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Virtual marketplaces: the next generation of Internet shopping
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Mail-order companies are increasingly becoming sales platforms
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novomind iPOEM™ makes it possible to merge online shops and marketplaces successfully
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Hamburg, Germany, May 22nd, 2006 –
Marketplaces on the Internet are the high streets of tomorrow. Germany’s traditional mail-order companies are now also opening up as sales platforms for brand companies and throwing down the gauntlet to the industry number one Amazon and the planned auction house subsidiary ebayExpress. What Otto, Neckermann and Quelle have in mind: to concentrate customer flows and to make the most of their own powers of attraction to create new sources of revenue. To make the virtual fusion of marketplaces and online shops a viable proposition, the Hamburg software developer novomind has come up with a solution: novomind iPOEM™.
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The extremely high profile and visitor frequency of platform operators such as Otto, Neckermann, Quelle and co. make virtual marketplaces an attractive new distribution channel for brand producers with and without an e-shop of their own. Otto.de reports 4.3 million visitors every month and neckermann.de and quelle.de are not far behind with 3.7 and 3.4 million visitors respectively. This is customer potential from which brand producers can profit. The latest example is the lifestyle brand Mexx, which has now started selling its full product range not only from its own e-shop but also via the platforms otto.de, neckermann.de and quelle.de.
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Platform operators and brand producers benefit equally from Internet marketplaces as the brand producers can enlarge their sales area overnight and also increase their visibility with the end consumer. The marketplaces, on the other hand, expand their product range without having to build up storage capacity for the new articles. The virtual integration does, however, present both sides with a challenge. With novomind iPOEM™, a combined consulting and software package that sells for a fixed price, novomind offers marketplaces and brand producers the first ever standardised solution for the simple integration of Internet sales space. The software makes it possible to link the platforms without the need for marketplace-specific features to be mapped in the existing e-business systems. At the same time, both sides can make optimal use of the existing infrastructure.
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The integration of Mexx with otto.de, neckermann.de and quelle.de took place at the same time within the space of six weeks. With novomind iPOEM™, Mexx can also set up its virtual sales stand in other marketplaces without any extra expense.
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Lively interest in solutions for the successful integration of brand producers and marketplaces was already evident at the novomind expert forum in February 2006. Top representatives of the mail-order industry and brand producers as well as independent industry observers discussed the new models of Internet trading, the opportunities they offer and the challenges they pose. "The discussions showed that marketplaces on the Internet are the future. With novomind iPOEM™, we reduce the time, effort, cost and complexity of implementing marketplace projects for all parties. One important aspect is that we help our customers to gain a significant increase in sales space within a short time," says CTO Peter Wiedekamm of novomind AG.
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novomind is a software developer in Hamburg and the fastest-growing company in the field of electronic customer communications and mail management. As the leading provider of innovative solutions for digital customer communications, novomind AG provides software for service-oriented and personalised customer dealings. The software not only optimises efficiency in customer administration significantly, it also gives the user a faster return on investment. The portfolio of the Products division includes the novomind Self Service Suite™. The software package contains all the communication modules necessary for a customer service centre on a central knowledge basis: e-mail management, virtual customer consulting and systems for interactive, real-time communication. The novomind AG Services division implements complex e-business applications. More than 40 major companies have already decided in favour of novomind technology, among them Citibank, Otto, Yello Strom and the German pension institution Deutsche Rentenversicherung. Club Bertelsmann, EnBW and Mexx as well as public-sector users, such as the German Bundestag (parliament) and the German Department of Trade and Industry, have already successfully introduced novomind systems to optimise their customer communications, turnover and PR.
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