The future of global ecommerce

One thing people say about the rapid, global growth of ecommerce is that it has levelled the playing field.

Billions of people now have direct access to online channels and sellers from all over the world. Ecommerce has broken down geographical boundaries and has the power to introduce consumers to products, services, and ideas in ways we never had before.

Technology is affecting what people can do, but people are also having a potent effect on what technology is being built.

Human demands and desires are forcing rapid digital disruption, and merchants who want to keep up with the pace of change need to understand the relationship between tech and customer experience that is the foundation for the retail ecosystem of the future.

Wherever you look, the world of commerce is changing, and the knock-on effect for consumers is that their expectations are growing. The fact they are buying something from the other side of the world shouldn’t impact the way they interact with a brand or, ultimately, make their purchase.

The playing field has levelled up.

Ecommerce retailers need to optimise their payment mix and keep track of an evolving payments landscape, both locally and globally. It’s too easy for consumers to ‘walk away’ if the point of purchase simply doesn’t feel right.

But how do retailers do that?

Ironically, as organisations scale they need to retain the agility they had when they were small. Competitive advantage and innovation lie in the flexibility to penetrate and respond to local markets. Local payment types, management of risk and a familiar buying experience help organisations to tap into customer preferences.

Unfortunately for many enterprises, they haven’t been built to function in this way:

“Traditional organizations—many of which exist today—are built around product ownership, effectively constructing siloes around the components that deliver on the customer experience.

These organizational silos have led to a fragmented product that likely has too many responsible stakeholders, which may further slow product launches.”

(Deloitte, Payments Trends 2020: Strategies to prepare for the future of payments).

This is where payment orchestration comes in.

One single integration that provides merchants with the flexibility and control to predict and navigate local markets at a global scale, as well as understand and respond to consumer psychology around payments.

BR-DGE is a payment orchestration service that empowers online merchants with access to a wealth of new digital payment services through a common integrated platform. It dramatically increases vendors’ resilience and flexibility to introduce new payment services and broader payment options to support growth, create new market opportunities and innovate at speed.

“No customer will reward you for responding to their demands; they will reward you for anticipating their demands.”

George Lawrie, Forrester

All of this means that payments, often seen as the last, and least important, step in the journey towards turning a person into a customer, is in fact a critical component of the ecommerce ecosystem of the future. A place where technology and nuances of human behaviour come together, where the competition for creating the best experience is most fierce.

Beyond 2020, ecommerce will continue on this growth trajectory, there is no doubt about that. And it will continue to be guided by both human behaviour and innovations in technology.

Merchants should recognise that the change in payments has only just begun, and those organisations that lack the agility to adapt at speed to the ongoing transformation, risk being left behind.

“The future of payments is guaranteed to become more personalised. If businesses don’t understand or respond to their customers, they will be pipped to the post, right at the finish line.

Technology needs to empower and enable organisations to do this, and that’s why payment orchestration will be a huge trend for the future of ecommerce.

Flexibility and control for the consumer and the merchant; this is where excitement and innovation will come from.”

Brian Coburn, CEO, BR-DGE.

For more information on how you can navigate the future of commerce, get in touch with the BR-DGE team.