Improving customer experience is top of mind with most CIO’s who rely on the web as their key tool for marketing and service delivery. While driving revenues through this improved experience garners much of the market buzz, cost-cutting measures like customer self-service, flexibility and online billing solutions also impact the bottom line. In addition, cheap bandwidth and readily accessible devices allow for better communications, new ways of creating and serving content, and an understanding of the consumer. An example of these new tech realities can be seen in the entertainment industry where iTunes has labeled Apple as a disrupter and online gaming allows for advertisers to more effectively reach the much sought after GenX and GenY audiences.

Converging with rich media, many industry experts agree that the online retail market is maturing. Online sales are now seen not as a replacement to brick and mortar retailing, but more of a compliment. Accordingly, huge retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy are offering interactive web experiences, complimentary wireless and mobile solutions, music downloads and adopting the dual persona of being media companies.

Because the consumer marketplace is now more about experiences than products, TripleTree considers a few core business fundamentals when advising emerging retail and rich media companies:

• Do they participate in a leading ecosystem;
• Can they sell and support a full suite of core and complementary services;
• Do they provide a robust e-commerce capacity; and
• Can they merchandise using consumer analytics?

Kevin Green, Managing Partner | kgreen@triple-tree.com
Chris Hoffmann, Senior Principal/Research Director | choffmann@triple-tree.com
Scott Donahue, Principal | sdonahue@triple-tree.com

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