Ecommerce and social media

- One of my friends likes to say that everything about supply chain management is completely logical and rational except the customers. One of the biggest challenges we face is that customer expectations change quickly. This is especially true for retail products. We're a supply chain that was excellent just a few years ago, can seem slow, impersonal, and expensive today. Let's look at how technology is changing the retail marketplace. Then we can explore some ways to engage with our customers and adapt to their changing requirements. We'll start by looking at social media. Social media amplifies consumer behavior by making it easy to share product reviews, recommendations and endorsements. In any social network, there are influencers, people who have a huge audience of followers. When an influencer recommends a product, the result can be a huge surge in sales. But if an influencer provides a negative review, it can do huge damage to your brand. So tracking influencers can help you understand historical trends and can help you generate better forecasts. The process of tracking these online discussions is called social listening. Companies often need to listen on several social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Because each platform has its own communities and its own etiquette. Social listening gives you a chance to learn about recommendations and criticisms early, and feeding the information you gather back into your supply chain helps you be responsive to your customers. For example, many consumers have a preference for locally and ethically sourced products. You can use social listening to identify the influencers who focus on this issue. You can monitor what they're saying about your products and then you can change your supply chain to align with the expectations of your customers. Social listening is an ongoing process. It should also be interactive. If someone provides a recommendation for your product, you may want to chime in with a like or a thank you. If someone criticizes your product, you should be ready to engage that person to address the issue before it has a chance to spread. Another trend that's having a big impact on supply chains is e-commerce. Many people refer to this as the Amazon effect. Customers now expect that they can buy products online and have them delivered to their homes. They may even expect to get free delivery. The good news is that since e-commerce often bypasses retail stores, it creates an opportunity for brands to sell directly to their customers. But this also means that brands need to transform their distribution process and maybe even personalize their products. The amplification effect of social media combined with the Amazon effect of online ordering and fulfillment are big changes that retail supply chains need to embrace. You can use social listening to get early notification about trends and then you can adapt your supply chain to take advantage of the new opportunities that e-commerce is creating for your business.