HTML5 is coming, and online retailers need to get ready

Steve Deller

E-retail executives may think the HTML5 is just another update for the I.T. team to sort out, but Steve Deller, president and CEO of e-commerce services vendor Virid Inc., says the latest Internet programming language represents a change everyone has a stake in.

Deller will discuss the future of HTML5 and what e-retailers need to know and do now to get ready for it at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in San Diego in a session entitled “Get ready for the next online shopping technology leap—HTML5.”

Deller says HTML5, the latest version of the HTML language used to create web sites, represents a fundamental shift in how e-retailers build web sites. With a web site written in HTML5, web browsers can interpret and optimally render that site, regardless of the device a consumer is using to access it, he says. This can help limit the work e-retailers have to do to ensure a good user experience on a web site.

Even though HTML5 isn’t expected to be fully rolled out until 2014, Deller says e-retailers can’t wait on the sidelines. “Retailers need to be planning for HTML5 and starting to put together a plan for how to get there,” he says. “If retailers do not have a plan in place to start leveraging these new features in their existing sites, they will start to see a drop-off in visitors and conversion as customers move on to other retailers that have.”

Deller will tell the conference audience how to start implementing and testing web site elements using HTML5 language. The session will also detail how Virid e-retail client Bakershoes.com is using HTML5 for its mobile-optimized web site and also its traditional web site.

Internet Retailer’s editors asked Deller to speak at the conference because of his more than 20 years of experience in the design and development of software for Fortune 100 companies. At Virid, he’s helped multiple e-commerce brands, including Trina Turk and Tory Burch, build their businesses online.