Tech in 2016: Here's how technology impacted e-commerce in 2016

By Vivek Puri and Ravi Shankar Technology continues to enable organisations of today (and tomorrow) to re-invent and transform their businesses with digital at the core of their enterprise, rather than an extension to it. The e-commerce space has seen a growth that was unthinkable a few years ago, and the growth is expected to continue. This year saw a lot of e-commerce sites announcing sales on multiple occasions. Spending power of the online consumer has certainly grown and we are seeing the results. But there is so much more to the e-commerce eco-system then just sales. The technology backbone of e-commerce has seen some maturity in 2016. We expect these to continue and evolve in 2017. Here is how technology impacted e-commerce in the year gone by. Global Commerce Platforms Several businesses are expanding operations to new markets, driving consistency in global brand experience and greater operational efficiency. Technology is central in enabling this – both in terms of engineering multi-site & multi-tenant commerce solutions with international-localised features, and a variety of fulfillment model options. SaaS models are a popular theme to enable faster time to market and reduce rollout risks. Several established players in commerce technologies are coming up with cross-channel SaaS offerings to cater to emerging market needs. Focus on the full customer journey As the ‘always on’ customer navigates channels seamlessly, brands are aiming to engage meaningfully with them across all these touchpoints. Each such interaction is aimed is to enrich the customer engagement and advocacy. Commerce platforms thus are no longer transactions-only systems, but provide key connections to the entire customer life cycle ie marketing, sales, customer service and retention across offline/online channels. This has led organisations to rethink and break their functional/channel silos to provide a coherent and seamless experience to their customers.  Expand enterprise value by delivering on new business models Businesses are constantly trying to up their customer mindshare, and “be where your customers are” is core to this theme. Commerce technology platforms are being actively looked at to drive altogether new business models and sales channels for the enterprise. Examples include making platforms open to ecosystem partners for collaboration, marketplaces and social commerce among others. Cloud Computing – Driving Agility, Lower Cost of ownership and higher scalability Innovations in technologies like DevOps and Cloud Computing are enabling businesses to evolve and respond to opportunities with significant agility. Rapid environment procurements, on-demand elastic scalability, micro-services enablement, effective application performance management and flexible financials are enabling new business opportunities and challenging existing archetypes.  Think experience-led and mobile first: Mobile as the gateway to the brand For several businesses, particularly retailers, smartphones are now gateways to the brand. Mobile as a channel has grown rapidly over the last year, with mobile online purchasing significantly outpacing desktop purchases. Mobile is becoming essential to channel pre-visit, in the store (with growing expectations for image search, way-finding, mobile payments and voice-based search functions), and post-visit. Also, there is amplified usage of mobile technologies in both B2C & B2B to enhance productivity of sales & field service channels, resulting in better experience for customers and partners. Move from data and reports to intelligence about performance and customers Modern day data technologies are enabling brands to drive business decisions in real-time and making sense of the plethora of structured and unstructured data available to them. Concepts like 1:1 retailing, 360-view of customers and predictive decision-making driven by technology will significantly enhance the ability to understand customer behavior and devise appropriate strategies in real time. (Vivek Puri is the VP, global e-Commerce service line lead and Ravi Shankar is director, e-Commerce service line technology lead at SapientNitro)