our software - how they price or deliver their products, for instance. But I don't think we can abdicate our responsibilities in the privacy area. So we've built into the software a way for the consumer to shut off profiling and tracking by the merchant."
Assuming eShop technology helps transform electronic shopping into an inviting experience for the nontechnical consumer - and there are a number of venture capitalists, marketing consultants, and strategic business partners who think it will - eShop will get a percentage of the online store's revenue.
"If our technology really promotes online commerce - and we believe it will - then it's safe to say we'll do rather well," says Kursh.
No kidding.
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