• by Ray Schultz , June 16, 2022

Brands hope to improve their customer experience  and improving personalization by exploring new channels, according to Product To Consumer Management Powers Future Commerce Opportunities, a study from Productsup, conducted by Forrester. 

With good reason: The respondents recognize that poor online experiences can lead to lost sales (63%), damaged perception of the brand (60%) and vulnerability to competitors (57%). 

Brands cite the following activities as their top priorities:

• Increase our social selling — 63%
• Transition to direct-to-consumer (D2C) — 61%
• Increase selling through marketplaces — 54% 
• Expand into new markets (e.g., countries, regions) — 51%
• Improve product syndication — 46% 
• Enable metaverse commerce — 33% 
• Build more compelling content — 27% 

In line with all that, firms expect to prioritize the following over the next 12 months, citing these goals as critical or important:

• Improve our customer experiences — 85%
• Expand/explore new channels — 73%
• Improve our ability to deliver personalized experiences — 71% 
• Increase influence and brand reach in the market — 71%
• Accelerate our response to business-and-market changes — 71%
• Improve our ability to personalize content — 70% 
• Update or modernize our legacy custom-developed apps/website — 70% 
• Build a more composable tech architecture to support flexibility — 68% 
• Improve our sustainability capabilities (in terms of products, supply chain) — 68%
• Reevaluate our tech stack to support customer journeys — 31%

However, so-called “commerce anarchy” has led to companies struggling to keep product information consistent (39%), customize product descriptions (34%), and syndicate product data (32%), the study says.  

The leading challenges are:

• Concerns about customer privacy — 44%
• Lack of organizational buy-in on the value of measurement and analytics — 32% 
• Inconsistent level of quality among data sources — 30% 
• Lack of training or support — 28% 
• Too many metrics to measure — 22% 

Marcel Hollerbach, chief innovation officer at Productsup, states: “Having full control over your product data is the only way to provide consistent, tailored experiences across every customer touchpoint, which is essential for sustainable, global commerce success.” 

Forrester surveyed 385 business decision-makers and directors in Europe and North America.