10 ways Enterprise Ecommerce is changing for the better
Ecommerce has grown tremendously in previous years, and many factors contributed to the immense growth. Some of these factors include Omni-channel experience, increased convenience, changed customer behaviour, ease of business operations, dynamic technology, and more. For example, mobile devices have adapted many ecommerce trends, and successful businesses are adopting these changes rapidly. So, the gist is “Businesses change because Customers change”.
One of the significant changes in ecommerce is “Enterprise Commerce”. Even a well-managed team cannot take care of the ecommerce dynamics. There are many factors like hassles in order management and returns, payment realization through multiple modes, getting the right customer behaviour analysis and insights to develop strategies etc.
Three S’s of Ecommerce
Today, the topmost priority for an ecommerce business is top-of-the-line website protection and payment security. Enterprise ecommerce platforms must consider 3 S’s to provide enhanced data protection and security for customers. Here is what every ecommerce site builder should offer:
Storage Space
The inventory space is one of the most basic needs for an ecommerce store, and enterprise ecommerce caters well to all your online business needs. Most of the site builders provide a significant choice for data storage to fit your bandwidth needs.
Safety Protocols
The concerns of safety are one of the most common when it is about online shopping and payments. The safety protocols include robust security system, SSL encryption, secure payment methods, and much more. It ensures the data protection of customers as well as the company. The enterprise ecommerce platforms are designed to provide all interactions, purchases, and transactions without any security concerns.
Site Design
The site design and interface is the first thing seen by website visitors. The functionalities and navigation of your website should be comfortable and precise for the customers. The responsive themes with well-designed menus, accessible navigation functionalities, faster checkout process encourages customers to purchase from the website.
Changing ways of Enterprise ecommerce
Let’s have a look at some highlights that are shaping enterprise commerce and influencing ecommerce now and in the future.
1. Switch from legacy to SaaS-based solutions
Legacy in business must be carried forward, but not in the case of ecommerce. Switching to new technology is a must for enterprise ecommerce as it is need of the hour. Every day, more modern technologies are being used for building top ecommerce platforms in the market. And if you are in the ecommerce world for a while, you must have heard about SaaS.
The SaaS (Software as a Service) industry is gaining a lot of popularity, especially in the ecommerce field. The primary reason why more and more businesses are turning towards SaaS is that it is tailored to the business needs. One of the most significant advantages of a SaaS-based enterprise ecommerce platform is that it does not require any kind of on-premise installation. Instead, the ecommerce system operates on the hosted servers of the service provider and the concerns of performance, security, and maintenance are taken care of by them. The fully-equipped SaaS-based platforms are cloud-based and can be accessed from anywhere via the internet.
2. Focus on Mobile Commerce
Well, it is impossible to miss this point if you want to make your ecommerce business successful. Mobile ecommerce is not just an evolution of ecommerce but itself a new market to be explored. If your enterprise ecommerce website is not optimized for mobile, you will undoubtedly miss a significant chunk of sales and revenues. The transactions through mobile ecommerce are expected to reach 54% of the total sales in the ecommerce industry.
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating mobile commerce, as it enables people to buy from anywhere and at any time. Moreover, creating an integrated mobile marketing strategy helps you optimize the ability of your online business to harness better growth.
3. User-Friendly Website design and functionalities
Making visible Call-to-action buttons and most importantly, their strategic placement according to the website flow is crucial to create a user-friendly enterprise ecommerce website. There is a famous saying in online marketing that — “Content is King, and Usability is Queen”, which means that the experience of the user should be considered to ace the ecommerce world. The users should be able to search the required information with ease; they should love to stay and shop on the website.
4. Faster integration and better implementation
Reduces all your business hassles of dealing with multiple vendors and allows you to focus on your core business tasks. The bulk orders, mismanaged orders & inventory, concerns of product delivery and returns, and a lot more hassles lead to huge ecommerce business losses. An integrated enterprise ecommerce platform can manage everything you require to run an ecommerce business. It integrates seamlessly with a variety of payment gateways, bulk message and email providers, and logistics providers and helps your business grow to the next level.
5. Personalized experience to customers
Even if you go to any store or food zone or alike, personalization always matters and makes a lot of difference. So, in this era of online buying, customisation is the foremost requirement for enterprise ecommerce business as it creates an exclusive shopping experience for the users. Research suggests that over 91% of the customers are more likely to buy from the same place if they have received relevant offers from them.
6. Automation to enhance efficiencies
With the increasing number of online shoppers, it is getting difficult to maintain effective business processes and ensuring customer satisfaction at the same time. E-commerce automation handles so many manual tasks and streamlines business processes. Some of the most common automation include purchase orders, catalogue listings, and approval, inventory and supplier management, customer complaints, marketing, and promotions.
7. Strategic Planning based on Analytics and Business Insights
The access to the right information, analytics, and insights from different areas of ecommerce give an added advantage over the competitors. The understanding of trends helps you know about the success rate of the marketing channels, customer behaviour, buying patterns and much more. Knowing these enterprise ecommerce insights enables you to make important business decisions, make strategic changes, plan for the market demand, make required changes in pricing, and ultimately provides better gains to the business.
8. Going global is the new normal
Digitization is breaking the borders and opening new opportunities in the developed as well as developing countries. The increasing number of online buyers is expected to grow in billions and likely to provide a multiplier effect in the market base of businesses. For example, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are growing exponentially and expected to rise to the US $994 billion by 2020, almost doubling in size.
Since online businesses rely heavily on digital transactions and interactions, going global is the need of the current business environment to stay competitive. However, the global expansion of business has many challenges like compliance regulations, operational costs, cultural norms, consumer behaviour etc. But surely, the benefits of development and growth outweigh the challenges of going global. With the advancements of enterprise ecommerce platforms, globalization is way too easier as it powers up your business with all the necessary tools and helps you expand your reach to global markets. It provides multilingual, multi-currency support along with global payment gateways and enhanced online security.
9. Growing Impact of targeted content
Content marketing is valuable to attract customers within the buying process, enhance the brand appeal among the target market, and generate the volume of leads. Sounds perfect, right? But it requires a lot of effort to build customer relationships, guide them to purchase on the website through content. The individual customer personas, their buyer behaviour, and other insights can be captured with the help of enterprise ecommerce platforms, and the targeted content can be sent to increase online sales.
10. Smart Logistics
The online businesses are looking forward to serving a more extensive customer base, setting up the supply chain, payments, and logistics. One of the significant challenges is the requirement to expand the infrastructure that carries a major cost to the business. It is vital to manage systems for logistics, inventory, delivery, orders and returns management.
The one-stop solution to experience hassle-free and automated ecommerce logistics. It is well-equipped with discounted shipping, multiple logistics partners, automatic logistics process, sell and ship anywhere.
Select the Enterprise commerce platform that suits your business
Choosing an enterprise ecommerce platform is a significant undertaking for the company in this era of dynamic and advanced technology. While the start of any platform seems like a massive technology or a big mountain to climb with multiple risks, it can become more comfortable if it is done with planning and thorough analysis of business requirements.
Enterprise ecommerce is changing for the better; you just need to match your needs with the growing needs of business and customers. Don’t rush into the decision; try it yourself with the 14 Day FREE trial. Explore the features, get hands-on with the platform, and make your ecommerce journey better.
