Digital Commerce: Trends & Tips

1. What is digital commerce?
2. Digital commerce vs. ecommerce: What’s the difference?
3. Statistics you should know about digital commerce
4. How does digital commerce work?
5. Digital commerce trends emerging in 2024
6. Digital commerce is more than just retail — examples in every industry
7. Digital commerce challenges (and how to overcome them)
8. B2B ecommerce examples
9. Digital commerce FAQ
10. Key Takeaways

Digital commerce is the entire ecosystem that makes it possible to sell your products online. It facilitates convenient, efficient transactions, and gives businesses and customers the freedom to sell and shop without physical proximity.

Digital commerce and ecommerce are often used synonymously. They both involve buying and selling goods online.

Digital commerce refers to the entire customer journey — from the moment a shopper first discovers your products online to their first purchase and beyond. This includes all your digital channels, from your website to social media and other online communities. It also involves all the tactics and technologies your business uses to sell through these channels. Think: digital marketing, customer relationship management, data intelligence, order management software, and more.

Ecommerce, on the other hand, refers to the parts of the shopping journey that occur directly on a business’s website.

New trends emerge. Technology advances. Customer behaviours evolve. Digital commerce is always changing and it’s critical that business leaders know where the market is headed. Here are some quick stats that offer a snapshot of the state of digital commerce in 2024:

• 64% of commerce leaders say meeting customer expectations is harder than ever.
• Nearly half (48%) of commerce organisations are experimenting with AI and 29% have fully implemented it.
• Commerce professionals estimate that 54% of revenue will come from digital channels in just two years.

Digital commerce technology and tactics permeate the entire online shopping journey — from product discovery to delivery. Here’s a step-by-step look at how digital commerce makes it possible to interact with customers wherever, whenever, and however they shop.

1. Build an online presence: First, digital commerce helps you establish an online presence through websites, mobile apps, social media, and other touchpoints. By showing up on the digital channels that your target audience prefers, you build credibility and trust — and you stay top-of-mind. Ultimately, when you interact with customers on their terms, you increase awareness and customer loyalty.

2. Present your inventory online: The right platform will allow your merchandising, marketing, and commerce teams to display products beautifully online. Items should be easy to find through site navigation and search functionalities, and inventory levels should be automatically updated across all channels.

3. Transact and accept payments: One of the most critical parts of the shopping journey? Payment. Digital commerce technology and payment processing solutions give you the ability to accept multiple forms of payment and meet the needs of a wide range of customers. Payment preferences are constantly changing: crypto, digital wallets, payment installments, and more have cropped up just within the last few years. Most importantly, no matter where or how your customers transact, safety and security should be top of mind for your payment strategy.

4. Fulfill and deliver orders: Once an order is placed, the order management process kicks in. This involves everything from inventory management to picking, packing, and shipping the products to the customer's designated address. With the right digital commerce technology, you can provide real-time order tracking updates so customers can see where their orders are at any time. Automating this process also frees up time for your customer service agents and allows them to focus on more strategic tasks.

5. Provide customer support: Digital commerce platforms allow businesses to provide customer support, ‌live chat, and email at scale, thanks to‌ automation made possible by artificial intelligence (AI). AI-powered chatbots allow you to address customer inquiries beyond what your customer service team can handle on their own, which helps you resolve issues quickly and provide assistance throughout the buying process. It’s an ideal solution for scaling that lets you do more with less.

6. Engage with customers post-purchase: After a purchase is completed, businesses still need to engage with customers to foster the relationship and build loyalty. This can include personalised outreach messages and retargeting, tailored loyalty programs, and post-purchase surveys to gather customer feedback.

7. Analyse data and optimise experiences: Digital commerce relies on data to gain insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and trends. Your business can use this information to optimise digital strategies, personalise customer experiences, and continuously improve the digital experiences you offer.

Recent advances in AI have already changed the commerce landscape — from both a business and customer perspective: 81% of customers expect faster service as technology advances, and 73% expect better personalisation. As customers expect more, businesses need to adapt to keep up. Here are a few ecommerce trends emerging as a result.

Generative AI is a win for productivity and the customer experience. Early adopters of AI are already seeing tangible results. A whopping 84% report moderate to major levels of improvement on operational efficiency and employee productivity. This is thanks to commerce AI tools for tasks like writing product descriptions, merchandising, and even generative page design for ecommerce websites. AI is also improving the customer experience: More than a third of commerce professionals credit AI with major improvements to customer satisfaction, product discovery, customer loyalty, and personalisation.

Composable commerce is on the rise. Commerce teams are investing in modern architectures to give them flexibility, speed, and the freedom to innovate. Composable commerce has major benefits when it comes to time to market and creating new storefront experiences fast. This development approach allows development teams to combine different technologies that align best with specific business needs and goals, providing endless opportunities for customisation. That’s why 46% of IT teams have implemented composable architecture, and 43% plan to.

Businesses embed commerce throughout the customer journey. Gone are the days when customers would need to visit a full-fledged digital storefront to make a purchase. Now, they can transact anywhere. The bulk of organisations now incorporate transaction functionality into the flow of business across sales, service, and marketing touchpoints. With embedded commerce, any customer interaction can become a point of purchase. Service reps can send pay now links in direct messages, marketing teams can send retargeting emails with payment capture capabilities, and social media posts are now shoppable.

When people think of digital commerce, retail sales are often the first that come to mind: Buying a pair of shoes online or placing a quick order on Amazon. However, digital commerce spans every industry, from automotive to financial services. Here are a few examples:

- Manufacturing: Manufacturers often sell to other businesses (think: a business that manufactures auto parts selling to a car dealership). This is what’s known as B2B commerce — and it’s a market that’s becoming increasingly digital. In fact, B2B leaders expect that 53% of their revenue will come from digital channels within the next two years.

- Travel and transportation: Booking a hotel online? Yep, that’s digital commerce. Redeeming points to pay for your next flight? You guessed it: digital commerce. Businesses in travel, transportation, and hospitality often sell services rather than products, but these transactions are still powered by the same tools and technology used in other industries.

- Healthcare: There are many different kinds of businesses in the healthcare industry: healthcare providers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and more. Each of these businesses requires stringent data privacy and security measures, along with other unique considerations that make digital commerce more complex in the healthcare sector. However, these digital experiences — like purchasing an insurance plan online or ordering a prescription from your mobile device — are all powered by digital commerce.

No matter who your target customers may be, the ultimate goal of digital commerce is always to grow your business through increased sales and loyalty. However, success can often feel like a moving target because commerce moves fast and markets shift regularly. As new challenges emerge, things can get bumpy — but here’s how to ensure smooth sailing.

Rising customer expectations: As technology evolves, so do customer expectations. Almost two thirds (64%) of commerce leaders say meeting customer expectations is harder than ever. Shoppers want personalisation, convenience, and experiences that match their unique preferences. This means your business needs to be flexible and fast. To stay agile, consider implementing an ecommerce platform that enables quick front-end changes and tools that help you make the most of customer data. This will be key to winning the hearts and wallets of potential customers.

Emerging technology: It can be difficult to know where to start (or sometimes, whether you should start) implementing new technology to move your business forward. Many businesses invest in new technologies that turn out to be flash-in-the-pan fads. Conversely, some new forms of technology may seem gimmicky at first but become table stakes within a few short years. The best way to know whether to implement new commerce technology? Keep a customer-first mindset. Adopt new technologies only after you analyse customer data to evaluate the potential impact on your shoppers and your business.

Increasing costs: Commerce professionals listed inflation as their number one challenge last year. So how do you increase margins and revenue while delivering experiences that keep customers coming back? This often comes down to choosing the right technology partners, automating tedious manual processes, and having clear definitions of success for each new digital commerce initiative.

The loss of human touch: Automation is critical to scale and grow your business, especially as 65% of commerce professionals say they’re being asked to do more with less. However, it’s critical to ensure that you’re automating the right tasks, and that your customer experience still feels human. To do this, ensure that your teams validate and review automated tasks for accuracy and brand cohesion. This is crucial as you grow your business with AI and automation. In fact, 80% of customers say it's important for humans to validate AI’s outputs.

YETI, the beloved manufacturer of outdoor gear, built a fully customised, guided online experience. The brand wanted to create a new guided experience that would allow customers to easily navigate its large drinkware portfolio. Composable commerce enabled a fast implementation cycle. An AI-powered recommendation engine helped YETI personalise content, campaigns, offers, and product suggestions for each customer. The result? YETI was up and running with its new digital commerce experience in just 4.5 weeks, and the business saw a 63% year-over-year increase in its mobile commerce conversion rate.