The lady behind the counter is a database Analysis/Commentary The next phase in e-commerce goes beyond point-and-click and into the hocus-pocus that governs the business back-ends of commercial websites. Well, what's going on back there? ERP. No, that's not a belch. ERP stands for "enterprise resource planning," and it's just part of the nebulous linguistics that software sales-forces use to bedazzle dot-com executives responsible for purchasing software. Okay, ERP simply refers to the software modules that make e-commerce sites work: shopping cart technology, order processing, transaction technology, customer registration databases -- in short, the vital resources without which a business couldn't hope to make profits. So much for phase one, past history. The next phase in e-commerce aims to create an environment for information, communication, and trust, and focuses not on the business -- er, "enterprise" -- but on the customer. So you have customer relationship management online, cleverly abbreviated by overzealous software sales representatives as "eCRM." In short, the lady behind the counter is a database. When a customer calls up an eCRM-enabled website, eCRM software begins at once to track, monitor, and model the information available from the customer to help close a "buy" -- or from the customer's viewpoint, simplify a purchase. E-commerce websites suffer a plague of abandoned shopping carts, high rates of return, and an inability to target the specific wants or needs of a customer. eCRM software, by moderating purchases using a customer's history of transactions, preferences, or profiles, acts to narrow down the potential for sales, while collecting statistics that will serve as strategic information for predicting trends, customer choice patterns, and future promotional data. In a sense, by knowing the actual preferences of target customer groups, companies will have guidance on how to build promotional marketing campaigns to lure them back. eCRM is a complicated piece of work because it combines several software modules, described as analysis and personalization tools. These modules collect primary information from cookies, short code strings that browsers automatically activate when a customer registers onto a site. Each time the visitor returns to the site, the cookie gets relaunched and fed back into the website's back end. Of course, cookie information is encrypted and coded to protect an individual's identity, but it can refer to private information, such as addresses, telephone numbers, and credit card numbers. Will eCRM work effectively to simplify the customer shopping experience? In some respects, it is almost certainly will. eCRM software claims to provide a complete communication environment, much like the airport console or the hotel computer, that consolidates all the information about a customer, his or her deeds, particulars, preferences, and messages -- all in one place. This helps real world facilities interact -- like stores or telephone centers, and the shopping window on a customer's PC. The danger of eCRM is that it will prove too manipulative, too inquisitive. How well it can remain within the bounds of existing privacy policies is anyone's guess. Its benefits include an informed helping hand from automated customer service personnel, a more personalized and engaging environment for shopping, and a more foolproof interaction between seller and buyer. (Hopefully, eCRM systems will be redundant enough to minimize errors of communication.) The holiday season marks the onset of the new sales and marketing system at major shopping sites. If customers find a greater ease of use, it will be a success. If they find themselves spammed and manipulated, it will fail. August 23, 2000