Editor's Note: Kate Lincoln is a business analyst, and graduate from the University of Suffolk. She also edits content for CustomerSurveyAssist.com, and joins us today to explore how Unified Commerce is changing online marketing, and how predictive analytics is the best way forward.
Although it has existed as a concept for decades, unified commerce is on the verge of becoming a reality. For many companies, everything from web-based efforts to mobile applications and traditional stores are connected in real time. With enhanced usability and speed, it is now easily possible to buy a new speaker from Shenzhen while chatting with a friend from Brazil about buying tickets for a concert in Germany.
While unified commerce has traditionally been pitted against omnichannel marketing, the distinction between them is no longer necessary or clear. With the right platform and design, multiple channels can be absorbed into a unified point of sale (POS), and there are good reasons for doing so.
Shifting Paradigms
A shift across the market to unified commerce seems inevitable at this point in history:
- 77% of the world’s retailers say they plan to offer customers “buy anywhere, ship anywhere” services
- 57% also report development of a shared cart that encompasses all channels, thereby simplifying the process of online transactions
The market is already highly efficient and competitive: according to an old principle elaborated by Vilfredo Pareto, the top 20% of customers provide 80% of the sales. Therefore, the struggle to gain customer loyalty will only lead to increasingly proficient marketing campaigns and cheaper products of higher quality.
Fortunately, the new, expanded digital universe produces vast amounts of data, and this trend will only increase as commerce becomes more unified. Centralized and processed by analytics software, the market’s mysteries can finally be unlocked for the profit of all, and sellers in particular.
In order to benefit, predictive analytics – or the use of data to determine the likelihood of future outcomes – must become a primary focus for online marketers far and wide.
Uses of Predictive Analytics
E-commerce has taken to the sky as a result of the new economic environment created by unified commerce. Competition has soared, along with customer satisfaction. Customer input is abundant, due to the feedback systems employed by almost every commerce-oriented business. This entails an ever-growing volume of data that can provide valuable insights.
First, predictive analytics can work toward the optimization of marketing campaigns, making it a new staple in the fundamentals of digital marketing. It does so by looking at the behavior of customers and their responses to certain stimuli via ads. Studying past reactions to specific images, words or entire products can turn up a better product, bringing a higher quality to the customer and increased profits to sellers.
Timeline of decision and execution is another point of interest: along every point of the sales funnel, your customers might change their minds about a purchase at any time. From a retailer point of view, if customers have a high probability of dropping purchases during a certain period of time, minimizing that period can only lead to more sales. As a result, the distance between decision and purchase has been increasingly shortened due to these facts uncovered by predictive analytics.
Essentially, companies are using predictive analytics to determine which products are most popular, which promotional events are most impactful and which special offers provoke the desired reactions in customers. Devised correctly and sustained by a long-term effort, a strategy involving predictive analytics can lead to much higher return on investment (ROI).
The Unified Customer Market
A single platform for commerce entails a single, unified customer market. The impact of sharing the same goods on a global scale is not yet fully understood: it causes changes and evolution in the quality of life for millions or even billions of people. The transitory period between fragmented national markets and unified commerce is giving rise to another breed of customer: the global buyer.
Not tied to any single currency, niche market or regional economic affiliation, the global buyer is capable of surfing a tremendous number of offers, and choosing those most relevant to his or her needs. Their voices become stronger and - if made consciously by enough people - their purchases gain more regulatory power.
Right now, the world is at a crossroads. The ingredients of unifying commerce and customer markets are already present, but they have not been fully mixed. The future is a realm of endless commercial possibilities and you, the seller, can doubly profit from what it has in store.
By using predictive analysis, your business can stay one step ahead of other modern producers, and miles ahead of old-fashioned competitors that struggle to set up a website.
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