Although 70% of B2B and B2C brands have spent more than $1 million to establish e-Commerce sites, only half agree that their e-Commerce system helps them be as profitable as possible, according to CloudCraze. This indicates that while these companies aren’t afraid to spend money to build an online presence, many sites still lack the proper features and functionalities to provide a strong ROI.
Slow speeds to market are a significant issue. Many brands take a long time to get their site up and running in the first place, with 44% of retailers saying it took longer than a year to implement their current site. While one could assume that companies with more resources would have an easier time building these online presences, larger enterprises actually experience these issues as well — and on a magnified scale. A whopping 73% of brands generating more than $25 billion actually took longer than a year to implement their system.
The 2016 Digital Commerce Report is based on an analysis of 340 marketing and IT professionals, and offers insight into the areas where B2B and B2C e-Commerce brands fall short when it comes to building cohesive commerce experiences across all devices.
Advertisement
The survey found that major challenges retailers face today when using their e-Commerce platform include:
-
Quickly updating commerce based on organizational or customer’s changing needs (49%);
-
Scaling quickly to changing market needs (45%);
-
Getting a holistic view of customers (40%); and
-
Balancing a focus between ERP and CRM (32%).
Many respondents’ pain points are significant barriers to achieving their top priorities, indicating a major gap in brands’ current commerce system capabilities and their actual needs. These brands have a general lack of insight into consumer needs, and are often unable to respond in a timely manner.
The survey concludes that brands can no longer afford to live in the past when it comes to their e-Commerce solutions, especially as speed-to-market becomes a more insistent customer demand. The survey recommended that the most agile, robust and intuitive sites generally function on top of front-office cloud-based CRM systems that centralize customer data.
