WITH the holiday season coming up, Filipinos are eagerly anticipating their Christmas and thirteenth-month bonuses. E-commerce has unsurprisingly been one of the biggest beneficiaries of increased disposable income. But what happens when these platforms’ mobile apps can’t handle the surge in user traffic? Customers end up empty-handed and frustrated, while brands are short-changed in spite of it being the most lucrative quarter of the year.
Particularly with intense competition, when one e-commerce platform falls short in delivering products or services, customers can easily switch to the numerous alternatives available at their fingertips. According to a Bain study, local consumers now use twice the number of e-commerce platforms, from 7.8 in 2021 to 16.3 in 2022. However, the study also revealed a decline in the average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of Filipino e-commerce consumers, dropping from 64% in 2021 to 43% in 2022. This pointedly shows that consumers have more options, but loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm are declining.
Indeed, a report by PwC found that three out of five consumers will cease using an app after encountering multiple unsatisfactory experiences. Even worse for brands, 17% of consumers are likely to abandon an app after just one negative encounter. In simpler terms, if users have an unpleasant user experience, they are more inclined to return to traditional offline channels for their purchases, further exacerbating customer attrition.
To meet the demands for seamless and personalized omnichannel experiences, a brand’s mobile app needs to match the quality of shopping on its website or in physical stores. Since a significant number of Filipinos rely on online platforms for product exploration and evaluation, while still preferring in-person channels for actual purchases, having a user-friendly app can greatly enhance the overall customer experience.
To achieve a seamless and personalized omnichannel experience, speed is paramount. There needs to be immediate access to a plethora of data including customer information, inventory, product details, and website interactions, among others. However, conventional databases are unable to effectively manage this combination of unstructured and semi-structured data, especially at the speed and breadth demanded by e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, they lack the necessary scalability to accommodate spikes in customer engagement and increased demand.
The scalability of NoSQL cloud databases enables e-commerce platforms to operate smoothly, even in the face of high volumes of online shopping. The integration of edge computing capabilities further reduces latency by minimizing data travel distance, enhancing the performance of e-commerce apps and websites. With data synchronization across edge devices and edge data centers, the functionality of apps is maintained even in areas with unreliable internet connectivity.
BOOSTING MOBILE SHOPPING EXPERIENCES WITH DATA
Data can be harnessed in various ways to enhance the online shopping experience. User profile data, for instance, serves not only to provide a comprehensive understanding of the customer but can also be utilized to streamline the authentication process, eliminating the need for lengthy forms and creating a hassle-free experience.
Optimizing the user experience for e-commerce mobile apps can also be achieved through effective shopping cart management. Enabling users to complete their purchases conveniently and securely, alongside the ability to view and modify cart contents at any given time, this significantly reduces cart abandonment rates.
When data is highly available, businesses can incorporate the e-commerce platform’s loyalty program into its mobile app. Simply, this incentivizes customers to make purchases directly through the app as they don’t have to jump between different channels to complete purchases, which makes their experience more seamless. Additionally, this integration significantly minimizes obstacles in the overall process by allowing customers to conveniently view their rewards activity and make redemptions on a single screen.
Lastly, the mobile app must monitor user behavior and statistics, which are essential for creating a highly personalized omnichannel experience. By leveraging this data, the e-commerce platform can provide real-time recommendations to customers through the app and other channels. To enable these capabilities, businesses need to enhance their cloud strategies by incorporating mobile and edge capabilities.
DATA INFRASTRUCTURE AS THE KEY TO IMPROVED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES
Clearly, organizations need to enhance their data approach to ensure that mobile experiences are enjoyable for customers. Moving away from monolithic, legacy databases to microservice-based architectures is at the heart of this. NoSQL edge-ready cloud databases are built for this purpose, enabling developers to effectively manage and utilize unstructured at the next level.
Developers, then, gain the ability to develop innovative and dynamic mobile applications that provide businesses with a competitive edge, especially during high-demand periods. For instance, an advanced NoSQL edge-ready cloud platform integrates a mobile database with seamless synchronization capabilities, enabling organizations to effectively handle data at the edge and support modern applications that deliver superior speed and unwavering reliability.
In straightforward terms, edge computing facilitates the processing of data near its source, enabling real-time interactions critical for a smooth omnichannel user experience. Simultaneously, data synchronization between edge devices and edge data centers guarantees constant availability of data, ensuring uninterrupted accessibility to the app, even during surges in user activity.
Despite the current prosperity of the e-commerce sector in the Philippines, there is no guarantee of sustained success without continuous improvements in user experience. By implementing robust data strategies, businesses can effectively address the challenges brought about by increasing consumer expectations and the demand for personalized, seamless services.
Genie Yuan is the head of solutions engineering, Asia Pacific and Japan, Couchbase.
Taking e-commerce to the next level with edge technology
Philippines Pandemic
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