Ludicrous Speed
How many new things have you tried in your ecommerce business this last quarter? How many experiments have you conducted?
Today we talk about the importance of constant innovation in the e-commerce world, especially at a time when genAI and new business channels are changing paradigms.
The question we all need to ask ourselves is: What are we doing today to integrate these new tools and opportunities? If we don't take the initiative, a competitor will. And when we decide to react, it might already be too late.
Racing at Ludicrous Speed
Ten years ago, ecommerce was still a complex affair. The main goal was to “get it right” before your competition did:
Technology had to be tamed to work the way we needed it to.
Operations were grueling, and constant vigilance was required to avoid mistakes.
Traffic acquisition strategies were known and predictable, with few competitors.
You could plan actions 2-3 years ahead with some confidence, aiming to eventually “get it right.”
Now, we're in an age of dizzying speed, rapid changes, and uncertainty.
Ecommerce brands need to adapt at maximum speed to the constant changes in the market. Marketing strategies shift from one quarter to the next, and if you fall behind, your traffic acquisition costs can skyrocket.
You need to constantly think about new channels, markets, products, messages, and offers.
The new goal is to fail quickly until you find what works. Exploit that advantage while it lasts and then experiment again to find the next lever.
All at ludicrous speed.
To travel at "ludicrous speed," we need:
A company culture that rewards trying new things, learning from failures, and stepping out of the comfort zone.
Technology that supports this rapid pace of change, both in terms of capabilities and associated costs.
A group of agencies and external collaborators who are comfortable in this environment and can bring proactivity, expert advice, and capabilities that we do not have in-house.
In this past edition, we focused on the technology aspect, highlighting the common symptoms of “vintage ecommerce”:
Today we showcase a user experience example.
An example to illustrate
Imagine you're in the furniture business. You sell chairs and tables online, like this website:
It's a beautifully designed site, but more importantly, it’s centered on helping the visitor find what they’re looking for.
As shown in the screenshot, there's an interesting component on the left that seems to remind me of the products I viewed on my last visit. Just like Amazon does, except here it works without requiring any registration.
The most interesting part comes when I search for a specific product:
Instantly, a component appears that invites me to refine my search based on visual similarity among all the chairs in their catalog:
I can focus on a specific element in the product photo, and it will find similar products. Or, I can upload a photo from my computer to process and search for visual similarities.
This is much more powerful than text search or navigating through categories set by the online store. Wouldn't you agree? Try it; you'll understand better. This experience is based on integrating external technology, Salesfire.
If you investigate further, you'll find many simple implementations of visual search to test the effect in your online store. Our friends at Doofinder explain how visual search works.
Takeaways
What's interesting about this case is that the Eclipse Furniture team has an ecommerce technology, in this case, a BigCommerce B2B online store, allowing them to easily integrate tools that enhance their customers' shopping experience.
Today, they've decided to explore the possibilities of visual search. Tomorrow, they might integrate chatGPT, with the voice of Scarlett Johansson, as a furniture expert sales assistant, always available for you.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
We're advancing through the ecommerce space at ludicrous speed. We must be prepared to integrate these falling technologies into our digital channels over the coming months and years, as we're submerged in a tsunami of innovation.
Either we do it, or our competitor will.
La versión en español es lo mismo y me espero?