E-commerce: managing complexity

Omnichannel trend

Demandware was founded in 2004, just as e-commerce was taking off. “Brands were expected to be online,” says Rick Kenney, head of consumer insights at Demandware, “but managing the digital capabilities and the technical infrastructure powering the online experience was new to many and thus posed a challenge.” That challenge, combined with the digital directive to be agile, prompted Demandware to put the platform in the cloud, so users could focus their efforts on customizing the solution rather than simply maintaining it.

More recently, Demandware added omnichannel capabilities, enabling a unified commerce experience. “It’s all the same brand to shoppers—they expect to research, buy and pick up the product where and when they choose,” continues Kenney, “and the retailer must deliver and fulfill that experience.” Omnichannel experiences such as buying online and picking up in the store are leading the trend toward unified commerce, where retailers must provide a seamless experience across any touchpoint or device. Unified commerce requires a centralized platform from which to surface the key elements of the shopping experience, customer data, product information and inventory data.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is the number of moving parts in a complex e-commerce site. “A company might have dozens or hundreds of points of distribution and different catalogs for different stores, but the inventory needs to be accessible to any shopper through e-commerce or via a particular store,” Kenney says. “The commerce platform serves as a centralized hub of the digital retail experience to bring together customer experience and product information, including CRM, order management, ERP and PIMs, among others.” Careful planning and a systematic approach, along with the right technology, are essential to success.

In general, retailers have done a good job with e-commerce storefronts and consumer interfaces, according to Gartner’s Fletcher, but they have not invested in the backend for order management, warehousing and logistics. That deficit makes it difficult to provide a truly unified experience that allows customers to order online and pick up at the store or get the same experience no matter which channel they use.

“Heavy manufacturing is just the opposite,” Fletcher says, “because the backend is the heart and soul of the business, but those systems can fall short on usability.” In the past, sales reps were the interface. “The sales reps will not go away completely,” he adds, “but they will be augmented with product information on an e-commerce platform, and some of the lower margin products will be pushed to the lower-cost channel. The machines will still be sold by the rep, but maintenance supplies will be sold on the digital commerce platform.” Therefore B2B e-commerce sites are under pressure to provide a better user experience as well.