In 2009, among the top 10 companies in the world by market value, only Microsoft was a digital company; in 2020, among the top 10 companies in the world by market value, 8 were digital companies. In just over a decade, the competitive landscape and dominant position have changed so much, which is worth every company’s deep thought.
Today, as the trend of digitalization becomes more and more obvious, no matter how outstanding the competitive advantage and market position are, companies must attach importance to digital transformation. Of course, this is also the main task of e-commerce companies. The wave of digitalization has not only affected large e-commerce companies, but has also become a driving force for the development of small and medium-sized e-commerce companies.
At present, technologies such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are rapidly iterating and gradually integrating with various fields, constantly bursting with vitality. Digitalization has become the core element for e-commerce companies to make structural adjustments.
In 2020, although the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on various countries, it has also made the cloud economy and online economy popular, further stimulated the potential of the digital economy, and accelerated the development of the digital economy. This is not only the progress of the economy forced by the epidemic, but also represents a new development trend.
For e-commerce companies, digital transformation requires careful consideration of the following three aspects.
(1) Strategic thinking
The digital transformation of e-commerce companies is not simply applying technology to business, but rather a digital rebirth of themselves. For example, simply replacing people with machines is not digitalization, because this only brings about an increase in production efficiency, but it is still unknown whether the product has a market. E-commerce companies should pursue high efficiency driven by buyers and use digital means to produce products that buyers like.
(2) Growth model
In today’s digital age, the growth of e-commerce companies does not simply refer to the expansion of scale and scope, but to the development of the ecosystem. E-commerce companies should pursue the gradual evolution of a single product into an online platform that connects buyers, merchants and service providers, and on this basis builds a comprehensive life scenario for buyers.
(3) Organizational transformation
To achieve digital transformation, organizational structure change is essential. Therefore, e-commerce companies should transform the traditional bureaucracy into a network organization, such as the “platform + micro-organization” model. In this way, we can use the agglomeration effect of the platform to accomplish big business, and use the flexibility of small and micro organizations to seize new market opportunities. Of course, this requires a strong digital architecture (flexible front desk + strong middle desk + stable back desk) to ensure the stable operation of the organization.
Tips
E-commerce companies must have three capabilities to achieve digital transformation. The first is to have a clear overall logic. The second is to be able to do a good job of top-level design, because digitalization is not a simple replacement of machines with people, but a subversion and reconstruction of the original model. The third is to find an entry point as a breakthrough for digitalization. For example, if you want to improve from the buyer’s end, you must focus on investing resources in improving the buyer’s experience, so that you can spend money where it counts and avoid having no clue about digital transformation.