Ecommerce differentiators in 2017 leading to 2018

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When the man started flying, it must have been a real dream come true. Actually, at first it must have seemed like dreaming with eyes wide open. Human fascination with flying is not as old as 1903 when the first glider from Wright brothers took to air. It goes much more beyond it in the past.

To imagine being able to cover distance without hitting the road and flying like a bird is a fascinating thought. Some people do visualize the future before it actually happens. Fast forward hundreds of year when mankind took to wings, today we take most of the things for granted when it comes to flying. When people complain about delays, it hardly crosses our mind about how fascinating in the first place is the ability to fly. What a marvel of engineering that today a plane could carry 500 people and fly non-stop for 14-15 hours across the other corner of the world.
By no means do I think that the e-commerce journey is that path-breaking or awe-inspiring but I attempt to draw an analogy towards how norms evolve & shape up.

Lets talk commerce

Commerce also started with just simple web pages, marking content and information about products. Then came the features like shopping cart, search products and checkout.

Slowly as much more attention was given, the basic commerce started turning into the full-size discipline which could be further narrowed into the catalogue, Browse & shop, Promotions, checkout, personalization and each one of them becoming key pillars of online shopping. 

-If you could only search by SKU id, it wasn’t good enough. you needed rich facets, search by ids, text, auto correction etc to sift through tons of data quickly.

-If you could not make a genuine attempt at handling scenarios of different customers, it wasn’t good enough.

-Could I not offer discounts online? different formats of discounts, offers, rebates could be built.

-Why send one mass email to everyone? can’t we send personalized emails based on who our customers are?

So while the e-commerce of the 80s might have seen advanced search or advanced catalogue options with wide eyes, it has all become a new normal today.
people don’t skip heartbeats when you show them guided navigation, rich facets, reviews, multiple payment options. or they don’t think its magical when you send them an email ‘your order has shipped’. They have come to expect it, and it is the new normal.
These new normals have evolved very quickly.

Whats the issue?

So, while there are so many tech conferences happening around and some of the fundamentals are still discussed, In my read the differentiators are shifting.
While in the 80s and 90s the differentiation of having e-commerce basics was good, it simply isn’t today. If a decade back full-service e-commerce as a channel was great, it simply isn’t today. 

Strong search, landing pages or quick checkout is no more the differentiators among the best.
These may be the differentiators among the laggards or late adopters today, do not determine who is the market leader.
In my view, the differentiators of today's ‘omnichannel’ commerce are:

  1. Content & Experiences: how many times have you come across useful content from any of the retailers and their websites? how many times have you opened the emails coming from the retailers which are not related to promotion, sale, clearance? how many emails have you received from a retailer which talked about 'post-purchase' aspects- taking care of what you bought? how to get help? I often see the smaller companies do a much better job of curating content and sharing useful information. For me, its always about having a meaningful conversation. Some excellent examples Autonomous standing desk, Dollar shave club and some more who are doing an excellent job. All these fancy conferences can not be just about technology or selling more, but having a meaningful conversation with your customers.
  2. Disappearing channels: The conversation of channels is over 5 years back. More and more companies don't function that way. However, shopping still shows pain for customers. and when you look closely into those problems, the diagnosis is that the channels are still around in an organisation. be it the slower speed of transformation or systems or process, or lack of investments or simply lack of confidence that the investment will bring enough ROI. The problems still persist. here are some symptoms:
    1. See products available online but dont know if they are available in their store location
    2. No way to reserve & pick up item at store
    3. unavailable online but available in store, leading to surprise & confusion at same time
    4. Returns- can return a store item in store only, and an online item only via shipping
  3. Fulfillment
  4. Value Proposition: If the same Nike Shoe is being sold at a nearby Walmart, Amazon, and a speciality running store nearby, what are the chances that I would go to Walmart or this speciality store and not order from Amazon? Consider a scenario where price at all three places is the same? Competing product to product & survival in the market is going to be a crushing scenario. At the speciality running store, I would get the consulting which is no comparison to what my experience be at Walmart or Amazon. But, the question is- are the speciality retailers paying attention to improving customer engagement in stores? Are there signs that they are pushing for more in-person interaction which leads to a lot better business implications?
  5. Private brands

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