Having a digital agenda and connecting with customers online have become a more meaningful way for brands to exist today. Key indicators show that during the pandemic, businesses that had made a transition to having a digital presence were able to leverage the situation better. While those who didn’t make the move lost out, those with a digital presence emerged on the top. E-commerce is a classic example of how the economy is moving towards digitalisation. Traditional brands find themselves operating in an extremely dynamic and ultra-competitive landscape today. This is one of the key reasons why the need to build up a sustainable digital infrastructure for brands is more important than before.   

The coming together of all-wireless access, next-generation network, and hyper-converged IT infrastructure ensures that brands have a power-packed solution available.  When brands combine these solutions, it forms an intelligent digital infrastructure that helps them improve operating efficiency and user experience at much lower costs. Sustainable digital infrastructure offers brands the ability to make informed decisions of higher quality. The access to data allows brands to become the largest beneficiary of an intelligent digital ecosystem. It helps brands achieve their digital transformation strategy as seen in developing countries where brands have adopted SaaS product solutions and refrained from building in-house infrastructure. The most important take-away of having a sustainable digital infrastructure for brands is that customer experience or CX emerges as the biggest winner.   

The winning strategy

There is beyond doubt that brands that build their business around native and intuitive customer experience will be the winners in the 21st Century. Great customer experience has immense business benefits that go beyond people just feeling good to offer results. A robust digital infrastructure has seen brands build upon their ethos. It helps marketing and delivery teams use available insights to effectively understand how the brand is interacting with people who matter, study competition better, and have a better understanding of the world in real-time. In the absence of a memorable customer experience, a brand can only dream of scaling its business by doing the right things.

Of these right things that brands cannot afford to not do is make decisions that might be detrimental to their interests. And so, the winning strategy must include access to data to ensure that they are on top of things in business.  For instance, taking a well-informed quality decision in real-time has been a must. The use of technology in business operations and activities channelises information to all decision-makers helping add speed to processes and making the system more efficient.  Operating a digital infrastructure makes it possible for brands to have a singular view across logistics. Brands can draw benefits from improving production, boosting sales, and better product marketing to drive hyper-growth.

Securing the future

Having a digital infrastructure also means access to first-party data. Building a structure that reads first-party data and delivers quality real-time engagement to customers would mean that brands are able to secure their future. Having accurate, relevant data helps build the all-important customer experiences while reducing the brand’s customer acquisition cost. And this is possible with first-party data as a poor customer experience could result in serious issues with customer retention from brands. An unhappy customer is more likely to take away both information and business with them. There are a host of pluses to your digital infrastructure gaining benefit from first party-data. These include adding a personal touch to a customer’s web and mobile experiences, understanding their purchasing patterns and customer behaviour, deploying targeted advertising tools to specific customers, offering exclusive discounts, and much more. Planning a strategy can see the brand soar to heights by building first-party data and delivering quality real-time engagement.

And here is just why the need to build up a sustainable digital infrastructure is all about evolving the brand into the future. Making the business future proof is also about insulating long-term business to ensure their growth sustainability by adopting a digitally native first approach. Having spent their entire lives around a digital space, using smartphones to search and shop, the millennials and Generation Z are who the brands need to understand better.

More than 55% of US consumers prefer to shop online according to a 2022 Paydiant study on US consumer behaviour. And there are no surprises that millennials are the largest shoppers at over 20%.  With digital infrastructure, a digitally native approach offers brands two distinct advantages. One, a deeper knowledge of their customer base, and two, a better control mechanism over customer data. Brands can now control every aspect from production to customer delivery and rest assured of meeting long-term business growth sustainability.