Forrester analyst Martin Gill recently published a report titled “The ROI of Agile Commerce.” Agile commerce, for the uninitiated, is a term designed to replace multichannel commerce and covers the same principle: provide unified information, engagement, and service across all customer touchpoints. (Or, if you’d rather, imagine a digital version of Breaking Bad‘s Crystal Ship, the campervan meth lab).
Those touchpoints now include mobile apps, various social media presences, and an increasing number of devices in the 3.5- to 9-inch screen range. And with every new touchpoint comes the question of worth: how much time to invest in responding to customers on Facebook and Twitter; how to track and interpret site usage from mobile devices; how to figure out what helps sales, what helps brand loyalty, and what doesn’t help at all.
The report, which “outlines some of the tips, techniques, and frameworks that e-business professionals are using to justify agile commerce investment,” addresses issues of worth as well as sharing some of the results seen by companies making investments in agile commerce transformation.
Speaking of agile commerce, Pinterest is expanding its offerings with promoted pins and read it later pins, which offer a new look for bookmarking articles. CEO Ben Silbermann promises that promoted pins will be tasteful, transparent, and relevant.
Promoted pins are currently an experiment, according to Silbermann: “Nobody’s paying for anything yet–we want to see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think.” But for brands invested in being agile, Pinterest may soon become an important advertising channel.
