Collaborative Commerce Isn’t Just a Buzzword – Make It Work For You

According to recent research, 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate digital initiatives due to COVID-19. In the commerce industry, digital transformation may mean adopting a headless approach or launching a new digital storefront. But collaborative commerce — another path toward digital transformation — accelerates the process.

Collaborative commerce is the idea that businesses can leverage new technology and platforms to become more efficient and  improve collaboration between internal teams, partners, and customers. Slack brings the right people and the right information together to optimize everything from product launches to inventory to order management. The results? Happier teams and happier customers. Here’s how it works: 

Easily interact with your data

When you’re managing a commerce site, effectively harnessing data can be the difference between empty carts and large orders. However, sifting through the data to uncover actionable insights can be tedious, time-consuming work — and as a commerce professional, time is likely something you don’t have in surplus. 

Consider the resources it takes for your team to react and adapt to insights in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a peak shopping season. How easy is it to get real-time updates on sales data and site performance, get the team aligned, make decisions, and implement them? With Slack, business notifications can be pushed to you automatically, so you don’t have to seek them out. Slack can also pull together insights from Salesforce Commerce Cloud and all of your other systems (such as ERP, CMS, payments, and analytics). Bots surface analytics and Slack communicates your metrics so you can quickly adjust promotions and product placement to boost sales. Now, your team can optimize conversion and improve bounce rates fast — even when site traffic (and stress levels) are high.

Address potential slowdowns before they happen 

A commerce strategy doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Your commerce team works cross-functionally with R&D, marketing, sales, IT, and other teams. Bringing that collaboration to Slack allows teams to plan, pivot, and execute faster. Say goodbye to disjointed email threads and searching through multiple platforms to find the information you need. When you’re launching products and handing work off from different teams, collaborative commerce makes it easier to communicate in Slack channels where all the history and work is in one place. 

The same is true for international projects. One region or the global team can disseminate information quickly and efficiently on Slack. This makes it easier to work across time zones and take a more proactive approach to solving problems.

For example, merchants can use Slack as a digital command center with actionable alerts to tackle potential challenges like expiring campaigns or cleaning up old promotions before they pose a problem. You can also create a channel for service agents to ensure that they never miss a fulfillment alert. The ease of collaboration and instant access to data can help you shorten innovation cycles and grow sales faster.

“In our rapid shift to an all-digital world, we learned we must be more connected, more productive, and more innovative to best reach and serve customers — no matter where they are,” said Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos. “The one-two punch of Salesforce and Slack has been crucial for collaboration between distributed teams, ultimately helping us achieve unprecedented growth during challenging times.”

Simplify business buyer engagement

For B2B companies, sales teams and service agents can leverage Slack to communicate directly with potential buyers. Automated updates and easy engagement make it simple for sales to answer product questions, assist with the purchase process, and make recommendations — all while giving them more time for strategic initiatives. 

Bringing your reps together on one digital sales floor with their data, processes and customers fosters faster growth and better relationships. A single, shared view of customers and the ability to automatically receive critical deal alerts will free up resources and streamline the sales cycle.

Collaborative commerce with Slack is only one tool to drive your business forward. Find other ways to grow your commerce business with our Jumpstart Growth in Commerce Guide.

Now let’s test your knowledge 💡