In an industry where change is the only constant, predicting what lies around the corner is anyone’s guess. In the last two years we’ve seen consumer trends like mobile device adoption, the proliferation of broadband internet and social media change forever the way consumers interact with retailers and brands. As the latest new trends continue to go mainstream in 2012 – like video commerce, floating profiles, location based marketing and intelligent commerce device apps – retailers and brand direct companies face a harsh reality. It’s no longer a matter of keeping up anymore; it is likely a key to staying in business.
The big question for retailers and brand direct companies isn’t, therefore, how to second-guess the future, but rather how best to future proof their commerce platform to cope with whatever the ‘next big thing’ of tomorrow turns out to be. Consumers are the guide; they will choose their own path and you need the correct tools and commerce partner to keep up with their fickle mind set.
Clearly, selecting a platform capable of integrating future social and technological advances will be key. So as online commerce teams race to deliver engaging yet consistent user experiences across all touch points that capture the mind and wallet share, they are not restricted and will have the ability to innovate at the speed of consumer trends. That means working with a platform that makes it easy for them to reconfigure their environment as often as they need to create truly intelligent promotions, optimise all touchpoints and exploit this inbuilt flexibility to effectively pursue any future direction their purchasing communities might take.
Time equals money
Right now web content management, product content management, channel analytics, customer experience management, A/B testing, and achieving seamless order management across the entire multi-channel business and all the interaction touch points is proving essential to staying competitive. That’s a big ask for today’s commerce team, which is under intense time and resource pressures.
So maximising brand performance increasingly depends on the ability to act and react quickly. And that’s why retailers and brand direct companies increasingly need more than just the lowest cost solution, they need a platform that powers innovation ‘on the fly’ and makes it easy to master multiple functions across multiple touch points – including product content management, search engine optimisation, checkout and payment, order management and shipping, multiple websites and localisation, social media and more – with ease. And all without the need for time consuming or complex programming skills.
Agility has become the name of the game. Whether that’s the ability to instantly tailor the storefront to increase relevance and conversion ratios, optimise online mobile device experience for targeted audience segments, or gaining real-time analytics across all touch points to establish what works best where – and why. Online commerce is no longer a secondary strategy, it is the primary and therefore requires a primary solution partner.
Future proofing your commerce strategy
So in this new mobile and social reality, standing still is not an option, and those online retailers that can adapt and innovate at speed will be best positioned to not just survive but thrive and grow in market as well as into new markets.
The question becomes what is the right investment for moving forward with right tools and services to keep pace. And do you wish to rent, own or completely outsource commerce operations and technology.
Choosing a ‘one size fits all’ platform from a super vendor like IBM for example, might seem a safe bet that’s pretty low risk. But on closer inspection, is this really the case? First it generally requires a commitment to roll all your technology to theirs in order to achieve the desired benefits. This creates the kind of “big bang” approach to conversion that is seldom on time, on budget and delivers the desired results before the target has actually changed. Thus resulting in a huge investment and company wide distraction to deliver something that may no longer be relevant.
You end up with a bloated commerce environment that is highly complex to manage, limited in agility and difficult to fine tune to the individual and unique commerce challenges of your business units, geographical regions and evolving business partner relationships, But they will have achieved their objective which a “technology addition” to their products which is hard to quit.
A better way
As we’ve seen, staying fit to compete in the future will require agility at every level – and that includes into the back office and beyond to logistics, delivery and after sales services which need to work hand-in-hand with the commerce platform itself.
The ‘one size fits all’ platform approach is simply no longer nimble enough to support the agile commerce approach retailers and brand direct companies need to remain competitive and “top of mind” with consumers and purchasers. A better approach is a cost-effective eco-system of specialist partners that can deliver both the scale and genuine value-add commerce teams and revenue officers need, opening the way strategies that span touch points, business models, geographical locations, complexity of catalogue and transactional volumes.
So look for a commerce partner who has a long history of delivering an agile core coupled with the partnerships and client base to know what the trends are, be constantly evaluating trends and how to react to them and is not committed to anything other than commerce success. One that offers multiple ways to pay for your commerce strategy and has the right fit of services and support if you have a five or 500 person commerce team. Then you will be able to concentrate on delivering YOUR strategy for business success, not spending all your time dealing with your technology.
Contributor
Dr. Ludger Vogt, Global Sales and Consulting Services at Intershop Communications AG.
