According to the latest insights from ecommerce technology company Bold Commerce, 58% of leading retailers admit that they’re not living up to consumers’ expectations when it comes to bringing together digital and physical experiences.
The company’s report, Retail eCommerce In Context: The Next Iteration, aims to provide insights into how enterprise brands are responding to the unforeseen growth of e-commerce. The report was conducted in partnership with technology consultancy RSR Research and based on survey responses from 105 large retailers across verticals, including 75% of those with revenues of over Can$1 billion.
The report revealed, among other things, the key challenges and opportunities retailers face as they bring together the online and offline channels to improve shopper experiences and drive revenue growth. It also highlighted the technology investments retailers are making to accelerate their digital commerce capabilities.
Key findings from the report included:
- Digital as a whole is still in its infancy. Despite retailers’ massive shift to digital over the past year, 51% of large retailers say that digital channels still account for only 20% or less of their total revenue.
- Retailers cannot innovate as fast as they want to
While 90% of retailers want to continuously innovate and rapidly test new customer experiences, forty-nine (49%) of retailers are held back by existing technologies that are hard to change, while forty-three (43%) of retailers say they lack the resources to do so. - Retailers are doubling down on their efforts to improve omnichannel experiences
The top two areas where retailers see opportunities to improve the online shopping experience are 1) having a unified view of inventory availability (49%) and 2) applying the same business rules (e.g. pricing, promotions) across all customer touchpoints (44%). - Retailers’ approaches to digital commerce investments are mixed
There is a relatively even split among retailers leaning towards investing in their existing technologies (40%), or adding additional solutions (31%), versus fully replacing their e-commerce platform (29%).
“Consumers are embracing shopping experiences that take place online across digital channels and in store, and they expect these worlds to connect seamlessly to one another,” said Deanna Traa, Chief Marketing Officer at Bold Commerce. “Retailers are looking for agile and flexible technology to help them in establishing complete omnichannel experiences that reduce shopper friction, deepen customer loyalty, and set them up for innovation and revenue growth from emerging digital commerce channels.
