Consumers now have the power to determine how and when they interact with a business, blurring the boundaries of web site, mobile site, service center, or physical stores as separate entities. Consumers want to interact with the business and the brand and have a consistent experience regardless of how and when they choose to interact with it. With a continued focus on enabling a Commerce Anywhere strategy, Oracle's latest release of the commerce suite provides key capabilities to support cross-channel commerce, search, and personalization.

The traditional Marketing Mix covers product, price, place, and promotion and often people and process are thrown in for good measure.  Retailers spend their time adjusting these "P levers" to satisfy customers and drive sales.  But the P that interests me most is personalization.  For years the online experience has been personalized to varying extents.  Cookies track the sites I visit, and advertising is changed in real-time to reinforce promotions in an effort to retarge

I previously discussed the importance of establishing an innovation lab so that companies can keep up with emerging technology trends. But innovation doesn't just happen in the lab -- it works best when its part of the culture.  Companies need to foster the free flow of information and ideas across the entire organization.  There are many tools that help in this regard, including online forums, instant messaging, social networks, etc.

Often consumers want instant gratification, which is why my previous post discussed the importance of fast shipping for online retailers.  Getting to affordable same-day or next-day delivery will be an important milestone for the retail industry, and we're already making progress in that direction with "shipping clubs" and local delivery services.  But what if there was a way to skip the delivery process altogether, much like what we've done with digital content.  I don't order music CDs or DVDs from websites anymore; I simpl