David Chiu

David Chiu is the digital commerce strategist at Elastic Path, and a veteran internet marketing specialist with 15 years of experience delivering business solutions to Fortune 500 companies. He is a guest blogger for Econsultancy.

Prior to joining Elastic Path, David was Director of Product Management at a global ecommerce software company, as well as an award-winning information architect and designer for several prominent interactive marketing agencies.

What every executive needs to know about API technology

Yes, it seems like a very technical subject best left in the hands of your IT department.

But just as the web and mobile jumped quickly from sideshow to center stage in sales and marketing, how good your APIs are will ultimately have a significant impact on your bottom line – and potentially, the future of your business.

Here’s what you need to know about them.

by David Chiu 08 June 2012 18:15pm 4 comments

Subscriptions 101: Three steps to recurring revenue

It’s been called the best business model in the world. And subscriptions aren’t just for media businesses.

Gartner forecasts that by 2015, 35% of Global 2000 companies with non-media digital products will generate up to 10% of their revenue from recurring models. Are you ready?

Ongoing monetization is a key part of disruptive digital selling. Consumers flock to these businesses because they offer a superior product experience, enable costs to be amortized, and provide a guarantee that vendors will always work hard to ensure their satisfaction.

In return, enterprises maximize customer loyalty, secure predictable revenue, and often gain a significant competitive advantage.

by David Chiu 01 May 2012 14:38pm 4 comments

API strategies for disruptive digital sellers

Unless you’re Google, Netflix, or Twitter, you may have found it difficult to build or articulate compelling business cases for your API projects.

While conversations around this subject have long been dominated by how the big public APIs have forged new business models by opening up products and services to the world at large, the harsh reality for most companies is that copying this strategy is not necessarily the right thing to do.

by David Chiu 29 March 2012 15:41pm 4 comments

Four steps to becoming a disruptive digital seller

For years, e-commerce practitioners have obsessed over the idea of a slippery funnel, built to maximize retail metrics like conversion rate and average order value.

Today’s disruptive digital products and services are quickly making this way of monetizing things obsolete.

Every connected device or service that hits the market, from tablets and televisions to ad platforms and social networks, brings with it new opportunities for marketing and selling your company’s goods and services. But in many cases, blindly pursuing the traditional retail path of pushing customers through a “shopping experience” will only alienate them.

by David Chiu 08 March 2012 15:54pm 2 comments