Toiling within the office walls – diligently working of code development, strategic decisions and copy writing – one could easily lose sight of the fact that real companies are using Elastic Path on a daily basis (well nightly too) to run their business – the whole deal from selling products, collecting money, shipping to the customer, and dealing with service concerns – in short conducting ecommerce, or to them, livelihood.
"Well duh," you may say but, all cynicism aside, with the myriad tasks required on a day-to-day basis in the workplace, it is easy to lose sight of who is using the platform and how are they using it.
These observations are important at many levels, and astute observation can: 1) help the product development squad improve the core product by co-opting useful modifications made by a third-party; 2) assist the sales folks to see which customers may be ready to upgrade or could benefit from a new component tie-in; and, 3) teach marketing types how customers customize and execute their message using Elastic Path.
While recently producing collateral materials for the aforementioned trade show, I've poked around several real-life customer sites for a bit of learning. Some sites are easy to identify as EP while others are so extensively customized, you must look closely to see if Elastic Path is really running the show behind the scenes.
Here are a few faves:
Aeroplan – This site is intriguing because Aeroplan (a travel rewards program) doesn't use currency per se, but "miles" which customers redeem for goods and (often experiential) services. The site utilizes the multi-language ability allowing user to shop in French or English and the design is fresh and progressive. By the way, a case study about this client is forthcoming.
Couture Candy – A super-stylish clothes retailer with vivid photography and a massive inventory of products coming in many colors and sizes. Contents are sortable by all sorts of parameters including by "fans" of the designer. The client also baked-in a live chat feature for quick customer support from their shopping experts.
My Kids Tunes – This site is designed for a kid-friendly audience (read: bright colors, big buttons) but I am most intrigued that the products (songs) are delivered electronically after an online purchase. The efficient interface makes the shopping experience almost foolproof – even for newbie shoppers.
Random House – This publishing giant has a elegant site sortable and browsable by author, title, ISBN or various categories. Besides being to read excerpts and learn more about the author, you are pointed to a variety of purchasing options. Besides simply adding to the local site cart, you are given info to buy at local bookshops, choose from several online retailers, or directed to a contract purchasing track for libraries and schools.
There are plenty more sites to digest, but these give a nice representation. Do you have any favorite Elastic Path sites?
Posted by DaveO 
