Selling online goes far beyond creating an eCommerce website. The continuous updates in the sector make it essential for companies to define the eCommerce roadmap for 2021 of their digital project, a roadmap that allows them to reach their competitors.
Why do you need an eCommerce roadmap for 2024?
Defining an eCommerce roadmap for 2021 consists of pointing out the point where the business is currently, the point that you want to reach, and developing a strategy to save the intermediate space.
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It goes far beyond setting objectives and deadlines: it is the first step towards consolidating the business. It must be approached with a broad, forward-looking perspective.
All successful companies have a proactive attitude in common. It is very difficult or impossible to achieve success by getting carried away without a clear strategy, limiting yourself to responding with existing resources to changes in the market. It is necessary to anticipate.
In our days, selling online requires taking two things into account: the high expectations of users and the multiplication of channels.
On the one hand, users have high expectations about the service, as they have everything they want just a click away. Retailers are under pressure to compete with eCommerce giants like Amazon, capable of providing great user experiences. Optimizing the user experience has become a priority since a study revealed that this factor can increase annual customer spending by up to 15%.
On the other hand, communication and sales channels are increasing more and more. In the immediate future, companies will need to communicate with customers through dozens of channels. In addition to the traditional ones, the web, social networks, and mobile applications, IoT devices, smart speakers and connected vehicles, and other objects are being added.
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Defining an eCommerce roadmap for 2022 involves clearly establishing both the business objectives and the priorities related to the presence in these channels, in a manner consistent with the established objectives.
It is about selecting the most suitable platforms and concentrating investment efforts on them. Adding to the equation technological solutions that allow the company to respond flexibly and quickly to changes in the market, take advantage of opportunities and grow, will be the defining factor.
Ecommerce trends for 2022
You cannot analyze the situation of any sector without considering the disruptive effects of the pandemic, least of all that of electronic commerce!
It has undoubtedly been one of the activities that have received the greatest impact, in this case positive. The global figures of eCommerce amounted to more than 3.53 trillion and are expected to double in the next two years.
Largely responsible for this success has been the platforms that serve eCommerce large and small, such as PrestaShop and Magento, two of the most popular solutions for putting your products on the market.
According to the experts’ forecasts, there will be no decline in online sales when the pandemic ends. During the confinement, many people who did not use online shopping have been forced to do so ... and have felt comfortable. That is why the sector is expected to continue growing in the coming years.
A promising future ... with technology
Faced with such a promising future, it is worth asking: why do so many, so many companies not have an eCommerce strategy or an eCommerce roadmap for 2021?
Companies with some antiquity operate by linking different systems, many of them outdated: there are an accounting and billing software, another for the management of the physical store counter, another warehouse management system ... In many, partially manual systems are even used to manage these areas. Integrating all these systems is slow, complex, and sometimes very expensive.
Some companies are starting to bet on digitization, mixing old software products with some recent technologies. This can work as a “patch”, but it prevents them from responding quickly to changes in the market or taking advantage of emerging opportunities.
Most are using platforms they built years ago or mixing older versions of IT products with recent technologies like artificial intelligence. This causes a tremendous lack of flexibility in organizations and the absence of the ability to move quickly and respond to market demands or take advantage of its opportunities.
Successful companies run on cloud technology, another of the key elements in your eCommerce roadmap for 2021. Legacy systems that are impossible to integrate must be replaced by modern software, modular and flexible platforms that can be quickly updated and that allow the execution of multichannel plans so that the company can take advantage of new opportunities that arise in the market. Sometimes that may require completely replacing current solutions.
Automated marketing
Marketing automation requires going beyond scheduling social media posts and has a lot to do with customer experience and satisfaction. It is vital to achieving growth goals.
An automated marketing solution will make it easier for the company to define its sales funnel, multiplying its ability to get new customers. It must be effective in facilitating the creation of segmented marketing campaigns and running them across all channels with a minimal investment of time.
In addition, it will serve to accompany the client through all the processes by sending him the right content at the right time, something essential to provide a quality shopping experience, at the height of his requirements.
Data
The existence of all those channels generates tons of data, from which the company can benefit. The data provides vital information for making decisions in the company, analyzing the results of operations, and optimizing the different business functions.
Thanks to technologies such as Big Data it is possible to have full knowledge of customers, personalize their shopping experience, and offer them the products and services they are demanding. In fact, multi-channel personalization is one of the most prominent eCommerce trends for the next few years.
Artificial intelligence and Machine learning
More and more organizations are turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate processes and obtain useful and operable information for them.
Technologies based on artificial intelligence and machine learning help make intelligent product recommendations, allow customers to view products more accurately, or are the basis for automated service systems that allow customer inquiries to be resolved.
Companies with greater technological maturity that have consolidated their presence in the basic channels will be able to think about how to integrate emerging technologies such as voice and augmented reality into their strategy.
Ecommerce is not just e-commerce, create an eCommerce roadmap for 2021
The future of eCommerce (understanding the online store such) implies conceiving it as one more channel, a very important one, but not necessarily the most important, much less the only one.
The vision of the sector for the future requires treating the online platform as part of a strategy with an approach that goes beyond simply selling online, which also includes artificial intelligence, the IoT, and other applications and integrations.
At what stage is your business? The endpoint of the eCommerce roadmap for 2021 and the years to come must integrate the most appropriate technological solutions to facilitate the adaptation of the company to the current ecosystem, allow it to offer a flexible response, and boost its growth.
Author Bio
Vikram Rana is Marketing Manager at LiftnGift and has served as the Head of Conversion Marketing at Planet Web Solution. He's an expert in inbound marketing and lead generation.
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