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The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for retailers and manufacturers, while also causing unexpected changes in customer behavior. Customers are now more conscious about their purchases and conduct detailed research before making a decision especially when it comes to high-value items. Since the onset of the pandemic, customers’ purchase channel preferences have evolved.
The term live commerce was first coined in 2016 when the Chinese retail giant, Alibaba, hosted a historic first livestream to sell products online. This relatively unique approach opened different avenues for consumer value, quick conversions, and delivering brand-owned experiences, redefining the eCommerce landscape altogether.
According to Gartner on choosing the right digital commerce architecture, “Organizations are looking to keep up with growing business demands to extend across different channels and adopt new business models. This leads to disruption of their costs, existing technology landscape, and operational processes — and increases in technical debt”
Retail has undergone a significant transformation with businesses putting customers at the epicenter of the shopping experience. For a long time, businesses in this space relied on the winning formula of speed, convenience, relevancy, and product availability. However, to keep up with the rapid pace of change over the last year, companies that relied on traditional sales channels had to deal with a host of new challenges and restricted opportunities, pushing many of them towards direct-to-consumer eCommerce.
Sustainable retail success requires a thorough understanding of the journey that your customers embark on, from initial interest and product prospecting to post-sale support, and every step along the way.
The retail industry has undergone major changes over the years but the magnitude of these changes was never so pronounced before the world got hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of the ensuing restrictions and lasting changes in consumer behavior, many retailers are realizing the potential of digital commerce and expanding new sales channels to stay afloat in these unprecedented times.
Today, most users browse websites on their mobile devices. Mobile commerce continues to grow every year, and currently accounts for 60% of total digital market growth.
87% of buyers begin their journey by searching for products on their phone, but 38% of mobile users say they are unable to navigate sites properly on mobile devices. Delivering an intuitive and engaging mobile experience is essential.
In 2020, 61% of the web traffic originated from mobile devices. Revolutionary development in mobile technology and the evolution of social media culture have changed the way customers engage online with retailers and brands. Their preferred route to access the internet is through mobile. Mobile commerce sales generated from smartphones will reach $432.24 billion in 2022. Now we see rapid evolution and boom in the adoption of mobile commerce and digital payments by the retail industry and many others.
If there’s one thing that the past COVID-affected year and a half has taught the retail industry, it is the importance of a substantial e-commerce presence. With the brick-and-mortar model highly affected globally, both small and large-scale companies lately have needed to adapt their strategies to the new realities if they wanted to be competitive and/or profitable in the marketplace.
As retailers wrestle with the corollaries of the global pandemic, many are hastening their plans and devising effective strategies to remain relevant in the new normal. The retail industry cannot afford to remain in wait-and-see mode; therefore, they are accelerating their digital transformation and modernization initiatives.