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Speakers at eCom21 are of the opinion that the key role will stay with “big data”, artificial intellect, personalisation of communication, diversity of payment instruments as well as synergy of online and offline services.

“Big data” and a customer profile

As Denis Afanasiev (Денис Афанасьев), CEO of Clever DATA remarked, many people dealing with e-commerce are worried nowadays about the “big data” issue. E-commerce generates and makes use of the huge data volume – information about transactions, visits to pages describing various goods and categories, information about people making orders or visiting websites and leaving their data in logs. All of this data allows a customer profile to be shaped, for understanding his/her preferences, peculiar features of behaviour and consumption and, consequently, helping to make conclusions aimed at business development.

Denis Afanasiev is convinced that “personalised communication based on “big data” about customers has already demonstrated a positive result and is confirmed by successful stories. We can say that those companies that resort to technology options and approaches to communication, advertising and marketing get a competitive advantage in the market”.

He also points out that consumers are becoming more and more demanding regarding quality and communication, and are not tolerant of irrelevant advertising. The expert emphasises that if we know the detailed profile of our customer including his/her behavioural model, interests and possible intentions, it is possible to build up appropriate content, thereby improving interaction with the audience: “When we “see” each user, assess his/her response to offers and advertisements, control the policy of contacts on any channel, collect and repeatedly analyse the data, it is possible to talk about a great role of the user data for multi-channel communication”.

Things will be paid for straight from our accounts

A permanent guest of eCom21, Viktor Dostov (Виктор Достов), President of the Russian Association of e-Money and Money Transfers, draws attention to the significance of the diversity of money instruments. 

“Payment, which was like a ritual earlier, is now becoming something unnoticeable, a part of some context. I believe that “selection” will become the main word in the year to come. We will discover that our clients need various kinds of payment; one kind will not be insufficient. Shops will have to see that the payment page always has several options: not just a payment card but also ApplePay, payment via internet bank, etc. Such diversity will become real in the next few years, and then, new trends will possibly emerge” – the expert says.

Viktor Dostov also pays attention to the ever-growing role of the “Internet of Things”. He thinks that the new diversity of payment interfaces will be dealing with things: “Fridges, cars, printers, etc. – everything will be connected to your bank account and make payments. For instance, if you violate driving rules in Dubai, the camera will identify your car’s number plate and will automatically debit your account with the amount of a fine. The same will happen with other payment scenarios”.

Next day delivery as a norm of tomorrow 
In addition to the above, the experts say that e-commerce will be under the pressure of two basic development models. As Aleksandr Ivanov (Александр Иванов), President of the Russian National Association of Distance Selling, says: “One model – let us call it conventionally – “Amazon” – ousts shops from the market as it wants to become the biggest shop in the world (in an ideal scenario – the only one). The second model (conventionally – “Alibaba”, a market place model) will also soon oust shops from the internet market, because its clear perspective now is to sell goods directly from the manufacturer to clients. However, it does not mean the death of internet shops that have to find their way between Scylla and Charybdis”.

The important prerequisite for successful development of the “Internet of Things” is good synergy between the online and offline services of a company. One vivid example is the speed of goods delivery. Experts have concluded that delivering goods on the next day, or even on the day of making the order will become the norm. The partner of a research company Data Insight, Mr Fedor Virin (Федор Вирин) says that the next day delivery requirement is appearing all across the world, and it will change the entire infrastructure of company logistics. 

How can artificial intellect help? 
eCom21 speakers also draw attention to the prospects of artificial intellect implementation. “An important topic of practically every work aspect of the internet shop is the work with data and artificial intellect: where to open the next point of sale, what offer to make to a client, who visited the application, when to send a letter or “push” and so on. It greatly helps companies and customers now and will play an ever increasing role in the future” – considers Mikhail Osin (Михаил Осин), Director of the website-application OZON.ru. 

Denis Afanasiev emphasises the growing role of artificial intellect as well. His forecast is that next year, artificial intellect will most often be used for micro-segmentation and determination of the best channels and times of communication in order to form a personal offer in accordance with consumer preferences of narrow segments of audience. 

We should also expect synergy from work with various data sources – for instance, unification of knowledge about the audience from offline and online data for maximum understanding of the customer profile and his/her better personalisation. In doing so, the centralised automated management of all accessible advertising communication channels, marketing platforms and services will continue to be developed. 

Experts will share their ideas and vision of the trending topics, perspectives and particular features of business development in the e-commerce sphere in the course of their addresses and discussions at the eCom21 conference. 

You can register as a Forum participant here.