Customer Service

Elevating Customer Experience With D2C Ops

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the area of customer experience. One of the most impacted industries due to this has been the e-commerce industry, which has seen a substantial increase in sales, especially in the US.

• Over 63% of consumer-facing organizations are looking to build digital storefronts through direct to consumer (D2C) models.
• Key aspects of D2C operations include: digital storefront, business operations back office, digital marketing ops, fulfillment, digital business insights and reporting.
• Infosys BPM’s D2C differentiators: Ability to address various stages of digital maturity, speed of going live, rapid deployment, one-stop shop.

Podcast Audio Transcript

Alisha: Hello listeners, this is Alisha; thank you for tuning in to yet another exciting and informative podcast from us at Infosys BPM. Today, we are discussing about the evolution of customer experience and the response of Infosys BPM to it, specifically in ecommerce. And to talk about this, we have here with us, Shyam Rao, AVP and Sr. Practice Engagement Manager – Digital Transformation Services. Welcome Shyam. How are you today?

Shyam: Thank you, Alisha. I’m doing great.

Alisha: Good to hear that! Shyam, to start with, the area of customer experience is rapidly evolving. How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced customer experience in ecommerce? And where do you see demand going?

Shyam: Good question, Alisha. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the ecommerce industry. We saw 75% increase in total US ecommerce sales within 3 months of the pandemic impact last year. Besides this, we saw 100% increase in online grocery sales and three times rise in BOPSIS, which stands for “buy online, pick up in store”. These trends evidently indicate that customers, having experienced online purchasing on an unprecedented scale, now prefer more innovative ecommerce solutions. The reason is that customer experience is typically elevated through a digital solution.

Many organizations are looking for support in building a “digital storefront” through D2C operations, which stands for “direct to customer”, rather than depending on third-party online retailers. This new paradigm shift provides great advantages in terms of customer experience. For instance, it provides brands the ability to leverage data to model better customer experiences, rather than depend on limited capabilities from third-party retail platforms.

Alisha: Tell us a bit more about D2C storefronts.

Shyam: So, D2C storefronts include only two parties – the manufacturer and the customer. This ensures that brands have control over CX and can use it to increase customer adoption, purchases, and loyalty. Hence, it’s no wonder that we are now seeing over 63% of businesses focussing on building innovative experiences for their customers through D2C channels.

Alisha: Shyam, that’s great to know that D2C is creating amazing customer experiences in ecommerce. Could you give a glimpse into what Infosys BPM is doing to help customers set up their own direct-to-customer ecommerce channels?

Shyam: Sure. Our solution helps jump-start the digital store journey for our clients. Our solution is a set of “technology and business operation” Lego blocks to launch a digital storefront within a few weeks. In addition to launching, we also run the store for our clients and provide customer support. The storefronts we develop can be in D2C, B2B2C, or B2B models based on need.

Let me give you an idea of the Lego blocks of the solution.

1. Digital customer storefront: We take care of the design, building, and operations of the customer’s storefront. In B2B2C model, we also provide a dealer microsite.
2. Business operations back office: We manage the storefront catalogue, order processing, and customer care teams and tools.
3. Digital marketing ops: We provide tools and solutions to improve the reach of the digital storefront and products through offers and promotions.
4. Fulfilment: We provide managed third-party logistics through our field operations to handle print-out, picking, packing, shipment, receipt, and returns.
5. Digital business insights & reporting: We develop real-time insights and reports through data analytics.