Consumers Changing the Market | SunShip ECommerce Case Study
Technology is not the only concept that grows at a rapid rate; B2C companies need to meet the ever-changing preferences of consumers, which incorporates a number of concrete and abstract facets. This topic touches on a number of subsets- brand identity, company values, convenience of use (should the company offer a given service), etc.- yet in the e-commerce industry, the specific notion that quality packaging and fast delivery was thought never to change.
E-commerce providers now see a trend growing where “a brand’s opportunity to reach, retain and extend customers’ lifetime values” are more important. Holding on to a current (happy) customer allows for a number of additional savings and/or income. This facet has only increased due to digital accelerations- optimizing current transportation and warehousing options, specifically supply chains to further provide sales to an already converted customer.
As reported by MHL News– “With e-commerce now such an integral part of life, we sought to discover what factors impact where customers decide to spend money,” says Maria Haggerty, CEO of Dotcom Distribution. “Two years ago, it was quality packaging and fast delivery. Today, while those factors are valued, a brand’s opportunity to reach, retain and extend customers’ lifetime value lies in giving them what they want, how and when they want it.”
Keeping up with the ever changing demands of the user has many front facing ecommerce providers concern about keeping up. AI automations appears to be providing a possible solution.
Through a series of online surveys conducted in one week, Marketing Sherpa collected and created the following graph showing the growth in change based on what users are looking for, namely in features and preferences.
For the third straight year, the dominant item purchased online revolved around clothing, roughly 77%, with consumer tech. and beauty products dropping. Technology has both helped and hurt these reporting, especially with apparel/clothing. While many still order their clothing online, many are concerned for poor and inconsistent item sizes and quality.
For help on both the consumer and retail side, mobile voice assistants have driven sales; as reported by BizTechMag– “Voice-based purchases tend to be for stand-alone, lower-value items. The three most commonly shopped categories through voice are commoditized: groceries (20 percent), entertainment (19 percent) and electronics (17 percent). Clothing ranked fourth at 8 percent.” Young digital focused consumers are currently driving percentage but not enough (at least at the current period of time) for investors to aggressively push.
The articles further mentions a checklist- a mental list of questions Coye Nokes, a partner at OC&C, offers for retailers to think about in regards to implementing a AI system for e-commerce sales and/or customer experiences.
- What are the objectives my business is trying to meet?
- How should we tailor my voice proposition to meet those objectives?
- Which AI system is best suited to enabling those objectives?
- How can I build consumer trust in my product recommendations?
- How can I make the order economics work?
As an ever expanding platform, SunShip looks to help its users create unique campaigns through its functionality. By utilizing a useful e-commerce management system, users can alleviate their concerns with tracking and reporting and focus on building out conversion turning strategies, i.e.: AI automations to automatically follow and update the ever changing preferences of the 3PL user. Stay tune for more updates on this and more at our main blog page, here.
