Onur Tepeli, CEO at FeatureMind shares with Campaign Middle East how digital transformation is changing the landscape in the regional industry.
With growing competition in the e-commerce and retail sector, how have client demands changed?
In the past, consumers responded to the look and feel of their journeys with the brand, through the website, acting as a basic transactional e-commerce platform, and consumers were expected to passively conform to whatever a brand offered them on their e-commerce platforms.
To elaborate, a perfectly designed website or a mobile app would grab the consumer’s attention.
In today’s market, consumers demand much more and now lead the charge, demanding personalisation and optimisation to suit their preferences.
The customer journey begins when they think about a product, with touchpoints from social media to conversations with friends affecting demands.
From a digital perspective, the journey with a customer begins from their first touch point with the brand; from social and website interactions to data capture opportunities in-store which assist in meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
This extends far beyond the role of making a sale, with the browsing and post-browsing journey equally important, whether it’s converting a shopping cart to a deal or delivering on orders.
Another striking difference when looking at changing client demands is their evolved understanding of the commerce space is no longer “e-commerce” rather it is ubiquitous digital experiences, in-store, on social media, online, wherever the customer happens to be, whether they need inspiration, transaction or customer service.
The term encompasses not just online experiences for customers but also includes the in-store experience of being informed of technological improvements.
FeatureMind’s focus is on digital rather than just e-commerce, where we manage in-store environments, marketplaces, and social media with a holistic view across commerce marketing and customer service.
If the retailers are successful, then the consumers are more likely to come back.
At the end of the day, it’s a relationship and digital technology is the means that facilitates an interaction between businesses and consumers.
How can digital transformation help retailers adapt to changing consumer behaviours and preferences, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape?
The recent technological changes that have been introduced for the digital transformation domain have helped retailers track their consumer’s behaviours through increased availability of real-time and historical data.
The increasing number of touchpoints where retailers are collecting consumer data has increased tenfold, meaning brands that are not aptly prepared are now drowning in data, whilst those utilising the tools available to them are levering the information to enhance the customer journey and convert leads.
Data with no means to analyse it is just wasted storage.
However, utilising AI tools to enhance the customer experience is the solution to these concerns. AI will leverage mass data and make intelligent decisions with it.
These tools are making it easier for us to use the data efficiently and effectively.
We have specifically noted the investments made by companies like Salesforce in adapting LLM [Large Language Model] AI in to their secure and trusted environment.
What do you think will be the digital landscape of the region in the next five years?
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are set to remain at the forefront of technological innovation in the next five years.
They will continue to transform industries through automation and data analytics that will not only streamline operations but also open doors to new possibilities. However, it won’t be on the same channels currently being used.
The traditional purchasing channels ARE going to be transformed, shifting even more so towards social media, which increasingly hosts transactions wholly.
If we look at where China is today, where social commerce is ubiquitous, everything is happening on the WeChat social platform.
Browsing, purchasing, transacting, brand engagement – it all happens under one roof.
This is where the future of social media and digital commerce is headed, even for the likes of X (previously Twitter), creating a public sphere for the omnipresent customers at scale.
