5 Critical Ecommerce Capabilities — and How to Address Them in Your RFPs

Commerce isn't an island — it should be connected to all your back-end systems as well as all the other areas of your business, like sales, service, and marketing. Think of all the solutions that need to work smoothly together to make digital sales happen: Order Management, payments, B2B, B2C, all your different storefronts, and more. A complete platform will have these ecommerce capabilities built-in so you don’t have to build them yourself or cobble multiple solutions together.

If your platform doesn’t come with these services out-of-the-box, you’ll need to purchase them elsewhere. And if you have to purchase them elsewhere, you’ll need to spend valuable time and development/IT resources to create complex integrations. After all is said and done, this can drastically increase your platform’s total cost of ownership. It’s important to consider not only whether your platform has these ecommerce capabilities, but also how much it would cost to implement them, if not.

One thing your commerce platform should be? Complete.

It’s important that your platform keeps up with new ecommerce trends, innovations, and technologies as they arise — so you can keep up with your competitors. This means value-added updates on a routine, regular basis.

Generative AI has already changed ecommerce forever. Thanks to natural language processing and machine learning, AI agents can handle a wide range of tasks, from answering simple customer questions to resolving complex issues for business users. Platforms that come with out of the box tools for generative AI can significantly increase your teams’ productivity and offer a unique competitive advantage when it comes to the customer experience. Tasks and projects that once took merchandisers, marketers, and sales team days (or even weeks) can now be completed in just minutes with AI agents. Your teams can use agents to analyze data from across your business, create personalized promotions for specific audience segments, recommend relevant products, and even generate product descriptions for your entire catalog. And this is just the beginning; the technology and possibilities will continue to evolve over time, and become an increasingly sophisticated competitive advantage.

Even better? AI agents don’t just work behind the scenes. They can also power bespoke customer-facing shopping experiences that increase revenue and make your business stand out. For example, personal shopper agents can help customers quickly find specific products with natural language prompts or even image searches. Agents can also improve the B2B ecommerce experience by streamlining purchasing and reordering for business buyers.

Your platform partner should offer routine improvement and have a documented roadmap for continuous innovation.

Foreign sales drive an estimated 39% of revenue, on average, at companies that sell internationally. That’s why globalization is often a key part of a business’ long-term growth strategy. However, not every platform has the ecommerce capabilities necessary to handle the nuance and intricacies of selling in foreign markets.

Global ecommerce is more than just accepting foreign currency (though that is a major part of it). Localization and language are also key considerations when you sell globally. Even in markets that speak the same language, there are certain colloquialisms and nuances that will need to be accounted for. For instance, a “sweater” in the U.S. is a “jumper” in the U.K. To simplify this aspect of geographical expansion, a platform with built-in generative AI capabilities can create product descriptions in local languages and adapt them to fit each market. Even better? AI agents that are fluent in any language your customers speak. A platform with this built-in capability means you can engage with shoppers and more easily sell them products that are relevant to their location and lifestyle. This ensures that your customers feel understood and recognized — no matter where they live.

Another consideration: social commerce. It’s crucial to take into account whether your platform partner will enable you to sell on the popular social platforms in your target regions. For example, social media has been the main channel for ecommerce in China for several years, but the platforms commonly used in China are not available in the U.S. With social commerce on the rise, it’s important to understand the strengths and limitations of your platform when it comes to social selling.

Almost half (40%) of customers say they don’t generally trust companies, and 68% say advances in AI make trust in companies more important. Working with a platform partner that has the right guardrails and security measures in place has never been more important. Your platform’s ecommerce capabilities should include data security and governance features to safeguard operations and prevent unnecessary data exposure.

While businesses feel competitive pressures to implement AI, mishaps often make headlines and cause hesitation for commerce leaders. If implemented incorrectly, consequences can be damaging: AI chatbots can go rogue and offer misinformation to customers, leading to reputational damage and significant revenue loss. Hallucinations, toxicity, and bias are also considerations as businesses strive to use AI as a competitive advantage. The right partner will prioritize privacy and security as they innovate.