The Metrics of Modern Commerce: How to Succeed in Today’s Environment

Now that brands have navigated their first year in our new normal, they’re ready to stop simply keeping pace and move on to accelerating their growth. It’s clear that all of this recent change has forced a shift in priorities for consumers. And that means brands need to adjust their own priorities when it comes to understanding consumer behaviors.

With more brands reaching out directly to consumers, shoppers have even more choice than before. And they’re taking full advantage of it. The resulting “omnichannel” effect — customers exploring an array of brand websites and online marketplaces to find exactly what they want — means brands need data that shows them the full scope of a customer’s journey, not just browsing or point of sale. 

At WBX Commerce we don’t just advocate for using data for good decision making, we live it. In our experience, marketing, sales and fulfillment data will give you the best representation of the consumer experience so you’re able to succeed with the following: 

• Reach customers where they are. Maximize marketing, merchandising and advertising efforts by knowing exactly where to go to reach your audience.
• Understand true profitability. Fulfillment represents a lionshare of the unit level costs that directly affect profitability, so it’s vital to understand fulfillment costs directly connected to the sales data. 
• Examine acquisition efforts. Using cross-channel data tells you how your customers behave beyond a single purchase so you have an accurate view of your most profitable channel. 
• Predict brand engagement. Data around where, how, and what customers purchase can help inform future strategies for engagement, upsell and retention.
• Meet customer expectations. Fulfillment experiences differ across channels and it’s useful to know the drivers, e.g., shipping costs and times, returns strategy, etc. 

While it’s true you need the right data, the data is only as good as what you do with it. Having so much information available has great potential, but might also be overwhelming. So then how do you bring it all together and distill it down into a plan that translates into actual steps forward? 

That’s where having a partner like WBX Commerce comes into play. Not only can we help you analyze this data intelligently and devise a strategy, but we have the talent and experience to help you execute on your plan. Whether it’s making the most of your customer engagement efforts, examining sales to see the lifetime value of customers or helping you devise a more flexible and resilient supply chain to maximize your instock rate, we’re able to help you meet rising customer expectations and demand.

As we look ahead to the next phase of post-2020 planning and growth, the metrics associated with modern commerce will be key. Having an end-to-end understanding of product profitability and how customers interact across channels breaks you out of the prevailing silo mentality, giving you the strategic edge you need to succeed.

WBX Commerce CEO Marcus Startzel talks more about the metrics finding modern commerce success in his latest Forbes article. You can read the full text here.