Importance of Digital Commerce Roadmap for Brands in 2024

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2023 and was updated in Jan 2024 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

A digital commerce roadmap is a visual communication tool that communicates the platform’s vision, goals, and actions. Digital commerce platforms require consistent marketing, merchandising, and development initiatives to remain viable and grow.

If a company has a strong roadmap, it will be able to continue delivering the kind of offerings people will continue to buy. You can easily put together a roadmap for success and implement it across your business if you don’t already have one.

In this article, we describe the concept of a digital commerce roadmap, digital commerce importance, steps to create it, and how to choose a digital commerce platform.
 

What Is Digital Commerce Roadmap

A digital commerce roadmap is a tool for visual communications that is recommended for companies that deal with digital commerce. A roadmap aligns with the numerous e-commerce business planning, advertising, layout, and merchandising studies needed to keep and expand a business. Company roadmaps are based on the stage at which an organization is at. A start-up e-commerce business will differ from an established organization with thousands of clients. A roadmap can help your company understand new opportunities in scope, size, priorities, and targeted customers. Among the most common milestones tend to be collection launches and important retail dates, among other things.
 

Importance of Having a Digital Commerce Roadmap

The importance of digital commerce is one of the key components of taking a proactive approach to identifying business goals. Developing solid, actionable strategies on how to reach these goals is achievable once you identify your key objectives and digital commerce’s importance. One of the best ways to solidify strategies for online businesses is through digital commerce. The importance of digital commerce for your business can’t be denied, and therefore, check some features in digital commerce success.

1. Target Your Audience Using Data Analysis

For an online retail strategy, understanding the target market is crucial. As more and more consumers invest online, information analysis can assist the company in gaining a better understanding of who their customers are, what they are buying, and how they find a particular e-commerce company.

2. Faster Buying Process

Customers spend less time searching for what they want. It is easy for them to browse through many items at once and buy what they like. It is possible for customers to find items online that are unavailable in physical stores near them or not available locally.

3. Flexibility for Customers

The ability to provide flexibility to customers is one of the most significant advantages of eCommerce for businesses. The fact that the product and services are available 24/7 is one of the highlights. As a result, sellers can offer their items anywhere, anytime. Due to the convenience of shopping online, customers are likely to return for repeat purchases on an eCommerce marketplace.

4. Offer A Better Customer Experience

If you don’t have a customer journey plan, you need to develop one. Your competitors might already have one in place. You will, however, be able to learn what makes a customer recommend your brand experience to his family, friends, neighbors, and more when you look for the moments of customer interaction that keep your brand loyal.
 

Steps to Create a Digital Commerce Roadmap for Your Brand

The key to harnessing the opportunities of 2024 is to create a foolproof growth plan that will keep your business on track and accelerate your growth. That’s why your brand needs a digital roadmap. Your marketing strategy will be optimized and conversion costs will be significantly reduced, as well as preparing you for the looming challenges. Here are four steps to creating a digital commerce roadmap for your brand:

-> Step 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience

Do you really know who your target audience is? In most cases, brands know the general demographics of their customers but stop there. Getting to know your customers helps your brand resonate with them.

Think about some like How do they buy products? What matters to them? What motivates them? What values do they care about? etc questions you might want to ask yourself. When you answer questions, you’ll gain a better understanding of who your ideal customer is and how to meet their needs.

-> Step 2: Develop Effective Strategies for Achieving Your Goals

A successful eCommerce roadmap depends on devising effective strategies. You need to create a media plan once you have done all the framework work. The information you gathered can be used to identify which media channels will help you accomplish your objectives, Establish a content strategy that will enhance your customer engagement, determine your budget based on your business goals, and set metrics to measure your success.

It’s not enough to devise a strategy to make your business more profitable over the long run. The ever-changing digital world keeps big e-commerce firms proactive. Updates are made to the eCommerce strategy roadmap on a regular basis.

-> Step 3: Assess Where You are Right Now

A roadmap’s content generally depends on what stage your business is in. It is going to differ from a well-established business with a strong customer base if you are at an early stage. Therefore, it is up to you to be realistic about where you are and where you want to go.

As businesses begin their digital commerce journey, they need to think about selling products, competitors, broader business goals, and the brand’s journey. To begin taking positive steps forward, it is crucial to forming a clear and concise business entity.

-> Step 4: Create Your Customer’s Journey

It’s time to outline your brand’s messaging structure based on your knowledge of your target customer:

- Identify the purpose of your brand. What makes your brand stand out?

- Determine how your brand will meet your customers’ needs.

- What is the goal of your brand’s products and services?

- Tell your brand’s story. It includes your brand background, your point of difference, and your brand values.
 

Digital Commerce Roadmap Ideas & Examples

Best Ideas

To develop a digital commerce business you need to set your priorities right. From brainstorming ideas for the store to setting up and marketing it, you must consider each step one by one.

1. Idea-storming for Digital Commerce Stores

With an online store, you obviously plan on selling something; therefore, you should decide what to sell. You need to know exactly what your product is, what market demand it has, and how you will stand out from the competition.

2. Analyse the Depth of the Competition

It’s another important area that you should prioritise from the beginning. In order to become successful in your niche, you must research and determine who the major players are and what their key value propositions are. Also, you should research the competition in the different locations where your initial focus will be.

3. Prepare a Business Plan

After deciding on the products you will sell through your online store, you need to decide how you will sell them, make money, and how you will position your brand.

4. Be Aware of Your Audience

The very next step is to focus on the audience you will be marketing to. A target audience consists of buyers who are more likely to value your products than those of your competitors. You need to create appropriate buyer personas before conducting research on your target audience.

5. Creating Custom Digital Commerce Stores

Each store needs to customise the digital commerce experience based on his/her requirements in order to deliver a customised experience based on the target audience, business niche, product line, location, and intended market.

Best Examples

Those who know more, grow more. Creating a roadmap for a digital commerce website that is successful makes sense from this perspective. Here are some of the best examples of digital commerce best practices and innovation. Retailers and brands of all sizes and shapes provide examples of UX and usability as well as functional excellence.

1. Apple’s UX Design

Apple is a great example of a UX strategy that works. The company puts design and site design at the center of its strategy. Apple offers a 360-degree view of its products. You do not need to drag the image around like on other sites. Additionally, they use parallax scrolling to make the images dynamic and eliminate all exit points so that you can immerse yourself in Apple’s world.

2. Asos’s UX Design

Asos is a brilliant example of a successful roadmap. A clear call-to-action, great images, and fast clicks lead you to the men and women sections. A standout feature is the video catwalk. Visitors can see what an outfit looks like in real-time. The stylist also provides an explanation video. This makes the website more convenient for customers.

3. Everlane’s Contextual Reviews

Everlane’s implementation of product reviews is an excellent example of the quality of its site. Users can filter reviews on the site, which provides great context around sizing and fit.

4. Mansur Gavriel Welcome Popup

Mansur Gavriel is a great example of a Shopify plus store. A clean welcome popup provides information about local services on the site. It helps users to purchase and complete their purchase journey smoothly.

5. Nike’s Mobile Usability

Mobile usability is an area of digital roadmaps that is under-resourced. Nike’s website exhibits excellent usability and accessibility with well-optimized call-to-actions, super-readable text, and multiple navigation options.
 

Choose the Right Digital Commerce Platform

The features and functions of each digital commerce platform are unique. The importance of digital commerce is numerous, from selling everywhere to providing personalized services that drive loyalty – and e-commerce provides a 24/7 storefront. The following features are key to your business’s digital commerce platform.

1. Website Personalization

Marketers use website personalization to create tailored recommendations, dynamic content, and exclusive offers for their customers. Shoppers want a personalized online shopping experience, so look for digital commerce platforms with a recommendation engine that recommends products based on previous purchases and searches.

2. Robust Catalogue

A product catalog is an important part of your inventory. Make sure it’s easy to update and intuitive. More importantly, make sure it meets your industry’s requirements. If your business is in the fashion or apparel industry, you need to include a feature in your product catalog that allows your customers to select a size or color. Bundles and cross-linking of product pages are additional examples.

3. Digital Commerce Analytics

With the help of a built-in analytics system, you can monitor a range of vital digital commerce metrics and KPIs. Fortunately, most digital commerce platforms come with their own analytics tool. In case you haven’t, or if you want to get more in-depth analytics, you need to be able to sync or integrate the data from your digital commerce platform with another analytics tool.

4. The Business Model

You must choose a digital commerce platform that fits your business model. Depending on your model, you might need a complex tariff system, or you might need a very simple model, which will work on almost any platform. In complex business models, there is a need for a more elaborate approach that is capable of handling multiple tariffs, multiple methods of invoicing, and industry-specific laws.

5. Mobile Optimization

Optimizing your website for mobile is the process of customizing content for visitors who access the site from a mobile device. In order to meet the needs of the growing number of online shoppers using mobile devices to make purchases, you need to ensure that all functionality and templates on the digital commerce platform have been optimized for mobile devices.

6. Customer Support

A customer support service involves helping a customer use a product in the most effective and efficient manner. Assistance in planning, installing, training, troubleshooting, maintaining, upgrading, and disposing of a product is included in this service. You may require assistance in setting up your storefront or implementing certain features, so make sure their customer support team is available and has positive reviews.
 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the Future of Digital Commerce?

The future of digital commerce is bright, as businesses are increasingly turning to digital platforms to reach customers and provide them with a seamless and personalized shopping experience. Digital commerce is projected to grow even more in the future, as customers continue to demand a better shopping experience.

2. What is a Digital Product Roadmap?

A digital product roadmap is a document that outlines a product’s development and release timeline. It helps product managers and teams plan, prioritize, and execute the development of a product, ensuring that it meets the company’s objectives.

3. Why Digital Roadmap is Important?

Digital roadmaps are important because they provide a clear framework for product development, help align product teams and stakeholders, and ensure that the product meets customer needs. They also help maximize return on investment by ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and effectively.

4. What is a Roadmap for Business?

A roadmap for business is a document that outlines a company's long-term objectives and how it will meet them. It includes strategic planning, forecasting, and budgeting, as well as analysis and evaluation of current performance.

5. What is the Difference between Strategy and Roadmap?

The main difference between a strategy and a roadmap is that strategy is focused on identifying the goals of a company and how to reach them, while a roadmap outlines the steps that need to be taken to achieve the strategy.
 

Conclusion

The importance of digital commerce cannot be overstated, and as the world becomes more digitally connected, it is vital for businesses to recognize the digital commerce importance and have a comprehensive plan for their online presence and e-commerce strategies. A Digital Commerce Roadmap helps brands to stay ahead of the competition by identifying and addressing potential obstacles and opportunities, setting clear goals and objectives, and outlining the steps necessary to achieve them. This roadmap can include a variety of components, such as website optimization, social media marketing, e-commerce platform selection, and supply chain management.

It is important to note that a Digital Commerce Roadmap is not a one-time effort, but an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, analysis, and optimization. Brands must be prepared to adapt to changing consumer behaviours, technological advancements, and market trends to ensure their continued success in the digital world. By investing in this strategic plan and recognizing the digital commerce importance, businesses can enhance their online presence, increase sales and revenue, and build lasting relationships with their customers. Thus, a Digital Commerce Roadmap is essential for brands looking to thrive in 2024 and beyond.
 

Take Advantage of Sekel Tech’s Digital Commerce Solution

Many companies know the importance of digital commerce and look to experts with experience guiding them along their journey to discover and change digital experiences. If you are looking for help in building your digital commerce business, we at Sekel Tech provide our clients with best-in-class digital solutions.

Sekel Tech is a digital commerce platform that provides businesses with the much-needed flexibility to personalize the customer experience in order to retain customers and sharpen their competitive edge. Our objective is to make sure that your project is as successful as possible by working seamlessly together. Digital commerce isn’t so much about creating your online store as it is about marketing it. In order to help you market your digital commerce store in an easy and effective manner, we developed a complete roadmap for you. Sekel Tech offers our retail clients not only a highly merchant-friendly store-builder but also the ability to build and grow their D2C brands through Sekel Tech’s deep roots in the supply chain.