Is Your System Strong Enough to Handle the Future of E-Commerce

The companies that are already thriving in the new landscape of E-commerce were quick to adapt new technology and integrate their systems in order to not just survive, but thrive. Is your backend system strong, agile and connected enough to join the E-commerce companies currently thriving in today’s market? Are you using the data you have to predict and prevent gains and losses, risks and opportunities?

Thanks to advances in software, integration possibilities and data analytics, there are so many ways for companies to grow in the new face of E-commerce. Here are a few examples:

Data Integration

Most companies are already on to the fact that integrating Points of Sale and backend systems are essential to a healthy business in E-commerce, let alone a business that hopes to grow. Smaller systems can benefit from point-to-point integration but to prepare your system for the future a custom integration plan is a good idea. With various platforms like Amazon Marketplace and IT experts in the field, you can make your systems communicate with each other automatically and stop spending so much time on making sure data is getting from one place to another. Automation allows for one set up to shift data from backend to marketplace effortlessly.

Internet of Things

Want to make sure your goods are accessible anytime and anywhere? Today’s shopper sees something and expects to be able to have it by the next day after placing an order on their mobile phone or online. Has your E-commerce business built a mobile shopping site? Is it as available as can be to any potential customer who may come across your product or service via social media or word of mouth? How fast can the warehouse receive, package and ship the order? Not just the marketplace needs to be connected, but also the delivery service. The Internet of Things provides more and more data touch points to facilitate the delivery process and ultimately improve the customer experience.

Big Data Optimization

Now that you have all of the data thanks to a well-integrated ecosystem and the internet of things, what do you do with it? The optimization of data is becoming more and more important and is even beginning to prescribe actions to businesses in their data analytics. From descriptive, to predictive to prescriptive big data usage, there are many opportunities for data to help make decisions. Using data via appropriate backend channels to strengthen your E-commerce business means less risk because you have some idea of what to expect.

Capability to Handle Traffic

When a campaign or product goes viral and your site is flooded with potential customers, but all of a sudden the site crashes and your team goes into disaster relief mode trying to get the system back up which could take hours or even days, that’s a huge loss. Pathé Theaters in the Netherlands recently experienced this on their website with the release of the new Avengers film. Their system simply couldn’t handle the heavy online traffic of customers wanting to get tickets. This of course was not just a loss for the theatre and the film but was likely also quite frustrating for their customers. Making sure your system can handle any potential surges in visitors (and buyers) is always a good idea.

Addressing all four of these aspects in your E-commerce business are a sure way to see if you are ready for the future of retail. Most of the changes are already happening and it is a good time to take your systems and the data available to you into your own hands and use it to improve your business processes. From marketing to inventory, customer information to sales, there are so many ways that data integration, the Internet of Things, big data optimization and making sure your system has the capabilities to handle heavy traffic will ensure that you are strong enough to succeed.

Do you want to be sure that your systems are strong enough to succeed in the future of E-Commerce? Contact one of our experts to find out how we can help!