Digital commerce, from the customer's perspective, is the capability to make digital purchases and interact with brands in a self-service manner. Digital commerce is a complex concept from the perspective of an organization. It includes technology platforms for digital marketing and sales.
Digital Commerce vs. E-Commerce
eCommerce is the technical aspects of online selling, including supply chain management, setting up an online store, processing payments, collecting orders, etc. To be successful in the online retail industry, you need to do more than know how to sell. Digital commerce is a term that covers the additional elements of conducting online business.
The digital commerce process combines people, data, and technology that can revolutionize traditional retail. Digital commerce encompasses many modern aspects, such as data management, analysis and querying, content management, and management, user experience, engagement and retention of customers, and the capability to deliver required functionality anywhere. Digital commerce, while focused on online sales and eCommerce goals, is a process centered around the customer. It aims to optimize the experience of the buyer at each touchpoint.
Why Is Digital Commerce Important?
Many organizations are undertaking digital transformation or digitization initiatives to meet the demands of digital retail. Consumers today are increasingly using the Internet and mobile devices, and they expect to be able to shop online from any device. It is part of an enormous cultural shift that affects consumers and businesses worldwide.
Today's customers have very high expectations regarding the choice and availability of products available online and for businesses in terms of speed, agility and customer service. Brand loyalty is a significant concern in the online marketplace. Customers have a virtually infinite choice of services and products. In the current environment, retailers must do everything possible to earn and retain customer loyalty.
For three reasons, digital commerce is essential to the success of businesses in virtually all sectors:
Increased Agility: Digital Commerce gives businesses the flexibility to adapt their business. It can be as simple as adding new payment options, offering different ways for customers to buy via digital devices, and strategies that engage and re-engage them online.
Increased Competitiveness: A business with a solid digital presence is existent. Digital commerce allows retailers to protect their market share and customer base and create growth opportunities. Competitors who are able to meet the digital demands of customers will soon overtake those who do not.
Better Customer Experience: When appropriately executed, digital commerce can provide a better retail experience for customers, regardless of whether they buy online or in brick-and-mortar stores. The digital commerce process ensures businesses connect with customers through their preferred channels. The brand can build positive relationships at each stage of the purchasing life cycle, encouraging acquisition, satisfaction and retention.
Digital Commerce Business Models
Digital commerce businesses use several business models:
- B2C (Business to Consumer): In the model of Business to Customer, companies sell their products and services to customers directly. Amazon's website is an example.
- B2B (Business to Business): This model allows businesses to sell online products and services to other companies. B2B transactions are generally more significant, and the services provided are often on a monthly subscription basis. A CRM system, a task management software.
- C2C (Consumer to Consumer): In this model, online platforms allow consumers to purchase products from each other.
- C2B (Consumer to Business): In a model of this type, businesses buy or provide services from consumers. Google AdSense is an example of a network where website owners can sell advertising space on their sites.
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Digital Commerce: Challenges and Opportunities
Businesses need help to implement and understand digital e-commerce ecosystems. The customer journey is complex and can make it challenging to determine dissatisfied clients, pinpoint the issue and improve processes. These are some of the key challenges in digital commerce.
Deliver Consistent Customer Experience
Customers' expectations are constantly changing. Companies are adapting by optimizing their digital strategies with advanced algorithms, customer analytics tools and other methods. This ensures consistency in every aspect of the shopping experience--including delivery options, search options, pricing, and inventory. More data about customer interaction will allow an organization to customize their experience and maximize satisfaction.
Adoption of New Technologies
Digital commerce is a fast-paced industry. The customer is constantly upgrading to the latest devices, which have more sophisticated capabilities. Introducing new networking technologies, such as 5G, creates higher expectations. To provide a seamless online buying experience, companies must embrace new technologies such as video marketing, artificial intelligence and augmented realities.
Data Security
A robust strategy for eCommerce security is vital to ensuring a profitable business. As eCommerce platforms have grown, they've introduced new security threats that expose sellers and buyers to various risks. Hackers and scammers may target a host server of a business, steal data or even install viruses and malware.
Payment card breaches are a significant concern. Cybercriminals are often successful in stealing credit or debit card data, exposing the customer to fraud and eroding his trust in both the eCommerce platform and the seller. To obtain customer data, attackers often use spoofing or phishing. Customers are concerned about the security of digital commerce sites and how they protect transaction data and identities.
Logistic Issues
Running an eCommerce business is difficult due to logistics issues. The business owner must ensure their product reaches the client on time. Delivery delays can have a negative impact on a business's reputation and even lead to revenue loss.
Some organizations partner with external logistic providers or divide their stock and spread it across multiple warehouses in different locations. While these strategies may make distribution more efficient, they can also reduce the company's control over delivery. Customers will lose faith in the delivery company and those who are responsible.
Digital commerce faces several challenges when it comes to shipping. A business that cannot optimize its shipping logistics will not succeed. The complexity of order tracking is the biggest problem for digital retailers, particularly during peak sales. Use a tracking service to get delivery information. Consumers expect to have the ability to track deliveries. They will only return to an organization if they get what they expect.
Cyber Infrastructure Inc.: Powering Visual Commerce
Optimizing images makes web pages load quicker, directly affecting conversion rates in digital commerce. Walmart, for example, saw a 2 per cent increase in its conversion rate on its site every time it loaded faster. Walmart has a graphic-intensive website with many photos of its products. Optimizing the images to look good and load quicker is crucial to increase sales.
Walmart's experiences show why web admins and developers of applications need Cyber Infrastructure Inc. provides a media management platform that automatically optimizes images and videos for all devices in the exact resolution they require. It improves the performance of pages, lowers bandwidth usage, and enhances user experience.
Cyber Infrastructure Inc. Offers The Following Features Unique To Ecommerce Sites:
- Shoppers can enjoy a consistent experience across devices and channels.
- Images and videos are optimized intelligently and in high fidelity.
- Content-aware Intelligence helps you efficiently create and deliver engaging experiences to a large audience.
- Automated and intelligent shoot-to-web workflows that reduce time to market.
- Intelligent optimization delivers fast, high-fidelity visual experiences.
- Automated digital asset management reduces the number of repetitive tasks.
- Automation of media processing tasks with modern SDKs, robust APIs and AI-aware capabilities.
Read More: Best Web App Development Ideas for 2022
Ten Trends That Will Shape The Future Of E-Commerce
Three main trends are evident in the data.
- Reduce friction during the purchasing (and selling journey).
- We are creating rich brand experiences.
- Sell anywhere, anytime.
The future of online shopping will be based on convenience, rich and compelling experiences and the ability to deliver these experiences in multiple channels.
1. Online Shopping Is Growing In Markets Other Than The U.S
Globally, the ecommerce sales share has increased for the last five years. This trend is likely to continue. According to reports, COVID-19 has led to a decrease in net consumer optimism. However, the pandemic has led to greater use of online shopping, particularly for necessities.
It opens the door to a massive opportunity for expanding sales across borders in countries where e-commerce penetration was previously low. Brands will need to research whether an international expansion makes sense for their business. Consider these things:
- Does my product or market category have a demand in this particular market?
- Does my marketing work across cultures, or does the brand have to create unique campaigns?
- Is it necessary to localize an e-commerce website for international audiences?
- What are the most common payment methods in your target country?
- What will be our approach to cross-border shipping?
It would help to consider all costs associated with marketing, shipping, and selling internationally to determine whether leveraging global e-commerce for your brand is worth it. It is also important to remember that to sell to regions where mobile usage dominates, such as APAC, Africa and the Middle East - a mobile-friendly shopping experience will become crucial.
2. Productivity And Growth Are Enabled By Automation
Automation is the process of automating a job with minimal human involvement. This can include automating tasks, scheduling emails within a CRM tool or marketing software, and leveraging technology for hiring. Robotics and machine learning are two of the topics most frequently discussed in the future of ecommerce.
This funding is an excellent indicator of future trends. In the past few months, an open-source conversational AI platform that supports chatbots, voice apps, and other applications has received its fourth funding round. An independent forklift company raised $15,000,000.
Robotics
Drones and autonomous vehicles, such as robots and drones, are being used in the supply chain to enhance it -- to locate, identify and move items within warehouses. The U.S. has never been closer to fully autonomous vehicles.
Machine Learning
Combining machine learning/artificial Intelligence and Big Data can be more than automated - it can optimize processes that currently take a lot of effort and time or are impossible to do. It will be a driving force in e-commerce personalization, which can give consumers a better experience at the store.
Retailers use machine learning for data collection, analysis, personalization, marketing campaigns, pricing optimization, merchandise planning, customer insight, etc. This analysis and data collection can help identify high-risk or fraudulent orders placed on your online store by using touchpoints that are tailored for them. Retail has a significant share of customers who use chatbots. Start small, and grow it with your company. Remember: automation's goal is to reduce the amount of work humans must do. It's just another shiny object.
3. Automated Commerce Will Be Possible With Voice Commerce And Technology That Is Headless
In a survey conducted in January 2019, a little over 45% of Millennials said they had used Google Home, Amazon Alexa or other voice-activated technology to do some type of shopping. This will increase as users become more comfortable using voice-assisted technology like smart speakers.
This is a giant leap for us to believe that we could buy new clothing or decor and never see them. Still, it's easier to envision a use-case for reordering. For example, "Alexa put dog food into my shopping basket." Headless commerce has reached a stage where it is defining itself on the market, says an Enterprise Solutions Engineer at Cyber Infrastructure Inc.
4. Pwas Are A Great Way To Improve Mobile Commerce
Progressive Web Apps are a new web app that uses the most recent web technologies to provide an experience closer to native apps than traditional web pages, especially for mobile devices. These apps are gaining popularity due to their reliable user experience, fast speeds and attractive features like push notifications. They also appear on the device's main screen like an application.
Mobile shopping is a common practice. Smartphone sales will increase significantly by 2022, reaching over $432 billion. Mobile-first customers are also prevalent in other international regions like Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.
A PWA combined with a headless architecture for commerce can give you the control to create a reliable, fast mobile shopping experience. The commerce engine is decoupled from the front end of the store, giving marketers and developers a separate place to play. This reduces the risk that changes will have unexpected effects and offers customers an experience similar to a native app.
5. The Customer Experience Is Now A Key Driver In Product Development
COVID-19 will push us even further towards a world that is digital first. Brands must work harder in order to create rich and compelling shopping experiences to keep their customers engaged in the competitive e-commerce marketplace.
Brands are now looking for ways to innovate, as the technology to differentiate experiences is becoming easier to access. How can you provide your customers with the best experience possible?
6. Offline Experiences Look Different -- Even After Covid-19
COVID-19 keeps us from offline experiences that aren't possible in isolation and accelerates changes already on the horizon.
Bopis (Also Known As Boris And Curbside)
Before the pandemic hit, Texas-based H-E B had implemented curbside pickup and online ordering, which put them in a position to provide low-touch services when consumers suddenly needed them.
Principal analyst at eMarketer, said: "There is a shift of the power balance towards digital." The problem is that the paradigm shift has caused so much disruption to the status quo that new winners and losers have emerged.
The existing blends between online and offline shopping experiences, such as buy-online-pick-up-instore (BOPIS) and buy-online-return-instore (BORIS), are suitable for the business. The study found that companies offering BOPIS in their brick-and-mortar stores increased digital revenues by 27% during Q1 2020 compared to those that didn't.
Initially, stores that haven't yet implemented these fulfillment methods will likely be driven by necessity. Many will choose curbside pickup or BOPIS in order to minimize contact with the vaccine.
7. Online Payments And Checkouts Become More Personal, Opening Up A Whole New Market For Consumers
There are new payment options every time you turn. As younger generations get more tech-savvy and become more accustomed to using a variety of payments, the options will continue to grow. TransUnion's study showed that Millennials are using fewer credit cards.
Many e-commerce sites now offer low- or no-interest options. This allows shoppers to purchase large items without paying the total amount at once or using a credit card with high-interest rates. To reach more people, especially those under 40, the brands need as many options for payment as they can, which includes these buy-now-pay-later options (BNPL).
8. The Collection Of Data And Its Analysis Becomes More Comprehensive And Cohesive
In the last couple of years, large CPG companies have moved their business online and added DTC to their income stream. The senior account manager at Cyber Infrastructure Inc. for large enterprises says that the main driver behind this trend, however, is not the additional revenue. It's the data.
Some CPG companies that sold through large retailers felt too distant from the users of their products. DTC sales are one of the ways they get to know their clients and collect data that will help them make smarter decisions about targeting, retention, etc. Data will become more critical to companies looking to increase e-commerce.
In-house marketing allows for more strategic decisions and a deeper dive into data analysis to determine what works and what doesn't. Data analysis will become the standard requirement of businesses for future e-commerce decisions.
9. Expectations For B2B Electronic Commerce
COVID-19 is fueling a real-time digital transformation of B2B businesses, including large industrial brands. It's also likely to have long-term advantages. Digital eCommerce Consultant. Some B2Bs think they understand what users seek, but they need to. UX and CX don't only matter for B2C; they are also crucial for B2B. "Buyers want seamless shopping experiences. We'll see innovation as more B2B companies move their business online.
This will include content development and marketing, communication with clients, and how they present the brand story online. We are building a system allowing sellers to accept payment by ACH, credit card or check. We're also developing a universal invoice. Businesses will have more transparency in the payments they receive with this system.
10. The Social Selling Of E-Commerce Goes Beyond The Physical Storefront
Despite fears of shoppers choosing brick-and-mortar over online shopping due to a lack of social interaction and presence, e-commerce has proven its worth. We can have it all thanks to social media. Social media is a vital part of any brand's strategy. However, with today's advancements, there's also a shopping component that allows for easy online purchases.
Why Develop An E-commerce App?
Ecommerce apps are a huge market. If you are still trying to decide if an ecommerce app is right for your business, then here are three reasons why you should.
World Of Smartphones
Around 4 billion smartphones are active in the entire world. The majority of people make online purchases with their mobile devices 24/7. Need a better reason to create a mobile commerce application?
Revenue Growth
Smartphones consist of more than just electronic circuits. Walmart and Amazon, two of the most popular eCommerce applications worldwide, have proven that mobile apps can attract more customers to their sites and boost revenue across devices.
Users' Behaviour After Covid-19
COVID-19 accelerated eCommerce growth and significantly impacted how people purchase goods. In May 2020, total eCommerce sales reached $82,5 billion -- an increase of 77% from 2019. This number was only possible because we had used the traditional method of increasing year over year. There are more reasons for developing an eCommerce application than simply having an adaptive web page:
- Access to an individual user quickly.
- Push notifications are a great way to communicate with users.
- Tracking user behavior is more accessible with better options.
- Effectively collect analytics.
- Fast test new features and hypotheses.
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Wrapping Up
You've probably experienced this feeling if you have had an online store for some time. You need to do 100 things but only have time for 10. Prioritizing is essential when it comes time to consider future trends. It is optional for every brand to take advantage of every trend. You won't see an increase in revenue if you are a B2B company selling heavy machinery. If you're a B2B business selling heavy equipment, Checkout on Instagram will keep your payment the same.
This is true both from the customers' perspective as they are shopping and yours from an operations standpoint. A solid foundation of processes and practices will always be more critical than any flashy experience on-site. After you've mastered that, start taking measured risks, testing, and more tests.
