As shoppers ready their wish lists and scout for the best deals ahead of the holiday shopping season, retailers should be doing some extra digital preparation of their own. Yes, that means stocking online shelves with appealing deals and trendy items — but more importantly, retailers must ready their websites, applications, and databases for a massive influx of traffic.
As shoppers ready their wish lists and scout for the best deals ahead of the holiday shopping season, retailers should be doing some extra digital preparation of their own. Yes, that means stocking online shelves with appealing deals and trendy items — but more importantly, retailers must ready their websites, applications, and databases for a massive influx of traffic.
Just how massive? Americans are expected to spend more than $135 billionOpens a new window this holiday season, a 13.4% jump from 2018. That figure also represents 13.2% of the anticipated $1 trillion in holiday purchases — the largest e-commerce market share to date.
Retailers must be able to expand their infrastructure and operations to meet sales surges quickly; in years past, Black Friday retail traffic has leapt 220% versus a standard FridayOpens a new window . And the limited window of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals means retailers can’t afford for their websites to go down.
That’s a problem that plagued a host of big namesOpens a new window , including Walmart, GameStop, Lululemon, J. Crew, Ulta, and Lowe’s in 2018 — and it’s one that could have been avoided with a multi-cloud approach that dynamically adds more computing and storage resources as site traffic climbs then scales down when demand wanes.
Overburdened APIs, sluggish third-party components, and unprepared servers are among the top sources of holiday e-commerce outages. But consumers won’t care why their favorite retailer’s website isn’t performing correctly — they’ll simply take their dollars elsewhere.
Retailers who want to offer robust, reliable holiday retail experiences in 2019 must stress-test infrastructures or use machine learning to forecast demand. And those who invest in reliable, scalable cloud resources and connectivity will also find the long-term benefits of cloud pay off long beyond the holiday shopping scramble.
Give shoppers what they want, when they want it
Thanks to data collected throughout the buyer journey, retailers now have more information than ever before about shoppers’ desires and habits. And with cloud computing tools, brands are putting this information into action at the drop of a hat — especially digital-native brands that started with a “cloud-first†approach. Here are just a few ways cloud benefits shoppers throughout their retail journeys:
Researching
Today’s holiday shoppers are incredibly prepared; just 12% say they hit the stores entirely spontaneously. Regardless of whether they make a purchase online or in-stores, buyers will trust brand websites that return accurate search results.
Purchase suggestions
Sometimes, shoppers don’t know precisely what they’re looking for; 47% of respondents to McKinsey’s 2019 holiday survey say their number one concern is not knowing what gift to buy. These customers will benefit from data-driven suggestions that consider past purchases and keyword searches to come up with the perfect fit. Cloud-based data clean-up and manipulation tools that stitch together multiple data sources then enable retailers to take action quickly.
Targeted marketing
Consumers may welcome retailers’ holiday marketing communications now more than any other time of the year. Nearly half (49%) of American shoppers prefer to hear about deals via email, so it’s important for retailers to rely on their existing customer data to inform these communications. Big data provides these real insights, while cloud services merge in-store data with digital data to offer the best customer communications.
Keep behind-the-scenes areas on-point
While shoppers are most concerned about finding the right product at the right price, the inner workings of your e-commerce site and applications are critical to a seamless experience. Cloud services support a whole host of solutions that customers never know about — and shouldn’t have to.
Accurate inventory
Customers should never reach the check-out screen only to discover an item is suddenly out of stock. But more than half (55%) of shoppers point to out-of-stock inventory as a shopping pain point. Cloud data platforms can construct a single real-time source of truth for inventory levels across all channels and all users, both customers and employees, by connecting into data pipelines and unifying all data sources with low latency and high transaction throughput.
Payment services
Whether shoppers are using their smartphone or a retailer’s branded app, cloud services keep payments straight-forward, organized, and flowing between all partners to make payment transactions happen in seconds. This will be even more important in the future as in-store retailers consider checkout-less payments; 67% of customers would use this service if offered.
Reliable shipping and delivery dates
Delivery is one of the critical points in the holiday buying journey. Whether orders are placed on Cyber Monday or left until days before the holiday, the logistics for shipping and successful delivery benefits from multiple clouds sharing data and working together. Shipping and delivery are a huge priority for any online buyers; while half of American shoppers cite free expedited delivery as an online benefit, 38% point to guaranteed delivery by a specific date.
Cloud services can help your brand ensure shoppers have a jolly holiday shopping experience across all channels — and not just through e-commerce. Retailers that realize the hidden value of their existing data and cloud power today to create seamless omnichannel experiences will earn shoppers’ year-round loyalty — not just when holiday deals are hot.