Customer expectations for digital experiences keep rising, with relevant and personalized content across all channels as the expectation, IDC says.

But manufacturers often struggle with increasing content requirements, more channels and touch points to manage, and rapidly changing customer needs, which require a company to be agile, says a new survey of 1,500 manufacturing companies by IDC.

Moreover, the importance manufacturing companies place on improving their online user experience does vary by industry and world region.

“The industry has historically been averse to changes in how businesses operate,” IDC says. “And while ecommerce is still a distant second for manufacturers as a whole, it is the revenue source expected to continue to grow the largest (with 63.7% expecting growth and only 11.5% expecting decrease).”

Expected changes for digital experiences

The average change manufacturers expected was a 23.8% increase in online sales over the next two years, with an additional 44.2% of respondents expecting growth higher than 25%, IDC says.

“There are variations in the average expected change by region (NA 31.1%, EMEA 18.9%, and APAC 10.9%) and by subsegment (F&B/CPG 30.3%, industrial manufacturing 25.4%, automotive 21.7%, electronics and semiconductors 20.5%, and chemicals 10.2%),” says IDC. “But no matter how the data is sliced, the overall movement in business is shifting toward ecommerce.”

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