Scalability is vital in online retail, especially in the rapidly changing environment that has been brought about by COVID-19.
The effects of COVID-19 impacted business overnight, many retailers struggled to handle the increase in demand of online orders; possibly highlighting flaws in the technology, platform, or solutions they had employed.
When we discuss scalability in an eCommerce context it refers to the technology remaining strategically aligned to the wider business; as the business adjusts its strategy, the digital channel must be able do the same. It can grow with scale or, conversely, if there is a decrease in growth, the technology can scale back and reduce logistical costs.
If your website does not have the technology in place to scale according to changes in consumer demand, you are vulnerable to a plethora of issues. The COVID consumers expectations of customer experience has accelerated, with retail giants providing consumers with rapid page load speeds, highly intuitive site layouts, and same day deliveries. COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of having technology in place to provide great online shopping experiences, especially during peak demand periods.
If your site lacks scalability, rapid increases in web traffic will cause page load speeds to slow or cause downtime, forcing customers to leave your site. According to google “The probability of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds.” If your business is unable to take advantage of increases in demand, you’ll miss out on increased sales and damage your brands reputation.
Off-the-shelf, solution providers such as Magento and Shopify, are inherently flawed because the site must be tailored to work with them. This often forces the use of third-party plugins to achieve the overall vision. This hurts performance and scalability.
There are many dynamic requirements to create a successful eCommerce site tailored specifically to your brand and customer demands.
According to a study by Statista of technology related challenges in eCommerce, “44 percent of respondents identified the integration of e-commerce with current and legacy systems as one of the most significant technology-related challenges facing their growing e-commerce business.”
Platforms such as Magento and Shopify put the responsibility on you to outsource advertising agencies, maintenance, and upgrades to make sure that your site performs.
Working directly with a SAAS eCommerce platform, like eStar, ensures you have rapid page load speeds, no website downtime, and your site is always well maintained and updated.
Finally, having a site that integrates fulfilment into your eCommerce solution is a major advantage. Most eCommerce providers only provide front end solutions, which leave it up to you as the retailer to find an external fulfilment provider.
Fulfilment is a vital link between your brand and your customer and can be the difference between a positive or negative customer experience.
Your Fulfilment solution should provide the following;
- High volume order management
- Order routing logic
- Dispatch management
- Risk evaluation (fraud management)
- POS (point of sale)
- Omni-channel support
Retailers with eStar have everything they need in a single technology solution to drive the entire digital channel and influence in-store purchasing. Scalability should at the heart of eCommerce plans. Like any important infrastructure, it should be able to scale to capacity for future demands.
