How the cloud will impact 2013 brands

Kristina: Tell me about the Avangate platform.

Carl Theobald, Avangate CEO: Avangate, incorporated in 2006, offers an agile eCommerce platform for software and SaaS companies to help increase revenue and sales internationally. Avangate's scalable and integrated solution includes a full-featured, modular and secure eCommerce platform, a partner order and revenue management system, as well as a constantly expanding worldwide affiliate network (currently at 35,000 software affiliates). The platform also offers customer management capabilities to not only acquire but also retain customers to maximize business growth.

Avangate's market-proven eCommerce solution enables software and SaaS vendors to rapidly embrace industry shifts, reach customers effectively, and adopt new business models with a view to optimizing profitable revenue across online and offline channels.

Kristina: Toward the end of 2011, we began hearing more about The Cloud; how is the cloud impacting retailers and SaaS brands now?

Carl: The shift to the cloud, along with the change in customer-buying behavior and expectations, demands a more customer-centric commerce approach from an interaction point of view (entailing proactive and reactive customer interaction, customer support, and self-service tools), as well as from the point of view of creating consistency across channels and touch points. While the cloud has impacted customers' expectations for faster service and an instant-gratification experience, it has also opened up opportunities for new ways and more channels for software and SaaS vendors to deliver their solutions and products to customers.

To keep up with expectations, brands will need to improve their ability to address all of the customer touch points for a better customer experience that not only leads to customer acquisition but also retention. At the same time, subscriptions have become ubiquitous - and going one step further, providers have to look at new revenue models and new ways to monetize their products.

More from Carl and Avangate Monday, including his why digital is the new black for businesses.

Tags: Avangate, cloud business, cloud marketing, cloud systems