Helping E-Commerce Tidy Up

From the Irvine Spectrum News — January 22, 2001
By Catrine Johansson

UCI professor's book details ways for e-commerce merchants to follow through efficiently and professionally.

She calls it "messyware." The backend of e-commerce that is. "She" is Deborah Bayles-Kalman, and her book "E-Commerce Logistics and Fulfillment: Delivering the Goods," recently hit bookseller's shelves.

Bayles-Kalman believes "messyware" is so important, she's trademarked the word.

"Most companies just slap a shopping cart on their Web site and don't think about how they are going to deliver the goods," Bayles-Kalman said.

She teaches e-commerce classes at UC Irvine Extension, initiated the E-Commerce Organization (ECO), and founded two ventures that help companies with e-commerce issues.

Bayles-Kalman said she got the idea for the book from her clients and students. "This is the first book that deals with e-commerce logistics — what happens after the 'buy' button is pushed, or the messyware, as I call it. It's the least glamorous part of doing business, but also the most crucial," she said.

Using the clothing retailer The Gap as an example, Bayles-Kalman describes some of the problems that can arise if the planning for online commerce doesn't go beyond the "buy" button. While people could buy Gap clothes at an Internet site, the customers could not return or make exchanges at the stores, she said.

Bayles-Kalman also noted that the toy chain Toys R Us had its own set of problems at its site. "Toys R Us contracted a third party to handle its e-commerce, and this company couldn't handle the deliveries, so Toys R Us ended up getting fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)," Bayles-Kalman said.

Intended for "technically savvy executives, information technology professionals, and other enterprise leaders," Bayles-Kalman's book discusses how to make sure the customers get the right products, get them within a reasonable time, that potential returns are handled properly and that the entire process is cost effective for the company.

She dedicates three chapters to the setup process of an e-commerce site. The chapters include related FTC regulations, return-on-investment-formulas and infrastructure planning templates.

Topics such as order processing, taxes, online fraud, shipping and customer service take up four chapters.

As the Internet enables companies to contact an international audience, Bayles-Kalman dedicates three chapters to global e-commerce issues, such as taxes and exchange standards.

The last three chapters in the 300-page book advise readers to whether to outsource their e-commerce operations and offer some case studies on the topic. Spreadsheets and other tools in the book are available online at www.bayles.com.