E-commerce still has a world to win

E-commerce is a world of change, continuously, and at an ever-increasing pace. At the same time, e-commerce is also well established. Our implicit expectations of what makes a good e-commerce shop are high. As an e-commerce company, how do you stay distinctive in a platform economy? How you win, retain and build customers depends on the right approach and the right mix of channels.

Retailers and other companies that do not fully optimize their digital e-commerce processes with the right modern techniques and tools are going to have an even tougher time in the Dutch retail landscape. Larger platforms such as Amazon and Bol will become even more dominant because of their purchasing power and investments in customization.

To distinguish yourself, you have to build on a flexible foundation. You have to be able to respond to customer insights and changes in the market. That set-up is called composable commerce. Here you combine different solutions into one customized architecture for your e-commerce. In theory, this allows you to reap the benefits of the functionality of good market solutions, combined with customization with which you can distinguish yourself. But the transformation to composable commerce is often complex and costly. It requires a high investment, and the technical challenge of keeping the system online often proves expensive as well.

CoreConnect To meet those challenges, rb2 developed the CoreConnect platform. “Our platform offers retailers a modular system that allows them to go live faster by using prebuilt components,” says Jeroen van Meel, Head of Composable Commerce. CoreConnect allows companies to integrate existing solutions, and combine them with specific custom applications. Challenges of scalability, maintenance and technical complexity are thus eliminated. “This way we give e-commerce companies a grip on the core; customer experience, sales channels and data.” said Stijn Bakker, product lead for CoreConnect.

“We believe that successful e-commerce companies choose what they focus on and where they spend their customization budget,” says Bakker. For example, garden and wood retailer Gadero developed a custom system with rb2 to enable the shipment of large and heavy packages of wood in a customer-friendly way. “Standard shipping options are not an option for a lumber dealer, but on Gadero customers can still see on what days and times their new garden shed can be delivered to their doorstep.” says van Meel. That Gadero application runs in a composable architecture from CoreConnect, integrated with other systems that provide such things as payment, product information and content.

“Keep a grip on customer experience, sales channels and data to continue to stand out in an ever-changing e-commerce world”

A good customer experience as a starting point Customers have certain expectations around online shopping. The standards are high. Content, product information, returns and shipping are elements you don't think about, but they have to be right for a good experience. For example, the quantity and quality of payment options are also an important part of the purchase process. One of rb2's partners is Pay. “The freedom an entrepreneur has to choose a payment option with Pay is important. For our client Gadero, Pay offers payment options both at the point of sale and in the shop (omnichannel) creating a uniform experience.” said Jeroen van Meel about the partnership.

It sounds simple, but the market and buying behavior are constantly subject to change, and any organization must also be able to respond quickly to that. The components that the company deploys to differentiate itself therefore need to be able to be quickly adapted or replaced. “You want to be future-proof, with a system that can grow with you. A system that can integrate with, say, a loyalty platform, be ready for omni-channel outlets, or implement new technologies such as generative AI without problems.” said Bakker.

This article appeared May 27 in the E-commerce supplement of Het Financieele Dagblad.