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  • Announcing New Pre-Composed Solution™ for B2B Commerce - B2B Digital Transformation: Easier Said Than Done Your customer: “How much does that cost?” You: “Well… that depends.” As a B2B business, maybe you don’t do set pricing. You can’t do it. Maybe your offerings are too complex. Maybe you like to treat every single customer differently. Maybe you manufacture from base materials that are vulnerable to rapidly fluctuating commodity prices. Maybe you’ve just always done it that way. Regardless, you have your reasons and so your business relies on quoting. But you’ve held back from implementing automated, digital quoting because of the perceived complexity and expense. The ubiquity of digital commerce, however, has set different expectations and it’s no longer good enough for you to entice your buyers with an amazing discovery experience only to end up at a “Please call for pricing” pop-up. A New Approach to B2B Digitization With our new Pre-Composed Solution™ for B2B Commerce, co-developed in partnership with Systems Integrator DigiCommerce, B2B brands can quickly launch and optimize the automated, digital B2B commerce experiences (including quoting!) that your buyers demand. Powered by Composable Commerce, an approach that enables brands to bring their unique digital vision to life by leveraging multiple best-of-breed vendors composed together into a complete business-ready solution, brands no longer have to compromise between the rigid B2B commerce solutions of the past or taking on the risk of stitching together modern technologies. This solution composes core B2B commerce functionality (like Account Management, complex catalog support), Role-Based Access, etc.) from Elastic Path Commerce Cloud, with pre-built digital experiences for B2B buyers and sellers to make quoting, and other core B2B experiences, possible. Power The Convenient Experiences Your Buyers Demand These pre-integrated B2B features are used to power the digital-first experiences that your customers demand.  The granular system of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), allows your customers to fully model their organizational structure – who can order what and for how much, who can transact, etc.  Within this controlled context, your customers can easily: Create carts (orders) manually or via convenient CSV upload Share carts across their organization Save carts for later use including often repeated orders View all their orders and their status Submit an order for quote, as well as modify and re-submit Accept a quote and transact via credit card or purchase order Split the resulting order fulfillment across multiple delivery addresses …And Digitize The Key Processes Your Account Reps Rely On The same RBAC system allows you to model your side of the equation – who manages what, who can set prices, approve quotes, etc. right down to who manages Betty’s accounts when she’s on vacation. Your account reps can easily see the orders of their assigned accounts in detail and manage them accordingly.  In addition, the Pre-Composed Solution™ also comes with a powerful built-in dashboard that provides, to those with adequate permissions, rapid analysis of all orders across the entire organization. Another great capability comes from the fact that essentially everything your customer can do with their order, so too can an account rep. This enables what is known in the B2C world as buying on behalf of or shopper impersonation. Maybe some of your customers are a little old-school or maybe they’re in the field and just can’t get to their computer. In these cases, the rep can create the order, share with the customer, provide the quote, and move it along in the process. When you combine that ability with our flexible catalog and multiple price book model, you’ve instantly (and inexpensively) put a powerful tool in the hands of your field reps whether they be online, on the phone, or on the road. Whereas your end customers drop by your site, conduct some business, and move on, your employees live in these systems all day every day. There are still plenty of folks out there (even one is too many in my opinion!) who spend hours tabbing their way through complex legacy “green screen” systems to get the job done. One of the most enduring benefits of this solution will be just how pleasant it is to use. Despite packing in a lot of really high-powered functionality, this Pre-Composed Solution™ offers a UX that is highly intuitive and logical in its flow and a UI that is clean, giving the users power with an easy learning curve and no cognitive overload. Your team is busy keeping the customer satisfied. The last thing they need is to struggle with their tools. Transformation + Trust = The Future of B2B eCommerce Your core business isn’t easy. If it was, someone else would be doing it for less. Our highly flexible solution acknowledges the inherent complexity in what you sell and how you sell it, and helps you transform from what has been a high-touch offline process to a new frictionless digital experience for your customers without jeopardizing your most valuable asset – their trust.
    Topics: quoting, order, digital, maybe, customer, commerce, announcing, experiences, customers, b2b, solution, precomposed.
  • How To Get Ahead of The Competition with Easy-to-Launch eCommerce Subscription Services ? - Prior to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a shift in customer buying habits, as more and more shoppers were in search for convenience and preferred to complete their purchases online. So it’s no surprise that after the COVID-19 stay-at-home measures were implemented, the demand for online subscription services spiked. Shoppers fell in love with the ease and convenience of online shopping for their favorite products and having it automatically delivered to their door steps, without putting their health at risk. In 2020 alone we saw a 48% increase in subscription enrollment, with $3 Billion in orders in the physical goods eCommerce subscription space, with no signs of it slowing down even after the end of the pandemic. As such, it is a great time for retailers to enter the market and add subscriptions services to their existing physical products or simply start from scratch. By deploying subscription services, it puts brands in an ideal position to drive predictable and sustained revenue, while also generating increased customer loyalty with more affordable buying options. Gartner even predicts that, “By 2024, leading commerce organizations will generate 10% of online revenue from services, such as subscriptions, attached to physical products.” However, they also state that while “75% of organizations selling direct to consumer will offer subscriptions services by 2023, only 20% will succeed in increasing customer retention.”   Why’s that you may ask? Firstly, while consumers are easily enticed to purchase subscription services, they tend to cancel those that don’t create extended value and deliver superior end-to-end user experiences. Once they find that the subscription is too limited, they often aren’t able to justify the value and cancel, leading to a high churn rate for brands. And secondly, it’s difficult for brands to continuously drive convenience, offer personalized and curated choices, and grant exclusive access for their subscription services, when they leverage traditional out-of-the-box subscription management solutions. These types of solutions lack the flexibility to create personalized subscription experiences or are excessively expensive and time consuming to do so. This leaves brands incapable of keeping up with customer demands, which leads to high churn. So how should brands who are interested in entering the subscription services market go about doing so? In this article, we will dive into understanding if you need a subscription management solution and explain how Elastic Path can help businesses excel when launching subscription management services, thanks to our newly launched Pre-Composed SolutionsTM for Subscriptions.   Do You Need A Subscription Management Solution? It’s important to first understand if your business even needs a subscription management solution. Oftentimes, brands think they need a “subscription management” solution, when what they really need is a “recurring billing” service. These terms are used interchangeably quite often, even though they serve different purposes. Subscription management is the organization and oversight of the interaction between the business and its customers. This could include: Handling customer information and communications Customizing precise subscription packages Managing bundles and promotions Providing access to customer analytics and more. While recurring billing is the process of: Generating periodic invoices for customers Tracking and collecting payments on a predetermined basis And storing payment information   So as you can see, the two are indeed not the same, but are actually complementary to each other. However, when paired together, they do create a good solution for both managing the services, and what we might see as the most important part, collecting payments that go towards your revenue. Therefore, if you’re the type of brand that is just looking for a way to allow your customers to sign up with their payment credentials, and have a payment be automatically collected for a specified period, then a standalone recurring billing service may be right for you. However, if you’re the type of brand that is interested in: Developing schematic pricing Offering limited exclusive discounts Leveraging dunning management to communicate with customers Customizing customer-specific subscription bundles And integrating with an eCommerce solution that allows you to create a unique shopping experience Then a subscription management service may be right for you. So how can you get started and get up and running quickly? With the new Pre-Composed Solution™ for Subscriptions built by our partner Pixie Labs.   New: Pre-Composed Solution™ for Subscriptions At Elastic Path, we understand the desire to innovate and test new business ventures quickly, while also minimizing risk. That’s exactly why we offer Pre-Composed SolutionsTM. These business-ready solutions are pre-composed from a combination of Elastic Path commerce capabilities, third-party integrations, and customizations that brands can use to quickly deploy a commerce solution; with greater flexibility and less risk. Our new Pre-Composed Solution™ for Subscriptions, built by Elastic Path partner, Pixie Labs, on top of Elastic Path Commerce Cloud, provides a complete subscription management solution that allows for B2B, B2C, and D2C brands to quickly create and customize unique subscription services for their customers, that drive predictable and scalable revenue channels. In addition to the Elastic Path core commerce capabilities, this solution comes pre-integrated with: Stripe for payments Postmark for email services And an analytics dashboard to allow brands to build differentiated subscription services from scratch, or as an addition to their existing Elastic Path implementation. As previously mentioned, traditional subscription management solutions are often rigid and come predefined, which makes it difficult for brands to create custom subscription services. This Pre-Composed Solution™ reduces the time and complexity of configuring customer-centric subscription services, and thus empowers brands to get ahead of their competition faster. Additionally, the ultimate flexibility of the microservices architecture also enables brands to quickly experiment with new approaches that could give them sustained advantages in their market. Therefore, brands can now feel empowered to create differentiated subscription services that keep their customers engaged and satisfied, allowing them to succeed in increasing customer retention and driving more sustained revenue. With the joint solution from Pixie Labs and Elastic Path, brands will have access to a complete end-to-end eCommerce subscriptions solution that offers: Speed to Market: You can get up and running in weeks and update with ease as market demands and product offerings change. High configurability: You will be able to cater to customer specific subscription preferences that usually involves complex bundling of products, pricing, and promotions. Sustained and predictable revenue: By offering more cost-effective models to customers through subscription services, you will be able to yield a higher retention rate, which would lead to more predictable revenue. Reduced Cost: You’ll be able to reduce your overall total cost of ownership by eliminating the need to license multiple software vendors, to achieve your personalized subscription management solution. We'd love to talk about how this Pre-Composed Solution™ for Subscriptions could help you launch your subscription management services in record time. Reach out today or join us for a live “All Demo-No Pitch” session of this Pre-Composed Solution™ on December 14th. Register Here.  
    Topics: brands, subscriptions, ecommerce, customer, services, solution, easytolaunch, path, subscription, elastic, management, ahead, precomposed, competition.
  • How to Avoid Channel Conflict When Launching a D2C Website For the First Time - Times have changed for branded manufacturers who traditionally sold only through third party dealers. At Elastic Path, we see proof of this every day. More and more brands are eager to expand their reach and connect with customers by selling directly to them. These brands often come to us looking for a partner to help them drive new digital revenue through D2C AND keep their existing dealer relationships. In this post, we will dive deep into this trend and explain how Elastic Path can now help businesses avoid channel conflict when launching a D2C (direct-to-consumer) thanks to our newly launched Pre-Composed Solution™ for Dealer-Enabled D2C Commerce.   Why D2C Now?   There isn’t one single reason why brands are embracing D2C with more enthusiasm now than ever before. But, there are several contributing factors to consider: Customers want to buy direct: As customers become more comfortable with purchasing via digital channels, they are less likely to visit their local brick and-mortar distributor. Instead, they want to go straight to the brands website to quickly and easily make a purchase. According to a PYMNTS report, “the use of online direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels to purchase consumer-packaged goods (CPG) has grown by 50.1 percent since the pandemic began” Pressure to drive growth with digital: Many brands are feeling the pressure from their c-suites and boards to drive increased digital commerce revenue. Whereas digital commerce was once a small portion of total revenue, we now see it making up a larger share of businesses focus. Brands are looking for new ways to increase this revenue source, such as launching D2C. Freedom to innovate & differentiate: When a brand adds a D2C channel, they no longer have to conform to dealer regulations. This empowers them to display a broader product range, control their pricing and discounts, use their preferred content, and speak in their own brand voice. Brands long for this control as it means they can finally create truly unique experiences that differentiate them from the competition and “wow” customers. As markets become more crowded, this differentiation is critical. The Covid-19 Pandemic: There are two main reasons the pandemic accelerated digital commerce growth. First, many brick-and-mortar stores closed up shop for safety reasons. This meant that brands who relied heavily on in-person shopping needed to find another way to drive revenue. Many of these brands, went direct-to-consumer for the first time. A second reason was availability. During the pandemic many dealers struggled to stay fully stocked on key products. The manufacturers of those brands prioritized keeping their limited products to sell directly to consumers for the highest ROI. According to eMarketer, US D2C eCommerce sales grew 45.5% last year—generating $111B and making up 14% of total retail ecommerce sales. Facing the Reality of Channel Conflict It’s clear that there is a massive opportunity for brands who want to launch D2C commerce for the first time. But before going all-in on D2C, brands need to consider how their new D2C business will impact their existing dealer partners and if it will cause channel conflict. Simply put, channel conflict is when two or more partners in a sales channel oppose each other. In this case, brands need to make sure that they are not competing against their dealer partners. Neglecting to evaluate channel conflict to the point where you alienate your dealers can cause brands to: Lose access to customers who have strong, loyal relationships to your brand, specifically through your dealers Lose a vital distribution channel, especially when it comes to brick-and-mortar Blindside your dealer partners, damaging relationships and negatively impacting your bottom line   Adapting a Multi-Channel Strategy   If this sounds like a challenge your business is currently facing, do not fear! Many brands have navigated channel conflict when launching D2C commerce for the first time and you can too. A thoughtful, multi-channel strategy can help you reap the benefits of both going D2C and keeping your dealer partnerships intact. For example, enabling consumers to purchase on your direct site and picking up at a dealer location. Brands who embrace a multi-channel strategy are able to drive rapid growth, power convenient experiences for your customers (regardless of how they choose to shop), and supercharge brand differentiation. But how do I adopt a multi-channel strategy? Great question. One of the key enablers to successfully going multi-channel is technology. Flexible digital commerce technology that empowers brands to customize per their unique use cases, easily integrate with core third party technology, and launch in weeks, not months –is key to multi-channel success. That is exactly why Elastic Path is announcing our new Pre-Composed Solution™ for Dealer-Enabled D2C Commerce, built by our partner Cnetric.   Pre-Composed Solution™ for Dealer-Enabled D2C Commerce Elastic Path eliminates the complexity of launching a dealer-integrated D2C channel by pre-assembling core commerce functionality from Elastic Path with Contentful for CMS, Algolia for search, and Stripe for payments. Go to Solution New: Pre-Composed Solution™ for Dealer-Enabled D2C Commerce   At Elastic Path, we understand the need to balance speed to business results and the ability to customize for your unique use cases. While API-first commerce is a great fit for innovation, some solutions are extremely time consuming to launch and optimize. That is exactly why we offer Pre-Composed Solutions™. These business-ready solutions are pre-composed from a combination of Elastic Path commerce capabilities, 3rdparty integrations, and customizations that brands can use to quickly deploy a commerce solution; with greater flexibility and less risk. Our new Pre-Composed Solution™ for Dealer-Enabled D2C Commerce, built by Elastic Path partner Cnetric, reduces the complexity of composing and launching a net-new D2C channel by combining core commerce capabilities from Elastic Path, a D2C storefront built on REACT , Contentful for content management, Algolia for search, and Stripe for payments. This solution also eliminates channel conflict by integrating a dealer portal for fulfillment management so that orders placed online can be picked up in store or shipped from store. Plus, since this solution is built using microservices-based architecture and Cnetric’s Universal Commerce Framework, it’s easy and fast to optimize on demand as customer needs and competitive pressures change. Brands can switch out preferred third party technology such as their CMS or search provider in as little as 30 minutes. Core functionality includes: D2C web & mobile storefront built on REACT Pre-Integrated Best-of-Breed Technology Contentful for CMS Algolia for search Stripe for payments Builtt on Cnetric's Unicerval Commerce Suite which enables low code/no code swapping of technology partners as neeeded Fully Integrated dealer portal Inventory management updates process in real-time to the storefront Pickup and delivery order processing with order status updates to customers Support for curbside pickup   We'd love to connect on how this Pre-Composed Solution™ for Dealer-Enabled D2C Commerce could help you launch a D2C channel without creating channel conflict. Reach out today or, join us for a live “All Demo-No Pitch” session of this Pre-Composed Solution™ on August 25th. Register Here.
    Topics: path, precomposed, launching, d2c, channel, solution, website, brands, dealer, conflict, avoid, elastic, digital, commerce.
  • How to Launch a New D2C Channel in 90 Days or Less - The Continued Rise of D2C Commerce: In Gartner’s latest Digital Commerce Market Share Analysis, a key theme was continued exploration of new business models for brands looking to double down on their existing successful digital commerce businesses.  Specifically they shared: “Exploration occurs into direct-to-consumer (D2C) for manufacturing and consumer packaged goods (CPG) verticals due to the disruptions in distribution channels.” Brands in these industries, and others, have seen an opportunity to explore direct-to-consumer (D2C) commerce for the first time.  In this blog post, I share some top reasons for why we are seeing an increased investment in D2C. But, in short: Customers want to buy direct Brands are feeling the pressure to drive growth with digital A D2C model means brands can innovate and differentiate on their own terms The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption & disrupted product availability Fast & Flexible & Budget Friendly: Can You Have All Three? 10 years ago the needs of brands embracing digital were simple. Driving digital revenue was as easy as launching a basic website and the expected timeline to implement or make a significant change was 9-18 months. Traditional platforms were a perfect fit for these brands, it provided everything they needed to launch eCommerce out of the box and promised to scale with their enterprise business. But, the digital world has drastically changed in the last 10 years. Now having a website is table stakes.  D2C brands feel the constant pressure to differentiate their digital presence through omni-channel experiences, out-innovate the likes of Amazon, and keep up with customer needs with engaging experiences that outshine the competition. We are not only seeing the need to launch D2C, but the need to design unique brand-centric experiences and launch them fast, without breaking the bank. This is easier said than done. The reality is, the majority of eCommerce platforms on the market provide can’t offer all three. Fast: Traditional platforms like Shopify might promise speed to market but, their technology is rigid meaning if you’d like to customize their base offering (for example: launch D2C in multiple countries or give merchandisers complete flexibility to create dynamic product bundles), it will require expensive and time-consuming workarounds.   Flexible: MACH-based platforms like Commercetools promise flexibility to design and launch the D2C experiences of your wildest dreams BUT, their offering is made up of 100s of APIs that only a company with an extremely high digital maturity could take advantage of.  We often hear from brands who have run a POC with Commercetools only to find the technology too complex to actually meet their unique needs in a timely manner.   Cost-Effective: While on paper both Shopify and Commercetools may seem cost effective, their inability to provide solutions that are both fast & flexible means that brands will have to compensate with custom work that drives up TCO. For brands looking for a simple way to deliver their unique digital commerce experiences (even when they are complex!) in a cost effective way, there is no good option. This problem is exactly what we seek to fix at Elastic Path.  We provide Composable, API-first Headless Commerce solutions that make it simple for brands with complex requirements to deliver unique digital commerce experiences. While our modular microservices-based architecture and business-centric core commerce capabilities provide flexibility, our Pre-Composed Solutions™ ensure brands can get to market rapidly, without blowing their budgets. These business-ready solutions are built on top of Elastic Path Commerce Cloud and pre-integrate core Elastic Path capabilities, 3rd party integrations, and any necessary customizations.  By pre-composing everything brands need to fulfill a specific use case, we eliminate the risk of having to custom-piece together your own solution and we ensure speed to market. New: Pre-Composed Solution™ for Rapid D2C Commerce: Today we are excited to announce the latest addition to our library of Pre-Composed Solutions™: a Pre-Composed Solution™ for Rapid D2C Commerce, also known as CommerceFactory, built by Elastic Path Partner TA Digital.  After the success we had with a similar Pre-Composed Solution™ on Elastic Path Commerce, it was a no-brainer for us to co-develop a 2nd Pre-Composed Solution™ for Elastic Path Commerce Cloud in order to take advantage of the explosive growth we’re seeing with our MACH-based offering for high-growth brands. This solution gives brands the flexibility and speed to easily launch their unique D2C experiences, without blowing their budget. Key benefits include: Reduce technical complexity by eliminating manual integrations and ground-up site builds   Launch in 90 days, guaranteed, with a fully-managed, pre-integrated solution   Reduce IT costs with “ready-to-launch" solution that removes the need for extra delivery or dev work   Drive customer loyalty & revenue with intuitive and engaging D2C customer experiences across channels It reduces the risk and time commitment associated with embracing a multi-vendor solution by pre-integrating Acquia for CMS, Elastic Search for search, CyberSource or Stripe for payments, and Avalara & Vertex for tax and shipping.  Plus, since it is built on flexible microservices architecture, brands can easily customize their experiences at launch or months or years down the road. Core features include: Enterprise CMS functionality such as content workflow, drag & drop content, dynamic image scaling, support for multi-language, visual page builder and more   D2C experiential design focus including large imagery support, promotion banners, SEO friends, full width design, and more   Mobile optimized including cross-platform cart, PWA, and quick payment methods   D2C enterprise commerce functionality such as bundling, advanced promotions, catalog syndication, Google, Facebook, & Instagram integration, guest checkout, guided shopper, single page checkout and much more We’d love to connect on how this Pre-Composed Solution™ for Rapid D2C Commerce could help you launch a D2C channel in 90 days or less. Reach out today to learn more.
    Topics: digital, experiences, days, brands, precomposed, path, d2c, commerce, solution, elastic, launch, channel.