Intershop to bring forecasting software for e-commerce, SIMCOMMERCE

JENA, GERMANY: Intershop, the integrated omni-channel commerce solutions provider has announced that SIMCOMMERCE, an innovative simulation software program for complex e-commerce processes, will be released in 2014.

The software will give decision-makers in the online commerce industry a solid basis on which to predict whether investments in online shop system modifications or targeted online marketing campaigns will pay off in higher sales or site traffic over a specified period of time. SIMCOMMERCE is the first analytical tool tailored specifically to the needs of online commerce.

As a cost-efficient software-as-a-service solution, it will give even relatively small businesses the capability to make accurate cost/benefit predictions. In the pilot test phase currently underway, project partners already have access to simulation models for payment portfolio and risk management, search engine optimization, advertising and e-mail marketing modules.

Further elements, such as shop optimization for mobile devices or returns management, are to be added in time for the official launch.

SIMCOMMERCE works with customer data (such as historical transaction data) along with industry and market data, and benchmarks. It differs from the analytical methods commonly used in the past, such as A/B testing.

With SIMCOMMERCE it is no longer necessary to actually install alternative shop elements such as different payment providers in the shop to test their effect on customers. The tool makes it now possible to generate simulations that precisely mirror a business’s own shop model or customer segment without the additional costs or risks decision makers are confronted with today.

To perform a realistic cost/benefit analysis, the system aligns the selected module with a comprehensive quantity of anonymized external data for similar scenarios.

Numerous variants can be combined with one another in different ways and simulated separately within a single module, and as a result even large-scale comparison tests that would have been too costly and time-consuming for traditional A/B testing methods are now possible. This makes SIMCOMMERCE a powerful business intelligence solution for industry newcomers especially.

Project manager Dr. Arndt Döhler, research manager at Intershop, said “Our goal was to capture the cause-and-effect relationships in e-commerce and make them quantifiable. The effects that decisions will have on relevant indicators can then be simulated.”

Adds Dr. Jochen Wiechen, CTO at Intershop, “Developments such as big data and predictive analytics are going to bring about lasting changes in the online commerce industry. In the past it was often only the big companies with access to powerful forecasting tools that could use these futuristic technologies to their advantage. Intershop’s SIMCOMMERCE is going to democratize the industry and finally put these sales drivers within reach of smaller businesses as well.”