Contrary to popular belief, digital commerce is NOT killing off the physical store. For the past decade, headlines have declared the demise of brick-and-mortar by the evil hands of eCommerce. And that story-line acceptance seemed to drive store closures and abandonment of malls due to growing online sales. However, that is not necessarily the case.
Dig deeper into consumer data, and you will find that the truth of eCommerce is murky. Different sectors of retail and CPG are affected in different ways by eCommerce. Although baby products have seen an increase in eCommerce, they have still experienced an overall decline in sales because of the weakness of the sector itself. But for products like cosmetics and vitamins, both brick-and-mortar and online sales have increased. In neither instance did eCommerce share increase enough to affect the result of brick-and-mortar sales. With online grocery, for example, a Food and Beverage Report showed that the online grocery share is struggling to reach its 2% mark. With a low 5% of adults making only six purchases online a year, 78% regularly purchase at your traditional grocery store. However, it also showed only a 2% growth for brick-and-mortar stores but a 14% growth for online shopping.
Of course, eCommerce is giving off data as to how we shop and has had a huge impact on retail as a whole. But the rate of store closings, liquidations, retail bankruptcies that we have seen doesn’t exactly equate to consumers having exchanged bricks for clicks. There are quite a few factors, including a few named above, over-stored retail landscaped that had not acclimated for the eCommerce world, the economic recession, and consumers buying less tangible products vs an experience (fancy dinner out). Despite all of these different factors and chatter about eCommerce killing off the brick-and-mortar retail store, online merchants are really the ones that are struggling against the larger, legacy retailers.

Here are five signs that show eCommerce is not the death of brick-and-mortar stores:

1. Stores have higher sales revenue than eCommerce.
Most of the top 10 U.S. retailers have an eCommerce site, but their actual physical, brick-and-mortar stores are where most of their revenue is gained. It is easy to think that retail eCommerce sites are taking over physical stores. But when looking at the actual numbers, physical stores generate higher conversion rates – a higher percentage of customers who actually make a purchase than clicks on a website. Another factor that often gets lost is stores are more profitable than an eCommerce orders because of costs associated with shipping, handling, increased returns, etc., that eat into profit margins.
2. Legacy retailers (i.e. Walmart) are gobbling up e-retailers.
Traditional legacy retailers are gobbling up eCommerce-only merchants. We have seen quite a bit of hot-flash-sale sites offering 24- to- 36-hour sale events with big discounts on different merchandise. And, we have seen companies like Nordstrom purchasing Haute Look, Bed Bath & Beyond purchasing flash sales site One Kings Lane, etc. Now we are looking at the big players like Walmart who are acquiring e-retailers like Bonobos, Modcloth and Jet.com. These brick-and-mortar retailers are purchasing e-merchants because online-only presence is not a viable retail play or model. While stores can generate actual organic traffic, they are able to build expand and build brand equity. You can see how that has affected the online only stores such as Warby Parker and the big green monster, Amazon, to scramble to open stores; they understand the importance and value of having that brick-and-mortar presence.
3. Physical chains – all but on are the top 10 U.S. retailers.
Outside of Amazon, the top 10 U.S. retailers are brick-and-mortar stores. Most of these names will not surprise you considering they most likely stores you often shop at for different items you may need. In no particular order the top 10 are Walgreens, CVS, Target, Lowes, Albertson’s, The Home Depot, Walmart, Costco, Kroger Co. and Amazon.com. While Walmart (a 55-year-old-company) and the largest retailer grew 8% last year alone, all of the other retailers on this top 10 list are generating sales growth this year so far, except for Target.
4. Amazon acquired Whole Foods.
If you missed the news of Amazon buying Whole Foods a couple weeks ago then you are living under a rock. It is hard not to pay attention when the United States’ largest eCommerce retailer buys one of the largest (30th – according to the NRF) brick-and-mortar chains. This can only confirm how important the physical presence of retailers really is. This is not the first time Amazon has dabbled in the brick-and-mortar area with the rollout of a few bookstores and Amazon Go, but this purchase marks a HUGE commitment for e-retailer.
5. Generation Z (consumer born after mid-90s through early 2000s) and Millennials actually prefer the in-store experience.
When you think of the digital age of Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Amazon, the consumer base that comes to mind is that of Generation Z and Millennials. Many of these young consumers spend their free time online rather than watching TV (as we did in my generation; well, we didn’t have an Internet then). Shocking as it may be, both of these groups actually prefer to visit a physical store than shop online. On a global scale, 70% of Millennials prefer the brick-and-mortar store. This consumer base is the future of retail. While the Baby Boomers were one of the largest generations, they have been displaced by the Millennial group estimating at 80 million alone in the U.S. and spending around $600 billion. Gen Z, however, is expected to reach 2.6 billion – yes, BILLION – by 2020 and expected to spend about $44 billion according to NRF and IBM.
All of this data makes it hard to believe that malls and brick-and-mortar stores will be a thing of the past. Only time will tell.

IRCE, the retail industry’s BIGGEST e-commerce conference and tradeshow is taking place NOW! A great morning start with Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran as IRCE’s special guest! A few great things are happening today:

• HOT topics today:
  • Today’s biggest topic is around what is being seen as the top tech trend in retail – AI (artificial intelligence). AI is enabling machines to carry out a variety of different tasks in smart ways. With various stages of data science, programming and complex system analysis, software development traverses to qualify as AI. Software developers are applying machine learning to build out tools that analyze millions of data points about shoppers’ actions and preferences to create the personalized experience.
  • Boosting conversions on Amazon with better images
  • Personalization is driving web sales nearly 10% higher
  • Although a hassle, shoppers still frequently return online purchases
• Visit Perficient Digital’s booth where you can get a free digital marketing assessment! We will assess:
  • How your current digital marketing strategy is performing
  • If you are getting relevant traffic to your site
  • How to develop a customer database with the data to back it up
  • Conversion rates of the right people visiting your site
  • If you are effectively engaging customers with the information they want, when and how they want it

Meet with our team today at booth #834! #IRCE2017

Are you delivering top-notch digital experiences to your customers?
Expectations are rising and opportunities are emerging. Minimum expectations now span optimized user experiences, personalized content and offers, and advanced buying scenarios, all while being relevant to the customer and a particular moment of engagement. As technology continues to become ubiquitous, both consumers and B2B buyers turn to digital commerce as the solution for transacting what’s needed in our daily lives. We are a very highly demanding society. And while some companies are focusing on customer growth and[responding successfully, many continue to struggle and respond and digitally transform to meet these all time high demands.
Join Perficient Digital and a guest speaker from Forrester for an informative session where we will discuss and explore how customer experiences are changing within commerce business models.

• Understand the key factors that will help transform your customer experience
• Understand the importance of customer identity across all go-to-market strategies and channels
• Perficient Digital will discuss how they can help you provide outstanding customer experiences from end-to-end

Perficient Digital blends the strategic imagination of an agency with the deep technical acumen of Perficient’s established consultancy background to deliver exceptional customer experiences for the world’s biggest brands.
REGISTER TODAY!

Does your business focus on the offer of services or goods? If so, then most likely your end business goal is to gain revenue to make a profit. Offering value and high-quality leaves customers eager to return and make repeat purchases however, where they actually make that purchase is a different matter entirely. Driving high volumes of relevant traffic to your website can definitely make a huge impact on sales revenue but once you have the customer’s attention, it is imperative that their experience is seamless and complete. If so, this can result in repeat purchases and ultimately higher sales revenue. This is where CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) can make a huge play. So what is CRO exactly and how can it help you? A digitally immersive approach that combines a thorough evaluation of site metrics and performance with usability best practices to provide meaningful insights for improving the online experience and ultimately driving increased conversion.
Here are five effective tips to help optimize your customer user journey to increase the likelihood of a higher conversion rate and higher customer satisfaction.

• Volunteer Trials

Ask volunteers to test the eCommerce part of your website which will help you establish how easy or hard this task is. And if they find it difficult, you can try to assess those specific issues and solutions.

• Signify Importance

Call-To-Actions (eCommerce) should stand out with prominent placements, bright colors and enlarged buttons.

• Dropout rate Evaluations

What is the dropout rate on the page just prior to the page to finalize delivery detail/options. When one sees a high dropout rate at this point it can be a result of a need to optimize and test the page or a technical problem with actually checking out properly.

• Less is more

Too many required fields on a checkout page can cause people to drop from your site.

• Promotions, promotions, promotions

A/B testing is a great way to test discounts and see if your overall profit increases. By testing different taglines copy to promote discounts one can see what variation leads to higher converstaion rate. Analyzing this test will help you then establish number of customers or average order values increased due to the new variation.

To find out exactly what your needs are Perficient Digital offers a complimentary CRO assessment! Here are some of the results you will see out of this assessment:

• Deep-dive into qualitative/quantitative data
• Funnel reporting set up for virtual page views in checkout
• Comprehensive user research and customer feedback
• Recommendations on ways to decrease cart abandonment
• Removal of conversion blockers
• Conversion-focused mockups for website improvement examples
• Road map for website improvements
• Ongoing testing, recommendations and reporting

To find our more about our CRO assessment, contact ross.monaghan@perficient.com.

Join Perficient and our guest speaker from Forrester Research on June 1st at 11am CST for an informative webinar discussing the importance of having a customer-focused commerce model. The webinar, “How to Create a More Customer-Focused Commerce Model,” will be led by Steve Gatto, a commerce and digital experience specialist for Perficient’s digital agency, Perficient Digital. Yakkundi and Gatto will discuss and explore real world examples of changing commerce customer experience models.
As technology grows in its ubiquity, consumers and business-to-business buyers are turning to digital commerce for transacting what is needed in their lives. But their demands are growing – minimum expectations now include optimized user experiences, personalized content and offers, and advanced buying scenarios, all while demonstrating relevance to customers at the moment of engagement. While some companies respond effectively, others struggle to meet these demands.
This complimentary webinar will be 11 a.m. Central time on Thursday, June 1. Register here to receive instructions on how to access the live webinar.
To learn more, see our recently released press release below!
Business Wire
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170512005297/en
Perficient.com
http://www.perficient.com/about/news-releases/2017/perficient-digital-to-host-customer-experience-webinar-with-forrester

A recent blog post written by Erin Wold, a member of Perficient Digital, discusses the top five reason for consumers abandoning carts on eCommerce sites. Most all of us, being consumers, have a pretty good idea why carts are abandoned because we do it ourselves. But we don’t think of the business impact unless we are actually on the other end, such as myself. Understanding why we as consumers abandon our carts helps those of us who are on the business side of this better address the driving forces, and we can see a more dramatic impact on the bottom line.

From unexpected shipping costs to forced account creation, limited trustmarks, missed retargeting opportunities, and underestimating the power of a discount, these are continuously stealing money from your business.

Top 5 reasons:

• Unexpected Shipping Costs
• Forced Account Creation
• Limited Trustmarks
• Missed Retargeting Opportunities
• Underestimating the Power of Discounts

To dive into these five reasons, click here!

IRCE 2017 is 4 weeks away! Don’t miss it!
The game of eCommerce is changing fast. IRCE is a perfect opportunity to stay up to speed in this fast-paced era. eCommerce sales have consistently outpaced expectations over the last year. eMarketer forecasts U.S. retail eCommerce sales will grow 15.7% in 2016, the highest annual increase since 2011. By those projections, 43.3% of U.S. retail sales growth will come from eCommerce in 2016. By 2018, eCommerce will surpass 10% of total retail sales in the U.S., and this steady growth is expected to continue through 2020. That is quite an increase and companies/organizations need to be prepared. IRCE 2017 will provide attendees with a conference full of industry experts, an exhibit hall filled with top level solution providers (such as Perficient Digital). It will focus on all things eCommerce from the latest in online commerce trends to online retail strategies to interviews with top industry leaders.

Perficient Digital, a silver sponsor of IRCE this year, will have lots of great things going on at our booth, #834! From great demos, exciting sizzle reels to on-site assessments, you won’t want to miss it! Get valuable insights from our digital marketing experts at the booth where they will be conducting live, on the spot digital marketing assessments:

Let us help you answer these and other questions to get you on track for a better, measurable, and more profitable digital marketing strategy.

1. How is your current digital marketing strategy performing?
2. Are you getting relevant traffic to your site?
3. Are you trying to develop a new customer base but don’t have the data to back it up?
4. Are you getting the right people to your site, but not getting them to convert into customers?
5. Are you effectively engaging customers with the information they want, when and how they want it?

SIGN UP TODAY!
We hope to see you there and stop by #Booth 834!

• 54% OF eCOMMERCE EXECUTIVES SAY RE-PLATFORMING IS A TOP PRIORITY OVER THE NEXT YEAR
• 18%  OF ONLINE RETAILERS ARE USING A SELF-BUILT OR LICENSED ON-PREMISES SOLUTION

Now that you have assessed all of the questions you asked yourself in Part One:

• Discovered the current state of your eCommerce business by reviewing past and current trends of your KPIs over a 1 to 2 year period, looking at your customers, sales and capacity.
• Established benchmarks for your current commerce platform and business by identifying measurable business objectives.
• Assessed who your customers are and their current experience
• Have set and agreed upon KPIs to measure success
• Calculated/Estimated total costs for 2 to 3 year horizon/Evaluated the factors that influence return

You are ready to choose a new commerce platform. Although it may feel like a huge undertaking, it does not have to be the daunting task that it may feel like. The good news is you have already done a lot of the heavy lifting so now it is time to determine what best commerce platform fits your needs. There are three top areas to consider when selecting a commerce platform:

• Platform capabilities that will help you achieve your goals
• Integration with external and internal third-party platforms
• Platform scalability and hosting environment

In Part Two, John Ambrose, a Senior eCommerce Consultant at Perficient Digital, gets into the details of each area and how Perficient Digital helps clients like you select the best commerce platform to fit your business objectives, strategies and needs. Download the guide today!

As technology continues to become ubiquitous, both consumers and B2B buyers turn to digital commerce as the solution for transacting what’s needed in our daily lives. Admittedly though, we’re a demanding bunch. Minimum expectations now span optimized user experiences, personalized content and offers, and advanced buying scenarios, all while being relevant to the customer and a particular moment of engagement. While some companies are responding successfully, many continue to struggle and respond and digitally transform to meet these demands.
Join Perficient Digital and a guest speaker from Forrester for an informative session where we will discuss and explore how customer experiences are changing within commerce business models.

• Understand the key factors that will help transform your customer experience
• Understand the importance of customer identity across all go-to-market strategies and channels
• Perficient Digital will discuss how they can help you provide outstanding customer experiences from end-to-end

Perficient Digital blends the strategic imagination of an agency with the deep technical acumen of Perficient’s established consultancy background to deliver exceptional customer experiences for the world’s biggest brands.
REGISTER TODAY!!

Carrier Enterprise, a provider of heating, cooling (HVAC) and ventilation aftermarket parts via online channels, was recognized at Magento Imagine’s 2017 awards ceremony April 2nd-5th. CE, along with Perficient Digital, received the award for Best B2B Customer Experience by Magento. Magento Imagine is a conference where more than 2,500 eCommerce agencies, tech providers and experts from more than 40 countries gather to celebrate best practices in the industry.
The Imagine Excellence Award for Best B2B Customer Experience is given to the brand that offers top  self-serve user interface that focuses on the indiviaul needs of wholesale, industrial or commercial customers. The judges recognized the Customer Experience technology platform for its exceptional user experience, beautiful design, and an innovative approach to the way CE does business. Using Magento, Perficient Digital built a site for Carrier Enterprise that provides an efficient, flexible ordering process ensuring timely delivery of parts to HVAC contractors and helps them complete more jobs per week. Carrier Enterprise’s online sales increased from less than 5 percent to more than 10 percent of total sales within nine months of launching the site. Daily online sales continue to rise, and online transactions have tripled.

“It is an honor to be recognized by Magento with this prestigious award,” said Ed Gaffney, president of CE’s digital business. “Our partnership with Perficient Digital and Magento has allowed us to accelerate our launch-and-iterate B2B digital commerce strategy. We’re continually improving the customer’s experience by enabling engagement, technical support, and sales on any mobile device 24/7365 while building the largest source of digitized HVAC content in the industry.”
“Selecting a robust Magento-powered eCommerce platform allowed us to quickly scale to unprecedented online sales growth,” said Vincent Mugavero, eCommerce director at CE. “It was the one cost-effective and flexible choice, able to adapt to our many B2B distribution requirements and integrate into our digital ecosystem.”

To read more about this prestigious award, click here or here!
For more information, visit perficient.com.
 

In the age of the consumer, delivering an exceptional customer COMMERCE experience is a key differentiator in eCommerce. Designing, building, and implementing a top-notch experience requires a great deal of planning, strategy, time, and of course, the right platform to support it. Choosing a new commerce platform may come about because:

• Your commerce business has matured, but you lack the features and capabilities to scale for future growth.
• Your current platform provider(s) require that you upgrade to a new release to gain support or access to new features and capabilities.

Regardless of either scenario, there are quite a few things you must consider when investing in a digtal commerce platform. The first step before researching platforms is building a business case that aligns with your business model and organization’s strategy. Assessing your business case for a new platform involves a few steps and questions you have to ask about your business:

• Establish your baseline – What is the current state of your eCommerce business?
• Identify biz goals and objectives – What do you want to accomplish?
• Define the customer and the customer experience – Who are your customers
• Outline success metrics – How will you measure success?
• Evalute costs and ROI models – What is the total cost of ownership? What is the return on investment?

What to find out more? One of our Commerce experts, John Ambrose, dives into all of these questions and details one has to to think through in order to choose the right commerce platform for them. Download the guide today!
Stay tuned for part two, where we dive into best practices and how Perficient Digital guides our clients by identifying the eCommerce challenges you currently have and providing strategies to solve them!

Each year at the Magento Imagine Event, Magento recognizes merchants and solution partners for exceptional work done using Magento sites under several categories; such as: Best Web Design, Best Mobile Experience, Best B2B User Experience etc. This year Magento received over 250 entries and it was extremely competitive to be shortlisted.
Perficient Digital is so excited and proud to announce that last evening we received the award for the Best B2B Experience category, for creating a best-in-class self-serve user interface to address the unique needs of wholesale, industrial or commercial customers for Carrier Enterprise.
Perficient Digital was nominated in this category with three other companies and their customers:

• ABInBev Powered by WEBJUMP & BORN Group
• Liebherr Powered by Netz98
• Rousseau Metal Powered by Le Site
• the latest ideas and expert advice, strategies to help transform commerce.

Our work enabled CE to provide a more flexible and efficient ordering process for their customers. Carrier Enterprise (CE) provides one stop shopping and expertise for HVAC aftermarket parts and supplies via online channels and 200+ physical stores. Magento site is integrated with PIM and ERP to provide accurate & timely stock and customer specific pricing information to buyers. Contractors are offered flexible and convenient shopping experience over multiple channels website, mobile and store locations. The B2B experience is enhanced with features such as order quick order pad, online/pickup in preferred store, manage/share order templates, self-service Super/sub account management with order approval workflows, multi-warehouse management for calculating price and shipping time and customer specific payment and shipping methods.
Here is the list of all finalists – https://magento.com/blog/events/2017-imagine-excellence-awards-finalists-announced
Congratulations to our incredible team on this amazing accomplishment!