Digital & E-commerce

Morten Viktor, Senior Vice President (SVP) of Digital & E-commerce at Coop Danmark, has an extensive experience in E-commerce for both food and non-food products. His career in the company began with the role of Vice President, after which he was promoted to Chief Digital Officer (CDO) position before finally becoming the SVP. The Danish Marketing Association listed Viktor on the M-list in 2021 as well as 2022. Additionally, Viktor is a Danish Army and Royal Danish Airforce Veteran who served as a Sergeant for three years.

In an exclusive interview with CIO Review Europe for the edition E-Commerce 2022, Viktor shared his valuable insights on the current and future trends and how the E-commerce marketplace is coping with the effects of the pandemic.

What do you feel are some of the pertinent trends of E-commerce in 2022 with regard to the effects of the pandemic?

I was at the NRF conference in New York City in January. Combining the experience I gained from the conference, my colleagues, and our experience in the Danish market, I would say that last-mile delivery is a prominent trend in the European E-commerce market presently. The questions here are: How does it make E-commerce efficient? To what extent should we employ self-driving units? When are the drones coming? How should we utilise low-income labour, such as UberEats and Instacart?

The last mile delivery discussion leads into quick commerce, a key topic in E-commerce. Many players provide home delivery of groceries within 10 minutes, such as the UberEats, takeaway.com, delivery hero, and delivery guru. Of course, this is a metropolitan area phenomenon and has less support in rural districts.

“The pandemic has brought in a new normal for people, and they have opened their eyes to online groceries and E-commerce.”

Another trend in E-commerce is convenience. What is convenience? Well, convenience is what Amazon and Alibaba cater to in their respective marketplaces. Convenience has five main pillars, the first one being assortment. A company, whether in non-food or grocery, needs a large variety. The second pillar of convenience is price. It does not necessarily have to be the cheapest. It needs a fair pricing scheme, especially if there is a loyalty program. Next is delivering an item as the customer wants. Sometimes consumers want groceries in styrofoam boxes so frozen items do not melt; other times, they want a big basket. That kind of order is not serviced by quick commerce.

The user experience is the fourth pillar, and it is influenced by Google, Netflix, Hulu, Disney plus, and other digital services. We are not necessarily the threshold of great user experiences as the bar is not set by E-commerce but rather by other industries that deliver a great user experience. The final pillar is environmental footprints, CSR, transparency, workforce, work, labour conditions, unions, and so on. In Europe, it is known as transparency. We need to have good working conditions for our employees and a low carbon footprint in delivering home groceries or anything bought online.

Can you elaborate on the challenges that arise in quick commerce?

There are numerous issues with quick commerce as consumers are growing even more impatient. In Europe, quick commerce poses a challenge in terms of wages, salaries, and unionising of the labour force. There is a marketplace, a platform employment scheme, where people running around on bikes are freelancers working on this platform. Our local taxi authorities have given a verdict that these freelancers are to be considered employees with protests and votes. The rules about vacation, pension, and other benefits should also apply to them.

Servicing a whole nation from far away stores does not always work. It makes the cut for non-food products, but there needs to be a picking station for the consumer in groceries. And this is where the brick-and-mortar stores play an important role along with an E-commerce effort. The belief amongst all of us is that the winning model going forward is an omni channel of connected commerce. That is a major reason why Amazon Fresh announced they are building 260 physical grocery stores in the UK next year.

Where do you see the trend going and do you expect certain disruptions or evolutions in the market as it pertains to how the market is shifting? What are your predictions for E-commerce in the next 12 to 18 months?

The pandemic has brought in a new normal for people, and they have opened their eyes to online groceries and E-commerce. The predictions from consultancies such as McKinsey, Forrester, and Gartner are that the industry will headway over the next four years. E-commerce is here to stay, and it is taking all the growth out of normal retail stores.

Do you have any advice you’d like to impart to other professionals in your field?

Surprise and delight have always been the two main pillars of retailing. On that note, I would say make the user experience personal and special. For CIOs, it is all about agility and trial and error. This is an agile world, not a waterfall world.