For years now e-commerce has been continuously evolving and transforming the shopping experience. It isn’t to say that brick and mortar stores are necessarily on the decline, but rather innovative bells and whistles have been added to the industry. If you had mentioned the term e-commerce to anyone a few years ago, the majority would have answered with, "Oh it’s like Ebay and Amazon" or "It’s online shopping." The fact of the matter is that trying to compare it to anything else is only going to be relevant for that particular time period.

With the release of every new technology, a new way to attract and retain customers is simultaneously born. Try explaining to someone before the introduction of smart phones and tablets, that one day they will be able to buy products not only from the comfort of their own PC at home, but also in public transport, while waiting for an appointment at the doctor’s office, or even on a treadmill at the gym. And with the recent introduction of wearable technology such as Google Glass among others, the e-commerce experience and shopper behavior is only going to further evolve.

When e-commerce first began to take off, typically the shopper would order a product online and wait four to six weeks for it to arrive. Today that model has been reversed. Individuals preview a number of different products on a number of different devices, reserving or buying online but picking the product up in person. It is killing two birds with one stone so to say. The shopper looks at merchandise when it’s convenient for them without having to take time out from their schedule to visit a store, not to mention eliminating the shipping and handling process completely.

Questions, Questions, Questions

If you are a retailer who is reading this, naturally you are concerned, quite discombobulated, and have many questions in respect to how you will keep up with the never ending cycle of technological advancements and fluctuating shopper behavior:

• Am I effectively engaging my target audience and how much should I invest in it?

• Am I getting the most use out of my customer databases?

• How can I predict customers’ behavior?

• How can I offer customers the products they want but weren’t aware of the fact until they were shown to them?

• What can I do to improve my online business’ visibility?

• How user friendly is my on-line platform?

• How can I increase the number of visitors to my site and keep them there for longer than 10 seconds?

Who holds the key?

The best ally a retailer of any product can have against volatility in today’s market is a reliable technology partner who is constantly informed about the changing market trends and is always able to offer the right solutions at the right time, before it is too late! There is a reason for the saying, "Knowledge is power."

Ecommerce and client orientation.

How to combine two terms?

The rapidly transforming industry makes a retailer confront the issue of how to stay relevant and keep pace in such situation. Moreover new tendencies and technologies that appeared recently the entrepreneur pay more attention to client orientation of their services. For example would you really buy new iPhone or MacBook if you had to lose half an hour of your expensive time while searching on their tangled website? I bet that you won’t. That’s why Apple services is extremely client oriented and even intuitive. As you may notice from your personal experience this approach works for both small firms and international enterprises. Isn’t it sweet when you come to a coffee shop next to your door and the barista knows which syrup you like the most in your latte? It is easy to focus business philosophy on the client’s needs when online shopping is not an option for your business. But now the status quo has changed.

So what is the most challenging point of eCommerce client orientation? To fit demands of the client you definitely should think of device diversity that is in every-day use. Think of it: even if your website is profitable, at some point your user will stand up from his PC and move along with his smartphone or tablet in hand that’s where all the troubles start for you. The chinese say: A good client doesn't change shop in three years, a good shop doesn't change clients in three years. So let’s see what is the best option for you to follow. OmniChannel is the key to your client’s heart and wallet. One of the ways to explain OmniChannel is: cross channel being done well’. But real OmniChannel goes well beyond this definition it’s not only understanding of customer needs it’s predicting of what your user has in mind. Allow customers to own their data and experience, then give them the ability to use it to guide creation and context of every future experience and you’ll reap the harvest of your efforts.