Ecommerce has made its presence felt in a very loud and clear way. In a way that it has become a wakeup call for the retailers that are still confined to selling products through traditional brick and mortar stores. If the bug of retail disruption has not bitten you yet, it's time. Not just to bring your business presence online but also contemplate on your customer acquisition strategies. According to the figures revealed by U.S. Commerce in the year 2018, e-commerce represented nearly 15% of all retail sales. And this number is increasing with each passing year.
If you are thinking about digital transformation in retail and wish to make your business' presence felt, you need to adopt some of the most substantial practices followed by e-commerce giants of today. So, what are these strategies of retail digital innovation and how can you go about implementing them? Let's find out:
Let's start with your website. How long does your page take to load? If it takes longer than a few seconds, it should be a matter of concern for you. Website downtime occurrences are a result of an excessive amount of traffic during rush hours and a website platform's inability to handle it. Several reports say that website downtime can cause thousands and millions of dollars of revenue losses. Not just that, it can also affect the reputation of your brand and lessen the number of visitors on your website.
So, if/whenever you are running sales events or have discounts, you would need to have auto-scaling in place. With the help of it, you would be able to gauge the changes in visitors' traffic and enhance your website's potential to protect your website against drop-offs. You will also be able to get rid of the overpaying challenge when there are slow periods.
Secure, effortless and round-the-clock buying experiences are the need of the hour. Moreover, customers of today are preferring personalized shopping experiences. This includes everything, right from peculiarities in the features of the product, and choice in mode of delivery, to one-day shipping and easy returns, which the brick and mortar stores cannot provide. If you wish to capitalize on the $4.5 trillion market opportunity, now is the right time to get your retail digital commerce strategies developed with the help of experts.
Unfortunately, shifting to digital e-commerce is not all that you need to do. You also need to have scalable, reliable and secure digital storefronts with outstanding digital e-commerce initiatives so that you can compete with retail giants like Walmart and Amazon. Inquire about modern web hosting infrastructure to the retail digital innovation experts and they will suggest you to move to cloud platforms. Only then, you will be able to offer state-of-the-art digital shopping experiences.
E-commerce websites are the biggest target of cyber attackers. A few years ago, hackers would make DDoS attacks on the websites to bring them down. But the attackers of today insert malicious scripts to steal credit card data and identities. To get over these concerns, retailers should invest in a comprehensive security solution that comes with firewall, machine learning, intrusion detection and bot management using which, you can keep threats at bay. It is also important to take care of vulnerabilities in real-time with the help of experts in these technologies.
Any digital transformation will go kaput if not implemented with the help of the right digital expertise. A transformation of this sort often starts with revamping your organizational structure. The need is, to create retail digital experiences that help you drive more customers and create new revenue streams. Some retailers hire digital transformation experts as vendors or consultants so that they can implement the strategies in the right way.
If you own a retail business and wish to carve a niche in your domain, ensure you take the above-mentioned steps and you are all set to go!
Author: Lucy Kaith
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