Personalizing customer experiences with digital commerce
The impact of digitization is spreading with intense velocity and bringing in extreme changes in customer behaviours and expectations.
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Technological advancements have completely changed the face of retail. The growth of this industry is dependent on how fast retailers adapt to changing market trends using cutting-edge retail IT solutions. Consumers have become well informed about the products they want to buy.
There is a shift of power from retailers to consumers who prefer checking out multiple options before making any purchase decision. Any comprise by e-commerce stores in delivering perfect customer experience may drag you out of the race. Digitization has changed the marketplace, allowing the most determined competitors to emerge as the new e-commerce leaders under the light of emerging technologies.
A rise of digital commerce
Marketing is closely associated, rather used in conjunction with the world ‘digital’. As per Gartner, a research, and analysis firm, marketing and digital have converged. All of these is now included in the term ‘marketing’. This gives us an idea of how significant digital presence, information, and resources are in this age of e-commerce.
Offline and online worlds have come together, blurring all distinction lines to give rise to a new world of ‘digital commerce’. The kind of experience that customer has with the brand at every touchpoint including communication inside the website or app and with the product and processes defines the quality of digital experience. In simpler terms, digital experience is an interaction between a customer and brand using digital and emerging technologies.
A distinction between E-commerce and digital commerce
People often use the terms e-commerce and digital commerce interchangeably. However, these words are not one and the same. There is a line of distinction between e-commerce and digital commerce, as explained below:
E-commerce is building an online marketplace for selling of products and services. On the contrary, digital commerce is buying and selling of products or services using different modes such as the internet or mobile networks. This also includes different marketing activities that help users in reaching out to offered products along with detailed reports on analytics, promotion, pricing, customer acquisition and retention.
Entering the age of digital commerce
Consumers are becoming more tech-savvy and expect seamless experience in both online and offline world. A number of purchases made on a smartphone are higher than websites, as a result, e-commerce companies are focusing on delivering omnichannel experience through digital commerce.
The main reason why digital commerce is gaining so much popularity is that it allows marketers to show measurable results through digital marketing activities. This allows e-commerce store owners to focus on marketing activities beyond traditional advertising for effective selling of products.
In the light of digitization, marketing and selling are no more two different disciples. Higher sales in eCommerce stores are the combined effect of visitor engagement, conversion, transaction and repeat purchase. Investing in digital commerce is mandate considering the success stories of e-commerce stores that have benefitted through this.
Consumer trends demand a shift in the selling pattern for retailers. As of today, customers seek information online and make informed buying decisions after reading crowd-sourced reviews. They also compare prices across different apps and websites to get hold of the best deals in the market.
Simply featuring the products on an e-commerce platform and spending money on basic marketing is not enough to attract customers and win them. It is necessary to provide them a consistent experience across multiple digital platforms.
On a Concluding Note…
The impact of digitization is spreading with intense velocity and bringing in extreme changes in customer behaviours and expectations. There is a complete transformation from the way they research a product, consider and complete a purchase, show loyalty to a brand to the way they coordinate and communicate all of this to their audience.
Hidden Brains is a leading company offering innovative retail IT solutions to help companies take a stride in the digital world. Our experts deliver some insights that help in building a strong strategy. We help in giving your business some guidance on how best to successfully integrate digital commerce into your future business plan.
