Incisiv, a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption, announced findings of an executive survey, titled Digital Complexity: Thriving in Unpredictable Times. The survey, conducted in partnership with Fluent Commerce, commercetools, and Contentstack, found retailers expect major increases in operational requirements around fulfillment and digital-related functions in 2023.
With the pace and complexity of operations in digital retail rising rapidly, most brands feel inadequately prepared to deal with these new challenges. The survey also found that fewer than half of retailers believe they can effectively manage all aspects of their digital operations over the next twelve months.
“As digital demand regresses to the mean, and with increasing macroeconomic uncertainty, the fight for the shopper dollar will intensify over the next 12 months. Delivering on the fundamentals of inventory availability and anywhere fulfillment is critical and there is still a lot of work to be done in this area. Building a personalized and relevant shopper experience is where the leaders are focused,” said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer, Incisiv.
To adapt accordingly, retailers need to focus on the capabilities that impact them the most and must upgrade omnichannel capabilities, specifically in areas of digital fulfillment, content management, and personalization.
Key findings of the research include:
- Retailers expect the complexity of their digital operations to increase over the next 12 months:
- 81 percent of retailers expect their product returns to increase
- 69 percent of retailers will increase their online SKUs
- 67 percent of retailers will increase the number of digital assets they utilize
- 65 percent of retailers expect the number of store fulfilled digital orders to increase
- Most are underprepared to effectively manage them:
- 46 percent of retailers stated they will be effective in managing the growth of their product returns
- 43 percent of retailers stated they will be effective in managing their online SKU growth
- 32 percent of retailers stated they will be effective in managing the variety of their digital assets.
- 35 percent of retailers stated they will be effective in managing their store order fulfillment
- Retailers were forced to invest in commerce and fulfillment capabilities during the pandemic just to stay in business. Content and campaign management was given far less attention and now retailers must catch up. For instance:
- 39 percent of retailers stated their current store fulfillment platform will not meet their needs
- 40 percent of retailers stated their personalization platform won’t meet their needs
- 42 percent retailers stated their product catalog system won’t meet their needs
- 43 percent of retailers stated their content management system won’t meet their needs
Click here to download the complete findings from Digital Complexity: Thriving in Unpredictable Times.
More information is available at https://www.incisiv.com.
