The new model for engaging online with consumers can be found in this report by Nikki Baird of RSR (Retail Systems Research). Starting from a model developed Optaros, the 3 C's, this report offers a practical model and approach to understanding the critical elements needed to enable a high quality shopping experience for customers.

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Assembled Commerce: A New
Model for Engaging Consumers in
Digital Channels
Prospective View 2009
By:
Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
Edited by Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner

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INTRODUCTION
RSR Research is a research firm specializing in retail technology. As such we unearth and describe forces
at play in the marketplace. While we have opinions and are happy to share them, we do not throw wild
ideas out into the industry to see what sticks. Instead we seek the seeds of trends, and validate them
through benchmarks and surveys. Only then do we provide pragmatic advice on current hot topics. With
a Prospective View ‐ research that focuses on very forward‐looking topics ‐ this is something of a
challenge to navigate.
For this report, we tackled that challenge by interviewing retailers and brand managers, as well as
technology vendors trying to take a stand around retail transformation. We started with a model
developed by Optaros, the 3 C's of their Assembled Web Framework. We built on that model and we
shared it, invited feedback and got it. A list of interview participants and a selection of their comments is
included in Appendix A.
This paper is the end result.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Digital channels have fundamentally altered the retail landscape. However, most retailers' and brands'
reactions to the changes wrought by digital channels has been through incremental extensions of online
presence, or one‐off connections between channels, whether by starting a blog or community space on a
website, or by putting a kiosk in stores. Few people have stepped back to look at the directions these
incremental changes are leading the industry, and even fewer have spent any time trying to get ahead of
the curve by developing a top‐down model of where digital transformation will take us.
Someone starting a retail business or brand today has a much easier task in navigating digital
transformation than their peers. Without the baggage of existing channels and traditional media
investments, they can bring to bear the critical elements they need to enable a high quality shopping
experience for their customers. We call this "assembled commerce," and it consists of four C's, with a
plus:
• Context, the proximity of a customer to a product (both physically and mentally, according to a
purchase funnel),
• Content, all the information about a product (including user‐generated),
• Community, all of the people and connections that a consumer needs to make a product
decision, and
• Commerce, all of the sales and marketing capabilities that a retailer brings to bear to entice a
consumer to actually purchase a product.
The "plus" is Customer Insights ‐ the fifth C that helps determine how all of the other four fit together,
depending on what a retailer knows about a customer and about their relation to the four C's as that
consumer follows their purchase process. By assembling the right pieces of purchase enablers together at
the right time, retailers have the opportunity to create the best shopping experiences for their customers,
regardless of channel.
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THE ASSEMBLED COMMERCE MODEL
An element has been missing from the retail equation. Like gravity, it's one of those things that’s always
been pulling and acting on us even though we can't see it. That element in retail is context. When
retailers had, at best, two channels (stores and catalogs), their interaction with the shopper was always
only in one context, close proximity to purchase. Whatever decision processes that went on in the
shopper's mind around need or want; how to choose a product, or which retailer to buy it from was the
realm of the brand ‐ but it happened mostly outside the store context. Retailers’ and brand managers’
jobs were to drive consumers to a selection decision, which inevitably drove a consumer into the hands of
a store.
Both a consumer’s proximity to purchase and a retailer’s or brand’s ability to influence that purchase have
changed significantly over the last ten years, primarily because commerce is no longer limited to the store
or call center. Retailers have more visibility into the early stages of the consumer buying process than
ever before, and brands have more opportunities to influence the entire purchase funnel ‐ not just
awareness. With both online access at home, and mobile access out and about, consumers have more
choices about where and when to buy the products they want. This includes places that are no longer
pure retail venues, like Facebook and through banner ads. Retailers can no longer consider a consumer’s
decision only through the lens of the store. They must consider both the stage a consumer is at in her
purchase process, and how close or far she is to the physical location of the product (Figure 1). This
determines which selling capabilities a retailer or brand must bring to bear to capture the consumer’s
purchase.
Figure 1: Consumer Decisions in Context
Source: RSR Research, October 2009
For example, a consumer who is browsing a health blog to consider the possibility of taking vitamins is
highly unlikely to respond to an offer to buy them right then no matter how compelling the offer may be.
She’s just not ready to act on a purchase. In the parlance of retail’s past, she’s “just looking.” On the
other hand, a consumer who has had an item in her web store shopping cart for a week and has visited
that shopping cart three times without completing the purchase may indeed respond to an offer to buy
that item, either online or at the nearest store.
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In order to capitalize on the opportunities that consumers present depending on where they are in their
decision process and how close they are to being able to get the item immediately, retailers and brands
need to bring the right elements together in the right proportions.
RSR believes there are three key elements to consider (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Elements for Aiding Consumer Decisions
Source: RSR Research, October 2009
CONTENT
Content is all of the information that consumers need as they navigate from awareness of a need all the
way to product selection and purchase. It includes both retailer‐ or brand‐provided content, as well as
user‐generated content like blogs, product reviews, recommendations, or comments. In the early stages
of the buying process, a consumer might be looking more for educational content – why a category of
product is important or what product attributes to consider or evaluate when selecting that product
category, for example. Later in the buying process, a consumer might be looking for product comparisons
or reviews to help narrow the choices.
Content is a powerful lever to drive cost effective traffic for both new and returning visitors. Retailers and
brands are jealous of media properties that get millions of visitors coming to their site each day for free.
But Retailers and Brands can do the same thing through effective use of published content and organic
search optimization. For example, Crutchfield’s owns the #1 position for the keyword “flat panel TV”
through their blog‐like content on their site. This single post generates the equivalent of $8 million in
annual advertising – for free.
Providing content out of context will only confuse consumers, or potentially delay or derail their process.
For example, telling a shopper who is trying to decide if he should rent or buy a snowboard while learning
the sport about advanced features like “rocker technology” doesn’t accelerate the buying process. A
novice will not know what “rocker technology” is or why it’s a differentiating product feature. The
reverse is also true: guiding a consumer to a shopping blog that details why buying is better than renting
when he or she is trying to figure out which board to buy is less than helpful.
COMMUNITY
The second element for aiding the shopping process is community. The notion of community has changed
drastically over the last ten years, as technology has made it easier to connect and stay connected with
the people we know, and to find others that are “like us” out there in the virtual world. As this has
become easier, consumers’ reliance on and trust of “experts” has fallen. For retailers and brands, this is a
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significant weakening of one of the most important tools in their selling arsenal. When consumers come
in the store already knowing more about products than the employee, both the retailer and the brand is
suddenly at a significant disadvantage, and consumers’ trust of any subsequent information is going to be
downgraded as a result.
The future is not about strengthening a retailer’s or brand’s position in the community, but in the ability
to bring the right community to bear for the right context. Early in the shopping process, community
plays an educational role – helping the shopper learn about products or categories of products. Later in
the process, the community serves to validate the decision‐making process, helping a shopper confirm
that he or she is making the right product selection.
Retailers and brands can easily position themselves as an arbiter of community, for example by providing
product recommendations based on what other consumers have purchased, à la Amazon’s “people who
purchased this also bought that.” For the right categories, they can also host communities, as Vitamin
Shoppe has done around the health benefits of vitamins and supplements. Vitamin Shoppe’s community
plays a vital role by anecdotally pointing out ascribed health benefits that the retailer legally can’t
communicate if they haven’t been validated by the US Food and Drug Administration (note that this is less
of a problem in Europe, where government authorities provide more rigorous analysis of complimentary
health care products). Community in the right context speeds purchase decisions. If a retailer or brand
can’t bring community to bear, it can result in a delayed or “no” decision.
COMMERCE
Commerce, the third element influencing the shopping process, is all of the levers a retailer can bring to
bear to move a consumer from selection to purchase ‐ brands increasingly play an important role here as
well. This includes, but is not limited to, pricing and promotions, including unique offers by customer or
triggered offers based on behavior, the in‐store Point of Sale, mobile‐ or internet‐based commerce,
payment options and more.
Early in the shopping process, commerce should be accessible but not prominent – this is where
sometimes even “get one free” or massive discounts aren’t going to help move consumers if they haven’t
decided they really need the product. Later in the process, commerce should be what seals the deal –
what helps the consumer make the purchase, no matter how close or far she is to the physical location of
the product. Increasingly, that can include use of price discounts to influence the consumer’s selection of
purchase and/or fulfillment channel, for example, offering free shipping if she buys online (where there is
plenty of stock in the distribution center), rather than reserve it in a store that is running low on the item.
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS BRING IT ALL TOGETHER
The customer drives the decision of which elements to bring to bear at various points in the shopping
process. Some customers prefer lots of information and choices, some prefer fewer. Some consumers
love product reviews or video demonstrations, others hate them.
For retailers and brands to identify how much of each element to provide along the way, they need to see
what their customers use at each step and understand why they use it. An example of how that might
work is shown in Figure 3.
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Figure 3: Customer Insights Guide Context
Source: RSR Research, October 2009
The industry is not designed to deliver on this kind of model today. Setting context aside for a moment,
most retailers and brands do not have the flexibility to connect or vary the different elements of content,
community, and commerce, no matter what the context. A category blog might not have any link to the
commerce pages for the products mentioned in the blog. Product reviews or recommendations may not
be mobile‐friendly for viewing in stores. Stores may not be able to “save the sale” by offering online
fulfillment for a store purchase. A category search on the ecommerce site might not index or display the
enormous amounts of content or touch on various community elements that the site also provides.
Throw in the notion of context and the situation gets worse. What is the right delivery model for product
reviews at the shelf? How can a retailer or brand legitimately participate in community without alienating
consumers? What are the right places to bring community into the ecommerce site? What about in the
store? Should a retailer enable or block mobile price comparisons at the shelf? And what will be the
impact if the retailer does block price comparisons?
CONTEXT DRIVES RELEVANCE, AND BOTH REQUIRE ORGANIZATIONAL COHESION
For retailers and brands seeking to engage consumers, the combination of the right content, community,
and commerce in the right context is critical. Yet too often, the mix of content, community and
commerce is driven by enterprise silos – siloed content within siloed channels. To break through those
siloes, retailers must evaluate how well a touch point connects or leads the consumer to the next step, for
each and every step in the process. A touch point that goes nowhere leaves a consumer to their own
devices, and provides an opportunity for a competitor to steal them away.
But assembling the right connections and having the flexibility to vary the connections based on context
requires a new way of thinking about the retail shopping experience ‐ not a cross‐channel experience, but
an assembled commerce experience. Unfortunately, we don't live in a world where most companies can
throw away their business model and start with a clean slate. To get there from the reality of today, most
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retailers and brands can start by looking at the intersection points between their different C's. The goal is
to drive closer links ultimately achieving the right combination of C's to meet a customer's needs ‐ in the
right context (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Creating Leverage
Source: RSR Research, October 2009
Assembled Commerce: leveraging the connections between community, content, and commerce in the
right context, in order to enable a high quality customer experience. This is the channel‐agnostic,
customer‐focused model that can provide a guidepost for how to think about the retail model of the
future.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
RSR will provide links to examples of the Assembled Commerce Model at work today, available at:
http://www.retailsystemsresearch.com/_document/summary/1009. Check back regularly for updates
and to provide your own feedback.
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APPENDIX A: PARTICIPANTS
The following brand companies participated in interviews and/or feedback on the model presented in this
document. As a condition of participation, their company names remain anonymous.
• Home goods manufacturer, which is in the process of building a direct‐to‐consumer capability
• Specialty apparel retailer
• Specialty accessories retailer, online pure‐play
• Specialty apparel retailer, which is in the process of building on online store
• General merchandise retailer
• General merchandise retailer, which is in the process of building an online store
Additionally, input and/or feedback on the model was provided by the following technology companies:
• Optaros
• Deloitte Consulting
• Sterling Commerce
• ATG
Choice Comments from Interviews:
"Our digital strategy was approved when a board member's granddaughter asked why his company didn't
have a mobile site. One the one hand, I want to find that girl and hug her. On the other hand, it's scary to
think that one seventeen year old girl can move a multi‐billion dollar company."
"There is penetration by all kinds of brands and manufacturers into the retail space [through the online
channel]. There will always be some kind of channel integrity, but also fostering relationships between
channels and brands."
"Channel conflict is much less of an issue today."
"The most important thing to get right is to make sure the eCommerce brand experience conveys our
essence properly, and delights our customer. We want our customer to have fun in their shopping
experience with us. This is a different mind set than just having a site that is functional and you can shop
on it vs. a site you love to shop on and gives you inspiration and fulfillment is a delight for you."
"There is too much information out there [for consumers and employees] to sort through. It's so much,
without some kind of context, it's almost useless."
"One of the things that we think is basic is being able to share a product you love with others in your
social network. We're already seeing consumers looking to engage with a variety of people when making
a decision."
"We have an unusual ability to see 360‐degrees of shopper ‐ we can track 95% of purchases back to
known customers. That has been a huge help to us in understanding our customers."
"[Right now our site is] just having the product content and getting [consumers] through the shopping
process. But having a more fluid shopping experience that dynamically pulls in different content and
different engagements is something we want to move forward with."
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"When you have no Facebook strategy to begin with, then there is no internal fighting over who gets
credit for the sale. There is no baggage. The flip side is, it's only eCommerce who is driving that strategy,
not the whole company."
"Facebook is about engaging with the people you already know ‐ if you enjoy connecting with people you
already know and keep in touch with them. Twitter is about expanding your information sources to
people you don't already know, but would like to ‐ [wanting] to know what [you] don't know from a group
of people that [you] trust. People are starting to understand the difference."
"We're not blogging now, but may do so in the future. We're definitely engaging with bloggers who have
affinity with our products. We can convert those postings to sales ‐ we're seeing sales come from blogs
and forums, rather than Facebook. Without that conversion tie, it's tougher to quantify the value of
something like Facebook."
"In this new world of social ‐ social shopping ‐ you have to be very vigilant about watching what's being
said about you and have the right response to it. Not necessarily about taking it down, but letting the
customer know that you've listened."
"The biggest thing about the technology platform is having the confidence level that it will keep up with
future functionality that evolves."
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APPENDIX B: ABOUT RSR
Retail Systems Research (“RSR”) is the only research company run by retailers for the retail industry. RSR
provides insight into business and technology challenges facing the extended retail industry, and thought
leadership and advice on navigating these challenges for specific companies and the industry at large.
RSR’s services include benchmark reports covering the state of retailer technology adoption for topics
ranging from merchandising and supply chain, store operations and workforce management, to customer‐
facing and multi‐channel technologies. Custom research reports provide more in‐depth views into topics
of industry interest, and advisory services help retailers and technology vendors make the most of the
insights RSR provides. To learn more about RSR, visit www.rsrresearch.com.
Copyright© 2009 by Retail Systems Research LLC • All rights reserved.
No part of the contents of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means without the permission of the publisher.
This research and paper was sponsored by Optaros (www.optaros.com). The company provided two
retail contacts for interviews and reviewed the final draft of the research before publication.
Contact research@rsrresearch.com for more information.
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