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Jumping ahead: How to implement an ecommerce innovation engine
Many ecommerce businesses currently find themselves playing catch-up with the competition, customer demands, or the backlogs of ideas and improvements for their customer experience. Why is that? Chances are it's because of the way they organize their people, processes, and technologies. This white paper will help you understand what it takes to stay ahead in this ecommerce game, and enable continuous innovation.
What's holding you back:
Acquisition costs keep climbing and retention rates are slowly falling, what's going on? We can discern three major causes:
- Amplified consumer expectations: Digital technology evolves so fast it's killing profit margins due to its consolidating effects, and consumers expect businesses to provide an online experience that has the best of everything by default.
- Competition from everywhere: The barrier of entry in ecommerce has never been lower, and what you used to consider as added value has now been commoditized to death. The fierce competition is also causing a serious drop in return on ad spend.
- Dealing with a flood of ideas: Companies find it difficult to prioritize the right experiments, as well as executing them in a cost-efficient and timely manner. This is largely due to the rigidity of their organizational structures and entrenched way of working.
Getting back in the race:
If that sounded like an absolutely dreadful introduction, worry not. You'd be surprised how little it actually takes for a company to adopt a more effective way of working. A small, dedicated team, a people-focused and iterative approach to product development, and a flexible technology stack:
- The right people: Build or hire a self-organizing, multidisciplinary team that has the expertise and capabilities to execute new ideas from start to finish.
- The right process: Step away from waterfall models to focus on early validation and short, iterative design and development cycles.
- The right technology: Use an API-first platform to quickly combine best-of-breed micro-solutions to keep your architecture light on its feet.
This future-proof way of working will help you keep your company at the head of the race. The faster you can respond to shifts in KPIs, trends, or customer demands, the more likely people will stick around. Don't give them a reason to shop elsewhere!
