Over the past few years, consumer behavior has shifted in many ways. For example, online shopping remains a key part of a brand’s success, as does the in-store experience. And buy online, pick up in-store, a service born during the pandemic, remains popular with shoppers, while consumers are craving quicker delivery times.
Here, Sharon Gee, senior vice president of sales and partnerships at Feedonomics, a BigCommerce company, discusses these trends, the rise of omnichannel shopping and how Feedonomics can help brands succeed in this new era of retailing.
WWD: How did the pandemic transform retail? How, where and why do consumers shop the way they do?
Sharon Gee: It comes as no surprise that the retail industry saw a giant reprioritization toward digital technology during the pandemic. With lockdowns and safety concerns, there was no other choice at that time but for e-commerce to soar as the primary shopping method, transforming the ways retailers needed to sell and retain customers.
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In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 Annual Retail Trade Survey release, e-commerce sales increased by $244.2 billion or 43 percent in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, rising from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020.
Fast forward to 2023 and global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated $5.8 trillion. Projections indicate a 39 percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to surpass $8 trillion by 2027.
With brick-and-mortar stores experiencing a resurgence in foot traffic and digital commerce here to stay, retailers are now navigating a hybrid shopping model, seamlessly integrating physical and online shopping to meet consumer buying behaviors and expectations. Consumers’ new shopping mindset is now fueled by a desire for speed and convenience. This shift has been driven by retailers and marketplaces innovating out of necessity to survive the pandemic.
Take BOPIS as an example of convenience. While the pandemic significantly accelerated its adoption by retailers worldwide, its lasting impact is evident. BOPIS accounted for 10.1 percent of e-commerce sales in 2023, reflecting an 18.1 percent year-over-year increase from 2022. This trend highlights that, despite consumers returning to physical stores, the convenience-driven habits formed during the pandemic — such as BOPIS, digital wallets and one-click checkout — are here to stay.
Also emerging is the demand for fast, same-day delivery, with consumers expecting their purchases within hours, if not an hour. Instant Commerce meets this need, helping retailers scale to address these rapidly growing expectations.
WWD: Given greater consumer demands for omnichannel shopping, what do retailers and brands need to consider in delivering a positive shopping experience?
S.G.: The secret to success is a retailer’s ability to implement a well-executed omnichannel strategy to meet the shoppers where they are and deliver a seamless experience across all touchpoints that drive engagement, brand loyalty and ultimately conversions.
Consumers shop in a lot of ways — in stores, through search, on brand websites and through social media, affiliate programs and marketplaces — and in order to have their products discovered regardless of the channel, retailers need to optimize their product data to enable better search accuracy for shoppers. Incomplete or incorrect data can have a lasting, detrimental impact on performance across any channel — be it search, marketplaces, you name it — often causing products to show up for the wrong key terms, or worse not show up at all.
Rather than inundating consumers with a blanket brand message or generic product offering, focusing on a strategic omnichannel data strategy places the customer at the heart of the experience, enabling a deeper understanding of customers that allow retailers to meet customers where they are with precisely the product they desire.
Leveraging a data orchestration platform for feed management like Feedonomics, a BigCommerce subsidiary, the world’s leading retailers can harmonize and optimize their product catalogue, inventory, pricing and order data to increase conversion across channels. The result? Better ad performance and more products sold. This is especially critical in the fashion and apparel sector, where thousands of product catalogues are syndicated to dozens of third-party marketplaces and social channels.
WWD: How does the Feedonomics platform work? And what does it mean to be “platforms agnostic?”
S.G.: Feedonomics is the leader in data feed management for 30 percent of the top 1,000 internet retailers such as Badgley Mischka, New Balance, On, Good American, Ganni and Ted Baker, in listing products across hundreds of today’s major online shopping destinations. Feedonomics is a powerful product feed management platform that offers a range of solutions that aggregate, standardize and optimize product data from various sources to meet the unique requirements of different online marketplaces and advertising channels, which ultimately drives performance on those channels.
If product data is the new oil, Feedonomics is the refinery. Feedonomics leverages AI and channel and category expertise to ensure data accuracy and consistency across platforms like Amazon, eBay, Target Plus, Google, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook by transforming product data into the necessary formats and continuously monitoring and updating feeds for optimal product listing performance. The result? Retailers and brands can manage their omnichannel presence effectively, reducing the complexity of maintaining accurate product listings across numerous channels to drive more conversions and increase return on ad spend.
Despite being owned by BigCommerce, a key differentiator for Feedonomics is the fact that it is platform agnostic, meaning it can take data from almost anywhere — API, CSV, FTP, JSON — transform and enrich it at scale, and then send it where it needs to go in real-time. For example, we take product data from any e-commerce platform or PIM and can transform and send it to hundreds of advertising channels and marketplaces to streamline product listings, feed optimization, data synchronization and order management, providing unparalleled flexibility, scalability and efficiency.
WWD: And would you describe the value proposition for retailers/ brands/ marketplaces?
S.G.: One of the primary benefits of Feedonomics is its ability to significantly increase product visibility and conversion rates and improve return on ad spend [or ROAS]. By mapping and translating product data to be compatible with platforms like Amazon or Google, Feedonomics is boosting conversion rates for leading brands and retailers by an average of 10 to 20 percent, whether in ROAS or direct sales. It also facilitates seamless inventory updates across multiple channels, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in product listings.
Another critical advantage of Feedonomics is its time-saving capability. Many businesses manually manage their complex product data consisting of thousands of skus, often requiring dedicated personnel for each platform. Feedonomics automates this process, saving companies a ton of time and money.
Simply put, by partnering with Feedonomics, businesses can focus on their core operations while ensuring their product data is optimized and their e-commerce channels are efficiently managed, resulting in improved performance and better outcomes.
WWD: What partner programs do you offer, and how do they work?
S.G.: Feedonomics offers the Omnichannel Certified Partner Program, connecting merchants to a vast network of agency and tech partners. This program boosts channel benefits and conversion rates for merchants, offers growth opportunities for agencies and encourages adoption among tech and channel partners, making it a win-win for everyone. Partners include tech giants like Google, Meta, Amazon, Walmart, TikTok and major agencies such as WPP and Deloitte Digital.
Omnichannel Certified Partner Program members gain access to exclusive alpha and beta programs, accelerated approvals, ad credits and white-glove onboarding. The program optimizes product listings to reach more customers, improves channel performance and saves time.
Additionally, partners receive invitations to growth consultations and workshops, support from channel teams and competitive pricing, all while streamlining business operations for better user experiences.
WWD: How does Feedonomics leverage generative AI?
S.G.: As the number of channels continues to grow daily, the ability of brands and retailers to harness AI for quick and accurate product data syndication can significantly impact their scalability. Feedonomics has been leveraging AI long before it became a buzzword. The platform uses FeedAI’s advanced algorithms to automate and optimize product data management across various e-commerce channels, resulting in robust, scalable solutions that drive better results for brands and retailers.
Additionally, its alpha feature lets users specify a prompt and directly incorporate the results into the feed. This approach speeds up time to market by handling much of the grunt work at scale, while also reducing operational expenses.
WWD: What is “instant commerce” and why is it important?
S.G.: The mounting trend of instant commerce refers to the ability of store-based retailers to surface their in-store inventory on various online channels and offer fast, same-day delivery. With McKinsey & Company research showing that 90 percent of U.S. online shoppers expect free two- to three-day shipping, instant commerce taps into a fundamental consumer truth: They want what they want, and they want it now.
It’s no secret that options for rapid delivery or BOPIS are incredibly attractive offers that consumers want to take advantage of. Brands with brick-and-mortar stores need to be able to scale to meet customers’ rapidly growing demands. The rise of Instant Commerce is advancing the e-commerce ecosystem and fulfilling omnichannel priorities by bridging the gap between purchases made online and getting customers their products as fast as possible.
Companies like Feedonomics help retailers unlock additional revenue streams with Instant Commerce programs by partnering with notable platforms such as Amazon Today, Walmart LocalFinds, DoorDash Uber and Instacart. For brands with physical retail locations, Instant Commerce partners enable them to provide both in-store pickup and fast, same-day delivery, boosting GMV, building brand loyalty, reaching more customers and enhancing product discoverability in search rankings.
Retailers with close proximity to metropolitan areas, have a minimum of five or more retail locations, have an average sale price higher than $25, and already sell on marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, DoorDash, etc., will benefit the most from Instant Commerce.
To maximize these benefits, retailers must prioritize advanced logistics and real-time inventory management to accelerate speed-to-market, enhance performance with higher-quality product data and boost scalability and flexibility. All are essential for meeting today’s always-evolving consumer expectations and staying competitive in the fast-paced digital economy.
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