I’ve spoken with many people over the past few years and even more over the past few months. People with an ear to the ground. Those in the e-commerce trenches. Each has the same feeling.  

Something new is coming. Change is afoot. E-commerce is over.  

We are at the beginning of the end. The era of flat, one-dimensional, and simple e-commerce is over. This isn’t a reason for alarm. Everything that we’ve learned over the past decade will remain relevant and needed.

But there is a subtle difference: As we move into this new era of virtual collaboration with 3D, AR, and eventually VR, many brands have fallen into the trap of adding a few widgets & gadgets to their website. This trap led them to think this would transition them into what’s next. This is not the case.  

The thing that’s missing is emotion. Human emotion, genuine connection, and collaboration are the underlying principles for this new era of shopping. This will set future leaders apart from the has-beens. COVID-19 has shown us that human-to-human connection is critically important.

Yet, we are still stuck shopping alone, on website after website. We still cannot easily share shopping experiences with our friends, loved ones, or acquaintances. Brands that recognize this fundamental shift are ahead of the game. They see the slow and eventual demise of traditional E-commerce. They will be able to take advantage of the shift and catapult themselves into the power position. 

The question is, how can you ensure that your brand is ready for this change? 

There are 4 keys to understanding the shift that’s underway.  

· Key Customers 

· Customer Alignment 

· Low Operating Costs 

· Connection

Key Customers  

The path to continuous profit growth is already in your arsenal. We have witnessed several brands move away from trying to serve every potential customer. Instead, they have begun focusing on key customers. We have seen this shift, time and time again from leading companies. The focus is to nurture and connect with the best customers. This is a competitive strategy.

The 80/20 in Full Effect, helps brands break through the noise, enhance loyalty, and drive higher profit. Brands accomplish this by implementing strategies and analytics that improve how they partner with and serve their best customers.  

Customer Alignment 

Brands must keep up with & evolve with their customers to build a lasting legacy. Millennials and Generation Z demand that brands match their values and ideals. Tone-deaf companies will continue to lose market share if they do not listen. 

The new buying generation demands that brands listen and remain true to their internal brand values before they can win. Brands are expected to stand firm on who they are and what they believe in. Inauthenticity stinks and is smelled from miles away.  

Further, these generations are sick and tired of being bombarded with ads everywhere. That age of advertising is over. They want you to help them solve problems or make life easier, but they don’t want the incessant ads. They want you to be there when they need you and nowhere when they are living their lives.

Brands should take notes from the very best 5-star restaurants. The ones where you never see the wait staff, but they are there before you need anything. Achieving this alignment is The Living Brand principle.  

Low Operating Costs 

To remain competitive, brands must protect their bottom line. This means that operating costs must be reined in. The days of slush spending are over as we now have better analytics allowing for ROI tracking. We all know companies want to do more with less.

The OPEX Swoon principle uses Lean principles, automation, and data analytics to drive down costs. By bringing mastery of this principle and innovation into the mix, higher profit margins are an inevitability.

Connection 

The final principle is where the rubber meets the road. Single-person online shopping is over. It’s unnatural. It’s boring. It's a chore. When you think about it, “the grid” has been around since the very first days of e-commerce, which was over 30 years ago. 

Since then, not much has changed. Brands have struggled to make their websites more alluring, hip, fun. They have added videos to the landing page, above the fold. They’ve grouped items together into assortments to optimize the display of a group of products to create a more inviting buying opportunity.  

Each of these approaches has had its time and its place. The key today is to invite customers in. To create a place where shopping is pleasurable, efficient, and feels exclusive. Customers want to experience all of this and they want to shop together. The best environment offers: 

• virtual collaboration 

• 3d products with enhanced viewing angles 

• augmented reality (AR) - native support added to iPhone by Apple in 2017 

• in-app quests to build excitement & loyalty 

• live-streaming for enhanced customer education 

The above attributes will bring human connection and emotion to the online shopping realm, at long last. This may sound radical, but it’s far from it. Consider, we already have the following stand-alone capabilities:  

• 3D product imagery,  

• live shopping,  

• virtual collaboration capabilities (audio and visual) in virtualized worlds in video games.  

I am a firm believer that the game engine is the primary platform for the evolution of commerce. When investigating both Unity and Unreal Engine, it’s clear: Game engines can create environments that are rich in sensory complexity and can contain massive amounts of people that can all interact with each other. 

The gaming industry has been doing this for decades. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG / MMO) have been around forever, it seems. I can’t describe how cool it is to sit in my Portland living room, playing a game, and have a conversation with someone about the Maris district in Paris. Not because we both love the area, but because the other person lives there and is about to meet friends for a night out. This has been commonplace for at least a decade now. 

Ask yourself this:  Why are humans required to conform to the needs of computers? Why are we still stuck with “the grid”? The grid still has a place, but it is not optimal for experiential shopping.  

Immersive Commerce will bring increased ease and richness to human-to-computer interactions. Scientists know that users will co-opt an avatar, as almost real, if the avatar in a virtual world responds in real-time to a user’s actions. Customers want a realistic experience, but it must be better than what’s possible in person. Immersive Commerce is the solution. 

Sparq Commerce 

These 4 principles are the basis of Sparq Commerce. If you notice, 3 of the 4 are familiar and easily understood. The fundamental difference of the 4th is moving from a flat, one-dimensional e-commerce experience into a journey, allowing customers to interact with each other and a multi-sensory, virtualized environment, taking them inside your brand’s universe.  

The evolution of retail is here. Connect with us to learn more.