ECommerce is a part of everyday life. The number of transactions that occur online is significantly higher than the number of transactions that occur face-to-face. It has become an essential function of businesses, particularly amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Ecommerce companies have the unique ability to establish a software storefront while leveraging other parties to make, stock, transport, and deliver their products. Typically, eCommerce companies are thought of as businesses that sell a majority of their products or services online. ECommerce businesses differ from pure wholesale distributors, manufacturers, or retail stores while retaining traits of each of these legacy industries. They may rely on third parties for their manufacturing needs and may not have their own warehouses, shipping trucks, or inventory. To make matters more complex, eCommerce businesses may be a combination of the above, making some products, while sourcing others; stocking and fulfilling some products while relying on third-party logistics or vendors to stock and fulfill others; some may have a brick-and-mortar location and still others “stock” their inventory inside of big box stores until the point of sale.

ECommerce digital transformation should be more exciting than scary. Many businesses can explore digital transformation possibilities with eCommerce functionality. While digital transformation may seem like it is meant to ease work for business users, it really is the framework for reimagining customer experience, and that usually starts behind the scenes with better software, including eCommerce and ERP.

Digital transformation facilitates company-wide knowledge and understanding of the processes that are taking place across the organization. Within a digital environment, staff can leverage real-time information for enhanced decision-making across core business processes. As for the customer, digital transformation may be as simple as upgrading shoppers’ access to products across all your channels in one shopping experience. In this scenario, eCommerce website software, as well as inventory, accounting, and order, must all integrate seamlessly to ensure a great customer and worker experience.

But digital transformation for eCommerce businesses isn’t reserved for product-based companies. Service businesses can enjoy the benefits of digital transformation, too, even if they don’t have a product to manufacture, ship, and deliver. Offering reservations for attractions, accommodations, vehicles, or restaurants via a website or app broadens a company’s reach while enhancing the customer’s ability to do business with you. Yet there must still be an integrated software interface that presents available options in an elegant way that your customer will want to interact with. Layering an eCommerce application (like AirBnB or Uber) over top of a traditional service (like vacation rentals or taxis) can transform a legacy business into a brand-new enterprise capable of reaching new markets

A digital transformation roadmap is a plan that moves your organization from Point A (using your current digital processes) to Point B (using new digital processes). Think of it like taking a road trip — you know where you are and where you want to go, but you need to map out how you’ll arrive at your destination. 

Your digital transformation roadmap helps define and manage the initiative. It provides structure to the migration from one tool to the next — including everything from technology, people, and processes — to ensure a successful transformation.

The term “digital transformation roadmap” is tossed around a lot in enterprise businesses, but advice on how to actually deploy one tends to be unnecessarily complicated. 

“Establish a successful process that will address the top-of-mind needs of your unique organizational environment” really means “find what works for your company and create a plan to make it happen.” 

Building and acting on a digital transformation roadmap can actually be quite simple — you just need to establish the basics first.

What Does Digital Transformation Encompass?

Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to make new business processes, culture, and customer experiences or to change the ones that already exist to meet changing business and market needs. Digital transformation is the process of rethinking how businesses work in the digital age.

It goes beyond traditional jobs like selling, marketing, and helping customers. Instead, digital transformation starts with how you think about customers and how you interact with them. As we switch from paper to spreadsheets to smart apps to run our businesses, we have the chance to rethink how we do business and how we interact with our customers.

Small businesses that are just starting out don't need to set up their business processes and then change them. Your business can be ready for the future right from the start. Sticky notes and handwritten ledgers are not a good way to run a business in the 21st century. You can be agile, flexible, and ready to grow if you think, plan, and build in a digital way.

As they move toward digital transformation, many companies are taking a step back to see if they are really doing the right things.