“Our 2019 survey shows that most manufacturers have fully embraced eCommerce as a strategic necessity, but still have a long way to go when it comes to integrating it into every facet of the business,” said Keith Anderson, SVP Strategy and Insight at Profitero. “It’s evident that CEOs need to be investing more to modernize their organizations for digital transformation and most importantly, doing more to include eCommerce in the job descriptions of everyone in the company.”
Only about 17% of retail and ecommerce executives feel they are ‘ahead of the ecommerce curve’ where their business is concerned and only 11% have specific ecommerce ‘jobs’ for their different team members.
As to challenges, nearly half (40%) say adapting their existing supply chain to fit ecommerce needs is their top concern and 41% worry because they don’t have a ‘specialized ecommerce team’ or process set to manage their ecommerce supply chain.
Other interesting findings from the report include:
• 25% say their company doesn’t have a dedicated ecommerce assortment strategy and about one-third (38%) say their company is using/adapting their offline strategy for ecommerce
• 60% are using ‘basic content’ for ecommerce and fewer than 20% have optimized their content to increase sales
• 61% are using sales and share data but aren’t also including digital shelf or shopper panel data
“While most organizations continue to prioritize eCommerce and employ solid strategies to build their businesses, there are several key areas that they can better embrace to reach the next level of growth. The key question now is what does “advanced eCommerce” look like, and what will it take to achieve this,” said Rachel Dalton, Director of eCommerce and Omnichnannel Insights at Kantar.