Agile Commerce
Encyclopedia
Agile Commerce was first coined by Brian Walker of Forrester. It’s the logical evolution of multichannel commerce
and actually helps to solve some of the confusion around it. Brian’s postulation of multichannel is dead made some believe (i.e. Jochen Kirsch of exciting commerce) that he had made a u-turn without really grasping Brian’s true meaning. He hadn’t just renamed ‘channels’ to ‘touch points’, he’d provided a clear definition of what is what.
Traditionally companies had three channels: stores (probably the oldest version of a channel), direct sales (via phones) and print catalogues which became popular in the last century. Within these channels however only very few or no other touch points (i.e kiosks in stores) developed. That changed with the arrival of the internet and subsequently ecommerce as a new true channel.
Today, in my honest opinion, there aren’t any companies out there (except perhaps really small ones) that only sell goods via one channel. Thus, any company in the world is a multichannel company, even though some will still deny it. Also, many companies who started out as pure-play ecommerce in the last decade are now multichannel companies too. They don’t necessarily have physical stores, but by virtue of sending out the odd flyer or a print catalogue makes them multichannel.
The major difference between the internet and the three other channels is that it led to an explosion of customer touch points. No other channel has created so many different touch points in such a short time:
With the internet expanding into cars, kitchen appliances, TV sets and others access points, this number will rather grow rather than shrink in the coming years. Yet, none of these new touch points are a new channel. They are all riding on the back of the existing internet channel. While the internet of things postulates that everything is connected, agile commerce postulates that we can transact via everything.
In fact, it would be fatal mistake for any company to treat them as new channels or silos. With hind-sight introducing ecommerce
as a new channel or new business unit only caused the problems we are facing today.
Anyway, these touch points add a different kind of representation of the very same data that the web site already presents but they don’t add any new business processes. In fact they are most effective when they are re-using what the web has already established.
Agile commerce also postulates that companies must tear down the walls they have built between their channels over years. I’ve stopped counting the numbers of endless discussions about who gets what share of the revenue. I predict that companies with this kind of mind set will be out of business soon. Conversion is not a single channel concept anymore and so is not customer acquisition, retention or satisfaction. Ultimately the idea of channels must go and with it business units that are only concerned with their own survival. Commerce is a team sport nowadays; fulfilment and warehousing are your defence, channel neutral business processes as your play maker and touch points as your offense. Companies are learning their lesson and are now evolving former directors of ecommerce as directors of commerce; responsible for all of their commerce activities.
Information, and data must flow freely between channels and business units. Customer don’t care if a product can’t be ordered in one channel from another channel, just because organisation dictates it belongs to another channel and therefore to another business unit.
Customers shop with your brand, not with your channels.
Multichannel ecommerce
Multichannel ecommerce consists of selling products or services through third party retail partners. Multichannel ecommerce can be differentiated from traditional retail distribution partnerships in that the manufacturer usually maintains a single product management system that electronically...
and actually helps to solve some of the confusion around it. Brian’s postulation of multichannel is dead made some believe (i.e. Jochen Kirsch of exciting commerce) that he had made a u-turn without really grasping Brian’s true meaning. He hadn’t just renamed ‘channels’ to ‘touch points’, he’d provided a clear definition of what is what.
Traditionally companies had three channels: stores (probably the oldest version of a channel), direct sales (via phones) and print catalogues which became popular in the last century. Within these channels however only very few or no other touch points (i.e kiosks in stores) developed. That changed with the arrival of the internet and subsequently ecommerce as a new true channel.
Today, in my honest opinion, there aren’t any companies out there (except perhaps really small ones) that only sell goods via one channel. Thus, any company in the world is a multichannel company, even though some will still deny it. Also, many companies who started out as pure-play ecommerce in the last decade are now multichannel companies too. They don’t necessarily have physical stores, but by virtue of sending out the odd flyer or a print catalogue makes them multichannel.
The major difference between the internet and the three other channels is that it led to an explosion of customer touch points. No other channel has created so many different touch points in such a short time:
- website
- mobile apps & web
- call centre
- kiosk
- affiliates
- Google & co.
- game consoles
- electronic shelf labels
With the internet expanding into cars, kitchen appliances, TV sets and others access points, this number will rather grow rather than shrink in the coming years. Yet, none of these new touch points are a new channel. They are all riding on the back of the existing internet channel. While the internet of things postulates that everything is connected, agile commerce postulates that we can transact via everything.
In fact, it would be fatal mistake for any company to treat them as new channels or silos. With hind-sight introducing ecommerce
Electronic commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online...
as a new channel or new business unit only caused the problems we are facing today.
Anyway, these touch points add a different kind of representation of the very same data that the web site already presents but they don’t add any new business processes. In fact they are most effective when they are re-using what the web has already established.
Agile commerce also postulates that companies must tear down the walls they have built between their channels over years. I’ve stopped counting the numbers of endless discussions about who gets what share of the revenue. I predict that companies with this kind of mind set will be out of business soon. Conversion is not a single channel concept anymore and so is not customer acquisition, retention or satisfaction. Ultimately the idea of channels must go and with it business units that are only concerned with their own survival. Commerce is a team sport nowadays; fulfilment and warehousing are your defence, channel neutral business processes as your play maker and touch points as your offense. Companies are learning their lesson and are now evolving former directors of ecommerce as directors of commerce; responsible for all of their commerce activities.
Information, and data must flow freely between channels and business units. Customer don’t care if a product can’t be ordered in one channel from another channel, just because organisation dictates it belongs to another channel and therefore to another business unit.
Customers shop with your brand, not with your channels.
See also
- Multichannel ecommerceMultichannel ecommerceMultichannel ecommerce consists of selling products or services through third party retail partners. Multichannel ecommerce can be differentiated from traditional retail distribution partnerships in that the manufacturer usually maintains a single product management system that electronically...
- Electronic commerceElectronic commerceElectronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online...
- E-businessElectronic businessElectronic business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-business", or an internet business, may be defined as the application of information and communication technologies in support of all the activities of business...
- Brick and mortar business
- Bricks and clicksBricks and clicksBricks and clicks is a business model by which a company integrates both offline and online presences, sometimes with the third extra flips...