Gartner recently released its Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2015 with many of the items on the list proving to be potentially disruptive to the eCommerce industry. Here, Gavin Masters, Head of eCommerce Consultancy at Maginus, explains the importance for retailers to react to these developments.
Technology changing the way people buy isn’t a new phenomenon. Mobile, for example, has revolutionised the industry – and shopper behaviour – over the past five years, giving rise to the ‘Always On Consumer’. In spite of this, many businesses are still struggling to harness the full potential presented by these devices. In a digital age, it has never been more important for retailers to keep pace; else they run the risk of losing market share to competitors or start-ups.
Of the 2015 trends, the areas which will most impact online retailing are those around customer presence and security; two areas which often conflict. For example, while Gartner highlights that insight and advanced analysis of customers’ needs and situation will considerably shape the experience for technology users in 2015. Yet it also suggests security and self-protection will be key trends. Personal information and situational data are key to analysing detailed context-driven experiences, but if the customer doesn’t allow you access to any of this information, its value becomes null and void.
So, how can retailers address this paradox? There will be two distinct approaches – one for ‘untrusted’ retailers and one for brands who the customer has built a relationship with. Effectively, the opt-in marketing options on a customer’s online accounts with any given retailer is about to get a whole lot more complex.
Retailers will have to be up-front about the information they want to use about a customer when marketing to them, or working out what contextual content to show them. It will also maintain the expected levels of privacy for new customers, or customers who are not willing to divulge that information. Retailers will have to tread carefully here, as any security breach or breach of trust could result in a strong backlash.
The ‘Internet of Things’ and ubiquitous computing is also a key consideration for ecommerce managers in 2015; more people will be more digitally connected to more businesses more often. An example is HP’s new range of printers that can order replacement ink when levels run low. While convenient for the consumer, it has huge ramifications for printer ink retailers, as HP is effectively able to remove the middle man whenever they want to. As this continues to be the trend, we will see brands tying people into relationships with products and product lines for many years out of convenience and automation. If you couple this with another area of interest in Gartner’s report – 3D printing – one could conceivably see a situation where, between the manufacturer and the customer at home, there would be very little need for a third party to be selling replacement parts.
This may seem a very far off concept for many, but the time to be preparing to act on these developments is now. Ensuring customers have trust and confidence in your brand, and that your business is agile enough to react to these opportunities (or threats, if you are of that persuasion), is key to meeting these trends, and those in 2016, 2017 and beyond.
www.maginus.com