Tips to champion digital transformation during COVID-19: A Q&A on eCommerce trends & business automation with Celigo’s Ebru Saglam
Celigo is a company known to help retailers successfully navigate digital transformation to drive revenue by automating business processes. Celigo is also a Happy Returns partner.
We sat down with Celigo’s Product Marketing Manager, Ebru Saglam, to discuss how today’s shift to eCommerce is accelerating revenue diversification and business automation—and how retailers can reimagine their infrastructure to win in the new normal.
Following are highlights of our conversation:
How do you see eCommerce trends shifting recently? How has COVID-19 altered these shifts?
We have seen two general trends around diversification of revenue channels and automation of business processes because of the pandemic:
1) Digital transformation & the diversification of revenue
There has been an acceleration in “Digital Transformation” that would not have happened this quickly without a forcing function. Brick-and-mortar companies that previously hadn’t considered eCommerce are now prioritizing the ramp-up of new channels to make up for lost retail revenue.
2) Retail process automation
Whether a company is growing, remaining stable, or shrinking as a consequence of COVID-19, there has been a very strong trend towards automation across the spectrum of businesses.
Whether a company is growing, remaining stable, or shrinking as a consequence of COVID-19, there has been a very strong trend towards automation across the spectrum of businesses.
Many of the companies that experienced negatively impacted orders had to shrink down their operations. They simply need to automate as many processes as possible in order to work with fewer resources.
And for the companies that have seen a sudden increase in business, they now have to handle more orders with the same resources, and so a significant number of these companies are trying to automate as many processes as they can.
What impacts has COVID-19 had across your customer base?
The trends our customers have experienced largely mirror what many have observed in the larger market:
Certain segments such as apparel, luxury goods, and outdoor sporting goods have seen a decline in orders, though they do not comprise the majority of our customers with an eCommerce presence.
Other segments, such as essential goods, CPG, toys, entertainment, alcoholic beverages, health and beauty, and indoor sporting goods are seeing growth, in some cases significant growth.
No matter how the market has affected the company, however, we have seen a growth in investment in eCommerce in general. Analysts like Forrester predicted an increase in retail investments this year back in March, and retail stock trading is having a renaissance during the market’s recent wild ride.
In light of this impact, what advice do you have for eCommerce businesses who want to adjust to the next normal?
Revenue diversification through a multi-channel strategy and automation of business processes are two of the most important things a company selling physical goods can do at a time like this. Not only does this help mitigate the risk associated with uncertain times, but it will reap benefits when the market returns to normal, as companies have the infrastructure ready to accommodate future growth and improved customer experience without a significant increase in overhead.
How can retailers best prepare for eventual store reopenings?
Look to use technology in ways you may not have considered before. For example, how can you leverage technology to blend an online and in-store buying experience? There are excellent tools to help with online ordering, store/curbside pickups, returns processing, and every aspect of the business with lots of room for innovation.
What trends and impacts do you think will stick around after the pandemic leaves us?
We will continue seeing rising adoption of online purchasing among folks who only shopped in-store before. From the business perspective, accelerated digital transformation and the automation and convenience it entails, will not only continue when the world returns to normal, but will continue to grow.
Do you have any additional tips to share?
As counterintuitive as it might seem, now is the time to really examine your operations and take the time to make infrastructural changes to automate as many business processes as possible. Ask yourself:
Are there employees manually entering data in multiple systems?
Do orders need to be emailed to the warehouse?
Are you always 100% confident in your inventory levels?
Do you know which geography is most profitable at all times?
Does it take more than a few days to close the books and understand the cash position of your company?
Are customers complaining of delays and errors?
In many cases, these processes can be improved, overhead reduced, and customer satisfaction increased by removing the human intervention and automating them. This is where an iPaaS really shines - it accelerates the time it takes to connect applications, allowing data to move seamlessly across the entire supply chain.
Not only will it help you survive now, but also help you thrive in the future.
Tell us a little about Celigo and your role.
Celigo is a complete integration platform (iPaaS) that allows people to easily connect and automate processes across thousands of applications. By using Celigo, companies can automate the entire eCommerce, supply chain, logistics, customer support, marketing, and accounting processes by connecting applications such as storefronts, marketplaces, ERP, CRM, 3PL, EDI, returns, and so much more.
By leveraging a single platform, companies can quickly build, manage, and maintain complex integrations at scale, with fewer IT resources than would otherwise be needed for custom development. This is especially important in the current environment, where efficiency, perfection, complete visibility, and happy customers are critical for companies who are selling physical products.
As Celigo’s Product Marketing Manager, my role requires me to understand the customer and market needs, as well as the use cases our product needs to support. My background is in eCommerce, which serves well for this role, as thousands of product companies rely on Celigo in their operations.
Want to learn more about automating exchanges and returns online? Read our blog “How omni-channel retailers can decrease refund rates with Happy Returns' returns software and reverse logistics.”
Caitlin Roberson
VP of Marketing
Caitlin Roberson is the Vice President of Marketing at Happy Returns. Previously, she served as Director of Enterprise Marketing at Lyft and Partner at top-tier venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Before that, she started and sold a content marketing agency.
