As an Enterprise’s Digital Commerce Journey evolves and matures, the concepts of multi-channel and omni-channel get very blurred and potentially outdated.
As a business, you have a Commerce Channel which you derive Revenue out of via all Transactions. These Transactions, “The Big T”, come from direct selling (outside, inside and counter sales), partner selling (all non-employee related selling), online selling (traditional eCom, Apps, Punchouts), research interactions (find a store/dealer, product info), and many other modes (some of which may not even be created yet). At the end of the day this “Big T” is all Transactions/Interactions, any-time and any-where. These should be processed through a robust technology stack, which is the definition of the CommerceEngine.
To make this CommerceEngine a reality, you need not only a solid Technology Stack, but also Process Effectiveness (doing the right things as much as possible) and Good People (both internal employees and external business partners). At the core of this CommerceEngine is a tightly integrated Cart, Catalog, Personalization and Order Management Functionality, residing in the Cloud, leveraging Intelligent/Responsive/Mobile First User Experiences (natively or headless) and built from the ground up via API First Architecture with an ability to provide frictionless integrations to the rest of your Enterprise Systems (CMS, PIM, ERP, CRM, WMS, POS).
This is the Essence of the CommerceEngine. Regardless if your business model is B2B, B2b, Hybrid B2B/b, B2C, B2b2C, B2B2C, Direct to Consumer, the days of not allowing all of your Constituents to Transact, The “Big T”, seamlessly and consistently on their terms is long since passed. These Constituents are becoming more Digitally Mature every day. Are You?
