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Digital Transformation Strategy: Examples & How To Do It Right 

Companies invest over $1.8 trillion annually in digital transformation strategies. But the harsh truth is that 70% of initiatives fail to meet their set targets. Without the right solution, you waste resources and lose out on opportunities.

But here is the good news: Digital transformation maximizes operational efficiency by 40% for those who do it right. In this article, we will outline the practical steps to help you build an A+ digital transformation strategy that will make your eCommerce business grow.

Ready? Let’s get started.

What Is Digital Transformation & Why Is It Important?

digital transformation strategy - what is digital transformation & why is it important
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Digital transformation is the process of using technology to change how a business operates, serves customers, and adapts to market changes. This speeds up your internal workflows and makes it easier to engage with customers in digital interfaces.

Here’s what digital transformation talks about:

  • Culture
  • Customer
  • Technology
  • Business processes

Why should you know about those?

Digital transformation lets you stay relevant, remain competitive, and be up-to-date with customers’ needs. It is not just about using new technology but a way of finding new ways of working and transforming the digital economy, especially in the eCommerce markets.

5 Key Components Of Digital Transformation

Review your workflow issues and focus on the action points from these 5 key components that can fix the issues quickly.

digital transformation strategy - 5 key components of digital transformation
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  • People: Make sure your team is ready for change with new skills and fresh ideas.
  • Data: Collect and put down information to assist in your decision-making processes. 
  • Insights: Identify trends in the data to see what is effective and what is not. 
  • Action: Use the insights to make changes that improve your business or service.
  • Results: Determine whether these changes are effective (higher customer satisfaction or increased sales). 

8 Steps To Develop A Successful Digital Transformation Strategy + Examples To Learn From

Take 10 minutes to scan all 8 steps, then work through each one according to your timeline.

Step 1: Clarify The “Why” Of Digital Transformation

Identify the reasons why your team should undergo digital transformation. Ask yourself, “Why do we need to change?”

Make sure that your sales and marketing teams understand the reason for the change so that everyone is on the same page.

Here are the key metrics to consider:

  • Sales growth
  • Operational costs
  • Digital adoption rates
  • Employee productivity

To start, look at what’s not working in your business (like slow processes or poor customer service). Then, decide what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase sales, improve efficiency, or provide better service to customers?

If slow customer service is a challenge for you, implement solutions like these interactive digital brochures or AI chatbots that handle common inquiries faster. Discuss your goals and how these digital transformation initiatives help solve your problems to create more new opportunities.

Walmart is another example, as its digital shift aims to compete with eCommerce giants like Amazon. They built self-checkout stations and improved their online ordering system to increase their orders/delivery and reduce checkout times by 20-30%, which allows them to offer the best shipping experience to customers.

Step 2: Foster A Digital-First Culture For Continuous Learning

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Digital transformation is not only about technology but also about how the people in your company think and work. A “digital-first” culture entails everyone being open to learning new technologies and using digital tools like Asana and Trello to improve workflows. 

It also enables your company to be flexible enough and ready for the future. Conversely, if your team does not change their mindset, even the most effective tools will not provide your expected business outcomes.

To help you out, here’s what you need to do:

  • Encourage digital thinking: Comprehend how digital concepts like eCommerce digital marketing can improve your business in terms of sales and customer relations.
  • Promote continuous learning: Technology is also changing, so it is important to learn new skills through training programs, workshops, or online courses.
  • Create a safe space for experimentation: Make your employees try out new tools. Encourage them to think out of the box, make mistakes, learn from them, and share their ideas.

Look at how global tech companies like Google and Microsoft foster a digital-first culture by offering employees continuous learning opportunities. They provide educational experiences that keep their teams sharp and innovative. 

If you are in the tech niche as well, let your employees learn how to match landing pages with ad campaigns and attend coding boot camps to improve their programming, coding, and software development skills. This focus on learning makes sure your teams stay on the cutting edge of technology and are ready to adapt to new challenges.

Step 3: Pilot Projects In Isolated Departments Before Scaling

Before fully committing to digital transformation efforts across the entire company, start small. Launch pilot projects to test new digital tools or systems to help reduce costs and identify and resolve issues before scaling.

As you scale up, consider these aspects:

4 digital transformation strategy - 4 key decisions to scale up
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  • People: Involve and train key team members for smooth adoption.
  • Strategy: Define your key performance indicators and align them with your goals.
  • Execution: Monitor performance closely and adjust based on feedback.
  • Cash: Track costs and revenue growth to inform your scaling decisions.

Let’s say you have a home-based business and are considering the best digital tools for eCommerce or sales management. Make sure to test how the tool works in 1 area of your business so you do not commit to a full-scale change right away.

This lets you set clear, measurable goals for the pilot, like:

  • Simplify data entry
  • Improve order fulfillment speeds
  • Automate customer service responses

Run the pilot for 1-2 months and review the results. What worked well? What didn’t? Use the feedback and data to adjust and improve your system.

If the pilot shows positive results, use this data to secure vendor support scaling initiatives. This approach guarantees you are well-prepared to effectively scale your business.

Step 4: Partner With Tech Startups To Gain Cutting-Edge Solutions

Startups are known to be more flexible than large companies, which means that they can adapt to new digital technologies easily. Work with them so you can access the latest solutions without spending years on in-house development and high R&D costs.

How can you get started?

Identify tech startups aligned with your industry or needs. Research innovation hubs, tech accelerators, or startup marketplaces. If you need help overseeing your projects and ensuring smooth deployment, hire IT project managers who specialize in AI, automation, or transformative technologies. 

Their expertise will help you stay agile, adapt quickly to market changes, and improve your operations with emerging technologies. After that, assess their scalability. Choose startups with scalable products that can integrate into your existing infrastructure. 

Once you establish a partnership, track its impact and measure:

  • Speed of deployment
  • Innovation pipeline growth
  • ROI from new tools or tech solutions

This makes sure you future-proof your operations with emerging trends. 

Here’s an example: If you are in the home care niche like this window cleaning company in Chicago, target tech startups that offer smart apps that automate your booking processes or manage your staff schedule. This lets you reduce overhead and eliminate the need to develop them in-house.

Step 5: Implement Agile Frameworks To Pivot Quickly

Agile frameworks help you break projects into smaller, manageable tasks so you can make quicker adjustments based on iterative feedback. This minimizes overhead and even speeds up your time to market.

Here’s how you can do this:

Use Agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban to organize and prioritize tasks. Tackle projects in short cycles (2-4 weeks) to create a cycle of continuous improvement. Make sure to adopt these agile practices:

  • User Stories: Keep your development customer-centric.
  • Retrospectives: Analyze what works and not to refine your next cycle.
  • Continuous Testing: Test features to catch bugs as early as you can.

Take this example: If you are in the construction industry like this tuckpointing services in Chicago, use agile practices combined with digital platforms to conduct market research and create small-scale tuckpointing samples or mock-ups on test walls.

You can also incorporate customer feedback through digital surveys or augmented reality apps to visualize materials, mortar color, and joint style. Then, adjust your process based on the feedback. This way, you can easily scale up for larger restoration jobs.

Step 6: Use Open-Source Tools To Cut Software Costs

Using open-source software is a way of reducing costs since you do not have to pay license fees. Also, it is dynamic since it is constantly developed with better features and security updates.

To start, determine the areas in which these tools can be used instead of the paid ones. 

Here are the top picks to consider:

  • Office Software: Use LibreOffice or OnlyOffice for Microsoft Office
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Opt for SuiteCRM or Odoo
  • Graphic Design: GIMP or Inkscape instead of Photoshop and Illustrator
  • Operating Systems: Consider Linux distributions instead of Windows or macOS
  • Project Management: Try OpenProject or Taiga as alternatives to Asana or Trello

Then, check their reliability and community support. Look at reviews, community size, and update frequency. You should also choose tools with strong developer support.

Step 7: Focus On Digital Upskilling To Prepare Teams For Change

Upskill to keep your workforce ahead, increase their productivity, and reduce their resistance to change. Plus, if you let your talents acquire digital skills, you minimize your external hiring costs.

Here are the key areas to upskill in:

  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Analysis
  • Cloud Computing
  • AI and Automation

Here’s how you can do this:
Identify which digital skills your team needs the most. Ask employees where they feel less confident with existing technology and set up in-house training sessions or enroll in online courses like these best marketing automation courses on Coursera.

digital transformation strategy - focus on digital upskilling

You should encourage your team to earn certifications too. Host workshops with tech experts or partner with local agencies to bring in fresh knowledge. The goal here is to build a culture where learning new tech excites you and your team to stay ahead.

Step 8: Consolidate Data Silos For A 360° View Of Operations

Data silos happen when information is stored in separate systems, which makes it hard to share important data. This creates blind spots, slows down decisions, and prevents teams from sharing critical information. 

Consolidating data silos helps you combine everything into 1 unified system to:

  • Standardize your data structures
  • Integrate tools and software fully
  • Centralize data storage and access
  • Gain real-time analytics and insights

Here’s your step-by-step guide:

Pinpoint where your data is stored. Consider your CRMs, marketing tools, and accounting software. Once you know where your data is, choose a platform that stores all the information in 1 place, like an ERP or customer data platform.

Next, map out how data will flow between these systems to make sure everything syncs properly. But before you integrate everything, clean your data to remove duplicates or outdated information.

Use integration tools like Zapier and Trello + Butler to connect your current software, then set up user permissions to protect your sensitive data. Lastly, set up real-time dashboards that show up-to-date insights to help your teams make faster and smarter decisions.

Mark each trend as “Must Do Now” or “Plan for Next Year” so your team can focus their efforts where they have the most impact.

A. Invest More In Your Digital Transformation Initiatives

digital transformation strategy - invest more in digital transformation
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The global eCommerce market is expanding progressively. Given this, 38% of the top executives are leveraging digital technologies, and companies that employ AI in marketing and sales increase their ROI by 5-15% while cutting operational costs by 30%.

Customers now expect seamless interactions across all channels: online stores, mobile apps, social media, and physical locations. That said, make sure you invest more in:

  • Data Analytics
  • Order fulfillment
  • Cybersecurity tools
  • Inventory management

So how much should one invest?

This depends on the current stage of your digital transformation process. But you can divide your digital transformation budget like this:

  • 18% to implement new technologies and solutions
  • 10% to AI tools and technologies that can transition to the cloud and adopt IoT (Internet of Things) strategies

How can you start with this?

Develop a plan that details your main strategies for the next 2 years. Identify digital transformation projects that will give the best return on investment and significantly affect your organization.

For example, if you are a smaller company start with targeted tools that yield high returns, like AI or CRM software.

B. Accelerate 5G To Improve Your Connectivity

5G speeds are up to 100x faster than 4G. This reduces lag and improves connectivity with 10-20 gigabits/second download speed. 

By 2030, 5G is expected to add $1.3 trillion to global GDP.  What does this mean?

5G helps your eCommerce businesses sell faster, with smarter logistics and enhanced customer experiences. This lets you have:

  • Instant page loads to reduce cart abandonment rates
  • High-quality product visuals that support AR/VR shopping experiences
  • Seamless video content that streams your product demos and live-streamed shopping events in 4K or 8K without buffer

Optimize your eCommerce site for speed and media-rich content to fully capitalize on the power of 5G. 5G allows faster loading of high-resolution images and videos, meaning customers can interact with your products in greater detail without lag.

Take advantage of this by making sure your site is mobile-friendly and can support AR/VR experiences, virtual try-ons, and 3D product previews. These immersive tools improve customer engagement and retain customer loyalty over time.

C. Adopt Cloud & Hybrid Cloud Models

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Over 94% of enterprise businesses now use cloud services, and hybrid cloud adoption is growing year over year. Cloud models improve scalability, reduce costs, and enhance data security. Meanwhile, hybrid models let you balance on-premises control with cloud flexibility.

This lets you:

  • Scale resources up or down based on demand.
  • Improve disaster recovery and minimize downtime.
  • Reduce upfront capital expenses on pay-as-you-go cloud business models.

How can you do this?

Conduct a cloud readiness assessment. Identify workloads that let you migrate quickly and plan for a hybrid model to retain important on-premises infrastructure. Consider partnering with cloud service providers, like AWS, Azure, or GCP, to achieve a smoother deployment.

Conclusion

To start making changes to your organization’s digital transformation, think about 1 part of your eCommerce ecosystem where AI and machine learning can help you. What’s the first thing you can automate today? Start small, make that change, and see how it improves over time.

If you need help, 6amTech will guide you through the process. Our team provides full-phase software customization services to help your business use technology in the best way. Ready to get started? Reach out today to learn how we can improve your business with the right eCommerce tech solutions.

FAQs

Why is digital transformation essential for businesses?

Digital transformation is crucial as it helps companies remain competitive, streamline processes, and offer improved customer experiences in a fast-evolving digital landscape.

What are the main components of a digital transformation strategy?

Businesses can start by identifying key objectives, selecting suitable digital tools, and creating a supportive company culture for innovation and change.

What are the common challenges in digital transformation?

Companies often face challenges such as resistance to change, unclear strategic direction, and difficulties in integrating new technologies effectively.

Andrew Morris

Andrew Morris

Say hello to Andrew Morris! An experienced technical content writer with a passion for simplifying complex topics and delivering valuable insights. His writing helps businesses navigate challenges and thrive in the digital world.

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