This episode reviews 2016 and predicts 2017 trends in ecommerce. Key discussions include the rise of omnichannel retail, the evolution of AI and personalization, the digital transformation of traditionally laggard categories, and the emergence of microservices in platform implementations. It offers relevant insights for ecommerce operators looking to strategically plan for future technological shifts and market dynamics.
Key takeaways
Retailers should focus on truly integrated omnichannel strategies encompassing attribution, inventory, promotions, and pricing to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.
Explore AI applications for customer service, understanding that while AI creates buzz, its immediate impact will likely be in optimizing existing processes rather than generating entirely new demand.
Prioritize personalization as a tool to reduce customer friction rather than just a demand driver, focusing on seamless data integration over new product launches.
Investigate cloud-based and microservices architectures for new platform implementations to ensure scalability and flexibility.
Monitor the development of digital wallets and web payment standards beyond traditional players, as new options could capture a significant share of e-commerce transactions.
EP064 - 2017 Predictions & 2016 Review 2017 Commerce Predictions Jason Retailers truly embrace Omni-channel (Attribution/Inventory/promotion/pricing) A/I - Bots for Customer Service but probably not for transactions, lots of buzz on big data AI but no game changing new experiences Personalization - to eliminate friction, not drive new demand. Data integration not some new product or touchpoint Laggard categories will discover digital (Grocery, Luxury, QSR) Microservices - 50% of new platform implementations will be cloud, and Micro-service based solutions will start to emerge Bonus - Digital Wallets - Something other than Paypal/Amazon will achieve 10% of US e-commerce transitions (not occurring on Amazon). Potentially a mix of vendors wallets (Chase, Walmart, ApplePay in Safari, etc...), or the W3C Web Payments standard could gain traction. Scot The IPO market is going to be open, but the e-commerce companies will get crowded out by the big tech unicorns like Uber, Snap, pinterest, airbnb, spotify and the like Amazon will start to chip away at the Fedex and UPS's of the world with a service like this in the US. From there (potential 2018) Amazon could expand into p2p and reverse logistics, ie "we're already at your house, do you have any other stuff to ship?" <li style="
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Retailers should focus on truly integrated omnichannel strategies encompassing attribution, inventory, promotions, and pricing to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.
What does this episode say about ai & automation?
Explore AI applications for customer service, understanding that while AI creates buzz, its immediate impact will likely be in optimizing existing processes rather than generating entirely new demand.
What does this episode say about analytics & attribution?
Prioritize personalization as a tool to reduce customer friction rather than just a demand driver, focusing on seamless data integration over new product launches.
What does this episode say about finance & fundraising?
Investigate cloud-based and microservices architectures for new platform implementations to ensure scalability and flexibility.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Monitor the development of digital wallets and web payment standards beyond traditional players, as new options could capture a significant share of e-commerce transactions.
