Infinum is one of the top Ruby on Rails development companies with a large Rails team, and some of the top Ruby on Rails developers on board who are actively contributing to the community, building tools and libraries to enhance and improve the framework.

In addition to Rails, we are also proficient in Java, .NET, and Node.js for backend development. But there’s a reason why we like the Ruby on Rails framework so much and why it is so popular as a backend development technology. We thought we should talk about it.

So, why are Ruby on Rails development companies so in demand? In fact, what is Ruby on Rails, and why should you use it? These are the questions that we will answer in this post.

We’ll start with your application development needs.

A good application comprises a well-designed, intuitive frontend and a powerful backend. One might argue that a strong infrastructure that supports the functionalities of your digital product is more important than its appearance. No one wants to use an app that doesn’t work during high-traffic times or is generally slow, even if it wins awards for its looks.

That is why most development companies will pay special attention to your backend needs to determine the best technology for the build. One of their preferred frameworks for building backends is Ruby on Rails.

Ruby on Rails, also known as RoR or Rails, is an open-source framework written in Ruby. While it is capable of full-stack web application development, it is most commonly used for backend building.

The reason why it is so popular is that its convention-over-configuration approach allows developers to spend less time trying to configure files and directories and focus more on building features.

It also promotes the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principle, which encourages modular and reusable code.

The Ruby ecosystem has extensive libraries and gems (a Ruby-specific term for libraries, packages, and modules distributed through the RubyGems package manager). These help you take advantage of existing code to make building complex features easier and enable rapid application development (RAD).

All in all, the framework allows you to build powerful and scalable backends for your application quickly and easily.

As you have seen, Ruby on Rails offers several advantages. Let us take a closer look at the benefits you achieve when you use it for your enterprise platform backend development.

Rails’ convention-over-configuration approach makes it great for efficient and reliable development. The framework provides sensible defaults and predefined structures using scaffolding, which is a tool that lets you generate the basic components of an application to save time.

Instead of you writing boilerplate code, this uses predefined rules to create a set of basic files and code templates for you.

These features make Ruby on Rails ideal for digital products that need to be out in the market quickly.

Another feature of Ruby on Rails that enables quicker development is gems. Since the framework is open-source, most gems have been built by its active community. These pre-built libraries allow you to ‘plug in’ functionalities that have already been created. Again, this allows you to develop your product faster and get it out into the market sooner.

Applications built on Rails can easily scale horizontally, by adding more servers, and vertically, by upgrading server resources. Large volumes of tasks can be processed asynchronously using gems for smooth performance even when there is a heavy load on the application. Growing businesses especially benefit from the fact that Rails supports a modular architecture, which makes it easy to add microservices.

Ruby on Rails development companies often have it easier than ones that use other platforms because this framework makes building backends so much easier. Since it works on the DRY principle, you get modular and reusable code that is easy to maintain.

The programming language that powers it—Ruby—has a clean and intuitive syntax, so writing and understanding the code is not difficult. 
It also has comprehensive documentation, with a community-led ecosystem that provides tutorials, forums, and guides.

Over the years, Rails has developed into a stable framework that offers built-in security measures that protect applications from cross-site scripting, SQL injection, insecure direct object reference, and more. It allows you to create web applications that are relatively free of vulnerabilities and risks of security breaches.

We have already mentioned how RoR can be used for both frontend and backend development. However, it is generally used for backend infrastructure that connects to frontend applications.

Ruby on Rails is easy on your pockets for two reasons: First, it is an open-source framework, so you can use it for free. Second, it makes building your application infrastructure so quick and easy that you spend less on development costs.

Rails’s ease of use could not have been possible without the bustling community supporting this framework. In fact, the Ruby on Rails experts in Infinum are actively involved in supporting this technology and building solutions designed for everyone to use.

Moreover, since the language and the framework are so easy to learn, you will also find a vast number of Rails developers for your development needs.

Ruby on Rails follows a model-view-controllers architecture that separates the app into three parts:

It offers asynchronous programming using tools like background jobs, which allows tasks to run independently without blocking other operations. This modularity allows you to maintain and test individual components without affecting the rest of the application.

The framework also supports test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD) and comes with built-in testing tools like Minitest and community-supported tools like RSpec.

Together, these features make any application built using Rails very easy to maintain and test. Of course, coding principles like convention-over-configuration and DRY also lead to code that is easy to maintain and has fewer errors.

Ruby on Rails lends itself very well to all manners of applications, from prototyping to large e-commerce websites. It adapts well to development trends like API-first development, microservices, and cloud integration. As a result, it can be used for a wide variety of digital products.

As we can see, Ruby on Rails development companies can offer:

As a result, Rails is commonly used for:

Rails gives you everything you need for both the backend (business logic and database) and the user interface in one easy-to-use package. It has tools like Active Record (for managing databases) and ERB templates (for rendering HTML) so you can seamlessly connect the parts of your app. Its convention-over-configuration approach means you can focus on features instead of setting everything up.

For a content management system (CMS) or social networking site, Rails lets you quickly create and manage things like user accounts, posts, comments, and permissions—all without having to reinvent the wheel.

Rails is great for building APIs because it provides everything you need to serve data to mobile apps or frontend frameworks like React or Vue.js.

It has built-in support for creating RESTful APIs, which makes it easy to handle requests like “get all users” or “update this product.” Gems like jsonapi-serializer or ActiveModel::Serializer make it simple to convert database records into JSON, the format most APIs use.

If you want a more flexible API, Rails also supports GraphQL with gems like graphql-ruby.

Let’s say you are building a mobile app for a restaurant. Rails can handle the backend by providing an API to send data like menu items, reservations, and user reviews to the app.

Rails is all about speed and simplicity, which makes it perfect for prototyping. It comes with scaffolding, a feature that generates basic code for models, views, and controllers. This lets you create a working app skeleton in minutes.

With gems, you can quickly add features like user authentication, payment processing, or file uploads without having to build them from scratch. Rails’ active developer community means you can find tons of examples, tutorials, and pre-built solutions to speed up your work.

If you are a startup with a tight deadline, you can use Rails to quickly create and test an MVP (minimum viable product), get feedback, and iterate without starting over.

Rails is a strong choice for online stores because it balances flexibility (customizing features) and scalability (handling growth). You can build unique workflows, like custom checkout processes or loyalty programs, to match your store’s needs.

Rails works well with tools like caching, background jobs, and load balancers to handle high traffic during sales or promotions. This makes it easier for you to grow your business without hitting a technological brick wall.

Gems like Spree or Solidus provide pre-built e-commerce functionality, so you can get started quickly while still having the freedom to customize. That is why Shopify—one of the world’s biggest e-commerce platforms—started with Rails, because it allowed the company to build quickly and scale over time.

Rails is ideal for software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications because it is modular and integrates easily with other tools. Gems like Apartment make it simple to create apps that serve multiple customers (or “tenants”) with separate data and settings.

It can easily connect to payment systems like Stripe, email providers like SendGrid, and analytics tools. Rails’ structure makes it easy to add new features or update existing ones, which is critical for SaaS apps that need to evolve constantly.

Basecamp, a popular project management tool, is built on Rails because its modular design and rapid development tools were perfect for creating a scalable service.

Rails shines in apps that rely heavily on data because it simplifies how you interact with databases. Active record object-relational mapping (ORM) is a component of Ruby on Rails that makes working with databases feel like working with regular objects in your code, so it is easy to retrieve, update, or organize data.

Rails makes migration easier with tools to update and manage your database structure over time, without breaking the app. Gems like Sidekiq or Delayed Job help handle large amounts of data processing asynchronously, so your app stays fast for users.

If you are building a CRM or analytics platform, Rails lets you manage complex data like customer profiles, interactions, and reports while keeping the app responsive.

Even though Ruby on Rails does come with some great benefits, it is not perfect. It does have some drawbacks.

Compared to Node.js and Django, Rails has a slower runtime speed. That is because Ruby is a dynamically typed language, and it is interpreted rather than compiled. Since it is executed line by line, it is not as fast as other languages that are pre-compiled. However, this is a problem only if your application has a very high traffic volume. Most of the time, performance issues on Rails applications are caused by server and database environments, not because of Rails per se.

The very feature that makes Ruby on Rails a great choice for quick development is the cause of its drawback. Pre-built modules and gems are great for adding functionality quickly, but they do not work for unique features. Developing these custom features could add to your development time, and, as a result, your costs.

When you need a quick prototype, Rails is the framework to build it. However, if you include a mistake early on in the build, fixing it can be difficult because of dependencies and how the components are linked to each other. It might even mean rebuilding your entire application from scratch.

Since several components and gems for Rails are developed by the community, not all of them have detailed documentation. This is especially true for less popular gems and libraries. It is not an issue that cannot be resolved, but it can take time, which could have been saved if there was adequate documentation.

Having looked at the pros and cons of Ruby on Rails, you can see that its benefits far outweigh its disadvantages. In fact, several large, well-known companies have put their faith in it for their architecture. Some of the better-known names that were built on Rails are:

While this software development company offers several other technologies for building digital products, its main focus remains Ruby on Rails. It prioritizes a quick launch, and uses Rails for prototyping and engineering.

JetRuby is unique in that it provides recruitment services as well, offering HR management and talent-management-as-a-service. If you want to recruit Ruby on Rails developers, this company can help you through its training academy.

Another development company that focuses on Ruby on Rails, Rubyroid labs provides full-cycle Ruby on Rails software development services. This Warsaw-based agency has built over 300 successful digital solutions for businesses worldwide, using Rails.

While they handpick the team that will be working on your project, they do give you the opportunity to interview each member so you can determine if they will be a good fit.

A UK-based software development company, Digiryte offers a wide variety of services, including MVP development, data engineering, AI/ML, mobile app development, and more. It offers three forms of engagement: Team augmentation, Agile pods, and product development.

The company lists Ruby on Rails as one of the technologies it uses for web application backend development, along with Python, PHP, and .NET Core.

While Digiryte doesn’t have as many projects as some of the others on this list, it does have some prestigious names, including the NHS and Channel 4, among its clients.

This digital product development company promises a people-first, passion-driven service. Since it promises end-to-end development, you will find a wide range of services in its repertoire.

Their broad expertise is also evident in the number of technologies they are proficient at for backend development. In addition to Ruby on Rails (which features prominently), they also offer platforms like Node.js, .NET Core, Django, Laravel, Nest.js, and more.

While it is a software development company, Netguru positions itself as an AI-focused business. It offers AI and GenAI development as part of its services. Of course, this is in addition to a complete range of services, including prototyping, software development, maintenance, and design.

Netguru offers Rails expertise as part of its web tech stack, along with React, Vue.js, Next.js, Node.js, and more. This Poland-based agency has a team of over 400 people and has delivered over 2,500 projects.

The quirky name of this company reflects its focus—MVP development and fast deployment of business applications. For its backend building services for web apps, it uses Ruby on Rails, in addition to Monolith-First, Microservices, Swagger, etc.

You are launched is a self-proclaimed “lean evangelist” who promotes the idea of “Learn–Launch–Test” for quick deployment and iterative development. If you are a startup with an app idea built using Ruby on Rails, this company might be the right choice for you.

Probably the largest company on this list, N-iX employs 2,500 people across 25 countries in Europe and the Americas. The company offers “expert solutions in cloud, data analytics, embedded software, IoT, AI, machine learning, and other tech domains.”

The company is an expert in Ruby web development and employs Ruby on Rails as well as Sinatra. It is also proficient in Ruby-based tools like Chef and Puppet for DevOps, and has demonstrated its expertise in RoR through various services like web app development and refactoring, prototyping and MVP building, and API implementation.

We have the expertise and experience—two decades’ worth— of building applications and software for enterprise customers. Our services started in Europe but are now available in the US as well.

Our team of over 40 people has a substantial percentage of Rails developers who are an active part of the community.

Our backend development service is geared towards providing you with a great digital product backed by a powerful and scalable infrastructure. We help you drive efficiency, reduce technical debt, and optimize costs.

If you’re looking for backend or full-stack development, and want to partner with an experienced Ruby on Rails development company, get in touch!

You may have heard that we redesigned our website 6 months ago. 

We’ve invested hours on end to create a crisp and intuitive design. We wrote hundreds of words of fresh content and thousands of lines of clean code. Dozens of people worked hard for several months to launch the Infinum website, version 3.0. 

The crazy thing is apparently we weren’t the only ones who had this kind of design in mind.

A company called Enflow was actually developing the exact same website at the exact same time. What are the odds?!

And it’s not just our websites that look alike. Wait until you see their office…

Have you ever visited an online store and added items to the shopping cart just to abandon it and never come back again? We bet you have because the average cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%.

As an eCommerce business, the best way to improve conversion rates is to make checkout experience easy and effortless.

Checkout process is the critical part of any purchasing experience. When you consider the effort you have to put in to get people to your product pages, you do not want the conversion to fail because the checkout process was confusing or it included unnecessary steps.

A report from National Retail Federation revealed that 97% of consumers have terminated a purchase because the service wasn’t convenient enough. The good news is that checkout optimization that addresses the usual complaints can increase conversions by 35%.

How you approach checkout optimization can make or break your online business, so you should follow the best practices used by most popular eCommerce stores. Let’s check out nine simple improvements you can implement to optimize your checkout experience and increase sales.

Let’s start with the most obvious things. The checkout process begins as soon as the item is added to the shopping basket. Therefore, you ought to encourage website visitors to add products to the cart using a highly visible button.

It should be a bit larger/brighter/more colorful than other elements on the product page. ECommerce CTAs are simple and straightforward as all it takes is to create the “Add to Cart” sign (like you can see on the examples of Amazon product pages below).

If website visitors have to search for the button to add the item to cart or for the button to start the checkout process, your design team has failed you.

Once the customer chooses a product, they should be given a clear overview of the selected item before proceeding to the checkout. This means displaying basic information such as the number of items selected, dimensions, colors, and other important details for that particular item.

Take Nordstrom for example – they immediately display the image of the product, its size, colors, and the price. When customers see that everything is fine with the ordered item, they can click the “Checkout” button and proceed to complete the purchase.

In order to maximize conversion rates, eCommerce businesses must keep the checkout process fully transparent. According to the research by Ready Cloud, more than 60% of online shoppers report leaving a transaction due to an extra cost (that most often appear in the form of shipping fees).

Online retail lives and breathes transparency. It is highly recommended to clearly state even the smallest details and eliminate any hidden fees all the way through the checkout line. The same goes for return policies, money-back guarantees, etc.

Uncertainty is another thing online buyers hate and it could seriously deteriorate the conversion potential of your online shop. Don’t leave the customers wondering about shipping details, but rather explain the options and let them choose by their preferences.

Which shipping options you have and what is their respective price and delivery date? What kind of package tracking options you offer? What is your return policy? Do you deliver to specific countries?

First-time buyers will be hesitant to buy from you if they can’t find clear answers to all of those questions.

This is the step that will have the highest impact on your conversion rate so it is definitely something you want to get right.

Common practice is that the payment form always comes in the latter stages of the checkout process. Setting aside that is the most intuitive approach, the idea is that potential buyers will be less likely to abandon the cart after going through all of the previous steps (adding things to the cart, reviewing items in the cart, choosing payment and shipping options, leaving shipping information).

These days, customers expect having multiple payment methods. Although it depends on your financial management strategy, it’s good to add all of the major payment providers to the eCommerce store – PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, Stripe. Paying on the receipt of the product is still a popular option that shouldn’t be overlooked. Paying with a digital currency like BitCoin can be an interesting additional option, but it probably makes more sense for stores that sell computer hardware and similar tech.

Apart from that, online retailers are expected to ask for essential information only. First of all, it will speed up the checkout and make it more convenient. Secondly, it will protect users’ privacy, which has become quite a big deal with GDPR and all of the recent hacking incidents where millions of users had the personal data compromised.

Bellroy gives us a fine example of a simple checkout as it only asks for the fundamentals, which enable them to have the whole payment form on a single page.

If the payment form spans several pages, a good practice is to visually show the buyer at which step they currently are and what are the total numbers of steps left.

Online retail businesses that force customers to register see a much lower conversion rate than those with guest checkouts. According to this report from Baymard, almost 30% of potential buyers quit the checkout process because the store forces them to create an account.

The point is clear – mandatory registration is causing the so-called “new account fatigue” and chasing away potential shoppers. Although it could sometimes undermine your upsell or cross-sell activities, guest checkout seems like the way to go in modern retail, with the possible exception of stores that only sell high-ticket items.

No matter how hard you try, the majority of visitors will end up abandoning the cart without completing the purchase. Your job is to make it easy to come back and buy items left in the shopping basket.

For instance, you can save cart content for later and help customers complete the transaction at more convenient time for them. This is a neat tactic to win over the customers even if they initially abandoned the checkout before registering. J’Crew takes this to heart and even shows returning visitors notification that they have left some items in the cart.

One interesting way to improve the checkout process for repeat customers is to save their credit card information (you can ask them during the first purchase if they want you to remember their credit card info). If you do so, recurring buyers do not have to enter that information on any of the following purchases, speeding up their shopping experience.

Additionally, you could also enable writing suggestions or use techniques such as auto-formatting or copy-and-paste to ensure effortless fill-ins upon return.

ECommerce stores should be optimized for cross-device browsing. Today’s buyers surf the Internet on multiple devices and they frequently switch between laptops, tablets, and smartphones. It forces webshops to take care of interoperability, especially because mobile shopping will make well above 70% of the global eCommerce sales by 2021.

Finally, to ensure a smooth and effective checkout process, you need to eliminate unnecessary distractions. Minimalism is the name of the game here since shoppers only need to see the most important checkout details. That includes order reviews, shipping instructions, and payment details exclusively. Common checkout distractions include things such as multiple CTA buttons, distracting layouts, any kind of pop-up offer, forms with too many input fields, and similar.

Checkout optimization is the cornerstone of digital retail, but it demands a detail-oriented plan of action that promises to raise conversions in the long run.

The current pandemic has changed the way we live and buy, which means that many businesses had to change their whole business model. This is nowhere more evident than in the retail space where many retailers had to go digital if they wanted to reach their customers.

One thing is sure – digital transformation in the retail industry has been on steroids in light of the market changes we’ve seen in the first half of 2020.

So, how have retailers been holding up, and what can we expect post-COVID?

Retail technology has transformed the purchasing experience by:

This is exactly why eCommerce was already on the verge of trumping traditional retailing even before COVID-19. According to Statista, the global retail website traffic hit 14.3 billion visits in March 2020, signifying an unprecedented growth of e-commerce during the lockdown.

The consumer shopping behavior report from Competera highlights how consumer buying preferences have changed, with the most interesting statistic being that 23% of respondents (US) saying how they continued shopping more online even after the lockdown.

The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and commerce is being felt in more ways than one. According to the World Bank Global Economic Prospects report from June 2020, a zero-point projection of 5.2 percent contraction in global GDP in 2020 was predicted. This forecast was based on the market exchange rate weights.

It’s no secret that stay-at-home order and social-distancing measures being one of the protocols enacted to curb the spread of COVID-19 have instigated the shutdown of hundreds of thousands of retail outlets across the world. This restriction of movement has invariably threatened consumers’ spending and the attendant retailers’ earnings for the conceivable future.

To stay afloat, many retailers have no option but to adapt to the changing market realities. There has become an evident shift from physical to digital commerce with many retailers adopting e-commerce platforms or building internal digital solutions to run their businesses.

Adobe Analytic reported that online sales in the US rose by approximately 50% at the peak of the pandemic as consumers continued shopping while on lockdown.

Even though all business owners knew that going digital is the solution to most of their problems, digital transformation can’t happen overnight. You have to be ready to research, plan, invest in the right technology, and nurture change management after the implementation is over.

According to Business Insider Analysis, at least 4,700 US stores are confirmed to be closing in 2020 due to their inability to cope with the market recession caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Like many affected retailers, Neiman Marcus Group, one of the US top retail store chains, went bankrupt. They have furloughed thousands of their corporate and regular employees as they have shuttered most stores. Also, Pier 1 is closing all its retail stores, after filing for bankruptcy due to a high debt profile and their inability to fully transition into digital retail.

Similarly, due to the apparent COVID-19 crisis and the uncertain economic future due to Brexit, reports from BusinessLive in the UK, show that many retail stores have gone into administration already while others will, by the end of 2020. Examples of such big retailers are TM Lewin and L. Brand, the parent company of Victoria’s Secrets and Bath & Body shops.

According to a report from Retail Gazette, TM Lewin initially feeling the stress of a struggling retail sector has become a victim of the COVID-19 crisis after proving unable to cope with the pressure from the national lockdown on non-essentials. In another report, Forbes shows that over 250 Victoria’s Secret stores will be permanently shuttered as the pandemic finally put the nail to their already shaky financial coffin.

For brands that are ready to harness the power of digital transformation, this is a great opportunity to actually grow their business.

Reports from eMarketer show that most big US retail companies like Target, Costco, and Macy’s are not affected because they already had an existing integrated online-offline retailing model before the pandemic. Similarly, small brick-and-mortar retailers in the US that took the initiative and swiftly transitioned into doing business in the digital space include brands like Lammes Candies and Tylers, two candy companies.

In the UK, high-end retail stores like Tesco and Walmart (ASDA) remain firmly in business, notwithstanding the pandemic, because of their integrated and functional retail channels.

To survive the apparent COVID-19 conundrum and stay in business, smaller retail outlets like Kett’s Book (bookshop) and Jumbo Records (record store) went online to continue offering services to their customers, albeit digitally.

The post-COVID-19 projections suggest that e-commerce is going to continue to grow because many consumers have made online shopping part of their regular routines (and we can’t discard the option of repeat lockdowns). Retailers will have to work to put greater emphasis on online and mobile ordering and ensure to create more intuitive user experiences.

A survey from Competera we mentioned earlier shows that in the US, as many as 29% of buyers say that they will never engage in offline shopping; in the UK, 43% of consumers say that they expect to continue shopping the same way even after the lockdown is over.

Nonetheless, some purchases are still best made in-store, and just because the shopping preference of most customers is online does not mean offline stores will disappear. Going forward, it is expected that most retailers will have to balance the e-commerce experience with in-store offerings to create a consistent and holistic approach across all channels.

One way that is already put into action is by stores that had already adopted BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store), and curbside takes it a level farther.

While curbside protocols vary by retailer, stores ranging from grocery stores to big-box retailers and specialty stores have started offering curbside pickup, and customers appreciate the safety and convenience.

These examples perfectly illustrate how technology and good ideas work together to deliver innovative solutions to match market demands.

According to KPMG, the realities of retailing in a COVID-19 world suggest that forward-thinking retailers are evaluating the situation and planning accordingly by adopting best practices, innovative responses, and new ideas that are emerging across the industry.

Whether this pandemic persists for months or years, it is clear the retail industry will never be the same. It’s time to acknowledge this reality and start adapting because digital commerce is a mainstay.

Even though the pandemic has impacted retail business on a global scale, it has also created new opportunities and a sense of urgency for companies to build and expand their digital channels.

As the world emerges through the ashes of COVID-19, who will be better positioned to succeed than those who have prioritized digital transformation?

After providing valuable insight in the expert commentary section of our book “Transforming the Purchasing Experience”, we invited Aleksandar for a follow-up chat to elaborate on the topic of digital transformation in retail.

I was happy to participate. The initial feedback has been great, many people have commented on the design and how in-depth the content is.

In the last decade, an explosive e-commerce revolution and smartphone proliferation provided a fertile ground for the new retail landscape.
We witnessed a massive shift of decision power to the connected customer. As a customer today, you have an enormous pool of information and choices when you evaluate products, supported by real reviews. In fact, the shopper may appear more knowledgeable than the sales rep about certain product features.

Although online sales doubled in the last 5 years, brick and mortar still own the retail industry when we look at overall sales. Where e-commerce technology advancements and Internet adoption brought a gigantic change is the buyer journey of the modern customer. Some of our furniture clients like Interior Define are digital-native DTC players that only opened their showrooms years after launching the business.

Buyers don’t follow a linear path to purchase anymore. They jump in-between stages, devices, and media, with constantly growing expectations and hungry for richer shopping experiences. Today’s customer prefers experiences over products so much that to some extent the retail experience itself is the product.

Digital Darwinism pushes the laggards towards the edge as technology and customer expectations evolve faster than some businesses can normally adapt.
Right now we are at the beginning of the end of E-commerce. In the next decade, purchasing all product categories beyond essentials online will be deemed an everyday shopping habit.

The Covid-19 pandemic certainly accelerated the digital transformation of many businesses. But what we also observe is that it also encouraged customers to buy more online more frequently. E-com sales soared even for a more considered purchase like home furnishings. In the future, customer’s demand for more personalized products and experiences will only continue to grow.

Buyers would expect that the retailer can recognize them and personalize the experience accordingly. Machine learning and AI will play a significant role in both movements, hyper-targeting consumers, and delivering hyper-relevant experiences, at scale.

The buying process today is way more iterative as opposed to the straight-line buying journey a retailer was used to 15 or 20 years ago: When you wanted to buy a TV, you walked into a store, looked at 10 models, and got one.

The lines between online and offline are blurred now, and having an online presence is enormously important and a key component in the consideration stage of the buying cycle – both for e-commerce and physical retail!

Thanks to the power that mobile unblocked, customers discover new products, compare prices, create shopping lists and review products (sometimes in the store).
Mobile sales are seeing exponential growth YoY and the Coronavirus pandemic brought up tectonic shifts in shopping for almost every product category online, so yes.

Most businesses understand that technology is becoming increasingly important, however, their awareness level depends on where do they really sit on the maturity scale.
Some age-old rules in marketing will always apply because the basic human needs won’t change: security, entertainment, sense of belonging, recognition, status.
The thing is that this relationship now lives across a variety of buying channels.

The question then becomes: How much can a retailer satisfy consumers’ cravings for better experiences and their appetite for more immersive experiences?
That’s why technologies like 3D (360 product spins and Augmented Reality) are considered table stakes and the sooner this is recognized, fewer costs are incurred in lost attention and transactions.

As a rule of thumb, retailers need to work backward: design the customer-centered experiences then make informed choices about their technology stack and integrations.

We’ve seen clients boosting web store conversion rates by 27% on average and increasing visitor engagement by 3 times as a result of using the 360 product configurator.
A top 30 furniture retailer in the USA increased the sales of their sectionals by 30% after introducing the Cylindo powered 3D product configuration in their showrooms as part of their “Design centers.”

When it comes down to the last touch conversion, our recent integration with Google Analytics enables clients to easily monitor real-time event data (spins, zoom clicks, clicks on configuration options) and revenue data, actual dollar amount and conversion percentage attributed to a product supported by 360 Product Viewer and web-AR.

As experiences today are increasingly digitally-driven tech-savvy retailers would want to solve more pieces from the buyer journey puzzle, beyond the final purchase: discovery stage and engagement touchpoints. This would require an investment in Experience Cloud Software and intent data, which is where most retailers are slower to adapt vs. their B2B peers.

I don’t want to underestimate the science and tech development, but in the foreseeable future virtual try-on could hardly replace the sensory experience of touching and investigating a product.

Although a Retail Apocalypse has proved to be a myth to most experts, physical stores are drastically changing, becoming smaller and more experiential.
Increased photo-realism quality online implies that we can expect rapid adoption of visualization technologies.

Driven by customer evolving needs for more immersive experiences, 3D technology is ready for widespread adoption. For instance, among the top retailers, 360/3D product views are now considered a minimum requirement online.

Some technologies like Web-native Augmented Reality are moving from the experiential phase and are slowly becoming mainstream. This technology can ease decision-making by reducing friction and empowering customers to bring products in real life with a try-before-you-buy experience.

The Latest Apple iOS updates allow for instant experiences and product try-ons.

According to a Gartner report, 100 million consumers will shop using AR online and in-store in 2020, so I think we can soon expect AR to become an inevitable part of the buyers’ path-to-purchase.

Since 2010, e-commerce has put hundreds of brick and mortar stores out of business, including retail giants like the 125-year-old department store Sears. Just last year, more than 12,000 retail locations were predicted to close.

Such reports have led many to believe e-commerce is the destructive force obliterating storefronts one at a time. However, as sensationalist headlines declare that the store is doomed, the data tells a different story.

Did you know that in 2019, only 14.1% of global retail sales were made online, while more than 85% happened at physical stores? The numbers are almost identical as in the years before.

While the impact of e-commerce on physical retail has been greatly exaggerated, it is undeniable that the retail landscape is evolving.

In a world fueled by technological advancements, products, services, and experiences are rapidly evolving. This march of progress brought unprecedented changes, with new competitors emerging daily and consumer expectations reaching ever new heights.

In the book, we explored several compelling digital transformation success stories of brands that have skillfully tapped into digital transformation and asked experts from L’Oreal Luxe, Volvo Cars, A1 Telecom, Cylindo, and Repsly to offer insight into the importance of digital transformation in retail and focus shift towards consumer experience.

Speaking of consumer experience, the way people seek information, communicate, and formulate buying decisions has changed dramatically in the digital age. Today’s self-educated consumers have a wealth of information at their fingertips and often prefer to do product research on their own.

The path to purchase today takes place across countless channels and screens: Physical stores, showrooms, websites, mobile apps, social media, television, call centers, and more.

Consumers are scattered across all channels, and their novel behavior challenges retailers’ old ways.

Businesses must find a way to adapt to the modern retail model or risk getting outpaced by competitors. By utilizing software and technology, retailers can combine various channels into one path to purchase, making the overall purchasing experience more consumer-centric and convenient.

Implementing technology requires strategic initiative and is a significant investment—but the cost pales in comparison to the cost of losing customers.

For further reading on trends and predictions in retail, grab your guide through digital transformation in retail and learn how any retail business can leverage technology to reach the modern consumer at every stage of the purchasing experience.

In case the nearing ending of a decade doesn’t sound scary and you need more proof you’re getting old, I’ll have you know it’s been almost 20 years since the movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” came out, the dot-com bubble burst, and the first tablet device was released.

The tablet device, an invention often attributed to Steve Jobs and Apple, really came to be as a Microsoft prototype Bill Gates first released in 2000. However, it took another 10 years and an iPad for the tablet to gain popularity. On the day it was released, Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads.

There was room for a new category of device, Jobs explained as he presented the revolutionary device in all its glory. It had the best of both the PC and the smartphone worlds packed in a lightweight casing the size of a journal.

The tablet was as versatile as a computer but not as bulky. It was portable like a mobile phone but had a significantly longer battery life. It seemed to be the missing link.

Fast forward 10 years, it’s nobody’s favorite gadget.

Global tablet sales have been shrinking year-on-year for around half the time tablets have existed.

According to analysts, the tablet market peaked in 2014 when 250 million tablets were shipped worldwide, and consumer demand has dried up since. A report by Pew found that 53% of American adults use tablets, but they are clearly not upgrading their devices.

There is one exception to the declining tablet market rule, though. Apple’s iPad stubbornly continues to lead the tablet market, stacking six consecutive positive YoY quarter performances in the declining market.

What’s that all about?

The 2016 survey that looked into consumer preference concerning media consumption might offer some insight into the root of tablets’ demise.

In the survey, Deloitte asked to name their preferred device types for 15 different activities, which ranged from streaming TV to making online purchases. According to 30,000 respondents, the tablet was the preferred device for none of these activities.

Surely enough, the survey didn’t take into consideration the use of tablet as a pacifier for overly energetic children, a category in which the tablet shines. This is in part because tablets for kids are a category on their own, and mostly because those devices are focused around specific content, rather than functionalities and user experience.

Two facts need to be addressed when discussing the factors that contributed to the tablet market collapsing.

Fact 1: User experience, actually the lack thereof, is the main culprit for the tablet’s fall.

In all fairness, both the first iPad and the first line of Android-powered tablets simply looked and felt like enlarged smartphones.

However, in the years that followed, Apple was dedicated in perfecting user experience and performance while simultaneously upgrading the hardware, while Android-powered tablet manufacturers kept lowering device prices and increasing variety, paying little attention to the software that ran on them.

Fact 2: Android was an OS built for smartphones, the majority of which didn’t exceed the dimensions at which Android tablets usually started.

Google’s lack of investment in tablet apps, high-performance processors, and the needs of enterprise users, coupled with years of usability negligence, have slowly been chipping away at the (Android) tablet market, culminating in Google leaving the tablet-making game for good in June this year.

This has fueled the iPad’s evolution into a professional device that’s used for creating art, editing content, and running enterprise business applications, even long before it rebranded iOS for iPad as iPadOS following the 13.1 update.

Although the decline in the consumer space is not easy to offset, tablets are being increasingly used in the enterprise. The use cases for the device are arising cross-enterprise, especially in client-facing, creative, and mobile employee roles.

In fact, tablet use in the enterprise accounts for one fifth of the overall market in EMEA nowadays, and consistently outperforms the market average.

Apple has obviously predicted this course of events, as it has long worked to forge relationships with enterprise institutions such as IBM, Salesforce, Deloitte, and others to build enterprise-grade solutions around iOS.

Long before Microsoft started doing it with its Surface line, anyway.

Microsoft’s new tablet has since established itself as a reliable business device that leverages their suite of enterprise apps, bringing home positive feedback and increasing revenue.

The predictions for the future are even better. Market analysts forecast the global enterprise tablet market to grow at the annual growth rate of 8.61% for the period 2019-2023.

Even though the tablet is not an optimal device choice for every business, it has proven to be beneficial across multiple industries.

In the workplace, it can be a check-in device in or a delivery tracker. In retail, it’s often a powerful customer feedback gathering touchpoint and engine. In the beauty sector, it’s been adopted as a virtual try-on device.

In the hospitality sector, it is being increasingly implemented as a console for controlling connected devices and appliances, and the mobility industry probably wouldn’t know its way without the tablet GPS.

But even within the same industry, the need for a tablet device can differ depending on the role an employee has in the organization.

A tablet used as a primary device is able to replace your laptop, usually for occupations whose work happens mostly on-the-go, as well as client-facing roles.

Examples of field workers who often rely on tablets as the primary device include factory workers, construction workers, warehouse workers, field service technicians, emergency medical technicians and nurses, flight-line aircraft personnel, and many others.

For example, in a factory that’s undergoing a digital transformation, workers use tablet applications for asset tracking, order management, mobile payment, inventory management, quality assurance, safety audits, fleet maintenance, as well as repair scheduling.

Similarly, customer-facing employees will use the tablet for inputting orders and processing payments, or as replacements for old-school cash registers and desktops.

On the other side of the equation are the employees who already have reliable laptops or desktops for performing their daily operations. They are more likely to use the tablet as a supplemental device, to catch up on news, read e-books, consume media, and write a couple of emails.

Executives, salesmen and consultants, marketers, journalists, administration clerks and analysts often fall under that category.

While the general public continues to mourn tablets, enterprises are finding new ways to leverage the device’s power, flexibility, and competitive pricing.

As the demand for enterprise-level tablet continually pushes new device models out on the market, injecting life back into tablets bit by bit, the force driving device choice in the digital transformation should be the employee’s role in the enterprise.

Field workers will appreciate long battery life and ruggedness; a sales presenter cares about immaculate connectivity and screen size; whereas an administrative clerk’s concern might be whether the tablet’s processing power and storage space are sufficient to store their gathered data.

Finally, after years of being on the death row, it seems that resurrection is on the horizon for tablets–one led by providers striving to deliver the ultimate user experience along with the latest functionalities.

The tablet future belongs to providers who will continue perfecting software and hardware. Thousands of tablets that won’t make it to the next decade have learned this the hard way.