Vinny O'Brien’s Post

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eCommerce Strategist & Consultant | RETHINK Retail 2024 Top Expert | Producer for RWM Commerce Watson Weekend Podcast | Head of SponsorShip RMW Commerce | The V Spot Host

#ecommerce Breaking up is hard to do, or so says Rick Watson and Mark Friedman who were commissioned by Shopware to provide a report about the dilemma that mid market merchants find themselves in. Needing to innovate but unwilling or unable to get off their previous platform. Some of their findings: "We’ve found that more CEOs are willing to spend on marketing and marketing technology than platform technology. In particular: * More merchants are choosing NOT to replatform than replatform, even in cases where they should be." How many of us feel like this - it may be a reality, not a yard stick to beat people with. What is the mid-market? Defined usually in terms of GMV - but this is 1 dimensional. What else should be considered? Company Structure, Brand Complexity, Catalog, Channels, Customer Experience. In a nutshell, mid market is defined through complexity. "Mid-market merchants have almost all the requirements and complexity of an enterprise business with no margin dollars to pay for it. " This survey detail shows how difficult this decision can be. Demandware IPOs in 2012 and listed a number of large merchants on their platform at the time. Today over 50% of them still remain on the platform. Testament to Salesforce? Maybe. But strange all the same. Legacy is hard to unravel. Especially when growth was the word of the year for over a decade. As you read this, you may emapthise with the pains of the mid market Rising costs Poor customer experiences Lack of talent Technical Complexity Declining traffic Missing data opportunities Channel Complexity For me, Talent is a big one. With mulitple projects going on, getting someone to manahge this is tricky. I discussed this with Rick recently where we drew a conclusion that most people in senior ecomm roles had never done a replatform in their careers. The other is architecture. A key, new/old skill or competency this market segment will need to be hiring to get this right. At #NRF the decision boiled down to Unified or Composable - too clean expressions to be so simple. In this report there is a lot to take in (I avoided unpack, just cos') but useful decision criteria. We will spend a lot of time this quarter talking this one out. Not for the faint of heart - hence, breaking up is hard to do. No, you hang up!! I will share the link in the comments. #strategy #retail #omnichannel #usretail #platform

Matthew Z.

Logistics Ambassador who is Logistically Obsessed | Co-Founder MonarKonnect

9mo

Vinny, it's fascinating how mid-market merchants are hesitant to replatform despite the need for innovation. It's almost like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sometimes the devil you know seems safer than the unknown, especially with budgets stretched thin. In your experience, are there certain signs that definitely point to 'It's time to switch,' or is it more about gradual realization?

Brendan McMahon

Digital Strategy Leader | Expert in eCommerce & Customer Experience | Growth and Operational Excellence

9mo

I love it, can't wait to see the report. Resistance to re-platforming and costs associated drive so many to build the Frankenstein's monster of bolt-on services and systems adding complexity to the architecture and opening doors to more issues down the road. Spot on many execs have not done replatforms but safe to say a high percentage have done multiple 'integrations'.

Thanks for sharing!

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