• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 13, 2021

Email marketers working for ecommerce sites are about to get busier, judging by Retail eCommerce in Context: The Next Iteration, a study from Bold Commerce, conducted by Retail Systems Research, being publicized this week. 

For instance, 64% of ecommerce sites want to improve their customer satisfaction score or experience measure as one of the top three metrics they hope to improve. That means you better have your welcome, confirmation and update triggers well in place.  

And 58% hope to increase their average order value, a project that demands ever more personalized websites and email. Similarly, 47% hope to improve customer lifetime value. 

In general, 90% of retailers want to continuously innovate and rapidly test new customer experiences,  but 43% lack the resources to do so.

RSR surveyed over 100 large retailers across verticals, including 75% of those with revenues of over $1 billion earlier this year.

Here are the other metrics cited:

• Improve overall profit margin — 40%
• Reduce refunds by lowering return rates — 31%
• Lower customer acquisition cost — 25% 
• Reduce cart abandonment rate — 22%
• Reduce customer churn — 13%

Of course, ecommerce brands face challenges in pulling these things off. Here are the top three business challenges as rated by Winners and Others (thankfully, they don’t call them “Losers” or "Zeros.") 

• Consumers demand more convenience in their shopping experience than before, otherwise, they are more likely to abandon their purchase — 60% for Winners, 65% for Others
• Consumers expect a more seamless experience across digital and physical touchpoints than we are currently providing — 58% for Winners, 47% for Others 
• Market trends are prompting us to look for new business models that can drive revenue growth — 49% for Winners, 45% for Others 
• The intensifying need to deliver differentiated customer experience in digital channels — 44% for Winners, 25% for Others
• Disruptions in the market are shifting more of our business to digital channels faster than we anticipated — 33% for Winners, 33% for Others
• We can’t keep up with evolving customer expectations for new digital experiences — 22% for Winners, 18% for Others 
• Increased competition has made it harder for our business to retain customers — 18% for Winners, 29% for Others
• Our competition is doing a better job at addressing new consumer demands, forcing us to innovate much faster than before — 16% for Winners, 37% for Others

Readers may note that Winners are more likely than Others to face some key challenges. That may be due to the fact that they are simply more aware of these hurdles. 

The study describes Winners as those with YoY sales growth of 4.5% or more. Others, obviously, do not make this. 

Here’s another way of looking at them. Asked how satisfied they were with their ability to deliver ecommerce innovation with their current technology stack, they answered:

• Ability to accommodate new business requirements — 49% for Winners, 14% for Others
• Ability to deliver innovation at low cost — 40% for Winners, 8% for Others
•  Ability to measure the business impact of commerce innovation (including A/B testing) — 36% for Winners, 12% for Others 
• Ability to rapidly make changes to digital experiences — 33% for Winners, 12% for Others