Connected Performance in E-Commerce: The Winning Strategy

Simply optimising individual levers like pricing, product content or advertising is no longer enough. Focusing on just one area means losing sight of the bigger picture. Research from leading institutions such as Forrester – and the experience of high-performing companies – shows that real success comes from the seamless integration of all components working in tandem.

Today’s customers rarely shop via a single channel. Their journey spans multiple touchpoints and platforms. That’s why it’s more important than ever to synchronise online and offline channels to deliver a consistent, compelling experience.

What feels natural to the customer, however, often presents significant operational challenges for businesses.

What Sets Market Leaders Apart

A recent McKinsey survey  of global B2B and B2C companies (2024) highlights a clear pattern: the most successful businesses have built fully integrated ecosystems, where e-commerce drivers like pricing , content quality , retail media campaigns, and customer reviews  are tightly aligned across departments. This level of cross-functional integration has been proven to boost performance and profitability.

One standout finding: over 40% of market leaders rate their omnichannel integration as “good,” with 15% describing it as “excellent.” In stark contrast, just 2% of lower-performing companies consider their integration to be “highly advanced.”

The successful companies have understood that a product-oriented organisation with centralised coordination of e-commerce activities across all channels is crucial. Research by Forrester confirms this once again: over 90% of leading e-commerce companies see an interlinked approach across all channels and levers as crucial for a high ROI.

How Integration Delivers Results – Proven in Practice

It’s no coincidence that market leaders are embracing an integrated approach. Their goal is to unlock powerful synergy effects – where each element enhances the impact of the others. This kind of alignment is especially impressive when traditionally siloed business areas are brought together in smart, interconnected ways.

The following four examples show how this strategy delivers measurable value – while also highlighting the complexity involved in making it work.

Price and content reinforce each other

Competitive pricing only delivers its full impact when paired with compelling product information. A low price without a clear description or high-quality images can create mistrust. Conversely, strong content can boost conversion rates even at higher price points – because customers understand and appreciate the added value.

Logistics-marketing dovetailing

Marketing might plan a campaign using social ads and promotional landing pages on the online shop. To ensure only in-stock items are promoted, the logistics team supplies real-time product availability data. This information feeds directly into campaign planning: products with healthy stock levels are automatically prioritised, while those with limited availability are excluded or deprioritised.

Customer service-content synergy

Support requests are systematically analysed to uncover content gaps. Common questions about product features are fed directly into product descriptions; while recurring issues are addressed through preventative FAQs and instructional videos. At the same time, pricing strategies for problematic products are adjusted, and alternative product recommendations are woven into the content.

Returns intelligence for performance optimisation

Returns analyses often show that certain product categories have high return rates among specific customer groups. These insights are applied in an integrated way: content is enhanced with more detailed size guides and material information, pricing strategies are adjusted to factor in return costs, and retail media campaigns are targeted at customer segments with lower return rates.

Digital Shelf Analytics – The Key to Integrated Management

The integrated approach recommended by Forrester and McKinsey is most effectively put into practice through Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA) combined with AI-supported automation. While analysts focus on the strategy, DSA provides the concrete methodology and tools to execute it – capturing, connecting, and strategically optimising areas such as price positioning, content quality, and competitive activity in a holistic way.

However, this level of integration requires complex, time-intensive analysis: pricing data needs to be correlated with content performance, customer feedback must be linked to conversion rates, and competitor actions must be compared with the results of your own campaigns. 

What once took weeks of manual data crunching can now be achieved in real time thanks to artificial intelligence – laying the foundation for true interconnectivity across departments.

XPLN’s Digital Shelf Analytics solution enables businesses to align their e-commerce activities across all channels. The platform provides a comprehensive view of all key levers, platforms, and competitors – empowering data-driven decisions that account for the bigger picture.

AI Agents: The Future of E-Commerce Interlinking

More data, more channels, more competition, higher customer expectations. The complexity of e-commerce is constantly increasing.  Traditional automation solutions are increasingly reaching their limits here. AI agents offer a promising approach to overcoming these challenges. Unlike conventional automation solutions, they can make decisions independently, coordinate different systems and analyse complex interrelationships, all in real time.

What makes AI agents particularly valuable for dovetailing in e-commerce is that they can interact independently with various specialised AI applications. An AI agent for pricing not only analyses competitive prices, but also considers the results of the content analysis AI and the retail media optimiser. This creates a digital ecosystem that takes the interlinking of e-commerce factors to a new level.

This synergetic collaboration between the AI agents mirrors exactly the connection practised by successful e-commerce companies - only faster, more precise and without human intervention in routine decisions.

AI agents can provide relief, particularly when it comes to cross-departmental collaboration, which is essential for successful e-commerce integration. They create a digital bridge between traditionally separate areas such as category management, marketing and logistics. They take on repetitive tasks, identify optimisation potential and implement measures autonomously - always with an eye on the big picture and the defined corporate goals.

Key Takeaways

The challenges of e-commerce are constantly evolving. Long-term success depends on aligning every element – from product content and pricing to your retail media strategy. Businesses that embrace an integrated approach consistently deliver better results and gain a lasting competitive edge.

Combining Digital Shelf Analytics with AI agents offers a reliable way to manage growing complexity while keeping every aspect of your e-commerce operations under control. By investing in integrated solutions today, you're laying the groundwork for a connected strategy that could define your competitive advantage tomorrow – with measurable impact.