Emerging E-commerce Trends and How Process Automation with Signavio is Defining Winners

The evolution of e-commerce, with new business models and changing customer expectations for retailers to compete, is prompting changes in e-commerce retailers’ operations. Subscription services, dark-store fulfillment, and social commerce are now being perceived as a fundamental part of the e-commerce growth strategy.

The change in e-commerce requires e-commerce retailers to operate efficiently, integrate multiple digital channels and also provide a better experience across the multiple platforms for consumers. Retailers who successfully implement these e-commerce strategies can solidify their market share.

The introduction of new business models will increase the complexity of e-commerce retailers’ operations. In order to continue competing in the e-commerce retail industry, e-commerce retailers will need to understand how their customers behave, how their current processes function, and how their systems communicate with their equipment, etc. Increased competition and increased complexity will require that e-commerce retailers improve their online retailing processes in order to remain competitive.

Due to the instantaneous nature of the e-commerce industry, e-commerce retailers will also benefit from the use of Signavio BPM to help them better organize, map, standardize and automate their processes related to new business models. The combination of process intelligence with real-time analytics using Signavio will enable e-commerce retailers to more quickly and effectively adopt the e-commerce trends while maintaining efficiency in their digital commerce processes. The winners in the e-commerce universe will be those companies that can translate their trend adoption to operational efficiency, scalability and consumer satisfaction.

Key Trends Transforming E-Commerce – Subscription, Dark Stores and Social Commerce

The way online retail functions is being transformed by different trends having a direct impact on how businesses operate and create new revenue streams. Each trend presents a challenge and an opportunity for retail.

Subscription Business

The subscription model has many appealing factors, such as predictable revenue streams, automated replenishment cycles, and high retention rates. Surprisingly, subscriptions require thorough inventory planning, recurring billing automation, and proactive engagement with customers.

Dark Stores

A dark store is a type of hyperlocal fulfillment center that allows retailers to deliver products quickly. Dark stores depend upon accurate inventory systems, optimized picking workflows, and good integration among ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), WMS (Warehouse Management System), and front-end platforms.

Social Commerce

Direct purchases via social platforms create a need for synchronizing product catalogs, providing visibility into stock in real-time, and ensuring smooth checkout experiences.

The innovations created by the three-mentioned trends create new customer touchpoints and operational complexity. To enable these innovations, retailers must have detailed journey mapping and process mining tools for e-commerce. Along with that, they also need a well-integrated system across multiple channels. Signavio assists brands in determining how these trends affect current operations and how to redesign their processes so they can operate at scale. Retailers successfully implementing these trends typically accompany innovation with structured process optimization.

How Subscription Models Benefit From Signavio-Driven Automation

To facilitate subscription commerce effectively, brands must have accurate and well-coordinated operations. Customers typically desire predictable delivery timelines, hassle-free billing processes, and no errors in their subscription deliveries. Signavio Business Process Management (BPM) for eCommerce provides brands with the means to design and automate these processes with clear workflows.

Mapping the customer experience from enrollment to repeat order fulfillment creates a visual representation of possible points where potential problems arise. This includes billing problems, unavailable products due to inventory issues, and delays in order fulfillment due to various reasons. Retailers may standardize their renewal reminders, configuring inventory allocation, and packing orders with the same attention to detail. Ultimately, this creates a predictable quality of service.

Process mining is an additional way to leverage data analysis to better understand subscription churn and payment exceptions. It utilizes the data stored in the system logs to identify trends associated with subscription churn and late deliveries. Companies can use the insights derived from the process mining analysis to identify areas in need of improvement to retain customers, which is critical for the success of subscription-based business models.

Signavio can also be integrated with ERP systems so that companies automate stock forecasting and maintain repeat order fulfillment cycles. As subscription-based businesses grow, they typically become more complex, which highlights the need for standardized and automated processes to help maintain the same level of performance as they scale. Signavio enables retailers to create predictable and scalable subscription operations, resulting in increased customer loyalty and profitability.

Dark Stores and the Need for Process Excellence

Dark Stores are specialized e-commerce fulfillment centers created for unprecedented acceleration of order delivery in metropolitan locations, are growing because of increasing demand for same-day delivery. While Dark Stores are the most efficient type of e-commerce fulfillment centre, their performance relies upon several fairly standard best practices, such as:

• Automated Picking – enabling high levels of speed and accuracy;
• Real-Time Synchronization of Inventory Management System, Warehouse Management System and Online Storefront;
• Hyper-local Inventory Planning, to minimize delivery times;
• Fast and Efficient Restock Cycles Based on Actual Demand Data;
• Integrated Options for Re-Route Orders to Nearest Fulfillment Centre;
• Automation of Processes Reducing Manual Handlings;
• Process Mining Analytics for Continuous Performance Monitoring.

With Signavio, retailers develop their entire e-commerce dark-store operating model from inbound product flows through last-mile delivery. Signavio identifies process bottlenecks, e.g. long picking times, incorrect stock allocations, etc., and assists the teams in recreating the ideal workflows for dark stores. Due to minimal profit margins and high expectations regarding delivery speed, Dark Stores can only achieve success when they are founded on digitally perfected processes for e-commerce businesses.

While Dark Stores provide retailers with the promise of Ultra-Fast, Accurate Delivery, retailers who deploy Signavio’s Process Automation knowledge gain Strategic Advantages through their ability to Align their Operational Architecture with Customer Expectations.

Social Commerce and Cross-Channel Process Integration

The emergence of social commerce has created an overlap between social interactions and shopping behaviour. Consumers interact directly with the retail marketplace while still engaging with their social networks. As such, it is vital that retailers create an integrated and cohesive experience across their product catalogues, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data, marketing platforms and order management systems.

The Signavio Suite assists brands in mapping the end-to-end workflow of social commerce, starting from the influencer content through to the order confirmation. It allows brands to visually understand how the consumer’s interaction on social media is linked to the retailer’s internal systems and identifies where there may be potential delays or inconsistencies in the process. For example, the need for real-time stock visibility has become extremely important to ensure that retailers do not oversell during viral promotional events.

In addition, process mining provides an additional layer of insight by illustrating how social commerce orders are treated differently from website orders. Retailers can pinpoint unique areas of friction that impact the fulfilment of social commerce orders, including longer fulfilment times created by delays in API calls from the platforms being used. As a result, retailers can establish optimized workflows for all of their social commerce activities.

With Signavio, online retail process optimization can be considered a cross-channel initiative. Retailers ensure that there is a consistent customer experience despite where the purchase originated. As the amount of social commerce continues to grow, process automation will be a key differentiator that enables brands to scale quickly and confidently.

How Signavio Automation Accelerates Trend Adoption

Trend chaser versus trend winner: In general, the operational difference is where these two types exhibit their success. Signavio supports businesses wishing to create a scalable model of emerging trends in e-commerce by:

• Mapping out customer journeys in conjunction with back-end processes via automatic routing.
• Standardizing processes based upon the new business models available for businesses.
• Automating tasks that are repetitive in order to save costs and errors.
• Creating integrated models of each e-commerce platform to ensure they communicate effectively with each other.
• Developing dashboards that provide real-time information regarding key performance indicators (KPI).
• Performing process mining analysis to determine whether or not the operational assumptions that are used are appropriate.

Ensuring ERP’s function effectively, thus having a consistent data set across various channels.

FAQs on Process Intelligence in Retail