Overcoming Common Fears of eCommerce Replatforming

(This post was last published on December 20, 2017. We’ve updated it for accuracy and completeness.)

The idea of replatforming your eCommerce store strikes fear in most merchants. It appears too risky. There’s seemingly so much that can go wrong during the process. But, avoiding a migration to a new platform for the wrong reasons can hurt your online business in the long run.

By sticking with your old technology, you won’t be able to provide the experience that your customers demand. You could be wasting thousands of dollars trying to fix the same problems over and over again. You could be holding your business back from growth.

To help you build confidence to take on this initiative, we’ve put together a list of common replatforming fears and how to avoid them. Put your mind at ease and don’t be afraid to grow your business by upgrading your eCommerce platform.   

Should B2B Merchants Sell on Amazon or Their Own Webstore?

While manufacturers and distributors have been selling online for over 20 years, many merchants are still trying out eCommerce for the first time. Selling online today is more challenging than ever. Buyers want more than a simple online portal for repeat purchases. Instead, they’re demanding sophisticated online shopping experiences not far from what they’re used to for personal purchases. B2B merchants should look to build out an eCommerce presence that acquires new customers, serves existing, and overall creates a healthy revenue stream.

eCommerce is a strategic investment that takes considerable time and resources, not to mention it’s usually a cultural shift for a B2B organization too. One of the first decisions you might make is whether to sell on a marketplace like Amazon or make the investment in your own branded webstore.

This guide walks you through the differences of these go-to-market eCommerce strategies and why the answer is probably that you should be selling on both.

Top Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Brands

Direct-to-consumer brands are disrupting the retail landscape both online and in-store. These digital native merchants have strong brand identities that resonate well with their audiences. Their hyper-focused on the customer experience, changing the way retailers should think about customer interactions. Most importantly, they’re taking control of their consumer data allowing continuous innovation and improvement.

Direct-to-consumer is a winning formula in retail right now and more brands are popping up than ever before. Look at why this retail model works and some of the top DTC brands out there now.

5 Challenges of Endless Aisle for Retailers

(This post was last published on May 4th, 2016. It’s been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

Retailers are missing out on nearly $1 trillion in in-store sales because they don’t have on hand what their customers want to buy. When customers can’t find what they want on your shelves, they’re quick to shop online or with one of your competitors.

There’s a lot of reasons why your shelves might be empty like miscalculating labor costs, customer satisfaction, and poor communication between vendors and retailers. To combat this problem, retailers of all sizes are turning to technology to ensure their shelves stay stocked, or appear to have an endless aisle of products consumers are looking for.

Implementing this retail strategy isn’t easy though. This article discusses some of the common challenges of deploying an endless aisle program.

2019 Holiday Shopping Predictions

The holiday season is almost here. Retailers have only a few weeks left to finish their to-do lists to prep their stores, online sites, and marketing campaigns. Deloitte predicts overall holiday retail sales to increase between 4.5% and 5% this year, passing $1.1 trillion in sales from November to January. They expect eCommerce sales alone to increase 14% to 18%.

See more holiday shopping predictions for this holiday season below.