(E)commerce: 5 ways the future of consumer retail is already here

The next generation of shopping experiences is not an abstract idea – it is here. Customers are ready. They’re increasingly tech-savvy, they’re demanding personalised experiences and the world at their fingertips. Retailers still thinking that (E)commerce is separate from physical business are getting left behind. There is no longer a separate channel, ‘bricks-and-mortar’ versus ecommerce divide when customers are online all of the time.

1. (E)commerce is not a disconnected business entity

South African (E)commerce as a percentage of total sales is still tiny: only about 0.8% or R4-billion in 2014, according to World Wide Worx. Many corporate leaders could look at a figure like that and think that it is therefore unimportant in the overall business strategy, and should be left to the marketing and IT departments to worry about on a Friday afternoon.

This is a dangerous view, when you consider that more and more people are coming online every day, and digitally-enabled experience is becoming the most important drivers of sales. According to the Effective Measure study of South African ecommerce, the growth in the number of people making at least one online purchase per month was 93% from 2013 to 2014. In the United States, up to 36% of in-store sales (or US$1.1-trillion) were digitally-influenced, according to Deloitte Digital research published in 2014. Retailers must be thinking about how they will be providing a cohesive, consistent and compelling experience in an omnichannel environment that influences a customer’s buying decisions.

2. Ecommerce does not ‘lose’ a business its customers

Retailers are often concerned that (E)commerce will poach in-store customers through a process called ‘showrooming’. This is where people go into a store to examine products, and then leave to shop online for the best bargain. But the Deloitte Digital study I cited earlier illustrates that digital channels are having the opposite effect on bricks-and-mortar business.

Customers who use digital devices in-store are more likely to make a purchase. Instead of worrying about digital, retailers need to be using it by leveraging relevance, lifestyle matching, social integration, aspirational content and advanced rewards and loyalty tools to give relevance to online and offline buying decisions and increase customer conversion by extending the in-store experience.

3. (E)commerce is not just tech

Tech certainly plays a role in (E)commerce and is usually the main focus of any ecommerce strategy, but in reality, it is only the ‘last mile’. The real ‘gold’ is the human component. Strategy, relevance, engagement, content and full understanding of the complex world of humanity should play a huge part of a retailer’s ecommerce strategy.

The decisions about how to be competitive should always be informed by human-centred CRM, with the right sensors and datapoints in play. The retailer should be constantly asking how they can influence the customer from the very beginning to the end of their journey, and how they can do so in a way that creates a seamless positive and engaging experience across every physical or digital touch point.

4. (E)commerce is more than just a website

(E)commerce is more than just having a website and a mobile presence. Understanding human beings at the centre of the experience and designing the retail business to fit what they want, is where retailers need to be innovating now. Social networking and unstructured data are helping to give 360-degree insight into customers beyond basic profiling.

Mobile is also more than just a phone-friendly website: it is actually an always on hi-tech “communicator” where the world of true omnichannel can be exploited, where online meets physical at relevant points in the customer’s path to purchase. Mobile is how traditional in-store experiences and online, CRM-driven relevance can be blended to give that seamless experience across all touch points.

Analytics of course have a big part to play in bringing insights from the complex world of customer digital and social engagement, but the physical store still has a huge role to play as the centre point of this customer journey.

5. Digitally-influenced sales, not just online purchases

Focusing purely on “(E)commerce” misses out on the influence opportunities which happen in the customer journey before a purchase is made. This kind of focus is misguided and creates an imperfect picture of the customer experience. The statistic I mentioned earlier (US$1.1-trillion or 36% US in-store sales in 2013 that were digitally-influenced) shows that this kind of influence is worth more than all of (E)commerce combined in that year, which was US$305-billion.

Only focusing on online sales, misses the bigger picture of how digital is transforming the retail space in general. Retailers need to be asking themselves how they can influence overall commerce through true omnichannel, rather than zoning in on online sales alone as a metric of digital’s success or failure.

The (R)Etail renaissance has started, with the convergencence of physical and digital offerings bridging store and virtual experiences to create one seamless customer journey. The high street is not dead yet… data-driven and relevant ‘experiential digital’ is giving it a new lease of life.