Publicis Sapient
Digital Commerce Channel Strategy
Offering Summary
Get one step ahead of changing consumer needs, rising competition, dispersed points of sale, and investors pushing for portfolio revamps. Whether for B2B, B2C, or a marketplace, we define the business value, how to engage the customer, meet their needs, deliver customer value, and the capabilities required to execute. We help you drive maximum enterprise and customer value and enable the operating model, technology, and capabilities needed to execute your channel strategy.
Solving Digital Transformation Challenges
Define a B2C, B2B, or marketplace channel strategy to maximize growth and profitability. The case for change to develop a channel strategy differs by client objective. Businesses need an accurate understanding of the channel landscape and competitor behavior to succeed. Oftentimes, they have no idea who their competition is, which businesses are gaining on them, what channels to focus on, what steps to take to improve, or how customers perceive them. Without this information, an organization’s intuition, gut, and experience are not enough to inform the next best steps. Whether your business is B2B, B2C, or a combination, the right digital commerce strategy makes all the difference.
B2C Channel Strategy
Businesses have many choices for reaching customers directly—whether through experience hubs, digital stores, or subscription models that enable recurring revenue with personalized experiences to engage customers. Each option has a distinct value impact, but all must deliver on customer needs.
Publicis Sapient works with you to develop a robust channel value proposition that addresses customer needs with killer features and better experiences, unlocks new value pools for your business, and identifies the capabilities required to support the future state. Lastly, we create the roadmap to make the vision a reality.
We also help you capture value that goes beyond direct revenue. In fact, more than half of the value in B2C comes from indirect value drivers such as brand affinity, data-driven insights that enable personalized experiences, new services powered by fast speed to market and test-and-learn capabilities, and business flexibility.
A Digital Commerce Strategy for Any Business
- B2C: Traditional commerce model where client sells directly to consumers (D2C).
- B2B: Increasingly relevant commerce model where client sells to another business.
- Marketplace: Platform business model with client as “matchmaker” of buyers’ and sellers’ transactions.
Addressing Customer Needs
As part of our process, we work with you to understand the customer needs your D2C channel must solve for to be relevant:
- Selection: Core product availability, seasonal and exclusive products
- Value: Competitive pricing, exclusive promotions, deals and discounts, unique moments
- Convenience: Core e-commerce functionality, subscription models, flexible delivery
- Expertise: Educational content, inspirational content, recommended products
- Social: Reviews, sharable content, community content, gifting, shoppable user-generated content (UGC)
- Impact: Transparent brand sustainability, partnerships, circular mechanics
Our Proven Approach Delivers Results in Just 8–12 Weeks:
- Understand customer needs and implications: What do customers want and what are today’s pain points/inefficiencies?
- Access current value pools and outside-in examples: How is your company competing in the market today?
- Define future state proposition and capabilities required: What will the future proposition look like and where are capability gaps?
- Consolidate roadmap, investment case, and MVP plan: What will the high-level roadmap and MVP look like in detail?
Key Outputs
- As-is journey map
- Customer needs states
- Key customer experience differentiators
- Competitor analysis
- Value pool analysis
- Maturity assessment
- Future state proposition
- Capability gap assessment
- Tech and data architecture
- Investment case
- Roadmap
- Measurement framework
B2C Business Value
- Generate incremental sales through digital B2C channels
- Build brand loyalty and recognition across all channels
- Act on data insights to improve customer experiences
- Speed up time to market and reduce risk
- Gain the business flexibility needed to diversify channels and respond quickly to change
B2B Channel Strategy
Meeting increased B2B buyers’ expectations is imperative for companies to stay ahead in the market. Loyalty of B2B buyers has been declining as B2B procurement demands B2C-like access and experiences, which has been challenging for most B2B providers to deliver. Yet when this model is done right, and exceptional experiences are provided, it can drive retention and wallet share.
Unlike B2C, B2B commerce solutions must accommodate the complex environment in which B2B is operating. At Publicis Sapient, we help you navigate:
- Product portfolio: Order profiles, such as quantities and product bundles, fulfillment requirements and tolerances, including product quality and market nuances
- Buyer profiles: Business models (B2B, B2B2B), company size and buying center, including purchasing, product development, and production
- Regions: Language, regulations including local bans, weight and concentration, and alignment with data compliance regulations
Marketplace Strategy
Owned marketplaces offer significant upside potential by unlocking new customer segments and revenue streams. They offer diversified sources of revenue with direct margin impact, the ability to capture new customer segments through a broader product range, and a plethora of data insights informing customer and market trends.
Navigating the Complex World of B2B Commerce
- Business
- Marketing
- Raw Materials
- Sales
- Supply Chain
- Platform
- Transaction
- Channels
- Marketplace
Key Challenges
We help you navigate a key set of challenges when building and launching a marketplace:
- Competitive value proposition: Standing out against established marketplaces through an attractive commercial model, customer access, and convenience.
- Buyer and seller equilibrium: Understanding the dynamics between buyers and sellers and features to attract each group and facilitate matchmaking.
- Trust and control mechanism: Supporting and nurturing the community of users and the interactions between them.
- Marketplace technology: Determining the right approach between marketplace-as-a-service providers and custom build solutions for flexibility, differentiation, and speed to market.
How We’ve Made an Impact
B2C: Multinational Toy Manufacturing and Entertainment Company
The imperative for change:
- Launch a compelling value proposition without jeopardizing retailer relationships
The transformative solution:
- Iteratively developed more than 12 D2C value propositions based on consumer insights, research, and trends
- Developed technology and data requirements to realize those concepts
The business impact:
- $250M revenue identified from D2C e-commerce
- +60% operating profit identified over 4 years
B2C: Consumer Goods Company
The imperative for change:
- Take back ownership of the end-to-end consumer relationship against online retailers
The transformative solution:
- Created a global D2C channel value proposition
- Identified the highest value customers and the capabilities required to be successful
The business impact:
- 20% revenue uplift potential from D2C
- 3.5x projected ROI on D2C investments
B2B: Chemicals and Lab Equipment Provider
The imperative for change:
- Ignite e-commerce growth through a redesigned channel value proposition
The transformative solution:
- Relaunched the company website
- Identified new customer segments to target with new features
- Enhanced complex Adobe, SAP, and Salesforce solutions
The business impact:
- +300% e-commerce sales growth in 2 years
- +200% newly acquired customers directly transacting online
Marketplace: Travel and Hospitality Company
The imperative for change:
- Design and build a marketplace to compete and capture customers in short- and long-term homestays
The transformative solution:
- Designed MVP marketplace to better understand the target customer and best-performing journey and engagement tactics
- Identified new customer segments to target with new features
- Delivered the MVP in weeks, establishing a data-driven, test-and-learn culture
The business impact:
- 16 micro-journeys identified and translated into a regularly monitored dashboard
- +200% increase in website clickthrough
Summary of Business Impact:
- $250M revenue identified from D2C e-commerce
- +60% operating profit identified over 4 years
- 20% revenue uplift potential from D2C
- 3.5x projected ROI on D2C investments
- +300% e-commerce sales growth in 2 years
- +200% newly acquired customers directly transacting online
- 16 micro-journeys identified and translated into a regularly monitored dashboard
- +200% increase in website clickthrough
What Sets Publicis Sapient Apart?
We help you to identify the best opportunities for profitable growth—whether it be in B2B, B2C, or a marketplace. Deliver a holistic channel strategy with:
- A cross-functional team across business strategy, customer experience, data, and technology to deliver comprehensive and practical solutions
- The ability to bridge the gap from strategy to execution through one end-to-end solution, with a deep understanding of what it takes to build and operate commerce platforms
- Knowledge and expertise from delivering tangible impact for leading commerce players—31 of the top 100 global retailers use commerce platforms designed, built, or supported by Publicis Sapient
Let’s Connect
For more information, visit publicissapient.com/solutions/digital-commerce.
Why Publicis Sapient
Publicis Sapient is a digital business transformation company. We partner with global organizations to help them create and sustain a competitive advantage in a world that is increasingly digital. We operate through our expert SPEED capabilities: Strategy and Consulting, Product, Experience, Engineering, and Data, which combined with our culture of curiosity and deep industry knowledge, enables us to deliver meaningful impact to our clients’ businesses through reimagining the products and experiences their customers truly value. Our agile, data-driven approach equips our clients’ businesses for change, making digital the core of how they think and what they do. Publicis Sapient is the digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe with 20,000 people and over 50 offices worldwide. For more information, visit publicissapient.com.