Learn the implementation of Io T in e commerce

Learn The Implementation Of IoT In E-commerce

According to research firm Statista, India’s retail e-commerce

sales could reach around $20.01 billion in 2017 and expects to

grow $45.17 billion by 2021. Even with this growth, Internet of

Things (IoT) can take e-commerce to the next level.

The IoT has already started working its way into retail stores, and

technologies will continue to disrupt the traditional retail process

in the coming years.

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Consider beacons, devices that retailers use to automatically send

notifications and discounts directly to shoppers’ smartphones

when they enter a store. You may have also noticed digital

signage at some of your favorite stores. These signs push ads and

price changes to stores in real-time, which create target sales for

consumers. MarketsandMarkets expects the global market value

for digital signage to grow to $23.7 billion in 2020 from $15.8

billion in 2015.

IoT and e-commerce have until now evolved in parallel. They are

now embarking on a common journey where every connected

object becomes a potential e-commerce real estate.

They show how e-commerce is evolving towards letting customers

make purchasing choices based on impulse and context instead

of having to browse and select among a myriad of items. They

also show how a purchasing decision is vastly simplified when

discovery and payment friction has been removed.

Here are some case-studies showcasing the application of

IoT to remove friction from E-commerce.


Pinterest’s buyable buttons

Social network Pinterest, which lets its members pin pictures of

things of interest had introduced buyable, buttons in 2015,

transforming the site into a mobile shopping mall. Buyable pins

offer a simple and secure checkout to the site’s mobile app users.

Users need only either personal billing information once, reducing

friction in the shopping experience.

For brands and merchants, it is a novel way to reach customers

while retaining full control over the shopping experience.

Zalando

Online fashion retailer Zalandoallows users to get buying

recommendations based on clothing items they have spotted

around them. For example, users may have notice someone

wearing a jacket that they like. They can take a picture and based

on its product assortment, the app will propose a set of jackets to

checkout that are similar to one they have seen.


Here Zalando is offering both impulse shopping and purchasing

convenience. Customers are no longer browsing a stand-alone

web store but choosing one item they want.

Amazon Dash Replenishment Service (DRS)

Amazon DRS combines Internet of Things with e-commerce to

provide a frictionless shopping experience that is a win-win for

consumers and brands alike. It is an API that enables automatic

replenishment of physical goods either manually from connected

buttons or automatically from connected appliances and devices.

With a thumb-sized Wi-Fi connected branded buttons, consumers

can place orders in one-click without having to input any billing or

shipping details as these are catered via their Amazon account.

From a consumer perspective, the benefit is convenience and not

having to think twice about re-ordering consumables. As Dash

buttons are brand, they also create a tight relationship between

them and brand. Dash buttons act on the consumer’s intention to

buy before they change their mind.


DRS is only the beginning as Amazon had filed a patent for

anticipatory shipping, whereby its backend infrastructure can

anticipate consumers’ future orders and place these in waiting at

the closest shipping hub so as to improve delivery times.

Tapping the missed business opportunity

Today, it is well understood that adding computing and Internet to

product can allow the manufacturer to capture value beyond the

purchase of that objet and into data-driven business models. Car

makers can now offer post-sales services, office furniture makers

can now extend their business into productivity management or

even wellness with examples such as the Tao chair that lets you

work out from the comfort of a connected chair.

Makers of connected things can subsidize them to make money

from data-driven services. What is clear is that selling

unconnected ‘things’ will increasingly look like a missed

opportunity.

Affiliate buttons


Internet of Things will allow any connected ‘thing’ to become an

affiliate for e-commerce goods that are consumed together with

the ‘thing’. Any connected object could become a distribution

surface and customer acquisition channel for e-commerce goods

and services of every kind and description. IoT extends e-

commerce affiliate and user acquisition schemes beyond websites

and apps, into every physical surface. Amazon’s Dash and DRS

Service offers an early glimpse of this model.

Increasing the LTV of customers

IoT will allow e-commerce to stretch across the breadth of the

customer journey. The holy grail of advertising business is being

able to track consumer behavior from awareness to intent to

purchase, and across web, mobile and increasingly a number of

physical connected touch points.

By embedding e-commerce discovery and distribution surface on

physical objects, and more connected touch points across the

customer journey, you are now able to cross the last mile from

awareness to purchase intent to purchase and retention.


Learn the implementation of Io T in e commerce

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