Reimagining Retail Commerce in A New Normal World 2023
Reimagining Retail Commerce in A New Normal World 2023
Reimagining Retail Commerce in A New Normal World 2023
commercetools.com
Table of Contents
Reimagining Retail Commerce in a New Normal World
Prologue � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 3
About Capgemini: � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 9
Microservices � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13
API-First � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13
Cloud-Native � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13
Headless � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13
A World of Possibilities � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13
Agility � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13
Scalability � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 14
Speed � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 14
Flexibility � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 14
About commercetools � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 15
Contact Us � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 15
Sources � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 16
The piece was downloaded a multitude of times – and five years later, people still download
it. While most of the content – the challenges of monolithic platforms, the comparison of APIs
to LEGO bricks, the list of benefits of headless commerce and how modern commerce starts
with MACH – is still relevant, customer expectations have changed radically since the first
COVID-19 lockdown. This necessitated our second iteration of the paper: “Reimagining Retail
Commerce in a Post-COVID World” in 2021.
Now, in a world where time seems to be divided between lockdowns and re-openings,
commerce is still evolving – and fast. New methods of shopping have emerged and mixing
physical and digital touchpoints is more essential than ever. With so many dramatic shifts in
the retail world, we’ve needed to update this white paper again in less than a year to give you
the most up-to-date insights. In addition to gathering data and information about the status
quo and future of retail from experts within commercetools, we’ve also turned to our partner
Capgemini for their own observations in the industry.
In 2020, the retail industry was hard hit by COVID-19. The pandemic forced retailers to close
hundreds of stores and lay off thousands of employees. Some retailers, those with robust
eCommerce sites built on modern technology, were able to quickly make changes to pivot
their operations to adapt to restrictions, meet new customer needs and generate sales.
Others with more antiquated systems or no eCommerce platform at all lost revenue and
customers while having to deal with huge inventory surpluses. As a result, just about every
country reported decreased retail sales by 5.7%.2
When lockdown lifted in early 2021, the “Great Re-Opening” occurred and people flocked
back to restaurants, bars and entertainment venues in droves, and shoppers eagerly returned
to brick-and-mortar stores. In fact, many of the people who were converted to shopping
online during store closures returned to in-store shopping – so much so that in the US, May
sales surpassed pre-pandemic levels.3 However, there was still a generally sustained higher
level of eCommerce customers than before, resulting in a new generation of omnichannel
shoppers. But by Autumn, COVID-19 numbers were again spiking globally, galvanizing many
countries to reintroduce strict restrictions, and even some to reinstate lockdowns.
Despite everything, people around the world proved Williams right – humans are nothing if
not resilient. In the retail industry, businesses are not giving up and are continually looking for
commerce solutions to get them through these tumultuous times. The year 2020 may have
been a year of online shopping, but 2021 resulted in shoppers that need both online and
offline.
In this paper, we’ll take a deep dive into how retail has, again, changed during another year of
living in a pandemic with continuous retail re-openings and closings, and how retailers can
adapt – specifically by replicating physical shopping in a digital environment, as well as which
integrated physical and digital experiences cross-channel customers now expect. We will
outline the modern technology required to provide the functionality retailers need to deliver
seamless, engaging, personalized customer experiences across all channels with speed,
flexibility and agility – so you and your commerce platform will be ready for whatever the
future may bring.
across the country, Best Buy was serving the new needs of consumers via bestbuy.com and
the Best Buy app, driving revenue.5
Some retailers that weren’t as well prepared for the pandemic took a leap of faith – making
a smart decision to immediately transition to a headless eCommerce platform – and quickly
discovering the risk was worth the reward. Case in point: Cincinnati-based Tire Discounters.
The regional retailer and service shop started their transformation in 2019, upgrading to a
modern POS system that helped streamline operations and improve customer service. At the
time, they were also exploring how to adapt their technology to address all the new channels
consumers have access to connect with retailers and make purchases.6 They were preparing
to transition over to the commercetools eCommerce platform when COVID-19 forced them
to shutter their stores. Leadership fast-tracked the implementation plan and within three
weeks launched an app that enables customers to buy tires as well as book contactless
services from their mobile devices. Customers can choose options including curbside
replacement/repair of their tires at their local store and even white glove concierge services
– which include home pick up and drop off after services are completed. By pivoting quickly
to meet consumers' new needs, Tire Discounters has actually expanded during the pandemic
– opening five new locations since May 2020.
Many brands and retailers are also looking into developing solutions in a way that replicates
the experience of shopping with friends through devices, like squad shopping and group
buying. Squad shopping first rose to prominence when retailers noticed that during lockdown,
1 in 5 people would video call their friends while shopping online.8 To make it easier for
shoppers to interact with their friends, retailers create a platform with video and screen-
sharing technology where the shopper can invite their friends to share wishlists, share advice,
create outfits and give opinions on the latest trends. Group buying, on the other hand, is
aimed at people who want to come together and collectively purchase items at a significantly
reduced price. This is both a fast way for retailers to gain visibility and enter new markets,
and for customers to bond over a shared purchase by pooling together ideas, opinions and
content. Different from Groupon, this form of selling focuses on the social aspects of shopping
and is taking off in India and China.
Many bricks-and-mortar retailers have complex legacy estates powering their businesses.
This can act as a break on innovation and growth, as well as costing a significant amount
of money and resources to maintain. A headless approach to commerce introduces the
concept of a detached customer experience layer which allows businesses to build multiple
experiences across all channels and touchpoints without being restricted by the legacy
or backend estate.
Before COVID-19 lockdowns, most people had participated in some form of online shopping.
But it was always category dependent. Some products, especially higher-end items, people
wanted to see and touch, in-person – products like groceries, consumer electronics or
luxury clothing. And then COVID-19 came and knocked down all those perceptions. People
who thought that they would never buy a certain item online realized that, actually, they
would. Because of this, shoppers are now used to certain conveniences that, at the moment,
only online shopping offers – things like one-click shopping, seamless payment, detailed
information about products and more. As we’ve explored above, people are not likely to stop
shopping in-store either. So, how can retailers offer the convenience of online shopping in
their brick-and-mortar stores?
Clienteling is also an in-store service that is ready to digitize certain aspects and there’s
a lot of opportunity of selling outside the traditional four walls of brick-and-mortar stores.
Generally, clienteling is offered by higher-end brands for customers that want a fully curated,
one-on-one experience. When a customer walks into a store, they expect an associate to
really work for them, bringing them a certain selection of clothing that matches their tastes
and offering suggestions on complementary pieces. Shifting over to digital, customers can
make use of texting and video calling features to directly contact an associate requesting a
new item. The associate can then pull up that customer’s entire virtual closet and suggest,
say, shoes or a shirt that will match what they have. The associate sends a link and the
customer clicks and purchases. In moving clienteling to a digital space, retailers can more
easily and quickly interact with customers without sacrificing that curated, one-on-one
experience.
Headless technology is primed to enable these types of experiences because it’s simply
leveraging the same backend and putting different UI interfaces on top of it. And brick-and-
mortar retailers can easily set up an online approach – from launching microsites to invite
customers to in-store sales to setting up virtual reality shopping in-stores so customers can
try different hair colors or makeup items hygienically. In other words, headless enhances
the typical brick-and-mortar retail channel by making it easier for retailers to implement the
digital experiences that wow their customers. Plus, MACH principles seamlessly provide
frontend capabilities for an eCommerce setup.
CornerShop is divided into four stores – automated, augmented, purposeful and personalized
– with each exploring how that particular area of digital innovation can reignite customer
enjoyment of in-person retail. It utilizes real-world data to combine products and latest
technologies to curate tailored experiences for each customer to suit their ever evolving
needs in a fast-paced market.
About Capgemini:
Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, digital transformation, technology and
engineering services. The Group is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire
breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms.
Harry Rosen
As a high-end men’s clothing retailer with a high customer touch, Harry
Rosen is a leader in clienteling. With lockdown, they were able to replicate
the highly curated shopping experience they are known for by offering
personalized consultation digitally. Advisors have the ability to create
custom web pages with specific recommendations for each client.
They select the item, the size and the color – which can be based on a
conversation or the client’s last in-store visit – to provide items to pair with
something they’ve recently bought.
Currys
Currys, an electrical retailer, successfully implemented a Shop Live feature
in which a potential shopper can call a Currys expert via video call when
shopping online. This expert will answer all of the caller’s questions, and
once satisfied, the customer hangs up and completes the purchase on the
online shop as usual. This Shop Live feature has been such a hit that Currys
are now scaling it even though their brick-and-mortar stores have opened.
73% of retail eCommerce sales were 87% of luxury consumers still need to
made on mobile (Statista 2021) touch and feel products (Deloitte)
While many retailers have worked around the restrictions placed by their technology for
years, it appears the post-COVID-19 consumer may not be as forgiving. In the process of
having to dismiss old habits and forgo any loyalty to specific retailers, they’ve become used
to seeking, and finding, new alternatives. In the future, if they’re not getting an experience
that meets their expectations, they’re likely to take their business elsewhere.
The key benefit MACH delivers is an open, composable, and scalable platform that allows
for agile development. It gives IT teams the freedom to build, test, and implement tools and
features quickly and easily. Speed is truly the key to business survival today – and COVID has
only reinforced its importance.
KELLY GOETSCH, CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER, COMMERCETOOLS
While commercetools could have trademarked the term and kept it for themselves, they
chose to turn it over to the industry. In June 2020, like-minded software vendors and
integrators launched The MACH Alliance, a non-profit co-operation dedicated to advocating
for, and promoting, a future driven by an architecture that enables speed and a best-of-
breed approach.
API-First
Pluggable, scalable, and replaceable, APIs simplify programming and accelerate
speed to market.
Cloud-Native
Provides on-demand availability and instant scalability to support A/B testing,
while offering high security and faster content delivery.
Headless
Decoupling the front-end eCommerce platform from the backend allows each
side to iterate independently while ensuring no disruption in the UX.
A World of Possibilities
Brands love doing things big, and traditional platforms put so many restrictions on
what developers could and couldn’t do.
BRAD SOO, PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, COMMERCETOOLS
Agility
As a cloud-based eCommerce platform, commercetools solution is ready to
use…immediately. Retailers don’t have to do any maintenance – everything is
automatically and seamlessly updated several times a week, Your solution is
always running, scaling and delivering security. All retail functions – from sales and marketing
to operations and accounting have the ability to implement smart functions, ideas, and
campaigns easily and safely. No longer do you need 6 months to a year of advance planning
to launch promotions, new products, or campaigns – changes and updates can be made
Scalability
Another benefit of true cloud-based solutions is they automatically
accommodate increases in traffic. With solutions like commercetools, you
can add thousands of new SKUs, 10 new stores, launch a flash sale, or pivot
your entire business to online only – no matter what impact your traffic or
sales volume, whether it’s planned or unexpected, the system has the power to scale and
adapt. With no site downtime or slow performance, you can focus on ways to create unique
commerce experiences and give your team the power to implement new ideas within days
– not months.
Speed
Speed has been key to attracting and retaining customers since Amazon
launched one-click payment. It’s been all about how fast you can provide
information, process transactions, and deliver products, as well as adapt to new
technology and trends. With COVID, retailers learned it’s also about how fast you
can shift operations and processes to ensure customer and employee safety. With MACH’s
open, composable systems, you can plug in new features quickly and seamlessly, without
relying on IT.
Flexibility
A modern commerce architecture puts the control back into the capable hands
of you and your marketing team - allowing you to pick and choose exactly what
your company needs to be successful in digital commerce. Develop customized
integrations with a wide range of ERP, CRM, and CMS solutions to continually
import and export products, customer information, orders and more. And with adaptable
APIs, you can keep designing great experiences for new and existing channels – making
every last one of them shoppable. From kiosks to social shopping from in-car dashboards to
IoT devices, you’ll have limitless possibilities to grow your online business.
The innovative platform design enables commerce possibilities for the future by offering the
option to either use the platform’s entire set of features or deploy individual services, à la
carte over time. This state-of-the-art architecture is the perfect starting point for customized
microservices, enabling retailers to significantly reduce time-to-market for innovative
commerce functionalities.
commercetools has offices across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific, with headquarters in
Germany. Since its foundation in 2006 the commercetools platform has experienced hyper
growth from a small start-up company to one praised by global brands, including Audi,
AT&T and LEGO. It’s been recognized by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC as a globally significant
platform – and contributed to the company being named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic
Quadrant for Digital Commerce for the second year in a row.
Contact Us
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80797 Munich, Germany Durham, NC 27701
Tel. +49 (89) 99 82 996-0 Tel. +1 212-220-3809
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www.commercetools.com
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2
https://www.businessinsider.com/worldwide-retail-sales-will-drop-due-to-
pandemic-2020-6
3
https://www.criteo.com/blog/how-to-make-sure-shoppers-return-to-your-physical-stores/
4
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/22/21189846/best-buy-curbside-pickup-home-
office-coronavirus
5
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/how-coronavirus-pandemic-forever-altered- retail.html
6
https://www.tirebusiness.com/expansion/training-technology-are-keys-growth-tire-
discounters
7
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/big-read-live-streaming-e-commerce-retail-
covid-19-online-shopping-2328556
8
https://internetretailing.net/mobile-theme/mobile-theme/the-rise-of-squad-shopping-
sees-1-in-5-uk-consumers-shopping-online-with-friends-using-video-calls-22289
9
https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/fintech/digital-payments/mobile-pos-payments/
united-states
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