Bluepapers 2019

Developments in the e-commerce market are moving fast. Business models are constantly changing, and new players keep appearing in every sector. In this bluepaper, the expert group (Re)platforming describes how a technical platform is suitable, and can stay that way, in our ever-changing world.

In business-to-business (B2B), online food sales are further than in B2C. Companies – such as catering, company catering and healthcare – already do the lion's share of their orders through online channels. Experts estimate that at least 80% of purchases are made online by buyers. However, the chain has been the same for years, even though start-ups, other recipient needs, and new logistics flows are causing a stir in this market. This creates new delivery models, ordering options and customer relationships. What is the ideal delivery model in ‘2B’ food? Read it in this bluepaper.

From a data-driven company such as Booking.com to how ING works, Coolblue’s customer focus and Netflix’ governance... What makes these organizations successful, or in other words: how do they make a difference for their customers? How did they change the game? What can we learn from this as a retail organization? And how do we organize this in our own organization? The expert group called A Game-changing Organization has investigated the most important characteristics and success factors of a game-changing organization.

'The big five' tech companies (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft) are often miles ahead in terms of customer experience and are conquering the world. Start-ups are overtaking them on the inside lane, and those who do not add value will become superfluous. This bluepaper discusses what you have to do to remain valuable through customer experience in the chain.

We live in a connected world where your online identity is just as important as your offline identity. We are increasingly surprised by the invasion of our privacy, and digitization gives banks more and more insight into our financial affairs. Since 2009, there has been an innovation that offers hope to resolve a number of these issues and provide a good alternative. This innovation is called blockchain. The Blockchain expert group has mapped out the developments and the impact of this digital revolution.

On August 1, 2018 it was Earth Overshoot Day. That was the day that mankind all over the world used all the resources that the earth can yield in a year and can process produced waste. In 2019 this day will be in July. This means that every year we consume more than the earth can handle. The solution? Consuming and producing in a different way: not linear, but circular. The Circular Economy expert group works with retailers and leaders in sustainability on a step-by-step plan to map out your contribution to a Circular Economy.

The supply of cities is on the eve of major changes. The pressure in urban areas is increasing, the number of inhabitants is growing and the number of shipments to both private individuals and retailers is increasing. This means that new ways must be found to supply the city in a smart, clean and safe manner. The City Distribution expert group expects the Urban Consolidation Center (UCC) to be an important link in these changes. A UCC is a logistics center on the outskirts of the city. But what does a UCC mean? And what is the best way to arrange it? You can find answers to these and other questions in the expert group's bluepaper.

In this bluepaper, the expert group indicates which steps need to be taken from a maturity perspective to have a fully connected store. They describe this from a process-based and organizational point of view, with the experts making the distinction between four axes and three levels. You can use the model to identify which transformation steps you need to go through in the important subareas to reach the ideal point of a connected store that recognizes the customer in the physical store, and can use this to provide personalized and relevant help with their purchase.

This year there was once again a Conversational Commerce expert group. Whereas last year the expert group devoted a great deal of attention to the translation of a sales conversation in the store into an online conversation by a chatbot, this year we will delve deeper into making this chatbot smarter. This makes the chatbot an actual virtual shopping assistant. How do you become mature in conversational commerce? The expert group has sorted it out for you.

Online retailers often struggle with a relatively high return percentage. How can you reduce the return flow of your webstore? Do you have to reduce it? And perhaps the most interesting question: how do you do that cross-border? The Cross-Border (E-) commerce expert group focused on this return issue last year. Read the results in the bluepaper!

The need to be personal and relevant in every step of the customer journey is obviously increasing. Many companies have had the customer journey of their customers visualized. But the following dilemma has not been answered: how can we translate customer knowledge from the customer journey into management information for all business processes? How can we integrate "the customer" into the entire value chain of the company? Answers to these and other questions can be found in the expert group’s bluepaper.

It is more and more like a legacy from the past: creating an account at an online store or online service before you can purchase anything. Research keeps on showing that the use of accounts in combination with social logins or based on only a username and password is not only unsafe, but that it is also a source of irritation and leads to conversion loss. There are various log-in solutions available that can reduce potential friction and increase conversion. But this market is young, fragmented and in full development. Is the ideal solution already available and to what extent is all the trouble surrounding accounts and logins not really painful to the sector itself? In this bluepaper we provide insights and investigate where the opportunities lie for the sector.

Webstores will increasingly try to distinguish themselves through service and delivery. The diversity of delivery options is therefore increasing further. Consider the choice for delivery within an hour or delivery with low CO2 emissions. This increases the logistical complexity. At the same time, physical stores are looking for their added value in an e-commerce world. It is obvious that the boundaries between online and offline will continue to fade. But which logistics concepts are needed for this? You can read it in the expert group’s bluepaper.

As a result of online competition and changing consumer behavior, retailers' turnover is uncertain and profit margins are often low. Bankruptcies are an everyday occurrence and it is expected that this will not get much better in the coming years. At the same time, there is a growing range of retail solutions that aim to get more visitors into the physical store. In this regard, it is mainly innovative technologies such as mobile loyalty apps, digital level mirrors and heat mapping that promise the retailer a better recovery. The big question, however, is how these technologies can best be deployed and whether they actually deliver to retailers.

Online marketplaces, where consumers can shop for different brands and retailers, have become an important part of the e-commerce world. More and more platforms are opening up as marketplaces and existing marketplaces are becoming more dominant, both nationally and internationally. This leads to a change in customer behavior: online shoppers increasingly start their search on a sales platform instead of through a search engine. How does selling through a marketplace work exactly? What should you take into account? Read it in the expert group's bluepaper. 

There is not a single study that reveals anything different: mobile is becoming more and more important in the lives of consumers every day. According to recent research, 91% of the Dutch population owns a smartphone. And everyone uses his or her smartphone all the time, not a single age category excepted. The popularity of mobile has led the Mobile as the New Storefront expert group, consisting of mobile professionals (often also mobile fanatics), to provide insight into what the power of mobile really is. What makes mobile a demonstrable contribution to growth and store traffic? What makes mobile retention-enhancing and one-on-one communication possible? Read it in the bluepaper!

The vast majority of customer experiences of today are a combination of online and offline processes, where a customer unconsciously and implicitly switches between channels. It is difficult for companies to get a grip on this. Businesses are still not succeeding enough at offering customers a personal, relevant and flexible experience. In this bluepaper, the expert group discusses how different types of companies can learn from each other to really put the customer first, to form the organization on the basis of innovation and customer satisfaction, and to ensure that technology and data are properly supported.

The GfK Consumer Survey 2018 shows that the online share in the B2C sales is now 25%. But even if a transaction is not made online, the internet remains an important channel in customer contact for orientation and advice. The importance of online is also growing in B2B. How do you deal with this as a company without getting lost in a jungle of initiatives? What goals do you set? How can you achieve this? And where do you measure whether you are also successful?

The Opportunities of e-Accessibility expert group shows that improved quality and accessibility of a website not only appeals to a small and specific target group but is also perceived as more pleasant by a considerable percentage of regular users. Have you ever thought, for example, that films are viewed more often by train passengers when they are subtitled? Attention to and increasing the accessibility of websites therefore ensures a greater reach, an improved customer journey and a higher conversion. How do you approach this? Read it in the bluepaper.

In recent years, companies have invested heavily in customer-oriented access to products and services, in order to meet the rapidly digitizing customer demand through various channels. With the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), a new channel is added: that of smart devices and platforms. This connectivity benefits both consumers and companies, provided that safety and privacy are guaranteed. After the shift from offline stores to online shops, this is the next level of commerce. How do consumers buy within the ideal smart home ecosystem? Read it in the bluepaper.

This bluepaper will be available soon.

The Product Information Management (PIM) expert group started for the fourth time last year. Whereas the expert group devoted a great deal of attention in 2017 to the use of machine learning to make the PIM processes more efficient, this year they are shifting the focus on the output (or downstream) side of PIM. The greatest value of a PIM system is on this side because here the PIM data is used by the receiving party with, at the end of the chain, the most important user namely the consumer.

More and more organizations are working on conversion optimization. With a structured and data-driven process, they work on customer-oriented optimizations in the webstore and achieve better results. However, the same organizations notice that their conversion-optimization process regularly slows down, fails to grow sufficiently or even stops completely, because they spend resources from, among other things, development on other, larger projects. What can you do about this? You can read that in the bluepaper.

As online commerce grows exponentially, businesses are losing hundreds of millions of dollars every day as a result of security attacks. Individuals like you and I suffer the serious consequences. While cybercrime is on the rise, most CIOs are struggling to find an efficient and cost-effective way to better arm their organizations. For example, one of the threats is phishing attacks. According to Gartner, 3.6 million customers in the US alone had lost capital through phishing attacks. The losses amounted to approximately US $ 3.2 billion. The purpose of this expert group is to increase the digital resilience of the E-Commerce sector through a chain-oriented approach. Read the findings in the bluepaper!