COVID-19’s impact on business was immediate and continues to be unimaginable, closing retail stores and restaurants throughout the country, canceling events, affecting supply chains, and mandating company-wide work-from-home policies.

Wholesale vendors and retailers had to pivot their business plans seemingly overnight. Some scrambled to stand up e-commerce websites fast (the only channel largely unaffected – and growing – during the pandemic). In fact, McKinsey & Company reported how in just three months, e-commerce penetration in the U.S. market grew more quickly than it had in the last ten years combined.

Many refocused efforts on marketing. Giftbeat reported that 53% of independent gift stores have increased their marketing activity compared to this time last year.

Companies with existing e-commerce websites and online brand authority were better positioned to withstand the uncertainty, but the force of change and dissolution of traditional sales channels left many vendors questioning: should I expand into the consumer market and establish a consumer-focused go-to-market strategy?

As digital commerce continues to evolve, standards for user experience are on the rise. Why? Technology that creates personalized, seamless customer experiences (CX) across channels keeps raising the bar.

In fact, in a survey of more than 8,000 B2C and B2B buyers around the world, 73% said just one really good experience with a company raises their expectations of other companies. That’s great news for companies who are already providing extraordinary experiences, but for the many that aren’t, this poses a new set of challenges.

One thing customers expect when visiting a company’s website is to find what they need—and fast. Whether they’re looking for a specific product, information on your service offerings, or user reviews to help them make a buying decision, ease of access is essential.

But many websites fall short when it comes to helping customers find what they’re looking for. Some even (unwittingly) make the process more difficult. We’re sharing tips for improving your website navigation and search to enhance user experience (UX) and stand out against the competition.

Choosing a digital experience platform (DXP) is a necessity for application leaders to create connected customer experiences. Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant report gives a comprehensive look at digital market leaders and innovators to demonstrate where they stand in this fragmented and ever evolving marketplace.

Whereoware’s longtime partner Episerver is recognized for the first time as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms. This makes Episerver one of the most trusted DXP solutions in the industry.

“Leaders have ample ability to support a variety of DXP use cases and consistently meet customers’ needs over substantial periods. Leaders have delivered significant product innovation in pursuit of DXP requirements, and have been successful in selling to new customers across industries,” according to Gartner.

Episerver’s customer-centric digital experiences have been recognized for the past three years as challengers, and we congratulate our partner in celebrating their first year being distinguished as a leader by Gartner.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Report includes

• A comprehensive look at the current leaders in the industry
• Strong points and caveats of each DXP vendor
• Evaluation of each recognized vendor’s ability to execute and their vision

Download the full 2020 report here: Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms

Are you an undecided Magento 1 customer feeling the pressure to upgrade to Magento 2 or find another website platform? Choosing the right e-commerce platform to support and grow your business is critical, but if you’ve been procrastinating, you’re racing against a ticking clock.

Magento 1 loses all service and support to the platform in June 2020, leaving thousands of businesses with the choice to either rebuild on a new platform, or risk security breaches.

If you’re considering a platform switch, first compare the complete suite offering against your near- and long-term goals. Does the platform offer features and flexibility to scale alongside your company and withstand the test of time?

Unless you live with a disability, noticing when business websites don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may not be on your radar. But for the one in four Americans with some type of disability, ADA compliance determines which companies they can and can’t do business with – in-store and online.

The ADA turns 30 this year. Since it took effect, Americans with disabilities have brought staggering numbers of lawsuits against businesses for violations like employment discrimination and lack of customer accommodation. Because many of those suits focused on noncompliance in the workplace and in physical stores, it’s been easy for online merchants to forget that the ADA applies to their websites. But recent litigation is changing that.

Late last year, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of a blind customer who sued popular pizza chain Domino’s because the company’s website and app didn’t accommodate screen-reading software used by many people with vision impairments. The case put ecommerce on notice: it’s time to make your online stores accessible.

Eliminating liability for noncompliance is incentive enough to comply, but maintaining an accessible website or app offers other benefits, too. Accessibility improvements can boost site performance and deliver a positive user experience (UX) to customers of all abilities.

To help you achieve ADA compliance with ease, we’re breaking down the benefits and best practices for making accessibility a top priority for your ecommerce site in 2020.