Next stop, everywhere: how brands can expand ecommerce success

Contents
Commercial Feature

Move beyond legacy platforms to transform ecommerce

By embracing flexible, best-of-breed ecommerce solutions, brands can better meet evolving customer demands, enhancing experiences and boosting conversion rates

In an increasingly competitive landscape, brands need to work harder to unlock growth, agility, and innovation. They must ensure they meet customer expectations, providing them with the best brand experience while navigating changing consumption patterns, new technologies and higher operating costs.

Top of the agenda is ensuring customer loyalty and segmentation as they battle for customer dollars. Customers today have high expectations for personalised experiences, fast delivery, and easy checkout processes – all of which are even more important for success when almost 70% of consumers already end up abandoning their cart.

This means brands must be able to identify which customers are of the highest value, and focus on getting them to make repeat purchases, and increasing their basket size.

But one of the biggest problems retailers face is that their legacy technology stacks are expensive, inflexible, and hard to maintain. This impacts their ability to be agile and meet evolving customer demands – tapping into the necessary level of analytics for customer segmentation, for example.

Elsewhere, the return to bricks and mortar shopping in the post-Covid era has seen retailers place more emphasis on Unified Commerce. This sees customers having a seamless brand experience whether in-store or online. For example, enabling customers to easily return items in-store that they purchased online – something that should be a no-brainer but many retailers still struggle with, due to their system limitations.

“Brands should be looking to transfer the in-store experience for online shoppers, with consultation and recommendations, for instance, via a natural language chatbot, or allowing customers to speak with an associate while browsing,” explains Michaela Weber, SVP, Business Development & GM of Payments at ecommerce platform BigCommerce.

“Anyone can find the lowest price on a pair of sports shoes via a Google search. But it’s the added value that a brand can provide which will entice customers to return to them – they may offer better customer support, great product recommendations, a gait analysis or loyalty discounts.”

Here, the impact of generative AI (gen AI) can’t be underestimated. Every board of directors is looking for a way to harness the power of AI, either to provide a better customer experience or to manage costs more effectively.

For example, some big brands are developing offerings based on generative and natural language search. That sports shoe retailer may have thousands of trainers on their website, which can equate to hundreds of SKUs within a single brand. So the goal is to help the customer find what they want quickly and easily with a tailored search that incorporates predictive analytics.

Likewise, if certain product names are complex or easily misspelled, the search functionality can return the best results for the customer, based on the correct spelling. The last thing a customer wants to see is ‘no results’ come back when they’re in the market to buy something.

Working with best of breed partners

But again, legacy or heavily customised tech stacks can make achieving this level of service almost impossible.

“Legacy tech is expensive, it’s extremely resource intensive, it’s slow moving, it’s hard to add to and makes it difficult to compete in the market. So you end up with low conversion rates, which hurts overall revenue to your business and creates a very high cost base,” says Weber.

Customisations that might have been made over many years, for example, making it difficult to fully embrace the move to a more composable, modular architecture, which allows integrating best-of-breed partner technologies.

“A composable approach provides a pick-and-mix approach to your partner ecosystem,” says Weber. “Based on your business needs and preferences, you can stack together your technology partners in addition to your core tech. You can take a best of breed approach, alongside more customised solutions that will provide flexibility and agility.”

A great example is fashion retailer White Stuff, which moved from a custom to a headless build with BigCommerce. This freed the company to work with the vendors who specialise in building the best tools for a particular function. The brand was able to move from a three page checkout to a one page checkout experience, resulting in a 37% conversion rate increase.

SportsShoes, the UK’s largest independent retailer of sporting goods, also launched a new composable commerce website on the BigCommerce platform. Now, more than 80% of the website is driven from dynamic content, so when users are browsing, they can access real world content such as product reviews or training insights before transitioning seamlessly to shop directly from the content and check out quickly.

First steps in the move to composable commerce

These are examples of brands looking to drive more value and innovation in their ecommerce strategy. But taking those first few steps may be intimidating for some companies.

A natural first step is the checkout journey. Losing the customer at the point of checkout is a terrible loss for any business if they have done everything right up to that point.

“Do you have a multi-page checkout? Are you offering the right local payment methods? Do you have Apple Pay? Are you still asking your customers to write out their full card number and choose their card type?” says Weber. “Look at your checkout first, because that is where a huge amount of dropout happens on your website. If you only do one thing, work with a payments provider that has best in class conversion, that can give you advice on how to optimise your checkout experience.”

The next step is to address your core ecommerce provider. Do you have the infrastructure on which you can build a website that is tailored for your needs? One that’s agile, that allows you to tap into a group of best of breed partners?

“Use partners that will help you, that will support your growth and take your business to the next level,” advises Weber.

“If you do nothing else but improve your site conversion by a few percentage points, you will make more money. You still have the same customers that are on your site today, you’re just improving their propensity to purchase,” she concludes. “Don’t leave that money on the table – or in the basket.”

Why your omnichannel strategy is key for ecommerce success

To drive sales, brands are turning to seamless and personalised omnichannel experiences to engage customers wherever they are.

As ecommerce brands seek growth in a fast-evolving market, omnichannel strategies provide a clear path forward. Importantly, brands are responding to demand from consumers; a recent survey of more than 7,000 shoppers worldwide indicated that 88% want an omnichannel experience.

Omnichannel strategies aren’t the reserve of B2C organisations, either. McKinsey data shows that B2B customers use an average of ten interaction channels in their buying journey – up from five in 2016.

“B2B buyers have high expectations too, with more than half wanting a true omnichannel experience, one in which they can interact and buy while switching seamlessly across multiple channels. If they don’t get one, they are likely to switch suppliers,” says Rodney Zemmel, senior partner, McKinsey.

As a result, leading brands are diversifying channels with investments in marketplaces (60%), direct-to-consumer sites (56%), and social commerce (63%), ensuring broader customer engagement.

Avon’s omnichannel expansion

When considering an omnichannel strategy, companies must consider not only digital touchpoints but also physical, social, and marketplace integrations. An effective omnichannel approach can enable customers to move seamlessly across channels, boosting engagement and sales.

For example, expanding into other channels like ecommerce, retail and digitising its relationship selling model is a key part of Avon’s omnichannel strategy.

“We recognised that to reach more consumers, we needed to make it easier for consumers to buy us. Over the past two years, we’ve relaunched our brand with a refreshed look and feel, a renewed commitment to our purpose, new products, new tools for reps and, of course, new ways to shop Avon products,” says Avon CEO, Kristof Neirynck.

“That’s why we’ve made it easier for customers to access our brochures via our ecommerce websites, with in-person reps and on WhatsApp. Launching in bricks and mortar stores like Superdrug and on marketplaces like Amazon also complements our existing online and offline channels, and in the UK, we have seen a positive halo effect on the sales of reps in areas where we have opened a physical store.”

By the end of 2024, Avon will be available in 2,300 stores via partnerships with beauty specialist retailers and drugstores and online via ecommerce sites and marketplaces globally.

“Launching across a variety of channels allows us to reach a broader customer base, with better brand visibility for the benefit of Avon and our independent representatives who remain the core of our business and key to our success,” says Neirynck.

Embracing composable commerce

However, pursuing an omnichannel strategy can present legacy companies with complex challenges. For brands facing technology limitations, this can mean embracing a composable commerce model, allowing the flexibility to adopt new systems without disrupting existing processes.

“Composable commerce is a modular, next-generation approach to ecommerce that empowers brands to seamlessly integrate capabilities like R&D, logistics, marketing, and sales into a flexible and scalable ecosystem. To do this means moving away from depending on single large vendors and embracing ‘MACH’ development principles—microservices, API-enabled, cloud-native software as a service (SaaS), and ‘headless’ (in which front-end design is decoupled from back-end systems),” explains Zemmel.

The MACH Alliance’s 2024 Global Annual Research reported that almost half of organisations surveyed saw MACH and composable technologies as their way to improve competitive advantage, with 57% increasing their investment in composable solutions to deliver better customer experiences.

“Composable technology offers significant benefits for end-user experiences, including improved site performance that enhances the overall customer experience,” said Casper Rasmussen, president of the MACH Alliance.

“By embracing composable commerce, organisations gain greater flexibility, agility, and the ability to scale quickly. This allows them to respond to market changes and trends in real-time, unhindered by the limitations of a slow and restrictive legacy commerce platform.

“A well-executed composable strategy implemented across the business will drive incremental improvements without being hindered by a restrictive ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.”

For example, digital media company Brave Bison runs shopping ad campaigns for New Balance in growing markets and sales channels as part of a wider digital strategy utilising Feedonomics. To increase the return on ad spend (ROAS) for its marketing efforts, Brave Bison encouraged New Balance to consolidate all its feed-based marketing – including different outputs such as Google Shopping activity, Meta, and different social media platforms – to the London-based agency.

The impact of this shift helped to drive improved ROAS and conversion rates (CVR), higher revenues and lower cost-per-click (CPC) while also helping New Balance to expand its social commerce channels to a further 13 markets.

Meeting customers where they are

Despite the work that needs to go into executing a successful omnichannel strategy, a composable approach allows brands to adapt quickly to changing market demands, offering localised and personalised experiences. And importantly, it can help drive superior customer experiences.

That is critical, as building a true omnichannel strategy is about meeting your customers where they are, and recognising that, increasingly, that means being in lots of places at once.

“Consumers want to be able to shop and engage with a brand, when, where and how they want,” says Neirynck. “And do that in a way where all those brand touchpoints are connected and personalised.”

Grow your D2C ecommerce in three steps

In a competitive digital world, B2B brands can capture new revenue, leverage first-party data and build stronger customer relationships by embracing direct-to-consumer ecommerce models.

Faced with increasingly challenging operating environments, more B2B brands today are turning to direct-to-consumer (D2C) models to capture new revenue streams. By doing so they can own first-party data and customer experiences, enabling them to expand their customer base, gain a competitive edge, and engage directly with their end consumers.
Indeed, several high-profile businesses have made this shift, including Nike and Adidas, as well as brands like Unilever.

“Going direct can give traditionally B2B companies more control over all aspects of their business, from acquisition costs to pricing and after sales care,” explains Retail Technology Magazine publisher, Miya Knights.

“It also enables them to have sight of who their customers actually are instead of ceding that knowledge to a retailer, and then to use that insight to find more customers like them and run their business better, in terms of better matching new product development and supply to demand.”

A fundamental shift

Advancements in tools and platforms have also lowered the barriers for B2B brands to adopt DTC strategies. These technologies make it easier to launch and manage DTC operations, providing B2B brands with a new and lucrative revenue channel.

But for companies rooted in B2B, moving to B2C still requires a fundamental change, from new approaches to ecommerce to new customer engagement strategies and fulfilment logistics.

“This is a huge shift for B2B brands in terms of both infrastructure and mindset,” says Aftab Saleem, chief trading officer at The Growth Foundation, and a DTC ecommerce specialist who has designed international expansion and DTC strategies for Mothercare, BAT and EE. “For the most part, these brands are having to learn a completely new way of doing things after spending decades gearing their operations and their strategy towards shifting a huge amount of inventory—at a big discount—to other retail outlets to sell.”

Three considerations for a successful switch

So how can B2B brands customise their ecommerce offerings to reach new markets quickly? There are three essential considerations for a successful B2C pivot.

1. Understanding consumer behaviour
Knowing how consumers behave is vital for a successful B2C pivot because it shapes how a brand acquires, engages and retains customers.

“By analysing purchasing patterns, browsing habits and brand discovery channels, businesses can personalise offerings and optimise acquisition strategies to attract high-value customers at a reasonable cost. The focus should be on customers who drive strong lifetime value (LTV) through repeat purchases, such as subscription models or frequent seasonal buys, rather than one-time shoppers,” says Saleem.

“To nail your B2C pivot, you need to create an experience where—once the customer is on your site—they quickly understand your brand, your positioning, the proposition and your range with a clear and simple incentive to view products, add to cart and easily checkout. And the only way to achieve that is by knowing them first.”

2. Navigating total cost of ownership
Understanding the costs involved in acquiring, converting and retaining customers is key to moving to a DTC model in a way that continues to maximise efficiency and profitability.

“Navigating the total cost of ownership is challenging and can significantly erode margins. Building and maintaining the necessary infrastructure – covering operations, logistics, marketing and customer service—adds up quickly! Even seemingly simple incentives like offering free delivery can impact profitability,” says Saleem. “However, if order volumes are high and price positioning is effective, these costs can drive higher conversions and support long-term growth.”

3. Utilising technology to adapt efficiently
The good news is that there’s plenty of tech available to help B2B companies go DTC.
Says Knights: “Breaking down the customer journey into the search, browse, discovery, convert and transact phases of their shopping journey will enable a company to ensure they have the necessary tech components, like SEO, merchandising and payment gateways, in place to optimise engagement through to, and after, a sale.”

Together, these three steps can help drive B2B brands’ successful transition to D2C ecommerce, in turn enabling them to pursue more growth opportunities. They can also achieve control over the customer journey—from acquisition to fulfilment and ongoing customer engagement—creating opportunities for repeat purchases and long-term loyalty.

Agile ecommerce is the key to regional success

Expanding ecommerce internationally can unlock immense growth but requires brands to embrace agility, composable omnichannel strategies, and localised experiences.

Regional expansion of ecommerce offerings presents immense growth opportunities for businesses but also can demand thoughtful planning and scalable, flexible solutions. But breaking new ground also comes with risk.

“First impressions are key to international expansion – they can make or break success in any new region a retailer enters,” says Alex Preston, IT director at Next. “A single bad experience can deter customers from ever returning, whereas a great one will bring them back time and again. That makes the performance and usability of ecommerce sites critical.”

Next is one of a growing list of brands that has identified international sales as a major growth opportunity as online sales continue to rise, aided by the influence of social media. The retailer’s sales in the first half of 2024 were driven by its international sales, via its own website and other third-party marketplaces.

At the same time, consumers from the international markets which purchase the most from UK brands are also among those with the highest concentration of omnichannel consumers, according to the latest Global Voices report. This means international shoppers with the greatest spending power also rank the highest when it comes to demand for omnichannel experiences.

The research of more than 18,000 consumers across eighteen countries reveals omnichannel shoppers make more purchases and spend +15% more per year than those consumers who buy through a single channel.

It’s therefore important for brands thinking about regional expansion to get their omnichannel strategy right, too – failing to build omnichannel into their plans could see them miss out on valuable revenue streams.

Recognising this opportunity, international expansion is a critical component of British footwear brand Grenson’s ambitious plans for ecommerce growth. Outside the UK, its biggest market is the US followed by the EU and then APAC. By leaning into a multi-storefront approach, Grenson can tailor its service to customers around the globe who will buy for different seasons, with varying currencies.

Looking beyond borders

There are, of course, many factors to consider when expanding to new ecommerce regions – local laws and policies, logistics, online shopping culture in the region and the ‘localisation versus globalisation’ argument, to name just a few.

Each country has different data protection requirements, different policies for returns and refunds handling, and taxation in some markets increases complexity. Then the brand must choose much they want to outsource activities like payments, transport agreements and custom clearance?

“In the end, it comes down to how much complexity you are willing to handle and the amount of resources you have in terms of technology, human capital and money,” says Javier Artal, head of business development at Danish fashion brand Samsøe Samsøe.

As more brands set their sights beyond the border, many will seek a flexible, modular, and scalable solution to help them unlock new markets. Here, composable ecommerce allows them to scale resources, optimise total cost of ownership, and tailor customer experiences to each region’s unique needs.

“We came from a legacy platform where we would handle many processes on the same platform, and while it had some advantages it also came with many limitations and it was affecting our speed,” says Artal.

Samsøe Samsøe has around 600 employees and 47 international stores in 10 international markets spanning countries such as Denmark, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, and Norway. It also has a direct-to-consumer website, samsoe.com. By moving to a composable setup, the company is now more agile when it comes to merchandising for different markets, says Artal.

“Whilst we try to keep content aligned globally as much as we can, this approach has enabled us to work with more localised content. We have been able to add new angles to our loyalty programme and localise inventory per region without needing to work on several websites.”

Meeting diverse demands

Throughout all of this, there is a need for ecommerce leaders to balance resource investment with strategic growth. Investing in tech to streamline operations helps balance efficiency with customer satisfaction and revenue growth.

“In general, the clearer that you build up your processes and streamline them, and the stronger your data quality is, the easier it becomes to make use of new technologies such as AI or machine learning models,” says Artal.

If brands can get this right, they will be better placed to meet diverse demands across demographics and cultural landscapes without sacrificing operational efficiency or results.

Christine Horton
Christine Horton A long-term contributor to specialist IT titles, including Channel Pro and Microscope, writing about technology's impact on business.