85% of online retailers plan to boost their e-commerce technology spending this year, according to an Internet Retailer survey of 81 online merchants conducted in February. And 51% intend to buy technology from a vendor rather than develop it themselves. That’s why vendors are out in full force touting their offerings. Many e-retail executives say they receive daily sales pitches from e-commerce vendors of all stripes.
Chip Malt is one such executive. “We get a salesperson reaching out to us at least once a day offering us a free demo or trial of their product,” says Malt, vice president of marketing and analytics for high-end men’s athletic apparel merchant Rhone Apparel Inc., which began selling direct to consumers online in early 2014.
We get a salesperson reaching out to us at least once a day offering us a free demo or trial of their product.
Rhone, which grew online sales 300% in both 2015 and 2016, plans to double its technology spending in 2017 to keep up with its rapid sales increases. Projects in the pipeline include better integrating data from its warehouse operations into its backend systems. Malt says he often takes vendors up on such test drive offers. However, for such trials, Malt looks for vendors that allow Rhone to test the service…
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