 Think Global, Act Local: New mantra for Digital Commerce Supply Chain E-commerce and electronic retailers, irrespective of their size and geographical reach, are becoming global local with an increasing shift from one-size-fits-all approach. Thus, in order to create value, it’s necessary that the delivery and supply chain that play a hand in gloves role for this sector need to step up.
Hungry customers sending strong demand signals are pulling brands into new locations and expanding into already existing markets stimulating a debate on how to balance the global versus local buyers. Nonetheless, with an astonishing rise of customers preferring to shop the digital way, companies are pressed for more customisation at every opportunity, more transparent and tailored delivery options within much shorter time span. Inadequate warehouses, poor tracking systems, lack of skilled and reliable workers, and limited cargo options are leaving a dent on the future of e-commerce. Under these circumstances, supply chain flexibility, agility and technological convergence turn out to be critical building blocks for the future of e-commerce driven by the omni-channel paradigm. Logistical capabilities are confronted when unprecedented demand come up during festive seasons and local big buying days, which in turn may hit the bottom line for e-commerce. UPS, for instance, lost nearly $180 million in operating profit due to unexpected peak-season demand patterns. Doing a better job on peak volume and resolving growth bottlenecks has turned out to be tough task even for the e-tail magnets, however, the fruits can be sweeter as Alibaba experienced when they took just two hours to reach $2 billion in sales on Singles Day, and by day’s end, reported sales surpassed $9 billion. The implication is that global e-commerce need to have scale on demand and operate an ultra-tight supply chain as soon as they enter these markets. Shipping from nearby store locations, rather than exclusively from warehouses or fulfilment centres is becoming the norm with the trend of same day or within hours delivery on all days. To gain from this disruption, companies like Amazon has partnered with PS and DPD for Sunday delivery in the US and UK, respectively. The result is an ascending number and dimensions of the warehouses and fulfilment centres, which in turn brings about more operational complexity in order fulfilment and difficulty or inability to coordinate and synchronize creating barriers for end-to-end supply chain processes. Elimination of functional silos needs to be implemented with the help of supply chain and logistics software platforms to incorporate greater convergence and functionality into their systems. This will create completely integrated and streamlined platforms. This will also help in removing wastes from supply chain by reducing the dependency on intermediaries. Though all this sounds feasible for the biggies, for SMEs bringing in such technologies requires huge investments. Anticipatory shipping or crowd sourcing of technology enabled services or third party logistics may bring the world closer to them and translate the benefits from localisation. Putting together a demand-driven supply chain anchored in real time flow of information can be achieved by location-specific and customer-centric services. This will enable digital commerce companies distinguish themselves by recognising the desires, values and behaviours of regional markets, enhancing customer engagement and harnessing the potential that e-commerce and digital retail can bring. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
1 Comment
E-tailing (electronic retailing) has revamped shopping experience by transforming it to a ubiquitous anytime activity through digital channels providing an efficient and cost effective customer experience. With global retail e-commerce forecasts showing impressive growth over the next few years within both large and emerging markets, it is indeed necessary that companies revive their supply chain and logistics tactics and management as it is a major e-tailing enabler. In other words, the underlying backbone of e-retail is the supply chain strategy. The concept of supply chain encompasses vertical and horizontal integration with parties involved such as manufacturers, transporters, warehouses, retailers and customers, and functional units like new product development, marketing, distribution, customer service, operations and finance.
According to a research, State of the Retail Supply Chain (SRSC) Report 2015, strategic priorities that retail supply chain executives identified for the current market scenario are :-
For companies to increase the productivity and in turn, leverage this e-tail growth, they have to cater and at times anticipate their customers’ needs in an attempt to lead the competition and simultaneously generate profits. When a customer requirement is triggered and recorded via an order, that very moment the supply chain activities start rolling. Still when companies are looking for cost-saving, customer service often takes the blow as compared to supply chain activities. By having a well planned order processing, invoicing, and product delivery management processes, companies can not only improve customer experience by delivering the right product at the right costs at the right place at right time and in the right condition, but hit the bottom line positively as well. In case of companies running out of stock or urgent delivery demands, inventory control, warehouses and tie-ups with logistic partners are necessary to fulfill the consumers’ needs. For instance, since February 2014, India’s leading e-tailer Flipkart is allowing its logistics arm, eKart Logistics, to deliver competitors’ packages. By having an effective reverse logistics as a customer service practice, companies can satisfy the operational aspects of returns and manage any customer retention issues. The ease with which a customer encounters returns strengthens their long-term relationship with a company. By spending money upfront to develop reverse logistics, companies establish customer service best practices throughout a product's life cycle reduce spending and boost revenue all at the same time. Consequently, customers can drive revenues through advocacy and attract future customers through recommendations which further helps in establishing the brand. The standard of customer service and how successfully a company has implemented the services across the supply chain is therefore directly reflected on the profit margin. With the shift in focus to transform the customer services unit from cost centres to value centre and then to profit centres – companies must make sure that their supply chains are incorporated with the latest technologies, while blending harmoniously with the customer experience strategies. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.  Reimagining Education with Digital Picture Courtesy-freedigitalphotos.net The era of digital technology is providing as many opportunities for students and educators as it is posing new challenges. The major driving forces of this market are emergence of digital education, progression of interactive learning systems, growth of educational apps, and online and blended learning.
The global smart education and learning market is forecasted to grow from $121.53 billion to $344.94 billion between 2014 and 2019, according to MarketsandMarkets research. If we look up the breakup region-wise, North America is anticipated to be the biggest market in terms of market size, whereas Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe are estimated to experience an increase in market traction, during the forecast period. Moreover, APAC is most likely to have a high growth rate along with a high adoption rate in this market. The educational sector can no longer be involved with only the traditional method of teaching. The model has been shifting continually with the upsurge of digital technologies. Educational institutions are encouraging their pupils and employees to use more of smart devices for a more interactive and engaging learning. The trends to look out for are gamification of education, use of Social Media as a Teaching and Learning Tool like TED talks, digital library and smart boards in classrooms, et cetera. One of the major obstacles faced by educational institutions is the adoption of a secure infrastructure and the lack of digital fluency as well as literacy about the latest technological trends. These institutions are also lagging behind in implementing an IT Governance model which will help in choosing and adopting the right products and software solutions and aid them in decision-making. Major providers and innovators of the smart education and learning market are Blackboard, Smart Technologies, Three Rivers Systems, Scholastic Corporation, Saba Software, Ellucian, Cisco Systems and Adobe Corporation among various others. In other words, the continuous innovation and remodeling of the products and services by vendors to create better and modern information systems are making it difficult for institutions to keep pace and updated. Despite the fact that the education budgets are being squeezed worldwide, this sector continues to allocate a greater proportion of its budget to investments in technology to aid learning. Education, at present, is not only limited to schooling but is a vital component for the industry to progress. Global Industry Analysts’ (GIA) report predicted that the global e-learning market will reach $107 billion in 2015 which is predicted to rise annually about 13 percent until 2017, fuelled by demand for additional skills and technological advancements. Another trend to look out for in the corporate sector is the online competency based training, which not only incorporates the right learning model, but the right technologies, customers, and business model. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.  Nowadays, energy is a much expensive commodity and not just a natural resource. Futhermore, it has been regarded as a economic, geopolitical and strategic resource. Therefore, nations are much concerned about their energy security. Energy and utility industry are facing challenges in keeping pace with the demand and supply, increased regulatory systems, intense competition and new technological developments among others.
Keeping in mind the challenges of the industry, inclusive of the adverse environmental effects, the use of smart grid is fast gaining popularity world-wide. Smart meter is a vital constituent of the smart grid system wherein, the energy meter records the consumption of electrostatic potential energy in intervals of an hour or minutes and communicates this data to the utilities player for billing purposes. Growing demand for energy, coupled with increasing investment in power sector is expected to drive the global smart meters market to US$18.2 billion by 2019, at a CAGR of 10.2% during the period of 2014-2019. UK government has planned to roll out more than 50 million new smart meters to 30 million homes and 2 million businesses in the country between 2014 and 2019, according to a WNS study. Although, the government predicts that roll-out of smart metering systems to consumers’ homes will incur a cost of approximately £11 billion overall, nonetheless, the benefits of this installation would be far greater than this – around £7.2 billion once the costs have been taken into account as noted by Consumer Focus. Some of the costs associated with this new technology will be an issue in the early stages of the rollout as the government estimates that bills will increase by £7/year for the average dual fuel customer in 2015. The money saved will come from consumers saving energy, and cost savings for energy suppliers. Once the rollout is completed by 2020, the UK government expects an average dual fuel customer to save £25 a year on their energy bills, which is expected to increase further to £40 a year by 2030. Unlike home energy monitors, smart meters can collect information for remote reporting. Industry expects to make savings with lower cost of back office processes, and a reduced number of calls/complaints to the providers’ customer service teams as this metering would end estimated and inaccurate bills which are a major source of consumer complaints. It will also mean less inconvenience waiting in for the meter reader to arrive, or having to submit your own readings. Government believes these savings will be passed onto customers, and it will monitor the smart metering rollout to ensure that this is the case. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Most of the well-known companies and brands have already embraced the fact that smartphone penetration has been on the rise, making them to design and implement strategies to reach their consumer via mobile. However, with the ongoing competition between mobile applications and mobile websites, businesses, primarily retailers and other e-commerce businesses should aim towards creating a friction-less overall mobile web experience to ensure valuable customer relationships in the long-run. A recent investigation from Barclay’s, suggests that 42% of all retail sales in the UK market will involve a mobile device in some way or the other.
Data from application analytics provider Flurry claimed that users in US are spending more time (2 hours and 42 minutes each day) on mobile devices as of March 2014, as compared to 2 hours and 38 minutes in 2013. While mobile browser usage has declined from 20% to just 14% of the consumer’s time over a year, i.e., equivalent to 22 minutes each day, mobile app usage accounted for 2 hours and 19 minutes of that time spent. Individuals spend a lot more time consuming media in apps compared to the mobile browser. If one considers the breakdown of that time, since gaming still dominates mobile usage with 32% of time spent on iOS and Android devices (same as last year) this fact becomes evident given that gaming requires apps whereas, almost every other area provides the consumer with a choice between an app and browser, for instance, Facebook which still accounts for 17% of time spent on mobile. However, when it comes to actual shopping experience, as many as 51% of shoppers were more likely to shop on mobile websites as compared to retailer's mobile apps as published in an Adobe study in 2013. A Business Insider report reveals that among the top 100 retailers across the globe, 60 percent of them have a dedicated mobile website while 32% still show a desktop-optimized version of their website to mobile audience. Another research conducted by Internet Retailer indicated that 58% of mobile retail dollars will come from the mobile web in 2015, while the remaining will come from mobile apps. This can be accomplished by a one-stop mobile platform inclusive of all user-friendly features. For the prospective buyers, a retailer’s mobile app may not be the very first destination when they are still doing research for the products in their buying journey. Moreover, the mobile browser is often a gateway to retailer sites for shoppers using their smartphones in a store. The findings of a study published by Google in 2013 suggested that 82% of smartphone shoppers directly searched for products using their mobile device’s search application when shopping in-store, while only 21% preferred to search for products on the retailer’s mobile app. Another 62% preferred going directly to a retailer's mobile website. Despite the fact that only 10% of retailers have a mobile app, sales made via such applications now account for 33% of all spending, a significant figure that cannot be ignored according to new research by Barclay's. Therefore, businesses need to understand their consumers' mobile-using attitude and buying behaviour to formulate digital strategies and keep updating them over time. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. |
Archives
August 2015
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed