Retailers, it's time to question the status quo !!!

It’s fair to say that the world of eCommerce moves at a fast pace compared to most other industries. Much like the next iPhone model vs. last years, what is cutting edge online now - like personalisation, automated merchandising and mobile advances for example - will soon be obsolete when one platform develops a new and revolutionary feature, with all other platforms then scrambling to catch up!

Traditionally, eCommerce platforms have been just that, a platform or foundation on which you can build your trading eCommerce website, hopefully to then take over the world! However, there’s often been another factor to consider - who is actually going to build your website on top of the platform and to make it all work. Someone who will add a plethora of third party plugins, stock and warehousing systems, ERP systems and ultimately will make the retailers whole eCommerce ecosystem work. 

Typically these agencies in question are big systems integration firms (SI's). With great prominence in the industry often driven by huge budgets being spent on brand rather than substance; these firms have been, and are to this day the face of some of the biggest eCommerce platforms globally. 

As the eCommerce industry has boomed in the last 5-10 years, commercially driven interests by certain platforms and SI’s have protected a system which facilitates their dominance on the global eCommerce stage. However this is a stage which is shifting towards leaner, more scalable and more fully supported ecosystems with greater empowerment for users and their ability to impact change on their own platforms. The newest platforms now boast of offering connectors to ERP, stock and other built-in systems, with easy to use site-builders and backend systems which don’t require a degree to use, or external support, they just work. 

Agencies have of course reaped the rewards from the rush to get online, almost like being part of a modern day gold rush! However, retailers are savvy, and they have quickly realised that many of the costs of a traditional eCommerce setup - with platform, SI's and endless agencies managing various silo’d parts of your retail business - deliver significant inefficiencies and sky high costs. With ever increasing competition online each month, surely there’s a better, more efficient and less costly way to run your retail business online, even eCommerce platforms which allow you to take back control?

There are an increasing number of eCommerce platforms that offer a fully integrated approach - mitigating the need for SI's (which can add on almost triple the cost of the platform itself each month). It’s no surprise therefore, that as excessively long contracts pushed by SI’s come up for renewal, retailers are very quickly reevaluating the need for structures inherent within SI’s and their slow and complex platform relationships. Retailers find themselves reaching one simple conclusion. First, that the costs of the platform + SI model are so astronomically high for the value that’s delivered, and secondly, that one simple ecosystem has to be the preferred choice for their next eCommerce website.

Are you looking to actually grow your eCommerce business?? It may seem a redundant question, but all too often retailers only want a presence, and their site is certainly not designed to drive any significant business. If you are looking to grow, and are looking for rapid growth then you should be considering the following...

• Do you want to work with two or more separate companies, with different commercial interests when you’re planning a multi-year strategy for your retail business to grow? 
• Would you partner with a company that doesn’t really have accountability for what they’re doing on your website platform? 
• Do you really think that having multiple agencies, all vying for approval and contract renewals (and are therefore very happy to inflate performance) is an efficient way to work to driving forward your own best interests?

I didn’t think so! 

Retailers have a collective responsibility. To continue positively moving towards more single ecosystem solutions, capable of supporting a retailers entire online business. To join platforms that grow with your business and don’t hold you back. That give you the tools you need to reach your KPI’s and revenue targets, and where you as a retailer feel that you’ve got not just another agency but a highly valuable partner.

To discuss your online business contact: [email protected] or call me directly 01642 955803.