Give teams ‘the right to test and learn’: Omnichannel leaders on building ecommerce capability

Omnichannel shopping – people interchangeably browsing and buying online and offline – is increasing, and the impact of this is “becoming greater and greater”, according to Ollie Shayer, Omni-Media Director at Boots.

This change in habits is influenced by several factors, including technology, rising expectations, and the cost of living.

“The way in which consumers are buying now is much more considered,” said Shayer.

“What we’re seeing is the purchase journey is actually extended quite a bit. So, that middle part where customers are really deciding where they’re going to buy has got a lot longer, and being able to know when you can interact with [those consumers] and how… has become really important.”

As customers are becoming more considered, they are also looking for value in “the types of products that are available, the sizing of those products,” and “where, and how easy” it is to get them, according to Shayer.

The Boots media director was talking to Econsultancy Managing Partner Paul Davies at Ecommerce Expo in London, alongside Mark Walker, Global Omnichannel Lead in Unilever’s ecommerce centre of excellence team, and Tilda Molho, Sky’s Director of Digital Performance, Merchandising and Trading.

The way in which consumers are buying now is much more considered.

 

-Ollie Shayer, Boots

The panel discussed the current digital commerce landscape, and what capabilities their teams are building in order to meet customer needs, and respond to what Unilever’s Walker referred to as “research online, purchase anywhere” behaviour.

“It has to be quick, it has to be relevant,” said Sky’s Molho, referring to customer expectations. “[TV] shows that I’m willing to pay for is a key driver of purchase. And serving those relevant shows that speak to me personally, rather than to the nation at large, is really key.” And even when it comes to broadband, Molho says, “again, it needs to speak to me, my need now, my renewal of contract now. So that’s a key thing – how do we understand our customers online… and how [do we] make it easy for them.”

How fast can we make sense of data?

Asked by Davies about the capabilities needed within ecommerce teams in order to adapt to change, Molho highlighted “making sense of data” as the number one challenge at the moment.

“It’s not about generating a report. It’s about how quickly can we get hold of the relevant data and make sense of it, and turn it into an actionable insights?”

Molho mentioned the disruption brought by machine learning, saying, “Data is everywhere. It comes in volumes that are sometimes overwhelming, and it’s about how fast can we make sense of it? That’s probably the most critical [skill].”

Boots’ Shayer shared how retail media has grown in tandem with data science. “We haven’t had the technology previously to be able to take the large volumes of loyalty card data and make it usable for either ourselves or suppliers,” he said.

“[But] that technology is now there that enables us to [activate that data], to understand the effectiveness of it in an online and offline way. I was an FMCG advertiser for nine years and always my challenge was that I launched my campaigns, then I really wanted to know what was happening underneath… but I had to wait for the econometrics or for other sources to get the results. What happens now is that you don’t need to wait, you actually can create a full-funnel activation using retail data, so you can see what the effect of your upper funnel activity is on conversion… And because you’re talking about people-based data, rather than cookie-based data, you can look at that over a much longer period. So, if your purchase cycle is three months for your product, you can understand how your advertising effects [sales in] the short term, the medium term and the long term. So I think what it gives us is a great level of understanding, better than we’ve ever had before, of what our customers doing,” added Shayer.

How do we encourage a test and learn culture?

An obsession with customer experience was also highlighted by Sky’s Tilda Molho as one of the capability requirements for succeeding in digital commerce, ensuring that “comprehension is high” amongst customers. It should be “easy and, if possible, fun” for customers to engage, “so that they enjoy coming back and looking for more,” she added.

To make this happen, Molho talked about learning from Sky’s tech partners, who can offer benchmarking and specialist knowledge. One such partner is Contentsquare, a digital experience platform, with Molho saying that session replay tools are effective in allowing the team discuss failure. “We can talk about failure, we can talked about failed experiments, and that makes it okay to learn and test and think – ‘how do I make this differently?’”

Changing capabilities in ecommerce is as much about the mindset, or the softer skills, as it is about the technical skills.

 

– Paul Davies, Econsultancy

This appetite for ‘test and learn’ was one also earmarked by Shayer at Boots, who said ecommerce teams need to recruit “people who have a naturally curious nature”.

“Having the right type of people who want to constantly understand how [the industry is] evolving, how they can utilize the tools that are now available in the market, whether that’s genAI, whether that’s greater data literacy. I think it’s such a critical part of success for us [alongside] velocity [of testing].” added Shayer. “It’s about [the] ability to give the teams, both the tools and the training, and the right to test and learn really fast.”

As Econsultancy Managing Partner Paul Davies summarised, “changing capabilities in ecommerce is as much about the mindset, or the softer skills, as it is about the technical skills.”

Building the right skills in the right areas

At Unilever, Mark Walker shared how important it is to make learning relevant, given “there’s so many teams that contribute to delivering on ecommerce and omnichannel”.

“Whether it’s in the central brand teams, all the way to the markets; [we are] trying to steer the relevant skills to the right group of people in different ways,” said Walker

“Our brand owners and our category strategy and planning teams might [need] to understand the capabilities required to deliver all the nuances of the channel. And that’s very different from those that are at the very sharp end of things, in the day-to-day. So I think the relevance is absolutely critical… ensuring that each knows the role that they play [in] the overall picture.”

“R&D, for example, on packaging, might have a really important input on the physical shelf and the virtual shelf for us, and if they understand their role and how that contributes to shopper needs being met, then [that customer journey] is brought together internally, so we can be our best externally,” said Walker.

This relevance also extends to understanding the learning modalities in your team, with Boots’ Shayer adding that, “Some people want very structured learning, classroom-based, [others might] just want to have access to ChatGPT and the ability to build GPTs that allow them to do their work faster.”

Shayer advocated for clear development plans for each individual, in order “to create a learning-based culture where they have the right to do everything… to be successful and to learn and fail fast.”