Rethinking ecommerce Research Report: Executive Summary

Overcoming pain points and challenges for a business fit for the digital future

Successful business both today and in the future is powered by ecommerce. In the fallout from global events like Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, ecommerce operations in all sectors have experienced rapid growth. According to a study by McKinsey, businesses have condensed three to four years of digital transformation into a matter of weeks in direct response to the pandemic. But the transformation of ecommerce has not stopped there. 

The pace of change is continuing, with new technologies – from NFTs to the metaverse – set to cause more upheaval. However, despite the increased investment into ecommerce operations seen in recent years, many businesses in both B2B and B2C sectors are still not set up for success.

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About the Research Report

In this research, we interviewed 200 senior ecommerce leaders from retail/wholesale, manufacturing, publishing/ media, membership sites, and B2B services sectors. We asked how their organisation has fared through this phase of accelerated digitalisation and how prepared they are for the future. We look at what technology challenges they have faced, whether they have amassed technical debt during this time, if the changes they have made are sustainable, and whether they are seeing results from their efforts. As B2B and B2C businesses evaluate their investments in ecommerce solutions and make plans to incorporate future technologies and innovations, we want to know if today’s ecommerce leaders feel their business is fit for the digital future. 

The research indicates that despite the high levels of investment in ecommerce solutions over the past two years, businesses overall are not deriving optimal value or benefits from their technology. To improve their ecommerce performance and their ability to react to fluctuating user preferences and any other potential global shocks, realising value from their technology investments will be critical for businesses. To do this successfully, companies need to take a more user-centric approach, improve their data analytics strategy, and evaluate the flexibility of their underlying infrastructure.

Allie Brock

Head of E-Commerce

As Head of Ecommerce, Allie oversees every aspect of ecommerce strategy at Box UK, shaping and strengthening our offering to support the delivery of high-quality and high-performance ecommerce solutions for our clients.