Retail has always had to work hard at getting people through the doors, this is equally true for all online retailers. In particular with the rise of 'social commerce' which is diverting traffic that would at one time have gone to your website, or that 'marketplace' you chose to sell your goods through and they kept the customer.

Today's digitally savvy and not so loyal consumer are firmly in the driving seat, it's they who get to choose when, where, and how they interact with us. 

So if you're stuck in a mindset that is saying 'let's incrementally improve' then your simply kicking the can down the road.

It's a 'holistic' world for consumers, so all companies have to think 'holistically' or die.

“ABI Research forecasts total e-commerce revenue of US$3.52 trillion in 2020, growing Year-over-Year (YoY) at nearly 19%."

The above from a piece of recent research around the potential future for eCommerce is predicting some stellar growth, perhaps at the cost of profit in order they invest to remain ahead of the competitive landscape. A significant part of that pressure today is coming faster than anytime in the history of the commercial internet we have come to know.

China leads in the area of 'Social Commerce' way ahead of all of Facebook's acquisitions and so called innovations. If this is fact do you and your team have an in-house working group who are really looking at what 'social commerce' is other than something to just post your latest 'offer' or 'promotion' - is today's customer tomorrow's competitor?

Do they even know what impact platforms like 'TikTok' will have on the next wave of consumers coming through, or is it still a platform they and you think is just for nonsense Gen Z videos?

What about the superpower of 'Social Media' in all its forms and platforms around the globe that stood at 3.8bn people as at January 2020?

Then there's the huge shift in D2C that's seeing brands that were once your supplier choosing to go direct to the consumer, and where 90% of those consumers say they are more than happy to deal with them - todays supplier is possibly tomorrows competitor.

Who in your 'Change Making' team are focused on answering the big question around 'how we deliver a true multi-channel' experience?

If the answer sits just with your marketing team then I'm afraid your already fucked!!!

Many years ago when eCommerce was in its infancy we took our lead from the west, in particular from the good old US of A......but no more!

We have become used to all the effort and investment to drive 'traffic' towards our eCommerce websites.....but no more!

Finally, and just to drive the point home even further - Singles Day in China for 2020 will surpass not only all of the U.S. retail holidays (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday), but 2019’s record-setting US$38.4 billion for Alibaba alone, at a 26% increase YoY.

If you and your company would like to explore how I might help you better understand these changes, along with ideas to help mitigate risk then by all means drop me a DM.