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The 2020s have so far been a decade in which ‘permacrisis’ was declared a word of the year by Collins Dictionary. Between Covid-19 restrictions, record levels of inflation, economic downturn and supply chain issues, brands have had to weather a socioeconomic landscape of uncertainty — where the only thing to prepare for was change.
Brands that have been able to approach these challenges as an opportunity will be looking to the future with cautious optimism, as hardship sees innovation flourish. With record levels of inflation, price-pinching has driven competitiveness, and purchase decisions are up for grabs. During Covid lockdowns, the speed-up of digital transformation led to a more global economy, and brands at the forefront were able to fully focus efforts on consumers, as the power of technology-enabled an always-on ecosystem.
Brands now have the opportunity to consider the learnings from the early part of the decade and maximise on the channels that resulted in growth. In times of change, looking at the variables we can control is the only way to future-proof. For brands, this means prioritising owned channels such as an e-commerce storefront.
According to Deloitte, e-commerce is set to overtake modern retailing by 2030, which means that the future of retail is a cross-border opportunity. To zoom in on the opportunities that this new, global stage ushers in, bespoke e-commerce solutions will help brands reach audiences while maintaining a luxury shopping experience.
Taking ownership of growth
With around a quarter of retail purchases taking place online this year, according to the Office for National Statistics, e-commerce is a strong facilitator of growth and a great place for smart brands to begin to lay foundations.
Not only is it the entry point into a brand for many consumers, the e-commerce storefront plays home to a plethora of first-party data that can unlock customer insights. Finding out what customers are buying can be used to inform strategies around products and learning how they shop can uncover frictions in the customer journey.
With Google planning to phase out the cookie by the end of 2024, first-party data is becoming invaluable. However, data is ineffectual unless you know how to use it. The insights garnered from the online storefront are therefore critical to informing overarching business plans and identifying areas for change.
By approaching growth with a focus on e-commerce, lingerie brand La Perla was able to scale from 40 markets to over 100 globally. Utilising the e-commerce platform BigCommerce, the brand was able to create bespoke e-commerce solutions from one centralised hub where it could collect and review data at the same time as managing multiple suppliers, channels and stores from a single place.
The centralised platform allowed La Perla to gather insights that can be used to adapt experiences to different audiences to create a tailored approach en masse. This approach allows for A/B testing where easy adjustments can be made to determine which markets are most receptive to the brand and its products. With a test-and-learn approach, brands can alter the creative they present in different markets, serve up relevant products and suggest services that best suit the individual.
Multi-storefronts eliminate the separate overhead costs that come with entering new markets. Meanwhile, plug-and-play options offer opportunities in areas such as dropshipping, further allowing brands to expand. Womenswear label Badgley Mischka utilises BigCommerce’s integrated apps such as Duoplane for order management, which allows them to ship to over 190 markets from 20 inventory locations using a dropship method, an approach in which brands don’t directly process inventory, therefore mitigating associated risks.
This reduction in overhead costs helps free up resources to focus on customer service. With processes more streamlined, the customer, their needs and their experience are at the fore. For La Perla, it helps the brand focus on the customer experience and value-added development. “It’s robust and always on. We can actually think about experimentation,” says Lee Longhurst, head of e-commerce development at La Perla.
Engaging with local communities on a global scale
While e-commerce presents a global opportunity for business, there is no such thing as a single global audience. The pandemic brought the world closer with technologies like video calling, and an increase in social media use saw the rise of micro-communities. Cultural and societal differences can mean that different markets respond better to different communication styles and even within local markets there are multiple audience segments to be aware of.
For instance, according to the Vogue Business Index, 22 per cent of over-65s do the majority of all of their shopping online, just shy of 23 per cent of all respondents, proving e-commerce spans a variety of audiences. This also differs by market, so treating each market as a separate endeavour while maintaining a central brand platform allows for localisation that resonates.
Looking at popular search terms in each region, brands can populate localised sites with SEO keywords that play into local trends. Be it a surge in searches for pink in the USA following the Barbie movie or searches around the Olympics in France ahead of Paris hosting in 2024 — tailoring site content for search purposes can help build brand awareness.
Beyond tapping into different audiences, localisation also serves a practical function. The Vogue Business Index shows that at present just 1 in 10 fashion brands allow consumers to purchase in their own currency in 14 focus markets. When consumers are faced with conversion fees they face a barrier to entry.
Badgley Mischka uses BigCommerce to offer consumers the option to purchase products in around 150 currencies. Whether operating under separate currencies, allowing for different payment methods or being localised to a country’s tax laws, being able to manage multiple storefronts makes it easy to tailor for local needs and reduce frictions for shoppers.
Using AI to appeal to audiences
Unlike the hype and shine of the metaverse, AI has much more practical uses that can be beneficial for business. Where fashion has long been at the forefront of technology with designers harnessing AI technology for creativity, within e-commerce, AI can help tailor recommendations and enhance shopping journeys. Based on individual interests and past shopping habits, AI can serve up new product suggestions that are most likely to appeal to shoppers. Where digitalisation helped future-proof brands for the first part of the decade, AI offers robust solutions in the latter half.
Having a centralised e-commerce platform that can incorporate AI technology enables brands to easily utilise the technology. La Perla was able to embed e-commerce machine learning platform XGen AI into its BigCommerce platform, “It’s not just showing you what we want you to see, it's showing you what will become relevant and what is relevant to you,” says Buttery.
Embracing a future of change
The one learning we can take as truth from the first half of the decade is that change is inevitable, and embracing change is not a bad thing. For brands, this might mean letting go of old strategies and embracing new platforms and technologies to facilitate growth. While the old saying that the ‘customer is always right’ might be one we can challenge, a customer-first approach that allows for growth on a global scale without sacrificing the individual and their needs has mutual benefits.
Looking to technology, such as BigCommerce, as a tool for creativity and for robust solutions that can innovate as society continues to evolve is the best way to future-proof for a decade in flux.
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