When you care to e-send the very best

User stories from the knowledge front

For the holiday season soon underway, Hallmark Cards wanted to ensure that its customers will have a positive online experience. Hallmark.com, the e-commerce site for Hallmark Cards, sells not only the company’s traditional greeting cards and electronic cards but also gifts such as flowers and gift certificates, as well as other items from third-party suppliers.

To help manage order and inventory on its newly redesigned Web site, Hallmark in March installed Demand Solution from Yantra. The software manages customer orders and inventory across various channels, online retailers, internal business units, third-party suppliers and service providers.

The benefits of the software for Hallmark have included a reduction in the time and costs involved in coordinating and fulfilling orders, according to a recent press release from Yantra. It also extends Hallmark’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) infrastructure, and is said to give Hallmark.com the flexibility and scalibility to add new third-party product offerings and services, and to integrate with other distribution channels.

Says Tracie Tempel, Hallmark.com’s VP of strategy and business development, “The software lets us quickly expand our consumer direct business, and it helps us manage multiple business processes more quickly and easily. The solution automates a variety of processes that run the site, ensuring that we deliver the level of service Hallmark customers expect.”

Hallmark began testing electronic shopping in 1985 and provided an early form of e-cards through a partnership with CompuServe . in 1989. It launched its own Web site in 1996