It's time for e-commerce to grow up

By Susan Lee

You are a retailer trying to find the best, sustainable omnichannel strategy? This eBook is your starter kit. It gives you two frameworks to help you make tough tradeoffs. Instead of treating e-commerce as a homogeneous market, this eBook shows you how consumers choose which channel to shop in and the high-stakes implications for retailers who sell products in four different segments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon-Kucher & Partners
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301690961

Book preview

IT’S TIME FOR E-COMMERCE

TO GROW UP

New guiding principles and frameworks that will

help retailers resolve this coming-of-age conflict

By

Susan Lee

SMASHWORDS EDITION

****

PUBLISHED BY

Simon-Kucher & Partners

IT’S TIME FOR E-COMMERCE

TO GROW UP

Copyright © 2013 by Simon-Kucher & Partners

Thank you for purchasing this eBook. This eBook remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed. The author has also acquired all necessary rights to the third-party artwork used in this book.

Contents

PART ONE

IT’S TIME FOR E-COMMERCE TO GROW UP:

New guiding principles and frameworks that will help

retailers resolve this coming-of-age conflict

The coming-of-age conflict in online channels

How the Omnichannel Grid came about

It’s about value, not price

It’s about selling, not technological sophistication

It’s about top down transformation, not bottom-up experimentation

PART TWO

GETTING STARTED:

You influence the channel that consumers ultimately choose

Vanguard: Over half of all consumers are already dedicated online buyers

New Frontier: This is where omnichannel matters most

Routine Commodities: Consumers are still creatures of habit

Meal ingredients: Long live the traditional shopping trip!

So … what have you learned?

About the author

IT’S TIME FOR E-COMMERCE

TO GROW UP

New guiding principles and frameworks that will

help retailers resolve this coming-of-age conflict

PART ONE

IT’S TIME FOR E-COMMERCE TO GROW UP:

New guiding principles and frameworks that will

help retailers resolve this coming-of-age conflict

The second half of 2013 will intensify a coming-of-age conflict in e-commerce that has been brewing for some time. Ironically, the root causes of this conflict are the same three engines that have powered the rise of e-commerce over the last 20 years:

• low prices

• technology

• bottom-up experiments

In other words, the same three engines that have shaped the e-commerce world we know today will soon become limiting factors if retail executives continue with the status quo. The stakes are high. Legacy brick-and-mortar retailers face tough decisions on how to define their opportunities in online channels and how to pursue them. Where do you place your bets?

Growing up means answering these questions: Will online channels flourish to become an integral revenue source for you? Or will they remain a frustrating sideshow, with financial contributions hovering just above the realm of rounding errors?

We’re betting on flourish.

The exciting truth is that this coming-of-age conflict creates a wealth of opportunities for retailers to influence consumers, reinforce a persuasive value proposition, convince them to buy from you, and provide them with an experience that will make them come back again. This eBook is not a collection of magic short-cuts to making that happen. It is a starter kit. In it you will find two basic frameworks, a lot of hard evidence and