By Kurt Heinemann, Chief Marketing Officer, Reflektion
Digital commerce is at a challenging point. Over the last few years, actual year over year percentage growth has decreased, according to the US Census Bureau*. We are now reaching a point where what was once seen as a benefit - endless aisles and order from your desk - is now seen as a burden of too much choice and a need for a simpler and easier experience. While the eCommerce world wrestles with the migration from a desktop environment to a smaller and more distracted smartphone user, (almost 50% of traffic in the 2015 holiday season came from mobile devices) the user is stuck trying to understand why shopping online seems almost antiquated and challenging compared to so many apps and intelligent digital experiences that respond to them as an individual. eCommerce needs some kind of digital personal shopper.
While there are many things to dislike about the digital shopping experience, there are several benefits. You can visually curate what you like and don’t like, products are merchandised by the season and usually by your geography and when push comes to shove, there is usually a sales associate that can help locate what you are looking for be it size, style or color. Conversely, online, most of the products are hidden in digital aisles (pages), most sites treat their visitors somewhat generically and promote popular items regardless of where you live, and finding something similar or that has elements of what you like, can be incredibly frustrating and challenging. Essentially, eCommerce sites are little more than digital catalogs that ignore the individual intent of the shopper.
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