Why E-commerce Isn’t a ‘Channel’ Anymore And What That Means for Brands

If there’s one thing enterprise brands still get wrong about e-commerce, it’s that they treat it like a project, not a transformation. E-commerce is not just a sales channel. It’s a business model, that can help you compete, grow, and win.

In a recent podcast with our CMO, Charles Py, Anirudh Venkat, Anchanto’s Country Head for Singapore, laid bare what most e-commerce roadmaps miss and why even the biggest names still struggle with scale, structure, and success.

Here’s what we unpacked:

Start with the Shopper, Not the Sales Channel

Anirudh says that his process of shopping for products includes online research before he buys offline. This behavior of seamlessly switching across platforms is not unique one. Many consumers like to gather information about products online before going to physical stores to experience them and buy them. In some cases, the process is reversed, where the offline research helps consumers see and experience the product. Once they make up their mind, they purchase the product online for convenient delivery or perhaps better pricing.

Currently, this is the norm when it comes to shopping. But many brands still see online and offline as competing camps. But all commerce is e-commerce today because even in-store purchases are powered by connected systems now.

Not All Brands Think Alike

Anirudh believes that brands using e-commerce have different purposes for it. So, based on their usage and intent, he categorizes them into the following segments:

• Mass Market: Brands fall into this category when they focus on using e-commerce to sell more and to scale. They believe that online channels will suit their goals because the cost to serve tends to be lower as there is less capital online. Additionally, their focus is also mainly on price, or on making sure they are able to drive the right volume through the right channel.
• Mass Affluent: The brands that a part of this segment see e-commerce through two lenses – the marketplace business model and the D2C business model. Their aim is to find a balance between both models because each one serves a different purpose. So they are in that sort of process of trying to find the exact right balance for them.
• Luxury: Brands in this segment consider e-commerce as a means to extend premium experiences through digital platforms. For example, offering white glove service or concierge services, through online channels for efficiency. Their intention is to extend their reach to existing customers and to acquire customers from competing luxury brands. So, their focus really is on building digital experiences online and the process of delivering those experiences.

Understand that each of these segments interacts with e-commerce differently based on how brands and retailers would like to shape their business strategy.

E-commerce is a Layer Across Functions

Mature companies treat e-commerce as an operational layer across functions. It’s not just a channel owned by one team (like IT, marketing, or retail).

That said, Anirudh says that if the supply chain or finance team is involved in the management of e-commerce, the business is generally more mature in terms of how they look at e-commerce holistically. If it’s just marketing teams, sales, etc., the company would be less mature because their focus is more transactional. When interacting with these ICPs ((Ideal Customer Profiles), we notice that they are looking for systems that will immediately increase ROI on purchase.

According to Anirudh, “The most successful brands replicate entire digital organizations—marketing, supply chain, ops—all for e-commerce.”

Digital Projects Fail When You Misjudge the Effort

Based on his observations of the e-commerce market, Anirudh says that many e-commerce projects fail because of poor staffing. Marketplace hires often struggle in-house as they’re used to massive support teams and reassigned retail staff may not fully grasp digital execution

To succeed, you need digital-native execution teams and executive sponsorship that sees e-commerce as a transformation, not a sales experiment. You also need realistic expectations.

What Does Real Omnichannel Look Like?

There is no one global omnichannel perspective. If we go back to the assumptions that the concept of omnichannel was built on, we can summarize them into two points:

• to serve every customer in a consistent way and make sure every customer has a consistent experience of the brand
• to provide hyper personalization at every point of sale with data on what a client likes, wants, etc.

This is not applicable to all products. Some are mass market products that do not need this level of personalization. So, the need and use of omnichannel will change over time. Anirudh says that there may come a time when businesses may use hyper personalization through omnichannel for the purpose of education or discovery but not from an execution point of view.

Mass Market vs. Mass Affluent: Different Battles

The goals are not the same and neither are the investments for these segments. Mass Market players are in it for reach, speed, and cost control. They rely on marketplaces and aim for operational efficiency, faster fulfillment, cleaner data, smoother integrations, fewer errors.

Mass Affluent brands walk a tighter rope. For them, e-commerce is about depth, not just scale. That means:

• Finding the right D2C vs. marketplace balance
• Aggregating first-party data
• Investing in CRM and loyalty tools
• Building smarter checkouts and more personalized experiences
• Making sure their digital storefront can keep evolving (because locking into a 5-year tech stack is a growth killer)

What works for one segment won’t work for the other. Trying to copy-paste strategies across tiers only leads to confusion—or worse, cost.

RFPs Say Everything About Your Maturity

Anirudh makes a sharp observation on how a company writes its RFP says a lot about how it thinks about digital retail. If your RFP is still asking vendors for a 5-year product roadmap, you’re operating in a static world. But e-commerce doesn’t work like that. Platforms change. Marketplaces evolve. Buyer behavior shifts very fast.

Today, the best RFPs are:

• Flexible
• Modular
• Focused on business outcomes, not feature checklists
• Built for iteration, not finality

You can’t plan five years of digital approach in one go. But you can build an organization that knows how to move when the market does.

What Success Actually Looks Like in D2C

Nike made waves by going all-in on D2C and then stepping back toward wholesale and retail. Some called it a retreat. But Anirudh sees it differently. He says it was a correction, not a collapse.

Meanwhile other brands have steadily leaned into marketplaces, D2C, and social. They haven’t abandoned one model for another—they’ve tailored their mix by brand, product, and geography.

The takeaway so the takeaway is that success in e-commerce isn’t about winning with one model. It’s about knowing when and where to shift your weight. D2C might work for one line, while retail drives volume for another.

Social Commerce Is Here to Stay, But Use It Differently

TikTok, Instagram, and WhatsApp are not just channels. They’re ecosystems. But what you use them for depends on your brand.

• Mass market brands use it to drive traffic and close sales.
• Mass affluent brands use it for discovery and brand building.
• Luxury brands use it to curated digital experiences and service, not conversions.

“Not every channel is for closing,” says Anirudh. “Some are for sparking interest.”

Social is less about checkout and more about connection. Especially as AI search grows, your brand’s presence in these channels will shape awareness, even if it doesn’t immediately convert.

To Scale E-commerce, You Must Get Organized

A lot of businesses say they want to scale but only a few are structurally ready to do it. Businesses that are prepared usually have:

• Cross-functional digital teams that own execution
• Systems that support—not slow—them down
• Less obsession with aesthetics, more focus on outcomes
• Constant iteration (because your first version will never be your best)

Vision doesn’t win markets, execution does. And execution needs structure.

These takeaways just scratch the surface. Brands that succeed don’t treat e-commerce as a side channel—they build the structure to support it across teams, markets, and models.

If you’re rethinking your approach or gearing up to scale, this conversation is worth your time.

Watch the full podcast for more sharp insights on what works and what doesn’t.