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"I would argue that almost 100% of sales are digitally influenced … but despite this imperative — and a rather obvious now-source of growth [in ecommerce] — there have been a lot of leaders out there who have not been taking action, or not enough action. They have behaved a little bit more like sheep." — Chris Perry, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer, firstmovr
Far too many brands are following the flock rather than adopting a customer-first approach. Businesses tend to mimic what they see works well, but this corporate conformity doesn’t accelerate growth. It actually impedes it — especially in ecommerce.
"I would argue that almost 100% of sales are digitally influenced … but despite this imperative — and a rather obvious now-source of growth — there have been a lot of leaders out there who have not been taking action, or not enough action. They have behaved a little bit more like sheep," says Chris Perry, co-founder and chief learning officer at firstmovr, a consumer packaged goods (CPG) and ecommerce strategy firm.
Perry recently spoke at the 2024 Digital Shelf Summit (DSS), leading a session titled, "Counting Sheep: A Shepherd's Guide to Ecommerce Change Management," which outlined eight factors of change that brands can embrace to accelerate ecommerce transformation. From focused leadership and setting S.M.A.R.T. goals to communication, education and organizational enablement, here’s how leaders can implement what Perry calls successful omnichannel change.
Critical change factors for brands include executive commitment, focused leadership, an ambitious vision and S.M.A.R.T. goals, and various resources.
According to Perry, executive commitment to ecommerce must extend to and from all executive leaders and not just the CEO. All C-suite leaders — especially those with profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities — should be committed to growing ecommerce.
"We need executives to commit to an area of change," Perry says.
It’s also important for C-suite members to understand why other leaders might not be fully on board. In many cases, another change factor, such as a lack of education, could prevent them from buying in.
Addressing these issues is crucial. By doing so, you can engage C-level leaders in setting the vision and allocating the appropriate resources to ecommerce growth initiatives. At the very least, you’ll ensure they don’t block the advance of these initiatives.
Brands also need focused leadership, or individual roles dedicated to ecommerce growth. Assigning focused leaders and talent to new and evolving strategies will lay the groundwork for success, Perry says.
"We need new areas of focus," he adds. "At some point, there needs to be a siloed leader doing something different."
Recent research indicates many brands are already moving in this direction. Profitero’s 2023 eCommerce Organizational Benchmark Study found that 43% of organizations assign dedicated category managers, 41% have dedicated strategy managers, and 39% have dedicated omnichannel sales managers.
While Perry advocates these leaders be responsible for a specific area of focus, it’s also crucial that brands integrate these roles into their larger commerce strategy across both the physical and digital shelf.
This approach will help create a democratized team that balances domain expertise, collaboration, and shared responsibility to help the organization achieve its profitability and growth goals.
How leaders set their strategic vision can often make or break how quickly an organization achieves its goals — or if they achieve them at all. This is where Perry’s third and fourth change factors connect: Leaders must communicate an ambitious vision that’s still grounded in reality, then set S.M.A.R.T. strategies and goals for achieving it.
For a goal to be viable, it should encompass each S.M.A.R.T. element: Goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
“We need to actually set real strategies,” Perry says. “This is one of the challenges.”
Profitero’s study indicates that only a small percentage of companies believe their strategy makes them stand apart from the competition. The issue here might be that they’re setting unrealistic or unachievable goals and may need to implement measured — and measurable — change.
“You actually have to do something to get change, and you also have to measure the change itself,” Perry says.
Brands are increasingly investing in third-party tools, from content syndication platforms and minimum advertised pricing (MAP) monitoring tools to programmatic search and media optimization tools.
These technologies can help brands measure their performance more effectively, which can provide critical insights to inform and accelerate change.
However, companies seem to underutilize these resources. Currently, only about 15% of brands have embedded data analytics into their content optimization process to track the digital shelf, according to Profitero’s research.
While 30% of brands have articulated ecommerce as a strategic priority, they don’t have measurable goals in place to effectively track or communicate the value of ecommerce to their organization.
"We are what we measure. Calling out the opportunity to score your company on all the elements becomes an interesting way to expose gaps and opportunities internally." — Chris Perry, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer, firstmovr
In other words, more brands not only need to track digital shelf metrics, but also use these metrics to drive change internally and externally. Additionally, brands should focus on transparently communicating their organization’s progress.
According to Perry, most organizations falter when it comes to education. Many don’t treat education as a continuous process, nor do they focus on upskilling their workforce.
Profitero research backs this up: Only 30% provide ongoing education opportunities for their cross-functional teams. Another 32% have provided ecommerce training for cross-functional teams, but admit understanding is still minimal within these teams.
"There [are] a lot of companies that haven't had any [education], and some companies that have had it and think they're done," Perry says. "Remember, education is continuous. That's our whole mantra at firstmovr, the best leaders are learners. You should always be learning, always challenge the status quo."
Lastly, organizations need to put mechanisms in place that drive change, whether it’s team incentives or aligning individual goals to organizational goals.
Profitero’s study found that only a handful of brands do this today. Only 15% of organizations have integrated ecommerce goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) into personal objectives and bonus plans.
"If you change how someone's measured, you don't solve all the problems, but you force them to go figure them out," Perry says.
Together, these eight factors create a scorecard that can help brands jump "the fence of change" from laggard to early adopter and eventually to first mover, Perry says.
Mondelez, one of the world's largest snack companies, has successfully navigated many of these factors to implement omnichannel change management.
Jie Cheng, vice president and global head of digital commerce at Mondelez, spoke during Perry’s session and shared details about her company’s ecommerce transformation.
Charged with taking the company’s ecommerce business to new heights, Cheng focused on setting ambitious stretch goals that her team could substantiate with numbers.
A huge part of this effort meant doubling down on certain markets and channels — such as direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels and direct-to-business channels — that transformed how the company conducted business with traditional trades.
Cheng clearly articulated the channels upon which her team would place these big bets, laid out milestones, and communicated what her team planned to do differently.
"That speaks to the measurement piece — the KPIs and the specificity," she says.
Cheng proactively secured leadership buy-in early. During her first six months on the job, she went to Mondelez’s leaders with an action plan that included the required level of investment and the number of full-time employees she’d need.
Once their leaders signed off, Cheng’s team started implementing their plan, starting by bringing in top talent from major markets to advance ecommerce business.
The team also focused on process changes in product content, digital shelf optimization, and shipping. They used technologies — like ecommerce monitoring and intelligence solutions, as well as a unified product experience management (PXM) platform — to scale their work globally across the enterprise.
From there, Cheng’s team focused on continuous learning to evangelize ecommerce throughout the organization, using a podcast, webinars, and training courses to build knowledge internally.
To circulate knowledge even further, Cheng’s team updates the organization on its progress at Mondelez’s global town halls and shares quarterly reports with leadership.
As a final step in its ecommerce change management process, Mondelez created a dedicated global ecommerce leadership team comprising leaders across finance, IT, and digital services departments, among others.
"We meet quarterly and we discuss the challenges we need to overcome, but more importantly, [we keep an] eye on the future," Cheng says.
All these changes have made everyone at Mondelez accountable for driving the business forward. They’ve also contributed to the organization’s growth: In 2020, Mondelez had a $700 million ecommerce business. Today, it’s grown to $3 billion, Cheng says.
As Mondelez shows, organizational change requires internal alignment, effective measurement, and the right tools, training, and processes.
Any brand that wants to grow its ecommerce business must take a similar approach to executing and navigating change. As they embrace this framework, they’ll transform themselves from sheep just following the flock into true change agents.
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