Are digital transformations making a positive impact on the eCommerce industry?

Introduction

In spite of the fact that digital transformation was occurring across many industries earlier as well, the pandemic accelerated it further. According to Statista, the technology and energy sectors have accelerated their digital transformation processes at the highest rate in response to COVID-19, with 78% and 77%, respectively. However, the eCommerce and retail sectors accelerated their digital transformation processes by 70% post-pandemic.

A digitally transformed enterprise will generate $53.3 trillion of nominal GDP by 2023, indicating the dominance of digital transformation in the global economy. Using digital transformation to create better customer experiences will enhance process efficiency, while automating processes will make the company more efficient. The economy will benefit from enterprises that keep pace with the digital transformation.

Despite the fact that digital transformation has numerous benefits, skill gaps and cultural differences pose a challenge as a result of its rapid pace. The friction is caused by a lack of clarity on transformation strategies and an unplanned and insufficient alignment of departments within an organization.

When the pandemic started, one of the most significant digital transformations we have seen was the change in how we shop. Shopping in a brick-and-mortar store is, of course, a completely different experience. By comparing the products offered at the store through online mediums, users are able to choose from a broader range of products that are available at a better price than ever before.

It is common for users to browse an eCommerce website even when visiting a physical shop, comparing products, prices, and variety.

The purpose of the article is to explore some of the disruptive effects that digital transformation has brought to eCommerce, as well as the future of eCommerce digital transformation.

In order to better understand digital transformation in the eCommerce industry, let’s first briefly examine the factors driving it.

Efforts to transform eCommerce through digital technology

You need to embrace digital transformation to take your eCommerce business to the next level if you want to succeed. Exploring products online and making purchase decisions online is a normal practice today.

eCommerce companies are undergoing digital transformation as a result of today’s customers’ basic expectations.

Demands of customers continue to rise

Customers now look for better pricing, ease of pick-up and delivery, timely delivery of orders, and ease of return with eCommerce adoption trends. Convenience has overtaken brand loyalty. To keep up with customer demands and expectations, the organization must opt for newer technologies.

Strategies that target consumers directly

In an era of increasing competition, brands prefer direct-to-consumer marketing. Organizations can cut costs, offer better prices to customers, and generate better revenue by enabling customers to interact directly with the brand on their own platform instead of the aggregator online shopping platforms. Interacting with brands directly also improves the product experience for customers.

Deliveries that are robust

During the era of online shopping, it was easier to return faulty or incorrect products to customers. However, with increasing demands, customers now expect to get the right order at the right time on the first attempt. Inaccurate deliveries of orders might put off customers, resulting in a loss of business. In order to undergo digital transformation, organizations need a robust delivery system and supply chain.

eCommerce is undergoing a digital transformation. How is it changing?

Digital transformation refers to revitalizing old processes with new technologies, which specifically applies to the retail industry and includes online ordering, contactless payments, self-checkout, cost optimization, and product customization.

As a result of digital transformation, the eCommerce industry is undergoing several transformations:

For more information about how digital transformation can reduce your business costs, take a look at the following.

Augmented reality to help make informed choices

By using augmented reality, users are able to visualize a product in its intended location. With augmented reality, IKEA, a leading furniture retailer, provides the option of selecting a piece of furniture and visualizing how it will fit with your room and decor. With this, consumers can choose and purchase the right furniture without having to switch from different platforms and make the right purchase right away.

Providing a cloud-based ERP solution that has made customer onboarding easier and supported marketing and promotional efforts, Revinfotech, one of the fastest growing eCommerce app development companies, has contributed to the digital transformation of IKEA’s eCommerce store. Among the retail outlets, this is the biggest source of ROI measurement.

Merchandising algorithms

In addition to optimizing the store’s inventory, this feature allows for the determination of price and promotion strategies based on the location’s needs. As a result, inventory management is accurate and maximizes sales, margins, and customer satisfaction throughout the entire process. By using advanced data and analytics, these algorithms are created, making them more efficient and effective.

The use of algorithms in sales streamlines the process of strategizing operational costs, logistics challenges, and inventory management.

Shopping that is contactless

During the pandemic, retailers were forced to offer contactless payments to customers in order to ensure better safety when shopping. In addition to providing a fulfilling customer experience, this has raised the need to provide a personalized online experience that reflects commitment to the end user.

Offers tailored to your needs

By understanding customer behavior, preferences, and choices, AI has improved eCommerce processes. The feeling of personalization certainly is achieved by proposing products that are relevant to the customer’s needs and preferences.

Analyzing customer behavior more effectively

In order to maximize new opportunities, retailers can use algorithms to forecast demand. Data is a goldmine for digital transformation strategies. With seamless interfaces, eCommerce businesses can break down the eCommerce process, gain a better understanding of market demand, inventory, supply, productivity, and many other aspects of the process.

A better understanding of customer behavior can be used to get further details down to the smallest detail possible, such as identifying the best-selling products, the most effective marketing campaigns, etc. It is obvious that these details can be comprehended to improve customization.

The digital transformation of eCommerce

In today’s competitive landscape, staying ahead of trends is essential, as is providing customers with an extraordinary experience.

The future prospects of these changes in the trends are an important part of understanding the leading trends in eCommerce digital transformation.

Robotics

eCommerce too is expanding rapidly, encompassing many departments ranging from marketing to warehousing, supply chain management, and many more, with automation being one of the major techniques adopted by businesses in all sectors.

As an example, supply chain management can be automated for inventory management, ensuring that there will never be a shortage of products. By automating your marketing strategy, you can generate more leads and convert them more effectively. Approximately 77% of marketers who use automation in marketing generate more leads, and 56% see higher conversion rates.

A chatbot

In the same vein, AI and chatbots have become increasingly popular in digital transformation. Answering customer queries in a timely manner has made it possible to provide a personalized experience, and the customer feels special as a result. In order to meet the customer’s needs without fail, it will continue to cater to the changing market trends.

Statistics show that eCommerce customers are the most responsive to chatbots, and 34% of them accept chatbots as an effective way to provide a personalized service to customers.

A variety of interactive eCommerce products

Adding augmented reality can be the cherry on top in the eCommerce world, providing immersive experiences. By creating a virtual environment that is similar to the real one, users are able to make informed decisions about products and brands they should purchase from. 61% of online shoppers prefer to buy from eCommerce platforms with AR experiences.

Commerce on social media

A social network platform can not only act as a platform for communication, but it also serves as a platform for eCommerce. Social networking platforms like Facebook provide consumers with the entire purchasing experience, from product delivery to online payment. According to Statista, revenues from social media platforms will reach $2.9 trillion by 2026, as compared to estimated sales of $992 billion in 2019. This trend will only continue to grow.

Payment plans that allow you to buy now and pay later

As the most popular method of payment among the millennial generation, BNPL offers flexibility and freedom of shopping while providing multiple benefits as well. By choosing this method of payment, the customer can save on credit card interest charges. According to a report, BNPL transactions in the global market by 2025 will reach $680 billion, enabling them to purchase products that would otherwise not be within their budget.

Apps that use progressive web technologies (PWAs)

In addition to push notifications and offline access, this technology provides access through the smartphone’s home screen. It is similar to native mobile applications, but it is built using web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

Alibaba and Walmart are successful examples of digital transformation in eCommerce, generating better revenues and improving conversion rates with PWAs. PWA implementation can increase conversions by 93.3%.

Is your eCommerce business ready for digital transformation?

Let’s look at the strategy that needs to be adopted to attain the much needed digital transformation in eCommerce now that we understand the factors and trends driving it.

Step 1 – Setting business goals is the first step

In order for business strategies to achieve final outcomes and profit the business is typically redesigned in a way that provides a competitive advantage. The following simple and widely accepted focus areas must be considered when defining business goals:

• Increasing productivity by focusing on customers
• With robust infrastructure, operations can be flexible
• For better insights, use this powerful analytical tool
• Differentiating your services by choosing the right technologies to enhance efficiency and reduce costs

Step 2 – Work with a company that develops eCommerce websites

A complete transformation project in-house requires a team of developers with dedication and experience, as well as a significant amount of time and money. With their expertise and rich experience, an outsourced app development company can help you transform your eCommerce application quickly.

Step 3 – Developing a new strategy for customer service

The core focus of any eCommerce strategy should be customer experience. Therefore, you should invest a lot of time and effort in understanding how to enhance your application’s UI/UX.

Step 4 – Adapt new technologies to meet the needs of the business

It is crucial to decide on the right technology stack for your eCommerce business based on the requirements you want to achieve and the desired results you want to achieve. It is essential to understand the features you wish to incorporate on your platform in order to choose the right technology stack.

Step 5 – VR and AR technologies can be used to revitalize customer journeys

In order to provide online customers with a real-like experience, AR and VR technologies can be used widely to create customized experiences at anytime and anywhere. Using these technologies, you do not have to build the experience from scratch because they can easily be integrated with existing infrastructure.

Changing eCommerce industry due to digital transformation

eCommerce businesses should stay on top of digital trends, customer expectations, and behavior in order to transform their eCommerce businesses strategically.

eCommerce is changing in many ways over the next few years, as listed below.

Increased sales via direct to consumer

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) allows online sellers to gain a better understanding of their customers, enabling them to grow their business. E-commerce has made it easier for businesses to reach direct customers by bypassing wholesalers.

As brands interact directly with their customers, they will create a better customer experience and loyalty to their brand. DTC will allow them to customize and personalize the products to meet the demands of their consumers.

A larger customer base can be achieved by building new customers through the brand campaigners created through better CX.

Big data for personalization

A major aspect of any organization’s digital transformation involves moving to the cloud. Organizations, particularly eCommerce businesses, take advantage of the numerous benefits offered by cloud computing.

Personalized experiences are much easier to offer with big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence fueled by cloud computing. Using big data algorithms, the customer will be able to select tailored products and receive relevant recommendations based on their past shopping behaviours.

For visualization, augmented reality can be used

In the eCommerce industry, this technology has already been adopted by many retailers in order to provide superior customer service and earn their brand loyalty.

With eCommerce industry growth, customers are all set to enhance this feature of digital transformation by getting a feel of the product in real life situations.

Continually optimizing

Identifying the conversion rate and optimizing products will continue and improve in the future, as we mentioned earlier. The eCommerce industry’s growth depends a lot on maximizing the conversion rate, or maximizing the customer journey at every step in the process. Easing the customer journey at every step will likely increase the conversion rate.

Alternative methods of payment adoption

The use of credit cards has become a traditional method of payment. A number of alternative payment methods will be available in eCommerce in the future, including blockchain-based payment options like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Additionally, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) will be commonplace.

Shoppers will continue to use mobile devices for shopping

Surveys show that retail mobile shopping, which is also referred to as eCommerce, will reach $728.28 billion by 2025. 44.2% of US sales will be generated by mobile shopping by 2025.

Due to the attractive interface, great choices, and ease of shopping, consumers are becoming addicted to mobile shopping. It is likely that this trend will continue for some time to come. In order to keep customers engaged and ensure that they return for new and better experiences, organizations need to constantly evolve technologically.

There will be an increase in B2B

From 2021-2028, the B2B eCommerce market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7%. In 2020, the market was valued at $6.64 trillion.

Increasingly, B2B eCommerce websites are providing a unique, intuitive, and modern customer experience because of digital transformation.

How Revinfotech is transforming the eCommerce industry through digital transformation

When designing the digital transformation path for your eCommerce business, we at Revinfotech keep profits and outcomes in mind. We focus on:

• Retaining customers by improving the customer experience
• Improved data insight simplifies business operations
• Delivering distinctive services at a lower cost while speeding up operations
• Providing actionable insights through robust analytics

We can improve customer acquisition and retention by re-examining the customer experience journey with data analytics expertise.

With our experience in eCommerce app development, we have provided digital transformation solutions that drive results for startups and Fortune 500 companies including Adidas, IKEA, 6th Street, and Edamama.

We’re here to help you with your eCommerce project! Get in touch with us today!