BetterCommerce is a leader in the provision of composable and headless e-commerce solutions for mid-market retailers. Our mission is to disrupt the legacy approach to delivering e-commerce solutions and show retailers and brands a path to scale and innovate at a pace and budget that suits them. Our API-first approach offers flexibility to ambitious, omnichannel brands that refuse to be held back by the monolithic e-commerce technology of the past. By removing the dependencies that clog up their processes in these platforms between the front and back-end, retailers working with us enable rapid change, more effective integration with future tech like artificial intelligence and virtual or augmented reality, faster websites, radically improved customer journeys, and improved business performance. In real-world terms, that means we’re empowering retailers to focus on creating new, unique shopping experiences and great CX. As CEO and Founder, I spotted a gap in the market in 2015, when it was becoming clear to me that most enterprise e-commerce platforms were either too expensive for many mid-market omnichannel retailers or simply inaccessible due to lack of skills and resources required. I was, and am still, determined to fix that industry-wide challenge. How do you expect AI to transform the e-commerce industry?The major area in which I see AI affecting retail is in the forecasting space. With the ever-increasing issues of trade across borders and the cost of living crisis, improving efficiencies around your purchasing choices will be of huge benefit. Having just enough stock availability will be the nirvana state, and retailers will do whatever they can to achieve that. Having dead stock is a retailer's worst nightmare, but also losing a sale because a product is not available is equally damaging. In the near future, AI will help to bridge this gap and provide real data and dynamic insights to inform decision making. I also often get asked about competitor pricing, and whether it can be tracked across online marketplaces. I believe that AI will also prove to be a useful enabler which will address this growing market requirement. What role does BetterCommerce hope to have in this transition to AI-enabled tech?We recently acquired an AI and personalisation engine, which we have made available to our clients and future customers. We want to play a major role in the adoption of AI enabled technology within the retail industry, and we are looking at building appropriate AI-enabled tech partnerships to enhance our current e-commerce platform proposition. Why did you decide to start the company?Back in 2015, and this is still going on, given the cost and complexity of most enterprise e-commerce platforms for mid-market omnichannel retailers, I was seeing these organisations acquiring new technology and trying to fit their business around the technology. That’s just the wrong way round. These ongoing issues were clearly adding complexity on top of complexity, sparking major issues when trying to unpack these spaghetti tech stacks and achieve what LOB managers really want - innovation and efficiency gains.In addition, in too many cases, the people who made these critical e-commerce business decisions had moved on and therefore the knowledge had left the business, which was creating the conditions for a problematic e-commerce ‘perfect storm’. Given this cost, complexity and skills challenge, I knew there was a far better way, and that was when BetterCommerce was born. What do you hope to achieve for the industry with BetterCommerce?We are already filling an age-old e-commerce industry void of addressing the legacy e-commerce ecosystem, and are focused on delivering customisable e-commerce solutions to mid-market retailers and brands, which will enable them to scale and innovate at the pace and cost that suits them. Our industry-first proposition is a rejection of any kind of ‘rip and replace’ methodology, which many retailers are concerned about (and rightly so), but instead provides an evolutionary, LEGO-based approach. Our composable e-commerce architecture encourages retailers to start with the areas that need improvement most, which is often in the product information management arena, order processing or their customer data insights. We hope to achieve for the industry a far more pragmatic approach to e-commerce, an approach which focuses on the need to align with existing technology investments during migration, so nothing becomes redundant, cost is minimised and business performance improvements are realised.

5 minutes with: Vikram Saxena, CEO, BetterCommerce

5 minutes with Vikram Saxena CEO BetterCommerce

Britain has famously been called a 'a nation of shop keepers,' although whether it was Napoleon Bonaparte who coined the phrase, we don't know for sure. It does, however, show that for hundreds of years, retailing has been key to our economy. The high street has been the backbone of retail but even back in 2011, Mary Portas' report for the Government on the decline of town centres recommended having them run more like businesses and highlighted, crucially, that the growth of online and out-of-town shopping had left many areas 'dying'. At BetterCommerce, with our commerce platform and suite of tools for retailers, wholesalers, and brands we are very aware of the state of the high street, as well as online. Due to COVID, we are in an interesting place, which may ultimately define retailing, and the high street's position in it. Currently, they look like ghost towns. There will, however, be an initial pent-up desire of two to three months demand after the current lockdown is lifted and people will want to see what is happening in the high street. After that, it will go back to being the new normal with more well-known brands and independents alike, struggling and potentially closing their doors and customers defaulting to the instant gratification that online shopping can facilitate. Remaining high street companies will be those selling high-value, experience-oriented, emotional products The situation throws up many major questions including: what and who will go from the high street, who will stay and whether there's a combination that could be viable? I believe that the significant remaining high street companies will be those selling high-value, experience-oriented, emotional products that need a personal element - whether that's touch, smell or feel. An example would be home theatre systems. You would want to try them out before buying as they are generally an expensive, personal purchase. It's all about the experience. Normally, you wouldn't purchase such an item on Amazon, although you may try it out and then order it online. In a conversion with Brendan Witcher from Forrester, I was told that in our lives, we tend to have approximately 21,000 items in a typical household. 60-70% of these things, like bulbs and sockets, we don't particularly care about and can go online to get them. The remaining 30-40% are the things we value, and we have a strong desire to physically go out to a shop to purchase them. The pandemic has accelerated the pace of change to digitalise So, can the high street be saved? Does it have the capacity or the will to change? In truth, it doesn't have any choice; it's do or die. Although the pandemic hasn't changed the direction of travel, it has accelerated the pace of change to digitalise and if retailers don't get on board, then they will quickly find themselves out of business. This is an area where commerce platforms like us can help. Primarily, we're seen as responsible for enabling businesses to simply go online and enable smooth buy/sell transactions. Now, however, it's time to go beyond that to support customers from a service perspective. We know about them and their personalities and through different modules and capabilities we can bring it together, seamlessly and without causing a headache for them. Everything is so fragmented today that companies are struggling with integration and are overwhelmed as to what to do. Many businesses are still fighting for the basics. For example, some may not even have stock visibility across all their locations, or they don't know the value of the stock in real-time. These are basics, but they are fragmented across so many systems or excel spreadsheets, it's become a logistical nightmare! Fulfilment centres on the high street would revolutionise retailers' ability to provide same day delivery Elsewhere, the issue of empty properties in the high street needs to be addressed. Replacing empty commercial stores for housing is one option but the question is: would the demand be there? People don't necessarily want to live on a busy high street with many preferring more suburban areas. Another option would be to turn them into mini warehouses. Fulfilment centres are normally situated in large industrial estates outside of the city centre. If they were on the high street, however, one large building could be shared across perhaps 20 small warehouses. This would revolutionise retailers' ability to provide same day delivery. There is, however, another slant around preserving high street premises. The Government needs to rethink the whole system. How should we valuate properties, and apply business rates and tax in these COVID times so that we can truly adopt an experiential-led model that can ensure the high street remains valid? People want to buy but hate to wait Looking at the high street in the next five years it will surely be all about the experience. There will undoubtedly be more stores like Apple, with multiple staff walking the floor, no point of sale and no obvious tills. As of today, the focus for stores is simply on buying. We need to move it on to convenience. Take a traditional clothes store on a Saturday or Sunday with people standing in a queue for 20 minutes before being able to pay. That's a real pain point. People want to buy but hate to wait. The retailers have to be more in tune with what their customers want, to succeed in the high street. They only really know them when they make a purchase. The key, however, is making help available when the customer wants it and only engage at that point in time. For example, if the outlet doesn't have the dress the customer wants in its store but has it in another of its outlets and can guarantee to get it in 30 minutes, then that extra value makes a significant difference to the store experience. Personalisation could be the difference between success and failure Once you know the customer is buying from you a few times, the system has to immediately categorise you as a loyal customer. You may get 10% off your next purchase for example and a 'buy one lipstick get another for half price' offer when you've shopped there another couple of times. They're simple gestures but increase loyalty and brand advocacy. Personalisation is crucial and could be the difference between success and failure, but it needs to maintain its boundaries. Good personalisation is a service where you personalise it for the customer, without the customer realising it. So, can we save the high street? Does it need to be saved? Perhaps we should consider it as a high street evolution, embracing digitalisation and bricks and mortar that we will see flourish over the next five years. Whatever happens, experiential and instant gratification will be critical factors for retailers to succeed in the 'new normal'. Vikram Saxena is a passionate technologist with a track record of delivering multi-million dollar projects across the globe. A self-taught programmer, successfully running IT Service company since 2007 and launched SaaS based Commerce platform in 2016 simplifying the end to end business automation for SMB retailers by offering an integration solution.

Can a mix of experiential and instant gratification save Britain's high streets?

BetterCommerce has launched its eCommerce subscription engine, solving one of the biggest current challenges for eCommerce businesses. It is a comprehensive suite of software comprising various modules, each aimed at helping companies grow with subscriptions.Before we learn more about the development, let’s understand the market and the current need!The market of SubscriptionsThe world of eCommerce has been evolving with the speed of light, with new trends that force existing players to up their game.The most recent and one of the most prominent ones is the subscription model, which has taken the industry by a storm. To give you an example,“As per a report by the Royal Mail, by 2022 alone, The UK subscription box market is expected to grow by 72%”The market size also resonates with the interest of eCommerce companies as UK residents spend about £2 billion every year on subscription box services.Amidst all this growth and demand, mid-sized eCommerce retailers are looking for solutions to integrate subscription models with their&nbsp;existing businesses.Aligned to the current needs, BetterCommerce has completed and launched a robust subscription model. BetterCommerce has been helping major brands take their business to the next level with state-of-the-art technology that powers the business’s growth.Why have a Subscription Model on your Online store?Subscription models are the present and future for retail businesses“In fact, as per a study, 75% of DTC businesses will offer subscription-based models in their stores.”Consumers have started expecting and preferring such models because of the linked benefits.Subscription models offer the perfect revenue boost to businesses and help them build superior certainty in their cash flows compared to other models.Winning loyal CustomersVarious Studies stress on the high conversion rates with past customers compared to new prospects. It is common for businesses to focus on new customers while ignoring the treasure of past customer data, which can be turned into a regular revenue stream with subscription models.Numerous companies started focusing on subscription models, and with time, their revenue from subscriptions surpassed the income from one-time monthly sales.How to win with Subscription models?The complexity involved in integrating and managing subscription models is as high as the rewards you get with successful implementation.BetterCommerce’s platform has made it simple for businesses to integrate subscription models into their online and even offline stores. They have taken care of granular details and have given a lot of power in the hands of companies to customise and market these models.Here are some of the top ways and features helping brands:<ul><li>Build personalised subscriptions</li></ul>One of the best ways is to allow the customers to pick and choose the products/services that they’d like to subscribe. More flexibility equals lesser friction towards completing the purchase. BetterCommerce’s software allows the customers to do just that!<ul><li>Offer signup discounts or offer discounts on any month</li></ul>Offers are key in promoting your offerings. You can select and create specific promotions to lure the customers into choosing the subscription box. This can include promotions like the 1st month free or for that matter any month free, an added gift or others.You must test the different promotions you use and identify the one that performs the best.<ul><li>Attractive Pricing</li></ul>It is crucial for you to give the customers more than 1 reason to choose the subscription box over buying the products individually. There should be a significant discount associated with choosing a recurring subscription model.BetterCommerce gives you the complete ecosystem which is built around the most successful subscription models.<ul><li>Flexible payment models</li></ul>Offer complete flexibility in terms of payment models – fixed fee, term based or unit-based pricing – whatever works for your business. Offer one-time payment option or monthly payments to customers as per their preference.<ul><li>Capturing and Analysing Data</li></ul>Every activity associated with your subscription model is stored in BetterCommerce’s platform, which you can leverage to your benefit. The software also equips you with resources to capture feedback on unsubscribers, so you can work on addressing the concerns.You can analyse the data to identify the top-performing offers and A/B test features to increase your conversion rate.<ul><li>Offer flexibility in subscription periods</li></ul>Another method of reducing the friction in subscription models is giving the customers an option to choose the time periods. Most of the brands can easily choose to have 3,6 and 12 months plans.It is common for people to be receptive to shorter periods before building trust and likings for your products/services. This can be countered by making the 12 months plan lucrative with the best price point.ConclusionBetterCommerce is here with a platform that is helping address the most significant need of online stores: running subscription models.This is sure to give birth to successful subscription models in the UK and abroad.Are you someone looking to leverage this model for your business and feel limited with your current technology?

BetterCommerce delivers a powerful Subscription engine for retailers

By Vikram Saxena, Founder and CEO of BetterCommerceThe way we shop has changed. Shoppers are hyperconnected, impatient and have multiple choices, with retailers struggling to keep up. This is not just a pandemic disruption either, this is an evolution of branding and online purchasing, putting the customer at the centre of everything that you do.&nbsp;How can brands meet and appeal to customers at multiple touchpoints to ensure they can evolve and grow?The era of hyperconnected shoppersThe evolution of the online marketplace has accelerated to keep up with the changing needs of consumers — they want more choice, quicker service delivery and an exceptional shopping experience — and these expectations will continue to grow. If retailers don’t keep up, they will see their customers jump ship.In recent times, customers look elsewhere much sooner if their experience isn’t personalised, or they don’t have access to the shopping perks they want. Retailers should see this as an opportunity to capitalise on a mutually beneficial relationship. If customers have their expectations met, they will be more willing to share their data with companies to get even more personalised experiences in the future.We can see this in action with an example from The Fragrance Shop, which released a tool called the Fragrance Match. The customer answers a set of questions about their fragrance preferences, and the tool creates a profile for them. Based on this profile the tool then suggests certain fragrances to help make their purchase decision easier.The benefit of a tool like this is to help customers discover new products, or ones similar to their all-time favourites, without feeling overwhelmed by hundreds of choices. It also saves them time if they want to try them out in-store — armed with a list from their customer profile, they can pick out choices to test in an instant. By bringing together a new and exciting digital tool with the familiarity of visiting a physical store, brands can create rich omnichannel experiences.Appealing to customers at every touchpointWe are starting to see more evidence of channels merging to create a hybrid of digital and physical. For instance, take customers being able to connect virtually with staff on the shop floor. While video calls have become quite a common means of communication for business meetings and socialising, it’s a relatively new concept in the realm of customer service.Now, customers can connect with retail staff through video to get tailored advice and have their questions answered instantly. It also gives agents the opportunity to introduce customers to products or services that they might not have known about otherwise.As part of this transition to a hybrid shopping experience, where the digital and the physical mesh together, we will also see businesses offer more subscription services and memberships as part of their business models. Instead of buying a single fragrance once every six months for instance, with a subscription, you will have new ones delivered each month to your doorstep.There is a great opportunity here for established (and often ‘traditional’) businesses with large, loyal customer bases and rich data banks that have been built up over many years of operation. They already know a lot about their customers’ preferences because they’ve gained their trust. They have deep insights into the kinds of perks their customer base will respond to — do they prefer discounts, free delivery, or membership points systems? Building on this wealth of data and insights, established brands are in a strong position to deliver excellent products and services at the right time, underpinned by excellent omnichannel experiences.Evolving with a headless approachThere are numerous factors to consider when creating excellent experiences for customers — there’s personalisation, delivery, inventory, customer service, and more. All of which of course rely on data.Traditional monolithic ecommerce platforms lack the necessary flexibility, scalability and agility, particularly when it comes to managing data. Without access to data at speed, it’s difficult to track the success of products, or monitor which promotions worked best to encourage conversion. Legacy technology that operates in silos also slows down businesses looking to respond to changing consumer demands.Headless ecommerce gives companies the flexibility to use the best parts of one application and the best parts of another in a modular way, to create a ‘best of breed’ ecommerce stack. They can plug the specific business gaps or pain points much quicker, while minimising risk at the same time. Headless also allows omnichannel retailers to easily share data with key applications across all customer touchpoints. As e-commerce channels expand to include more touchpoints such as native apps, wearables and IOT devices, modern APIs allow these channels to work together seamlessly.The future of ecommerce, as we see itAlthough brick and mortar stores did take a backseat during the most trying times of the pandemic, they are still firmly a part of our future. What we will continue to see is the evolution and amalgamation of the online and offline into hybrid ecommerce. While we aren’t out of the woods with the pandemic just yet, it’s clear that to come out on top and thrive in this new landscape, companies will need to adopt a hybrid and omnichannel model to keep the hyperconnected shopper happy and loyal.

Enabling Rapid Change

The Fragrance Shop (TFS), a UK fragrance retailer, has over 150 fragrance brands and 200 stores.As a result of the partnership with BetterCommerce, TFS has a suite of business tools that serve customers in the fragrance and beauty industry, giving them the products they need and providing excellent experiences online and in-person.The challengeCovid-19 had a significant impact on The Fragrance Shop, with over 200 stores closing down for approximately 25 weeks. The company needed to find a way to keep the engine running and satisfy customer demands even when its physical stores were closed. It also wanted to create better omnichannel customer experiences and offer customers subscription services and purchase perks that would encourage loyalty.TFS needed to initiate the shift online while managing a huge influx of traffic and staying on top of business KPIs, but it didn't want to lose its autonomy. Its ecommerce platform had to be flexible and customisable and provide 24/7 support from a responsive team that could help resolve issues at speed.TFS looked to BetterCommerce to help manage this seismic shift and create a smooth transition from physical only to a hybrid of digital and physical commerce.Adapting to the 'new normal'The Fragrance Shop adapted to BetterCommerce's headless API approach as it gave them control of the front-end and empowered them to make customisation and UX changes easily. This approach also offers flexibility that makes custom integrations easier, so TFS can better optimise its experiences across all its channels.In the last six months TFS has added more payment, delivery and pickup options that will suit a wider range of consumers.With the customer always front of mind, TFS and BetterCommerce have created bespoke solutions that ensure customers can access the products they want, regardless of whether the physical stores are open or not. These solutions have supported TFS in scaling and adapting to the new retail landscape. Some of the key solutions are outlined below.<ul><li>Ship from store</li></ul>TFS deployed its 'ship from store' functionality in November 2020. Instead of having to rely on just one warehouse, this feature turned 201 stores across the country into fulfilment centres, giving customers access to any fragrance from any store location.For seasonal businesses like TFS, these products no longer sit dormant and instead can be sent to customers in any location. This functionality was an excellent enabler for the business during Covid-19, increasing orders and satisfying delivery times, whilst selling inventory which was at risk of being written off as dead stock.<ul><li>Customer 360</li></ul>As a multi-channel business, TFS realised that in order to personalise customer journeys successfully, it needed a holistic view of its entire network - online and offline.BetterCommerce helped TFS connect data from every touchpoint through its Customer 360 module. With all customer data stored in one place and organised efficiently, the right information can be circulated to the right teams. In-store, Customer 360 empowers on the ground staff. Armed with customer information about what they've bought previously, what brands they're interested in and the customers' online searches, the teams can tailor the service to every individual with great results.<ul><li>Fragrance Match</li></ul>Fragrance Match is TFS's AI-based tool which helps customers with their purchases. Choosing a fragrance online is no easy task, especially when people are used to walking into a store and trying out testers.Customers are asked a question about their preferences, and the AI provides recommendations on the fragrances that will meet their scent preferences. This tool can also help if someone is looking to purchase a gift for a friend or their partner.<ul><li>Scent addict</li></ul>TFS had a vision of creating a subscription service that could serve both in-store and online customers. The team shared a brief with BetterCommerce and had a system built within the platform that would serve both types of customers, called scentaddict.The service allows customers to pick a different fragrance every month and have it delivered to them. Alternatively, they can pick the three-month or six-month subscription options, so they have a steady stream of fragrances delivered throughout the year.The benefitsThese solutions have generated numerous business benefits for TFS. It can now offer a wider range of products to help increase average order values and scale easily during peak seasons. By providing bespoke experiences online and in-store, it can reach new customers with exciting services and reward loyal customers with new perks.Driving key business KPIsTFS measures customer experience and customer satisfaction through Feefo and Trustpilot, and its success with BetterCommerce has helped it achieve scores of 4.7 and 4.5 respectively.The company has seen its active user base grow year on year, and the churn rate has reduced. As a result, TFS has been able to introduce several levels of promotions and discounts. It can also offer gifts with purchases and provide thresholds for free shipping.'BetterCommerce has been extremely customisable, scalable and reliable, always available in terms of helping us look at new innovation and bringing it out to market. They have really assisted us with our trading metrics and improving the business year-on-year,' Ian Harrison, CDO, The Fragrance Shop.A key KPI for the business was to run Black Friday with high availability and high scalability, despite the stores being closed during that period, and it saw success with 99.99% availability.Looking to the futureThe BetterCommerce platform enables TFS to be innovative and creative and gives it the flexibility to work at pace in order to keep ahead of competition.By understanding TFS's strategic roadmap, BetterCommerce can help expand its product ranges and drive TFS's share in marketplaces in the future. The BetterCommerce platform will also be instrumental to TFS's future expansion into the beauty market.'The staff at BetterCommerce understand our business. Not only can they translate the business initiatives and ideas into technology, but their technology is pretty cool as well,' Julian Holt, COO, The Fragrance Shop.TFS will also be supported in the next stage of its digital and in-store hybrid journey. As more people feel comfortable going back to physical stores for the much-loved 'sensory' shopping experience, TFS will have the right data and customer knowledge to create the best possible in-person experiences.

The Fragrance Shop (TFS) partners with BetterCommerce to improve the customer experience

BetterCommerce, the headless ecommerce leader, has today launched its new whitepaper titled The ultimate blueprint to delivering an effective direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy, which shares unique insights from leading ecommerce and digital transformation experts, and outlines what the future holds for ecommerce businesses and D2C brands.Paul Kelson, Director at Digital Transformation Consulting and one of the contributors to the whitepaper, says: “Over the last 18 months, necessity has been the key driver of rapid innovation and adaptation in ecommerce. New challenges are emerging however, with the cost of container shipping growing exponentially and a shortage of lorry drivers brewing a ‘perfect ecommerce storm’ in the run up to Christmas. A continued evolution of technology platforms, processes and ecommerce expertise is needed to see us through the next stage of the pandemic.”The blueprint takes a closer look into how brands have responded to the pressure to quickly pivot from physical to digital, and the growing expectations of the ‘hybrid consumer’, looking for personalised omnichannel experiences. The whitepaper also highlights the challenges faced by retailers as they build their D2C strategies and essentially begin competing with their own channel and distributors.James Gurd, Owner at Digital Juggler, says: “Data is a highly sought-after asset that consumers are increasingly willing to share. But, with brands all essentially ‘fighting’ for the same data, they each need to develop a strong ‘data value proposition’ that clearly and compellingly articulates what’s in it for the customer.”“Traditional brands will have to rethink their legacy technology stacks in order to maintain control over their data, analytics and user experience,” adds Vikram Saxena, Founder and CEO of BetterCommerce. “In fact, brands have an opportunity to build ‘best of breed’ ecommerce stacks and take advantage of AI and ML-driven analytics to accelerate personalisation and nurture customer loyalty. Brands that truly own their D2C future will be those that create personalised experiences at scale.” You can download The ultimate blueprint to delivering an effective D2C strategy <a href="https://www.bettercommerce.io/whitepaper/effective-d2c-strategy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.

The next frontier for direct-to-consumer brands

By Vipul Aggarwal, Chief Revenue Officer, BetterCommerceCOVID-19 was an accelerator of ecommerce trends that we were already seeing in the past, and we saw a decade of ecommerce growth happen in just a year. We saw consumers dramatically change their shopping behaviour, and businesses being forced to invest more heavily in their existing ecommerce channels or set up ecommerce operations from scratch.&nbsp;Ecommerce sales growth is showing no signs of slowing down, with retailers and brands looking to further optimise their ecommerce operations to drive business growth. So, what are the key trends that will enable them to thrive in 2022?<ul><li>Omnichannel commerce</li></ul>Many retailers rely on platforms such as Facebook and Google for promotions, merchandising and sales, but these channels are insufficient if they are to meet their customers where they are. If they can enable a smooth and dynamic customer experience across all relevant channels, they are in a strong position to maximise growth and profitability.A strong <a href="https://www.bettercommerce.io/whitepaper/effective-d2c-strategy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">channel strategy</a> enables retailers to prioritise the channels that have the greatest impact on their customer experiences. It allows them to maximise ROI while reducing the risk of being everything to all people and spreading themselves too thin. Ultimately, such a strategy results in an effective omnichannel approach that drives customer loyalty and strengthens your business’ resilience to withstand any future slowdown.In order to do this, retailers and brands need to ensure seamless sharing of information across those platforms, including product information, prices, discounts, and stock.&nbsp;This is often a challenge ecommerce companies face as they attempt to reach the next step of their roadmap. Typically, they will start with their own ecommerce website and then add solutions to their technology stack to facilitate growth.However, without the right technology stack or a central repository to manage all stock, they may fail to capitalise on opportunities such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They need a platform that allows them to bring a product to market quickly, and across multiple channels.&nbsp;<ul><li>Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning</li></ul>Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) allow the creation of automated, personalised shopping experiences at scale. By continuously collecting data on shoppers’ behaviour, including time of purchase and customer preferences, they enable retailers to personalise their platform’s serviceability according to demographic, gender, age, interests, and shopping habits to enhance customer experience.Personalisation is vital to forging brand loyalty, maintaining your storefront’s foot traffic, and converting browsing into buying. Personalised experiences have a strong effect on revenue by making sure customers get a tailored experience based on what is relevant to them, which increases the chance of conversion.With 60-70% of traffic from first-time customers, it’s important to catch their attention and hold that attention as they pass through the sales funnel. For repeat customers that have been on your site already, it’s essential to tailor the experience based on the data collected during their past visits.&nbsp;AI and ML can also support a host of functionalities like scheduling emails via CRM or helping recruit new staff members.<ul><li>Composable and headless ecommerce</li></ul>Instead of trying to implement standard out-of-the-box ecommerce functionality to match business needs, composable commerce leverages modern technologies and approaches like APIs, cloud and headless. Composable commerce allows the creation of an ecommerce stack from interchangeable building blocks, taking a modular approach that best fits specific business needs.In short, the composable trend, including headless, offers more opportunities for customisation.&nbsp;Headless describes the segregation of the presentation layer (front end) and creation layer (back end) of the platform’s system. The front end’s functionality no longer must wait for the back end to implement systemic changes because the two ends work simultaneously but separately from each other. Updates and optimisations can be seen in real-time so it’s much more dynamic than standard functionality.&nbsp;Headless is structurally different to the full stack’s all-in-one-platform solution, because you have the freedom to choose which CMS (content management system) you want to integrate with, or your preferred shopping cart tool, for instance, building your technology suite in a flexible manner.Composable and headless are the key ecommerce trends for 2022 because of the ease and speed of deployment, and simple integration with any internal system that might already be in place — software for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or an Order Management System (OMS) for instance. Composable and headless are driving the delivery of personalised customer experiences at scale, across every channel, allowing you to meet consumer demands that continue to evolve.

3 key trends driving the ecommerce market in 2022

Just like certain e-commerce businesses give you the option for ‘one-click buy’, social media has followed suit, and now you can purchase as you scroll, without having to leave the social app.Traditionally, e-commerce has had three models: B2B (manufacturers and distributors), B2C or D2C, and Marketplaces (such as Amazon). Now we have seen the emergence of the fourth model which is centred on selling directly through social media channels with a condensed purchase journey, with product discovery, research, and check-out all in one place.Let’s explore the key driving forces behind social commerce, its benefits, and pitfalls for brands.Driving forces behind social commerceEven as brick-and-mortar stores reopen fully, it’s become clear that e-commerce is not just a phase. Traditional e-commerce was enticing for consumers during the pandemic because of its ease, convenience, accessibility and price. Social commerce takes these benefits even further.The additional unique advantage of social commerce is its low barrier to entry. Previously, to start selling online the process was more complex, and sellers would either have to register with the marketplace to list their products or build their own site. In the social commerce model, brands can start selling easily from day one using even the newest social media platforms, like TikTok. Essentially, anyone with an internet connection can log in and start buying and selling.For small retailers and individual sellers, this is a particularly strong proposition as there is little technology investment required, so they can reach new customers and grow sales online with relative ease.We can expect the social commerce model to evolve over the next two to three years, especially in terms of ever more streamlined processes.Tapping into new and younger networksSocial commerce presents an important channel for brands to reach a younger audience. It can capitalise on products going viral, and trends being promoted by social media nano and micro-influencers.It was found that 50% of the time spent on mobile devices was done using social media apps in 2020, so it’s crucial for businesses to include social media in their omnichannel strategy. More than a third of consumers have been purchasing through social media and that number will continue to rise. Social has also encouraged impulse purchasing with more than three-quarters of consumers admitting the ease of use has led them to make purchases they didn’t set out to make.Many millennials have grown up as digital natives under the ubiquitous influence of the internet, with popular social media platforms easily accessible to them. It’s natural for them to communicate, browse and shop at the click of a button. It’s also much more common for them to buy something they find attractive that’s been recommended by someone in their network.The social commerce phenomenon is so successful because of the power of social recommendations – we are much more inclined to make purchases when we’ve seen something recommended to us via our network of friends and connections.What are the common pitfalls of social commerce?For already well-established brands, social commerce can have the downside of diluting their brand value. In e-commerce, value is typically lost when a product does not meet the expectations customers have. This can happen when a brand creates something that doesn’t sync well with a previous product line, or they spread themselves too thin by entering new markets or industries that they don’t usually sell in.In social commerce, this dilution can happen when a brand starts appearing in channels the consumer would not expect them to, or in channels that do not align with the core brand values — for instance on a TikTok user’s ‘For You’ page being promoted by a TikTok celebrity.Another challenge with social commerce concerns order fulfillment. Inventory management, fulfillment, and delivery are often handled by individual sellers, which can be a cumbersome and complex process. Selling via social media platforms is relatively easy, and anyone can pick it up, but significant challenges may also arise when a customer tries to return a product.Typically, there is no standard process of returns in social commerce, unlike in traditional e-commerce. Instead, each individual seller has their own policy, and it can be time-consuming for resolving customer issues if a product is faulty or damaged, handling the fees associated with product returns, and reimbursing buyers without the benefit of an <a href="https://www.bettercommerce.io/product/oms?ref=hellopartner.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Order Management System (OMS)</a>.The bottom lineBy incorporating social commerce, brands can tap into the growing trend of one-click-shop convenience and reach a new group of customers that they might not have been able to before. They can also leverage the power of social recommendations and start selling without a costly upfront investment in technology. Ultimately, they can deliver an excellent experience in a convenient and cost-efficient way.

How Brands Can Drive Growth Through Social Commerce

BetterCommerce, the UK's leading headless commerce platform, announced today its official partner program "BetterCommerce Partner Network (BPN)". BetterCommerce aims to launch its partner ecosystem to include solution providers, commerce consultants and technology partners. The goal for BetterCommerce is to create and automate opportunities for their partner ecosystem with world class support to achieve a greater range of benefits and incentives for partners and customers.The newly launched program will enroll selected partners across 5+ geographies and 15+ verticals to support the emerging requirements of digital and unified commerce. BetterCommerce aims to add 50+ strategic partners by the end of 2022 and is committed to invest 50% of their marketing and GTM budgets for partner enablement.This key milestone is another stride for the company in building a bridge between ambitious retailers and composable architecture.Vikram Saxena, Founder &amp; CEO of BetterCommerce said, "With the new partner program, we will enable legacy ISV companies and solution partners to explore new MSP opportunities with ambitious retailers across multiple geographies, and with our API first approach and flexible solutions every retailer and brand will be able to create unique experiences for their customers whilst reducing their TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)."The company is also aiming to launch their partner portal in the first half of 2022 making it seamless for partners to onboard and manage opportunities. It will also give access to sales and training material.As per Vipul Aggarwal, Chief Revenue Officer at BetterCommerce, "The next step of our journey is to drive collective scale for our customers and partners. With the new partner program, our partners can leverage our sales and product teams to close deals faster and deliver exceptional support led by our CEO."BetterCommerce is also aiming to invite partners to jointly solve some of the most complex commerce issues that need attention post COVID and others created by monolithic legacy providers.About BetterCommerceBetterCommerce offers the power of large-scale enterprises on a medium sized budget whilst providing amazing agility and benefits to empower businesses to compose the perfect commerce solution. It is designed to offer a suite of composable and headless commerce API's allowing retailers to create unique shopping experiences and manage bespoke business requirements.

BetterCommerce launches Partner Program to help Retailers & Brands deliver modern Commerce Experiences

BetterCommerce Launches Partner Program To Help Retailers & Brands Deliver Modern Commerce Experiences

BetterCommerce, headless and composable eCommerce platform, today announced a strategic partnership with SaffronEdge, a leading performance marketing agency BetterCommerce, an API first headless and composable eCommerce platform, today announced a strategic partnership with SaffronEdge, a leading performance marketing agency for eCommerce brands, to transform the way e-commerce operations and technology is conducted. Through the partnership, BetterCommerce e-commerce clients will gain performance consultations to scale their revenue using omnichannel strategies. At the same time, SaffronEdge clients would benefit from the speed, agility, and performance delivered by BetterCommerce end-to-end eCommerce platform to accelerate their online growth.In partnering with BetterCommerce, SaffronEdge customers gain access to a comprehensive suite of eCommerce solutions and services to tackle some of the e-commerce biggest pain points. BetterCommerce powers some of the top UK brands today with powerful PIM, OMS, Commerce, Analytics, AI based product recommendations and other key use cases. With the BetterCommerce ecosystem, SaffronEdge customers will be able to seamlessly unlock the tools they need to scale effectively and access new eCommerce enablement resources.One of the major benefits of this partnership is to solve the extreme edge use cases to create bespoke experiences for some of the large enterprises who want to invest in technology but refrain from hiring a huge IT team. SaffronEdge and BetterCommerce with the combination of technology and services are determined to address the issue.“Like BetterCommerce, we envision a world where scaling an ecommerce technology is accessible and seamless for every founder and is uncomplicated. It should be achieved without having to jump through endless hoops from one technology vendor to another.” Said Vibhu Satpaul, SaffronEdge CEO. “By Partnering with BetterCommerce, SaffronEdge partners and customers will be able to access the platform’s end-to-end eCommerce engine - including state of the art infrastructure to fuel eCommerce growth.“We’re committed to making all aspects of running eCommerce business streamlined and hassle-free - and that includes eCommerce growth and marketing”, said Vipul Aggarwal, BetterCommerce CRO. “Through this partnership, we’re giving our clients an option to explore a world-class team of experts and the resources they need to scale up while allowing founders to stay laser-focused on serving their customers' needs and building their brand.”About SaffronEdge:Saffronedge is a D2C and e-commerce centric digital marketing agency, that helps retailers and D2C brands scale and grow by increasing their own online direct footprint via a direct selling model and/or by Further optimizing their Marketplace listings (Amazon, Walmart etc) presence using homegrown growth hacking tools. Saffron sits at an intersection of Tech and marketing, providing both the expertise and resources to brands across the globe.About BetterCommerce:BetterCommerce offers the power of large-scale enterprises on a medium sized budget whilst providing amazing agility and benefits to empower businesses to compose the perfect commerce solution. It is designed to offer a suite of composable and headless commerce API allowing retailers to create unique shopping experiences and manage bespoke business requirements.

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