As digitized retail becomes more complex and interlinked, the technology organizations have been using to control their product information flows is fast becoming outdated. A radical rethink is required as multidimensional and multidirectional flows of product information and feedback need to be interpreted and integrated back into businesses’ product information value chains (PIVC) in real-time. The age of 2D commerce has passed, the time for implementing 3D commerce systems has come.
What is 3D commerce?
Nowadays, in digital commerce, the value delivered by the way a product is sold rivals that of the item itself. Consumer experience of, and engagement with, digital representations and descriptions of products are key to stimulating purchase, achieving customer satisfaction and building brand reputation. This matters because in today’s fast-moving and volatile online and mobile environment, potential customers can be lost, potentially forever, with just one click.
This means that instantaneous feedback loops on customer behavior and the ability to react at the same speed are crucial for digital businesses’ success. The key here is the ability to collect this ever-growing amount of data and feed it into smart AI-based systems that watch constantly and make changes if needed – automatically tweaking digital assets, correcting product information, or even moving channels.
Constant feedback loops
Without these constant feedback loops and dynamic adjustment of the sales process, vendors are operating 2D commerce environments with resources and tech solutions focused on outbound digital information flows.
In contrast, 3D commerce balances both information flows end-to-end from vendor-to-customer and from customer-to-vendor and all points in between. It views customer/vendor relationships through multiple angles that include product lines, geographies, channel feeds, promotional tactics, as well as delivering the all-important in-depth customer feedback loops.
These relationships compose today’s product information value chains and their successful identification and management is crucial to commerce going forward.
The benefits of 3D commerce strategy
It can no longer be the case that existing customer feedback loops simply inform sellers’ general optimization strategies, or act as surplus data that can be monetized on data markets.
Product information and assets are the consumer’s gateway to a brand and path to product purchase. So the product-to-consumer (P2C) flow to each and every consumer must be instantaneously tweaked and tailored – constantly and across all channels and segments.
With constant change driving the commerce anarchy that is wreaking havoc on businesses’ operational capabilities, feedback loops now have to provide the essential actionable insights companies need to understand how to effectively connect with their buyers day-in, day-out.
As channel proliferation is heaped on top of the product information management avalanche threatening to overwhelm many businesses, only smart platforms with comprehensive channel integration and AI tools can convert this complexity into a sustained competitive advantage by creating value for both vendor and customer across the one, global P2C environment that exists today.
So, 3D commerce encompasses both the means of adding value to product information value chains as well as the change in approach required for organizations to combat and overcome commerce anarchy.
What an end-to-end 3D approach will do for commerce
- Maximize potential. Reach all target audiences on all targeted channels
- Boost branding. Enhance the customer product and brand experience
- Cut costs. Automate channel optimization and implement best practice guidelines
- Amplify resources. Speed up time-to-market for new products, digital assets, and campaigns
- Immediate feedback.
Enable new insights and opportunities with AI-enabled feedback loops
3D commerce - Adding value with customer-to-vendor loops
The time to act on 3D commerce is now. According to a recent Forrester study, a remarkable 62% of retail business leaders admitted their organizations were looking to replace their current commerce solutions in order to better manage product information flows. This move between yesterday’s 2D commerce systems and the opportunities provided by today’s 3D product information value chain approach can only be facilitated by a radical strategic rethink. The new trajectory will integrate P2C management with the latest machine-learning platform capable of immediately pushing back actionable feedbacks to where the information is needed.
3D P2C management is the only strategy that will resolve the commerce chaos caused by increasing commerce complexity and challenges it is causing businesses. Embedding 3D commerce thinking into a solutions-based P2C strategy will allow companies to get back in control and manage the flow of digital information between products and consumers. This way, value is not only added through outbound product information chain management but also by the ability to act immediately, efficiently and effectively on any aspect of customer feedback anywhere along the customer journey.