The unbundling of the digital customer

"Unbundling" is a buzzword that is used mostly to describe the disruption of the axiom that products and services need to be bundled to achieve economy of scale and market impact. In the product space we refer to the analogy of the record album, where a lot of artists could fill out those two really great songs with ten mediocre ones and still charge for an entire album. Or the cable channel with one really great show. Another aspect of bundling is the ”superplatform that does everything”, like the Office suite or the Apple universe. In the wide world of the internet, sites were once built on massive platforms that could (or had the the potential) to do ”everything” but cost the earth. Modular design, open source and connectivity have opened up a whole world of tools to craft the perfect platform for any online business, built up of specialized pieces from many different developers. Wordpress and Shopify are prime examples of a core product (publishing and PIM+shopping cart) where third-party themes and plugins are key success factors.

In the physical world, many companies use the same logic to stick to a core competence and outsource or cooperate to build a more competitive (and less vulnerable) offering. And if they don’t do it themselves, you can be sure that there’s a startup waiting in the wings. For example, research firm CB Insights in a recent article unbundled FedEx.

I think all this unbundling on the vendor, platform and service provider side is mirrored by something fundamental: that we humans are also unbundling. This can be seen in the attitude towards education, jobs, brands and information-gathering. No more do young people envision a ”single employer for life” as an ideal. We build our skills and competence piece by piece, day by day. We build up our wardrobes with many brands to achieve a signature look. We gather information that shape our decisions from a multitude of sources and interactions, in micro-moments over many devices and touchpoints. 

Obvious? Maybe. But what does the unbundling of the customer mean when we try to craft a strategy for an online business or marketing plan? Simple, really. What is your core competence or unique knowledge? What do you do or build better than the competition that you can communicate every day over time? Which are your best products and why? What does your target group really expect from you? Speed, convenience, price, excitement? Accept that your website is going to be most interesting to new or existing customers in a certain phase of their buyer journey. And that they are going to gather information from many sources along that journey. (Which ones?) That they will probably come back multiple times. That they expect brand and information consistency, but something to keep them interested if they should return. Maybe even encourage unbundling, it will show your understanding of your customer and their behaviour. Because the unbundled customer is also fundamentally disloyal – until proven otherwise.