Posted: 02 Sep. 2021 6 min. read

Commerce without Experience, is there a point?

The focus shift to online presents a massive opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves. Yet in a recent survey carried out by Deloitte, one in three respondents said that online service experience during the pandemic was not good enough. In this thought piece we outline how brands need to combine Commerce and Experience to stand out from the crowd and thrive in the post COVID recovery.

COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of change in retail, as more consumers have used online services than ever before. The pandemic has also shifted consumer expectations with experience now a key differentiator in commerce alongside product and price.

Our recent survey found that 52% of consumers are more likely to buy direct from brands because of the pandemic while 53% also say that they are now more likely to use a marketplace or retailer. This poses questions for brands that seek to take advantage of these changes in consumer behaviour.
 

Why is experience important in commerce?

How marketers think about experience in commerce now needs to go far beyond just the single purchase event. It should cover all interactions consumers have with a brand, including:

  1. Online experiences – The content they people consume about a product across a brand’s digital estate, whether it is a brand’s website as part of a research journey or a mobile application as part of their day-to-day interaction with a product.
  2. Physical interactions – The interaction consumers have with a physical store presence and a brand’s staff in those locations, whether it is a consumer entering for a purchase event, a collection event, or even as part of their day-to-day activities where they just intend to browse.
  3. Support channels – The assistance that is provided to help with consumer queries, as well as the effective handling of complaints and whether a consumer is retained, lost, or becomes a critic.
  4. Outbound communications – The volume and tone of the marketing, and after-sales communications which a consumer receives throughout their purchasing experience.

The blend of these interactions will vary from brand to brand however all these interactions should support and enhance each other. The interactions need to be tailored to the consumer’s needs at that moment in time. Even one failure in any of these can result in consumer alienation and them moving to one of your competitors.
 

Why is it important?

COVID-19 has accelerated several trends that brands were experiencing before the pandemic. It has also acted as an incubator for new trends. Our recent survey of 3,000 consumers highlighted several of these trends, including:

WebWhat should a brand be doing?

As a brand tries to meet and exceed these consumer expectations and expand their relationship with the consumer there are some key areas to focus on.

Impactful interactions – As consumers feel overwhelmed by communications, it has never been more important to focus on quality of the interaction instead of quantity of interactions. To help with this, brands should ask themselves:

  • What are our core interactions with our customers?
  • How do we want them to feel about our brand after that interaction?
  • How can we measure the impact of our interactions and streamline where appropriate?
     

Prepare for Personalisation in a cookie-less world – As consumers become more cookie aware and less willing to share data it is increasingly important for brands to:

  • Identify consumers by promoting declared identities (i.e. account) instead of relying on device identity
  • Leverage machine learning capabilities in their tech stack to derive identity based on behaviour instead of device
  • Refine your owned data sets as third party one’s become less relevant
     

Clear messaging – Consumers are increasingly focused on what a brand stands for and this therefore needs to come across all interactions. To help with this, brands should ask themselves:

  • What is your core message and what is your content strategy to communicate this?
  • What is your approach to training your employees to deliver this message and the experience your customers expect?
     

Leverage direct connections –Brands that have historically sold through resellers have only ever able to focus on single transactional events and the metrics associated with this (i.e. average basket value). As consumers behaviour changes, direct-to-consumer brands have a great opportunity to understand their consumers lifetime value. To help with this, brands should ask themselves:

  • How can we create a single view of the consumer that goes beyond transactional events?
  • What are the activities and processes that can optimise the lifetime value that your brand can leverage from your consumer base?

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Key contact

Charlie Dumeresque

Charlie Dumeresque

Senior Manager

Charlie is a Senior Manager at Deloitte Digital, specialising in Experience and Commerce Transformations. Using his background in omnichannel customer experience, complex technology delivery, and site internationalisation. Charlie helps his clients to shape and then execute on their digital transformation agendas.