Now is the time for retail giants to knock Santa off his pedestal – and to do it, they can become reverse logistics experts. The younger generations have become accustomed to trying products before they buy them and being able to return them conveniently when products do not live up to their expectations. In both these areas, the good old Saint Nick, who has reigned over the holiday season for generations, is now falling short on customers’ demands. Retailers have the opportunity to become masters of reverse logistics in a way that Santa never could – and here’s how. 

The Naughty and Nice List of Santa’s Enterprise

To better understand how Santa has stayed on top of the biggest logistics operation for so long, let’s take a quick peek under the wrapping paper. It likely starts with his elves working tirelessly using an advanced inventory management system to keep track of all raw materials and finished products as they pass through the workshop. They then use digital picklists generated by the gift management system ensuring that every gift is quality checked, scanned, and labelled alphabetically by child, all before being loaded onto the sleigh.  

To ensure every child receives their gifts on time, Santa’s journey is meticulously planned using reindeer route optimization technology, each stop a carefully coordinated effort, with elves back at the North Pole monitoring his progress on the festive freight planner and adjusting the delivery schedule as needed. With the help of his dedicated team, well documented processes, advanced technology and effective communication, Santa can manage the biggest night of the year with consistent success. 

But when the night is over and Santa is enjoying cookies at home, the hardest part of the work sets in: reverse logistics. In recent years, the crew in the North Pole has had to navigate the increasing complexity surrounding returns. The volume of returns has skyrocketed, and online purchases are returned at a rate three times higher than traditional in-store purchases or down-the-chimney deliveries. These return rates have become a huge sustainability issue as well.  

Optimizing Santa’s Reverse Logistics Operation 

If Santa were to come to us for help, here is what we would advise: 

The increase in speed and volume of post-Christmas returns puts pressure on both the elves and the infrastructure of the workshop. Proactive communication is a key driver to reducing the number of returns, so measuring response times to customer complaint letters and proactively communicating is of great importance. To deal with this, we’d recommend employing the help of some outsourced reverse logistics partners.  

End of sale coordinators (EOS) will take responsibility for the management of returns including refurbishment, recycling, and disposal. With the help and expertise of the third-party providers, Santa could reduce overhead costs associated with maintaining in-house resources and the specialized knowledge and focus leads to faster processing times and improved customer satisfaction. Outsourcing would allow Santa to scale his operations up or down without a significant investment, making it easier to adapt to change.  

Not to mention, supply limitations and rapid delivery requirements are forcing giants like Santa to lean on repaired and refurbished equipment. The good news is that upcoming generations prioritize sustainability, and companies who recover and reuse their equipment can limit waste and live up to their sustainability commitments. 

The Key Aspects of Mastering Reverse Logistics  

Now that we’ve assessed Santa’s operations and discussed what we’d recommend, let’s recap what retailers can do to improve their reverse logistics. The key aspects to focus on: 

1. Sustainability: Being focused on sustainable reverse logistics processes to minimize environmental impact through eco-friendly practices while ensuring the efficient handling of returns. Returned items are either recycled or repurposed to minimize waste. 
2. Technology Integration: Advanced tracking systems and AI helps predict return volumes and optimize routes for collecting returned items and delivering to the EOS stations. This reduces travel time and energy consumption, making the process more sustainable.  
3. Customer Experience: Prioritize clear and proactive communication with customers. By keeping customers informed it reduces frustration and encourages return initiation through online portals thus facilitating quick refunds or exchanges. 
4. Data Analytics/ Big Data: Making hasty work of analyzing return data helps teams understand product issues and improve future offerings. Big data operates through integrating data from various sources to manage the data and analyze it for actionable insights, including visual analyses.  
5. On–Demand Warehousing: The unpredictability in the return volumes following the Christmas season can lead to space constraints and inefficiencies in traditional warehousing. On-demand warehousing offers a flexible solution to this problem by allowing locations to scale their storage needs dynamically based on real-time influxes.  
6. Return Abuse Prevention: Abuse protection solutions help detect and prevent returns fraud and scams. It helps detect and fight return fraud by verifying customer information, verifying purchase information and tracking return patterns.  

In summary, reverse logistics is not just about managing returns, it’s a strategic asset that can drive cost savings, customer satisfaction, sustainability, and overall business success. If Santa gets it right, children waking up on Christmas day will feel well-rested knowing they can conveniently return any presents they don’t like – and so will your customers after you’ve mastered reverse logistics. 

This holiday season, tap into our supply chain expertise for a smooth and painless upcoming year of returns. 

We’re pleased to announce that Perficient has been named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Adobe Experience Cloud Professional Services 2024-2025 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US51741024, December 2024). We believe this recognition is a testament to our commitment to excellence and our dedication to delivering top-notch Adobe services to our clients.

Continue reading to learn more about what the IDC MarketScape is, why Perficient is named a Major Player, and what this designation means to our clients.

Understanding This IDC MarketScape

This IDC MarketScape evaluated Adobe Experience Cloud professional service providers, creating a framework to compare vendors’ capabilities and strategies. Many organizations need help planning and deploying technology, and finding the right vendor is critical.

According to Douglas Hayward, senior research director for CX services and strategies at IDC, “Organizations choosing an Adobe Experience Cloud professional service should look for proof that their vendor has high-quality professionals who have a track record in empowering their clients and delivering the best value for the fairest price.”

This IDC MarketScape study provides a comprehensive vendor assessment of the Adobe Experience Cloud professional services ecosystem. It evaluates both quantitative and qualitative characteristics that contribute to success in this market. The study covers various vendors, assessing them against a rigorous framework that highlights the most influential factors for success in both the short and long term.

Perficient is a Major Player

We believe being named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape is a significant achievement for Perficient and underscores our Adobe Experience Cloud capabilities, industry and technical acumen, global delivery center network, and commitment to quality customer service. We further believe the study is evidence of our expertise and continued focus on solving our clients’ business challenges.

Hayward said, “In our evaluation of Perficient for the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Adobe Experience Cloud Professional Services 2024-2025 Vendor Assessment, it was evident that Perficient has global delivery expertise that combines an experience design heritage with strong capabilities in digital experience transformation.”

The IDC MarketScape also says, “Based on conversations with Perficient’s clients, the vendor’s three main strengths are value creation, people quality, and client empowerment.”

Our Commitment to Excellence

At Perficient, we are committed to maintaining and improving our services and solutions. We continuously strive to innovate and enhance our capabilities and offerings to meet the evolving needs of our clients, further empower them, and drive value.

Learn More

You can also read our News Release for more details on this recognition and make sure to follow our Adobe blog for more Adobe platform insights!

How to ensure your toolset matches your vision, team and long term goals.

Seems common sense right? Use the right tool for the right purpose. However, in the DXP and Drupal space, we often see folks trying to fit their project to the tool and not the tool to the project.

There are many modules, profiles, and approaches to building Drupal out there, and most all of them have their time and place. The key is knowing when to implement which and why. I am going to take a little time here a dive into one of those key decisions that we find ourselves at Perficient facing frequently and how we work with our clients to ensure the proper approach is selected for their Drupal application.

Site Studio vs Standard Drupal(blocks, views, content, etc..) vs Layout Builder

I would say this is the most common area where we see confusion related to the best tooling and how to pick. To start let’s do a summary of the various options(there are many more approaches available but these are the common ones we encounter), as well as their pros and cons.

First, we have Acquia Site Studio, it is a low-code site management tool built on top of Drupal. And it is SLICK. They provide web user editable templates, components, helpers, and more that allow a well trained Content Admin to have control of almost every aspect of the look and feel of the website. There is drag and drop editors for all templates that would traditionally be TWIG, as well as UI editors for styles, fonts and more. This is the cadillac of low code solutions for Drupal, but that comes with some trade offs in terms of developer customizability and config management strategies. We have also noticed, that not every content team actually utilizes the full scope of Site Studio features, which can lead to additional complexity without any benefit, but when the team is right, Site Studio is a very powerful tool.

The next option we frequently see, is a standard Drupal build utilizing Content Types and Blocks to control page layouts, with WYSIWYG editors for rich content and a standard Drupal theme with SASS, TWIG templates, etc…. This is the one you see most developer familiarity with, as well as the most flexibility to implement custom work as well as clean configuration management. The trade off here, is that most customizations will require a developer to build them out, and content editors are limited to “color between the lines” of what was initially built. We have experienced both content teams that were very satisfied with the defined controls, but also teams that felt handcuffed with the limitations and desired more UI/UX customizations without deployments/developer involvement.

The third and final option we will be discussing here, is the Standard Drupal option described above, with the addition of Layout Builder. Layout Builder is a Drupal Core module that enables users to attach layouts, such as 1 column, 2 column and more to various Drupal Entity types(Content, Users, etc..). These layouts then support the placement of blocks into their various regions to give users drag and drop flexibility over laying out their content. Layout Builder does not support full site templates or custom theme work such as site wide CSS changes. Layout Builder can be a good middle ground for content teams not looking for the full customization and accompanying complexity of Site Studio, but desiring some level of content layout control. Layout builder does come with some permissions and configuration management considerations. It is important to decide what is treated as content and what as configuration, as well as define roles and permissions to ensure proper editors have access to the right level of customizations.

Now that we have covered the options as well as the basic pros and cons of each, how do you know which tool is right for your team and your project? This is where we at Perficient start with a holistic review of your needs, short and long term goals, as well as the technical ability of your internal team. It is important to honestly evaluate this. Just because something has all the bells and whistles, do you have the team and time to utilize them, or is it a sunk cost with limited ROI. On the flip side, if you have a very technically robust team, you don’t want to handcuff them and leave them frustrated with limitations that could impact marketing opportunities that could lead to higher ROI.

Additional considerations that can help guide your choice in toolset would be future goals and initiatives. Is a rebrand coming soon? Is your team going to quickly expand with more technical staff? These might point towards Site Studio as the right choice. Is your top priority consistency and limiting unnecessary customizations? Then standard structured content might be the best approach. Do you want to able to customize your site, but just don’t have the time or budget to undertake Site Studio? Layout Builder might be something you should closely look at.

Perficient starts these considerations at the first discussions with our potential clients, and continue to guide them through the sales and estimation process to ensure the right basic Drupal tooling is selected. This then continues through implementation as we continue to inform stakeholders about the best toolsets beyond the core systems. In future articles we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various SSO, DAM, Analytics, Drupal module solutions as well as the new Star Shot Drupal Initiative and how it will impact the planning of your next Drupal build!

As new technologies become available within the digital space, businesses must adapt quickly by modernizing their legacy systems and harnessing the power of the cloud to stay competitive. Forrester’s 2024 report recognizes 42 notable providers– and we’re proud to announce that Perficient is among them.

We believe our inclusion in Forrester’s Application Modernization and Multicloud Managed Services Landscape, Q4 2024 reflects our commitment to evolving enterprise applications and managing multicloud environments to enhance customer experiences and drive growth in a complex digital world.

With the demand for digital transformation growing rapidly, this landscape provides valuable insights into what businesses can expect from service providers, how different companies compare, and the options available based on provider size and market focus.

Application Modernization and Multicloud Managed Services

Forrester defines application modernization and multicloud managed services as:

“Services that offer technical and professional support to perform application and system assessments, ongoing application multicloud management, application modernization, development services for application replacements, and application retirement.”

According to the report,

“Cloud leaders and sourcing professionals implement application modernization and multicloud managed services to:

• Deliver superior customer experiences.
• Gain access to technical and transformational skills and capabilities.
• Reduce costs associated with legacy technologies and systems.”

By focusing on application modernization and multicloud management, Perficient empowers businesses to deliver superior customer experiences through agile technologies that boost user satisfaction. We provide clients with access to cutting-edge technical and transformational skills, allowing them to stay ahead of industry trends. Our solutions are uniquely tailored to reduce costs associated with maintaining legacy systems, helping businesses optimize their IT budgets while focusing on growth.

Focus Areas for Modernization and Multicloud Management

Perficient has honed its expertise in several key areas that are critical for organizations looking to modernize their applications and manage multicloud environments effectively. As part of the report, Forrester asked each provider included in the Landscape to select the top business scenarios for which clients select them and from there determined which are the extended business scenarios that highlight differentiation among the providers. Perficient self-reported three key business scenarios that clients work with us out of those extended application modernization and multicloud services business scenarios:

• Infrastructure Modernization: We help clients transform their IT infrastructure to be more flexible, scalable, and efficient, supporting the rapid demands of modern applications.
• Cloud-Native Development Execution: Our cloud-native approach enables new applications to leverage cloud environments, maximizing performance and agility.
• Cloud Infrastructure “Run”: We provide ongoing support for cloud infrastructure, keeping applications and systems optimized, secure, and scalable.

Delivering Value Through Innovation

Perficient is listed among large consultancies with an industry focus in financial services, healthcare, and the manufacturing/production of consumer products. Additionally, our geographic presence in North America, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region was noted.

We believe that Perficient’s inclusion in Forrester’s report serves as another milestone in our mission to drive digital innovation for our clients across industries. We are proud to be recognized among notable providers and look forward to continuing to empower our clients to transform their digital landscapes with confidence. For more information on how Perficient can help your business with application modernization and multicloud managed services, contact us today.

Download the Forrester report, The Application Modernization And Multicloud Managed Services Landscape, Q4 2024, to learn more (link to report available to Forrester subscribers and for purchase).

Shoptalk held its first ever Fall conference in Chicago this past week and our very own Justin Racine, Principal of Unified Commerce, was present to take it all in. This year’s theme was 007, so Justin was on a reconnaissance mission to gain as much information on retail and commerce trends as possible. Here’s a debrief on his sources and the intel he was able to gather from them during his time at the show.

Infiltrate the Indie Brand Mindset

Before the explosion of social media, consumers gained knowledge of new brands by window shopping and traditional ads, but the reach only went so far. With the prevalence of social media, retail products that are niche and unique now have access to the whole world with platforms like TikTok and Instagram.  Rent the Runway is a clothing rental brand that’s currently reveling in the fact that indie brands are controlling the fashion space. Jennifer Hyman, the Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, claimed that today a brand can skyrocket in value just by a teenager talking about its products on TikTok. Social media has been changing the way consumers shop, and brands need to be able to keep up and provide new and fresh ways to connect and interact. Rent the Runway did that by providing fashion clothing for rent, rather than purchase, thus allowing for an ever-changing wardrobe with plenty of variety. Retail – just like fashion – should take greater risks and be bolder.

Capture Customers with Community and Connection

Glossier CEO, Kyle Leahy, provided a thoughtful look at three C’s that should be focused on to provoke thoughtful, engaging, and relatable conversations between brands and their consumers. Community, connection, and customers are the three C’s in question here. Glossier prides itself on being a community-based brand, focusing on how their products make people feel. On stage, Kyle spoke about how their consumers come to them because of the community they’ve created, and by actively listening to their consumers.

However, it’s one thing just to listen – it’s another thing entirely to respond. Kyle stated that Glossier responds to every single comment or post on their socials. That’s how they’re building a strong community, like by like, comment by comment. Glossier doesn’t stop there; they continually strive for personalized customer experience. Their storefronts are full of local apparel and products, and a new fragrance they’ve recently launched is an aggressively impressive campaign.

It’s called Glossier You, and the bottle is specifically designed to be activated by using the consumer’s thumb. In this way, it gives the feeling of the product being “encoded” to their thumbprint, giving them a personalized experience. To go one step further, they claim the smell is a little different on each person. With this product, they’ve built a conversation piece for their consumers around how it’s unique to them allowing connection across users for comparison, thus creating a shared experience and further solidifying their community.

Hacking Data to Delight Customers

Surprise and delight! That’s the name of the game when it comes to creating buzz with consumers. Many companies feel like they have a finger on the pulse, but according to the Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, Brendan Witcher, that’s not the case. He challenged attendees’ perspectives saying that many customers don’t feel that companies are delighting or surprising them. These brands are operating off opinions rather than data, and these companies should gather real, credible data if they want to get to the heart of their consumers emotional responses.

Creative decisions should be based on true data and gained by letting the customer express themselves through their behaviors, actions, and even more importantly, their inactions. A great example of inactivity is those would be consumers who are visiting your site but not purchasing. Their lack of purchase, or inaction, is a clear look into a way to create growth simply by focusing on making those conversions. These customers are there, now all that’s needed is a push in the right direction.  Doubling up from Glossier’s 3C’s, Brendan revealed that there are 6 elements of customer data to focus on: characteristics, considerations, curiosities, conditions, context, and conceptions.

Closing the Dossier on Shoptalk Fall

For it being their first Shoptalk Fall, the show undoubtedly inspired and renewed the energy and enthusiasm of those in attendance. Individuals present expressed an urge to build deeper connections with their customers through a wide variety of strategies. The speakers encouraged the audience to listen to their customers, stay true to relevant retail trends, and dive deep into the data to curate connections and build communities. Now is the time to be unconventional, unique, and exciting.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to explore Perficient’s industry expertise in retail and commerce.

Read Justin’s full article on CMSWire.

Justin Racine, Principal of Unified Commerce Strategy, recently wrote a blog for CMSWire on the various consumer shifts and impacts AI has had on ecommerce. With his extensive experience in ecommerce platforms, he has strong predictions for the future of ecommerce with AI’s growing influence. Here are the highlights of those insights.

Conversational Ecommerce is the Logical Next Step in Online Shopping

Conversational commerce is set to revolutionize the ecommerce landscape as many brands shift away from traditional methods.  Online shoppers are accustomed to the conventional browsing and checkout processes that have been standard since online shopping began. However, with AI’s help, the shopping experience is evolving to allow shoppers to interact with a brand as if they were speaking with a live salesperson in-store. By using natural language, consumers can describe their needs and preferences, which will result in personalized product recommendations.

Digital Platform Q&A

Logictry is a platform developer that emphasizes replicating the interactive aspects of in-person shopping. They are enabling users to engage in conversations with their favorite brands online. How do they achieve this? Through a dynamic question-and-answer approach or more accurately, a question-and-question approach.

Users input queries about their desired products and based on their initial questions, receive follow-up questions that encourage deeper consideration. This process, guided by an algorithm, helps users navigate their thoughts and ultimately leads them to purchases that align with their needs.

Has Generative AI Replaced the Ecommerce Website?

Much like how video eclipsed radio, generative AI is poised to significantly alter the ecommerce website’s dominance.  While ecommerce websites won’t disappear, their role will change drastically. Product detail pages will still be necessary, but the ways shoppers’ access and discover these pages will evolve. For everyday items, generative AI might be less crucial, but for products that require more thoughtful considerations, where shoppers might have limited knowledge, AI will most certainly play a crucial role in the decision-making process.

Leveraging AI for Brand Connection and Revenue Growth

Integrating generative AI in ecommerce requires solid product data, robust customer information, and a clear understanding of consumer needs. Brands must monitor key performance indicators to assess AI’s impact on customer behavior and sales. When implemented effectively, generative AI can build stronger, more human-like connections with consumers. Finally the potential and responsibility of adopting AI is critical and marks the beginning of a transformative journey for the industry.

For more ecommerce insights, read Justin Racine’s new CMSWire article.

To learn more about how we can help you with your strategy, discover our GenAI and commerce expertise.

Broad changes are underway in energy and utilities organizations, many influenced by trends from other sectors. These shifts are pushing companies in utilities and oil and gas to rethink their approaches, creating new cross-industry dependencies and consumer interactions.

Working to Accommodate Changing Consumer Behaviors

Energy companies are responding to evolving consumer behavior. In utilities, the shift from viewing customers as ratepayers to treating them as consumers with retail-like expectations is evident. Consumers now expect flexible payment options, including online payments, recurring billing, and credit card acceptance. Utilities are also offering smart devices, like mobile-controlled thermostats, while oil and gas companies are rolling out loyalty programs at fuel stations.

Additionally, both industries are taking on advisory roles, helping consumers manage energy use and conservation, and entering the renewable generation market. In this, they’re increasingly relying on capital markets to address grid demand and stability challenges.

How Energy Companies Flipped the Switch on Electrification

The interaction between the energy and automotive industries is accelerating due to electrification. Consumers want fast EV charging and solutions to ease range anxiety. Oil and gas companies are adding EV charging stations alongside gas pumps, while utilities balance offering charging services with maintaining grid reliability. This deepening interplay between industries has driven companies to seek talent with cross-industry expertise.

Engineering Experience No Longer Needed for Executive Roles

Traditional pathways to leadership in energy companies, which often required engineering experience, are changing. We’re seeing executives from the automotive and retail sectors take on leadership roles in utilities. The focus is now on bringing in fresh perspectives and solutions from outside industries to meet evolving consumer needs.

Cross-Industry Expertise Is Critical to Partnership

As the energy landscape transforms, partnerships with companies that bring expertise from industries like automotive, manufacturing, and retail are becoming critical. These cross-industry collaborations are key to navigating the complex challenges and opportunities ahead.

If you’d like to learn more about tapping into expertise from other industries to accelerate your transformation, explore our industry expertise.

To dive into how we’re using cross-industry solutions to optimize the utilities industry, explore our energy and utilities expertise.

Personalization in Retail

As retailers and CPGs continue to innovate in the age of AI, customers increasingly expect personalized and relevant experiences at every interaction. According to the Salesforce 2020 State of the Connected Customer Report, customers are, on average, 70% more loyal to brands that offer personalized in-store and digital experiences compared to their competitors. Furthermore, brands that personalize experiences see a 23% higher conversion rate (BCG, 2019). These statistics clearly demonstrate that customer acquisition, retention, and satisfaction are intimately tied to the customer journey.
But how can an organization gain insights into that journey? How can retail brands possibly sift through the massive number of interactions to discover the moments ripe for personalization? And to what extent do personalization and product innovation need to partner to drive outcomes?

The answer is simple: Listen to your customers. Social media is a gift to brands, as customers often vent frustrations or share ideas about products and offerings on these platforms. With 66% of all customers expecting companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, the clear imperative is for brands to hear pain points on social media and adapt to feedback.

Listening to Customers

Ultimately, listening to feedback at scale requires Social Listening, a unique strategy and solution that allows for insights and monitoring of social media data signals for brand interactions. Using this approach, brands across the globe leverage strategies and tools to collect, filter, and search through brand mentions, contextualizing brand mentions. This allows brands to best understand how to serve their customers and deliver more compelling reasons to buy. Working with the largest brands on social listening platforms, we often see that using AI to infer sentiment, loyalty, and propensity to buy results in more loyal and satisfied customers.
As I have written before, our Journey Science framework is the most effective way to implement such data-led strategies. By combining social listening with advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, brands can create truly personalized experiences that resonate with their customers, driving both loyalty and business growth.

In conclusion, as we navigate the age of AI in retail, the key to success lies in understanding and responding to customer needs through personalization. By leveraging social listening and advanced analytics, brands can stay ahead of the curve and deliver the experiences that modern consumers demand.

Imagine a world where your business can effortlessly keep pace with technological advancements and continuously changing customer expectations. The ability to swiftly develop new technology products and applications is crucial to staying competitive. However, relying solely on in-house development capabilities is not always feasible for many organizations.

Forrester released its Modern Application Development Services Landscape, Q3 2024 report to help businesses understand the value they can expect from modern application development (MAD) service providers and explore potential partners.

Modern Application Development Services

Forrester defines MAD service providers as:

“Service providers that work collaboratively with their clients to cocreate custom modern applications and, in parallel, assist them in the transformation and modernization of their software development capabilities and organization.”

In Forrester’s Priorities Survey, 2024, “64% of business and technology professionals said that bringing more development in-house would be a high or critical priority for their IT organization over the next 12 months.”

According to the report, “tech execs and application development leaders implement MAD services to:

• Increase cocreation. … MAD services can cocreate with clients while supporting them in learning how to modernize capabilities with agile, DevOps, native cloud, and edge, including generative AI (genAI).

• Improve customer experience. The goal isn’t to insource 100% of all application development work, but to improve internal capabilities and be efficient partners with MAD service providers.
• Focus on business outcomes, not just outputs. The shift to assessing modern development by measuring benefit realization and business value is a reality.”

Perficient’s Recognition and Focus Areas

We believe Perficient has been recognized for our ability to deliver on these promises, helping clients navigate the complexities of modern application development and achieve tangible business results. Perficient self-reported the following extended use cases as the top three for which clients select them:

• Backend Integration and Modernization: We specialize in integrating and modernizing backend systems to ensure seamless and efficient operations, enabling businesses to stay competitive in the digital age.
• GenAI to Increase Employee Productivity: We leverage genAI technologies to help clients boost employee productivity by automating routine tasks and enhancing decision-making processes.
• Product Operating Model: We focus on developing robust product operating models that align with our clients’ business objectives, ensuring sustainable growth and innovation.

Perficient’s Expertise and Industry Focus

Forrester based its analysis of service providers on two factors: market presence and services functionality. They segmented vendors into three categories based on MAD services revenue: large, midsize, and small; and five categories based on services functionality and global reach.

Perficient was listed as a large provider in this space with $250 million or more in annual MAD services revenue. Perficient’s listing as a consultancy in this Landscape report includes our geographic presence (North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific) and industry focus areas (healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing/production of consumer products).

We are proud of this achievement and remain committed to leveraging our expertise in modern application development to help our clients succeed. For more information on how Perficient can help your business with custom application development and digital transformation, contact us today.

Download the Forrester report, The Modern Application Development Services Landscape, Q3 2024, to learn more (Link to report available to Forrester subscribers and for purchase).

What is drop ship?

Drop shipping is a one-of-its-kind retail business model where a seller accepts customer orders without keeping inventory on hand. Instead, the seller forwards the order and payment details to a supplier, who then ships the product directly to the customer. This model is popular because it allows retailer to avoid investing in warehouse space, operational cost, or unsold inventory, and instead focus on other areas like marketing.

How Drop Ship Works

A fulfillment method that is growing in popularity, drop shipping can simplify inventory management for ecommerce sellers. It reduces storage and picking fees, plus it eliminates the risk of having items on hand that just won’t sell.

The customer places an order with a retailer. The retailer alerts the drop-shipping partner – either the manufacturer or the wholesaler – who packages and ships the product to the customer. The drop-shipping partner charges you, the retailer, for the service, and you charge the customer.

Advantages Of Using Drop Shipping Services

Drop shipping and fulfilment services can be a good option for the ecommerce industry where retailers are required to maintain a warehouse, inventory, operation costs, shipping costs, etc. Here are a few reasons.

1. A drop ship vendor (DSV) offers a low-cost option for maintaining inventory and shipping options.
2. It’s almost no operation cost for retailers, risk on item maintenance, allocation, shipping is on DSV.
3. Retailers can spend less time on the item management, and instead, can focus time on marketing and expanding their business.
4. Some DSV allow retailers access to their system. This is one of the ways retailers can track orders and shipments.
5. Retailers do not need a physical location to store products which can otherwise be costly and demanding to manage.

Drop Ship Business Challenges

With drop shipping, there are some challenges:

1. Building brand value while selling products via third party retailers
2. Finding an appropriate retailer to sell your product
3. Product marketing
4. Wrong item/quantity sent to customer
5. Handling shipping and operation costs
6. Dealing with customer returns
7. Dealing with out of stock items
8. Shipment delivered to a wrong address / Orders got confused
9. Item arrived damaged
10. Wrong tracking number

How To Solve Drop Ship Issue by Using Technology 

One of the biggest challenges is building brand value. It can be hard to stand out from the competition since most DSV offer the same products in their stores. It can be difficult to differentiate with others DSV when a product catalog is similar. So, we need to find ways to make products distinctive and more attractive than competitors.

On that note, there are a few ways to overcome this challenge:

• Building a customizable websit.
• Marketing your product via email / blogs / affiliate / ads ( Facebook/Google, etc.)
• Exceptional customer service
• Private label DSV – This enables DSVs to ship products from suppliers directly repackaged with our branded packaging
• White label DSV customization options – DSV can also leverage white label customization options. With white label customization, DSV can personalize things like packaging. As a result, customers get the sense that they are purchasing from a specific brand rather than a supplier.

Next, a challenge as DSV is finding reliable and trustworthy suppliers. Finding suppliers that can be relied on is key because then we can ensure that our product is credible.

Furthermore, DSV also need to consider what makes a supplier reliable. A reliable supplier has solid and fair business policies and offers good quality items, ensuring the customer is satisfied with their purchase.

With that in mind, there are a few ways to find trustworthy suppliers:

• AutoDS-supported suppliers – DSV can work with AutoDS-supported global suppliers. This is a great way to ensure DSV are sourcing from dependable suppliers. Notably, this collection of suppliers are the best to work with because they pass all the necessary requirements. Plus, when working with them, DSV can automate the business.
• Reviews
• Product range
• Business policies
• Domestic & International warehouses
• Customer service

Another challenge retailers face is long shipping times and delays. Since shipping is handled by DSVs and not the retailer, the Retailer doesn’t have much control over it. Interestingly, different suppliers have different processing, billing, and shipping policies, so shipping times vary. This can be a challenge when we are sourcing from overseas suppliers.

The most important thing DSV need to do is have clear and honest communication with both supplier and our customer. Thus, we need to set clear guidelines with our customers about the shipping times. And, we need to set solid ground rules with our suppliers regarding shipping.

Additionally, retailers must find suppliers with domestic warehouses in the markets we dropship in. Consequently, this allows us to cut down on shipping times as well as on delays.

Moreover, a challenge that DSV need to learn to manage is running out of stock. Uniquely, because we don’t handle suppliers inventory, we don’t have much control over stock availability. As a result, offering a product that is out of stock may turn away potential customers.

However, there is a way to overcome and handle this dropshipping challenge. Utilizing an automated stock monitoring tool will help us avoid losing sales. For example, if our supplier is out of stock of an item, the AutoDS tool automatically won’t let us import the product into our store.

Plus, this is why retailers and DSV should work with multiple suppliers and other DSVs. By working with multiple suppliers, if an item goes out of stock from one supplier, DSV can find that item from another supplier. Thus, DSV can ensure they always put customers first and providing the best service possible, even if we are out of stock.

Another drop shipping challenge is customer product returns. Actually, it can be difficult to navigate product returns. To elaborate, because retailer  don’t hold or ship the products, the returns must go through DSV and or supplier. As such, it can get tricky to handle returns.

This is why retailers need to offer exceptional customer service. Notably, with great customer service, we can put our customers at ease when dealing with returns. As a result, this clear line of communication allows for a smooth product return process.

Additionally, we need to have clear business policies. On our drop shipping store website, we need to clearly state both the shipping and the returns policies. Consequently, this allows us to inform the customer of their options and protect ourselves.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is a set of security standards established by the major payment providers like Visa and Mastercard. PCI Compliance is to store, retrieve, and transform card holder data securely during the payment process. Organizations that process payments using customers’ card data are required to comply with PCI standards.

Compliance with PCI is mandatory for businesses that handle customer card data, and failure to comply can result in huge penalties, fines, damage to the organization reputation, negative impact on the stock value, facing legal proceedings.

Pay by Link

Pay by Link is one of the popular solutions available for organizations to mitigate all the above risks. With Pay by Link, organizations can accept payments using payment links. Using the Pay by Link, shoppers can pay / submit the payment information (card data) securely at their convenience. The link takes the shopper to a secure payment page where they can make payment with their preferred payment method. Most of the Pay by Link service providers support wide range of payment methods including, Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Alipay, PayPal, Venmo, Gift Card’s, ACH Direct Deposit etc.…

Enabling Pay by Link in Call Center App

Pay by Link is commonly used in call centers applications as a way of securely capturing customers’ payment details. The Call Center Associate generates a link and emails the link to the customer for them to complete the purchase. This removes the need to read card details over the phone, which is a payments security minefield. Pay By Link can be integrated with Chatbots to share a link to the customer.

Configuring Pay By Link

Organizations can define their own rules when they generate Pay by Link for their customers like, Logo, Pay with a single payment method, Link validity, currency, etc.…

Organizations need to add terms and conditions before generating Pay by Link URL’s. Organizations can interact with Pay by link service providers sales team to do the initial setup and to create users with different roles. Once the account is setup in the System, users can login to their accounts to complete the setup.

Example:

Adyen supports both Test and Live accounts for users/admins to setup their accounts.

Pay By Link’s can be generated in different ways like implementing API Integrations, logging to Customer Area, and generating links, or using iOS App.

Link expiry and reusability

By default, payment links expire after 24 hours. Organizations can extend the expiry of the payment link when the link gets created.

After a shopper makes a successful payment, anyone accessing the same link will display a message “You have already paid”. For some use cases, for example when accepting donations, business might want to override the default behavior so that Organizations can give out the same link to multiple shoppers. Business can override the default payment link expiry and non-reusability when the link gets created.

General Flow

Pay by Link through the API

Below is an example of Adyen Pay by Link process flow.

Step 1: Create a payment link

Make a POST /paymentLinks request specifying the following information:

• merchantAccount: the name of your merchant account.
• reference: your identifier for the transaction.
• amount: the currency and value in minor units.

Sample Request

Sample Response

Step 2: Retrieve the Pay by Link URL from the response object and send it back to the Call Center/Source Caller to display it on the Payment Screen. Automate the backend process to send payment link to the shopper using their preferred method.

Ex: – Email, SMS, Chat, etc…

Step 3: Implement listeners to listen to Adyen payment notifications and process the payment authorizations and payment confirmation updates.

Process Refunds

Adyen Pay by Link supports two different refund mechanisms.

• Referenced refund: Referenced refunds are connected to the original payment using the unique identifier of that payment. Adyen supports both full and partial refunds and below is the sample JSON message for full and partial refunds.

Full Refund:

Partial Refund:

• Unreferenced refund: Unreferenced refunds let business return any amount to any card presented to the payment terminal. For example, business can issue a refund to someone who did not make the original payment, such as a gift recipient.

In conclusion, Pay by Link is revolutionizing the way businesses and customers handle transactions. By offering a seamless, secure, and convenient payment option, it not only enhances the customer experience but also streamlines payment processes for businesses. Whether you are a small business looking to simplify your invoicing or a large enterprise aiming to enhance your payment systems, Pay by Link provides a versatile solution that adapts to your organization’s needs.

As digital transactions continue to evolve, adopting innovative solutions like Pay by Link will keep your business ahead of the curve, ensuring that you meet the growing demands of convenience and security from your customers.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more insights and updates on the latest in digital payment solutions.

IBM OMS (Order Management System) upgrade process is to update an existing OMS system to a newer version. This upgrade can involve updating only OMS application or other dependent applications or software’s. The primary goal of an OMS upgrade is to improve the efficiency, scalability, and performance of order processing.

Multi-hop upgrade is to upgrade an existing OMS system or legacy IBM OMS application through multiple versions to a newer version. This type of upgrade is necessary when upgrading a much older version to the latest version (Example: IBM OMS 9.1 to OMS10.0). Multi-hop upgrades are very complex due to significant changes in the OMS software architecture, database schema, and other dependent software’s. These types of upgrades also allow us to mitigate the risk by applying and validating gradual upgrades.

 Multi-hop upgrade steps:

 1. Impact Analysis and Assessment

Analysis and Assessment plays a very important role in any upgrade, and these are much more important for multi-Hop as most of the dependent applications / software’s requires upgrades to be compatible with OMS latest versions. Careful verification of IBM OMS software’s compatible matrix is mandatory to plan and upgrade all the required software’s (Example: Linux OS, Java, Database, Application Server etc..).

Example:

2. POC / Environment setup

Preparing upgrades steps, upgrade scripts and executing those steps on a POC environment is important to reduce the risk and smooth upgrade process for higher environments.

POC Environment upgrade steps to upgrade in a multi-hop upgrade mode:

• 1. Setup a new Linux      box/environment same as existing DEV/QA box.
  2. Modify the sandbox.cfg, jdbc.properties to point to POC Database Schema.
  3. Build and deploy the new .ear file.
  4. Bring up the existing OMS application, agent, and integration servers on the POC environment.
  5. Run a high-level validation and make sure the current OMS application is up and running on POC box.
  6. Download and Copy OMS software’s, fix pack’s into POC environment.
  7. Install OMS software (Example: OMS 9.5) and execute OMS upgrade steps.
  8. Build and deploy a new OMS ear.
  9. Run high-level validations and make sure OMS upgrade is complete and OMS application is up and running on newer version.
  10. Create a snapshot of OMS Linux box.
  11. Take the OMS DB Backup / Create DB Restore points.
  12. Install OMS latest version (Example: OMS 10.0) and execute OMS upgrade steps.
  13. Run high-level validations and make sure OMS 10.0 upgrade is complete and OMS application is up and running on newer version.
  14. Bring up all the Agent and Integration servers and validate order flow.
  15. Monitor the transactional data flow, exceptions, alerts etc.

3. Executing upgrades in multi-hope mode in all the required environments

After the successful completion of multi-hop upgrade on POC environments, follow the same steps and upgrade other higher environments like, DEV, QA, Master Config, Pre-Production).

 4. Go-Live preparation, Production downtime and upgrade

Multi-hop upgrades typically take much longer time than the regular updates hence it is very important to plan for Production downtime, setting expectations with the business on the downtime. During the go-live window executing upgrade steps and verifying log files, output of each step is very crucial to avoid issues or risk of reverting back everything.

5. Rollback strategy

Planning rollback options and executing them on one or more lower environments is important as the multi-hop upgrade is very complex and incase if the entire upgrade needs to be reverted due to any issue or time constraints with respect to the production downtime window.

6. Post-Production validation and support

Validating all the critical interfaces, functionalities are very important as upgrades can contain significant changes in the OMS architecture, database schema, user interfaces, and functionalities. Identifying all the critical scenarios that are required to be covered will help us to plan the Production Go-Live and Rollback strategies.