For the past years, e-commerce has been experiencing steady growth. And that will continue in the upcoming years. In fact, specialists predict that global retail e-commerce revenue will amount to about 5 trillion dollars by 2021. So, in the near future, we should expect to see continuing growth with more businesses joining the market.
This also translates to more competition. And as an online merchant, this means staying on your toes to get ahead. You need to be well-versed in the latest trends, which are often a result of advancements in technology and changes in consumer preferences and behavior.
Multi-Channel selling
People don’t use just one channel to make their online purchases. So, it’s profitable for e-commerce merchants to cater to the needs of omnichannel shoppers since specialists expect to see a rise in multi-channel selling next year.
To grow your business as an online seller, you need to make yourself available across all of the channels that your shoppers use. Aside from your own website, this could be on social media as well as other sites.
One of the main reasons why e-commerce merchants shy away from multi-channel selling is that they have difficulty managing all of these channels. But there are platforms that can provide a highly effective solution to this. You can use one to sync all the channels that your customers frequent and manage all campaigns from one place.
Smarter payment process
The payment process is the final step in the customer journey, and it is a vital one that can make or break a conversion. The customer has gone through multiple stages, from awareness to consideration, and has finally made the decision to buy your product. If the experience at this stage isn’t effortless and smooth, you could still end up losing a potential customer.
According to statistics, almost 70% of shoppers abandon their carts. This suggests that even after researching and considering products thoroughly and adding them to their cart, most shoppers still don’t complete the payment process. The same report found that 28% of cart abandonment occurs because of a long or complicated checkout process.
If you want to get ahead of the competition, this is one aspect that you must tackle in 2019. You will need to offer a smoother checkout process with an easy payment option that will ensure quick conversions.
Consolidating your payments into a single platform can be an excellent solution. This makes it easier for you to manage all your payments regardless of currency and platform.
Omni-Channel personalization
It’s not enough to just be available on multiple channels. You will also need to provide a cohesive brand experience by personalizing your interactions for each customer across all of those channels.
Otherwise, you could end up offering irrelevant experiences, which can be intrusive or annoying. And it’s a well-known fact that personalization is imperative for the success of businesses today.
In fact, 80% of respondents in a recent study said that personalized experiences make them more likely to do business with a company. And 90% find personalization appealing.
However, there is still a huge challenge when it comes to offering a seamless personalized experience across all channels, considering that about 27% of marketers don’t have any of their channels connected.
There’s a huge opportunity to get ahead of your competitors by personalizing customer experiences across all channels. A great way to do this is using AI-driven targeting. Predictive targeting can help you identify a visitor and then match the right experience for them. This optimizes the customer experience on various channels.
The covers do sometimes make the book!
Customers tend to perceive packaging as a part of the product. In fact, about 68% of shoppers feel that a brand becomes more upscale due to its packaging. Also, 61% of the shoppers say that seeing unique packaging makes them more excited about the product.
Based on these statistics, there seems to be a growing interest in customized packaging among consumers. So, any e-commerce business that wants to set itself apart in 2019 should be creating custom packaging to make their brand or store more recognizable.