The next era of eCommerce: four trends to watch

To discover the latest trends in eCommerce, Satu, Okko, and Antti attended the retail super week held in sunny Barcelona in June. VTEX Connect Europe and Shoptalk Europe brought together decision-makers, technology and retail companies, and insightful speakers shaping eCommerce's future.

Here are the key takeaways discovered during the week:

1. Pragmatic composable commerce with smaller, more manageable pieces

As we move towards a more flexible eCommerce landscape, pragmatism in composable commerce is emerging as a key trend. Businesses' views are evolving as they have accumulated experience and know-how on best practices. Composable commerce is now approached through smaller, more manageable pieces than before.

Integrating composable solutions into existing legacy systems enhances and brings new capabilities to the areas that need modernisation the most. For example, as the customer-facing side, frontend is often prioritised at the expense of backend operations. Modernising backend solutions with ready-made components enhances efficiency and functionality without diverting resources from developing brand-specific competitive advantages.

Businesses can mix and match ready-made product components and complement them with custom components when needed. That is the beauty of composable solutions; they offer different implementation strategies, fostering a pragmatic, flexible approach that is set to revolutionise eCommerce modernisation.

Even the traditionally monolithic commercial platforms have started to shift towards solutions based on composable architecture. At the same time, it's crucial to remember that businesses don't need to select the best-of-breed components for every aspect; they can choose those that suffice for current needs, facilitating future updates.

2. AI assisted back office and personalisation is here

AI is bringing a whole lot of new benefits to eCommerce back office operations and personalisation. In customer service and order fulfillment, AI enhances efficiency by providing co-piloting assistance, analysing customer data for personalised experiences, and making AI-driven recommendations.

For instance, in returns management, AI can analyse images to check if all parts are there and then suggest acceptance to the customer service representative, easing the workload and boosting efficiency. AI also optimises logistics, inventory management, and supply chain processes, contributing to sustainability efforts by ensuring precise operations from sourcing to delivery.

Additionally, AI supports sales by enhancing the shopper experience through personalised recommendations and live commerce features. It can gather data and suggest responses during customer interactions, making the sales process more responsive and tailored. 

Composable solutions enable the best base to build AI capabilities onto as they are flexible, modular, and allow seamless integration with ease through application programming interfaces (API).

3. Seamless, personalised service with concierge commerce

Concierge commerce represents a blend of social-assisted and human-assisted purchasing, providing a high-touch, personalised shopping experience. This approach integrates AI to enhance personalisation while maintaining the essential human touch that customers prefer.

Shoppers benefit from a seamless, personalised service where AI capabilities augment human interaction without feeling the impersonal effects of automation. For instance, AI helps sales associates provide tailored suggestions and assist online customers in adding items to their cart, creating an effortless and personalised shopping experience.

Composable solutions significantly enable concierge commerce by integrating social media channels and enhancing community engagement. These solutions support live shopping sessions where influencers showcase products, combining live video with purchasing options directly within the session. This method appeals to businesses who prefer influencer marketing over traditional TV or social media advertising, which often yields better results.

By leveraging composable commerce, businesses can effectively compete in the evolving landscape where social platforms increasingly intersect with eCommerce.

4. Unified solution ensures consistent customer experience across all touchpoints

Unified commerce solutions take omnichannel thinking a step further by integrating all customer-facing channels, such as online, point-of-sale, mobile, and marketplaces, to the backend systems via a single platform. While omnichannel tends to focus on multichannel expansion and frontend alignment, the unified approach creates a seamless ecosystem for product distribution across various platforms. This ensures a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints, enhancing online and offline interactions.

For instance, retail and franchising businesses can use the same system for in-store and online transactions, providing rich product information and recommendations directly at the point-of-sale. This integration enables store employees to access additional information and assist customers more effectively, whether in a physical store or through an online interface, and ensures the product data is the same in all touchpoints

Composable solutions enhance this integration by allowing businesses to adopt new tools that support sales associates and cashiers in brick-and-mortar stores. For example, when a customer is looking at a product but has a cheaper option in mind, the system can directly offer suitable recommendations to the sales associate.

This seamless integration eliminates the need for separate point-of-sale and eCommerce systems, offering a modern solution that supports comprehensive product data and efficient transaction processing. By closing the loop between pragmatic back-office operations and customer-facing interactions, unified omnichannel solutions bring advanced tools to employees and customers, enriching the overall shopping experience.

All of these trends pave way for a more flexible, agile retail business that caters to evolving customer needs and preferences also in the future – without a major replatform project every couple of years. It is time to move on from monolithic architecture and embrace the benefits of composable commerce – one manageable piece at a time.

Are you evaluating your eCommerce infrastructure or thinking about your roadmap for the future? Nitor provides both strategic technology advisory and experts for all areas of eCommerce from business and customer experience designers to senior developers.

Get in touch with us to seize the composable commerce opportunities and build a sustainable digital future for your business – together.