A guide to the 7 building blocks of e-commerce in a post-Covid era.

In a recent Google review of MENA’s e-commerce landscape, the e-commerce market was sized at approximately $21 billion in 2020 at a penetration rate of 5.7%; but there is significant room for growth.

Brick-and-mortar stores are upping their online game with a focus on (ROI), long gone are the days of traditional marketing. As the market continues to evolve, it's now more important than ever to understand and capture e-commerce opportunities effectively.

Here are the 7-step building blocks of the e-commerce value chain.

1. Supply

Procurement, pricing, inventory management, planning, and forecasting along with data sharing and understanding of inventory and different selling models can play into your marketing strategy.

2. Warehousing and logistics

Speed, otherwise known in the region as "Yalla let's go", is the name of the game. With people getting used to "on-demand" services day by day, optimizing your operations to ensure adequate supply, while minimizing working capital through automation is a crucial point as it will inspire smoother customer service experiences.

3. Digital merchandising

When it comes to digital, UX is everything. It is the enabler for click-through-rates and conversions therefore, storefront management and pricing/ promotions need to be designed with the end-user in mind. Looking good doesn't cut it anymore, cheaper prices don't always work and if the overall customer experience is bad, you'll have a lot of churns.

4. Marketing

Aaah yes! You have an amazing product, a world-class sales team......... but no marketing (Pricing, promotions, partnerships, content, personalization, SEO, affiliate/email/ social SEM marketing, remarketing, analytics, etc.). Well, you might as well close your business. If you are not willing to engage with your customers, wherever they may be, then please don't bash out at your amazing "world-class" sales team for not hitting those targets. No one has heard of you, what did you expect, magic? It is crucial to have a 360-strategy, have some sort of a digital budget, start promoting through referrals (word of mouth is still one of the most effective marketing techniques), accept the fact that you need influencers, and don't fire your entire marketing team the moment things dip for a bit. Marketing takes time, be patient.

Having difficulties knowing who wants what and what works where? Here's a free tool that can help you identify trends. Google Trends.

5. Sales

Add "transaction management" to enable the entire user journey from registration/product search, to "add to cart" and payment. As mentioned above, UX is very important and the way a buyer navigates through your site all the way to the purchase page needs to be well designed. The focus needs to be on assortment, product availability, and pricing as key drivers of conversion.

The chart below shows how fast online is gaining traction over offline.

6. Fulfillment

Great, order placed, but you're not done yet. Remember the entire customer journey means all the way until the product is delivered, this means packing, distribution, and returns. And since you're dealing with fussy customers in an age where everything is on-demand and accessible within the hour, don't forget to add that extra level of comfort and convenience, and delivery tracking. You'd really help your customer service avoid unnecessary delivery follow-up calls. So invest a bit in some automation and tracking.

7. Customer service

Oh, you thought you're done? No, it doesn't stop here, after-sales is one of the major reasons some customers don't come back or jump ship to a similar brand. If you want to lock them in, great customer service is needed. Order inquiry, change/ cancel/ exchange/ returns management, and loyalty program management are all part of it. Addressing pain points and offering a smooth experience will go a long way. Be genuine and always put yourself in the customers' shoes. Customers are demanding and expecting fast and seamless connections with brands. You simply got to give it to them.

Lastly, I'd like to shed the light on change and the importance of it. Don't get stuck in the past, always innovate, follow your customers and their trends, stay up to date, stay relevant. On that note, and since e-commerce is heavily dependant on logistics, I'd like to end this with a very nice quote from one of the leading logistics CEOs that simply summarises this mindset.

The last mile of today is your first mile of tomorrow.

by Hussein Wehbe