Overstock.com: Feeling the Need For Speed - ' New customization capabilities are '

Improvements in Web-usage reporting will also allow the business side to time special sales more precisely to take advantage of changes in the market, or in inventory.

"Our marketing campaigns will now be optimized on the fly," Schwegman said. "Whether it's a deal with AOL or a down comforter sale on the bedding page, marketing will be able to see the landing page" activity.

Overstock has now dedicated marketing personnel to watching the stats and making quick sales decisions based on them, knowing that many such programs never deliver much of a return because the capabilities weren't used.

"We will have several (marketing) people dedicated to just that for various ad campaigns, and they will be held to strict metrics," Schwegman said. "It's a capability that has existed here, but it's now much better. The focus is on real time."

Schwegman understands that IT people are generally willing to work long hours when their projects are important, as long as they are allowed to have some fun at work. To avoid IT staff burnout, in January, once the holiday selling insanity dies down, his team is offered what he dubs "snowboarding hours."

Alternating groups of programmers are given the morning to go off snowboarding—Schwegman boasts of some serious snowboarding enthusiasts on his team—and are asked to report for work at about noon.

"It lets people rejuvenate," he said. Snowboarding isn't a half-day off, however. Staffers are still expected to work a full day once they do come in, but they are allowed to time-shift to get in a morning of snowboarding.

New retail system peeks under shopping carts. Click here to read more.

Looking to this year's critical holiday selling season, Overstock will be deploying some additional customization capabilities, allowing for pages to get closer to a custom page for every customer. Schwegman said the systems won't quite get to that level of individuality, but will be getting a lot closer than they had been.

One of the potentially significant changes Overstock is making involves a migration from Oracle 9i to Oracle 10g. Today, the retailer's shopping database talks directly to its warehouses, logging orders.

With the new system, Schwegman said, "our orders will go to Oracle, and then Oracle will decide which warehouse gets the order. We're then modifying our reporting so that we can match orders to make sure that the orders flow through properly. Is it going to the right warehouse?"

Overstock is using Goldengate Software to help move the data from Oracle in the transition.

Schwegman is also moving to create walls between the company's operations and reporting sides of the IT department. Like most startups, Overstock's initial IT strategy was about consolidation and cramming as much data and capabilities as possible into the fewest number of apps, databases and servers.

But with potential 9-figure revenues this year or next year, Schwegman says the time is now right to split functions and focus on specialization.

"Operations and reporting will be now distinct and in synch. We will keep them absolutely separate," he said. "We've surpassed the size where (that kind of consolidation) works."

Schwegman said that he liked the pace and intensity of the start-up culture in IT, but that he'll likely move onto other roles at Overstock as the company leaves the hyper-growth startup phase.

"I'm a wartime general. My qualities are more geared toward war," he said.

Schwegman has held multiple roles while at Overstock—including serving as the director of the Books, Music & Videos department as well as working in the affiliate marketing program—and he is looking to move on. "Maybe I'll be doing new business development," he said.

For now, though, this general still has to push technology to scale for a rapidly growing company with increasing pressures on low costs. For the foreseeable future, that futon is likely to get a lot of use. Retail Center Editor Evan Schuman can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com.

Check out eWEEK.com's for the latest news, views and analysis on technology's impact on retail.