Mark Gray: Driving e-commerce in a borderless realm

Almost every aspect of retail today is far removed from what it was twenty, ten or even five years ago. Yet at the heart of it, so much remains the same. To paint a picture: previously if you were expanding into another city or country, you would do your research, understand your customer in that market and open a concept store to build your brand awareness in a way that resonated locally.

With the advent of the digital world, this process can and must happen far more quickly. The internet isn’t the only advancement to break down the traditional borders and entry-level barriers of the consumer marketplace. More efficient logistics (often optimised by hard data-crunching), the growing flexibility of outsourcing (for activities from manufacturing to marketing) and the popularity of digital goods over physical ones all continue to speed up the sales and delivery cycle.

But you still need to understand your local buyers. How do they research what they want? How and when do they like to pay? What is their preferred means of delivery?

The answers may have changed, but the questions have not. As a retailer, how do you best adapt your expertise to the digital and omnichannel realm?

Accommodate your buyers

At ChannelAdvisor, a provider of cloud-based e-commerce software, we believe an increasingly important part of consumers’ shopping experience is the multiple online channels they use for searching, interacting, engaging and ultimately purchasing. Consumer behaviour varies, especially across international markets, and retailers must understand and evolve to meet these differing expectations and cultural norms. For example, a recent study by KPMG found that 60% of Chinese consumers use their smartphones every day for e-commerce purposes; correspondingly, McKinsey & Co. reports that a whopping 90% of all Chinese e-commerce transactions occur via marketplaces.

Similarly markets vary.  Take payment and fulfilment - in many Asian countries consumers pay once their online order is delivered. This often means that third-party logistics companies need to be engaged to fulfil the orders, delivering via mopeds or the like. Yet in Australia and New Zealand customers usually pay when they place their order, and once their payment is cleared the delivery or logistics side of things moves into play, often from the retailer’s own distribution warehouse.

Long story short, retailers cannot just focus on making the website the only online sales channel. You need to understand what marketplaces your customers prefer to use; the local payment and fulfilment norms; optimise your online presence for mobile; and take full advantage of all the digital marketing tools out there to ensure you are high on the radar for shoppers as they research and purchase. 

Consolidate your resources

As you explore e-commerce across geographies, it not only opens new opportunities, but also greater competition. And while engaging with local marketplaces can help fast-track your entry into new markets, it can also stretch or fragment your resources and processes if you are not careful.

To help navigate the challenges of providing a consistent brand image for online and brick-and-mortar channels and a smooth back-end experience simultaneously, smart retailers are turning to companies like ChannelAdvisor that can automate and optimise seamlessly.

About failing to plan

While e-commerce technology has been around for some time, it is the newer cloud-based e-commerce channels that companies such as ChannelAdvisor support that are impacting this sector the most.  The analytics tools built into cloud solutions allow retailers to quickly understand their different consumers and manage multiple marketplaces and other channels through one login. This enables retailers to simplify administration and free up time to focus on growing sales and market share.

Add to this the ability to optimise efforts with bundled digital marketing tools that can be turned on and off as needed, and you find you often do more with the same, or fewer, resources.

The key to success with border-free retail is finding a flexible and dynamic partner who will work with your business and keep up with the ever-changing online world.