eCommerce trends are always shifting. People are shopping online more than ever before. This makes it quite critical for online business owners to know what online shoppers are interested in buying and how they would like to buy. So, it is important for business owners to keep an eye on all the ongoing trends.
Here are 5 eCommerce trends to leverage for growth in 2018:
Social media
Social media continues to be one of the most powerful ways to grow your business. All business owners should look into leveraging it in marketing as well as customer service. Social media sites can be a great platform to make new connections with your prospects. Create an online community with like-minded people / customers to see what they want and what advice they have to improve your product or service.
Every business should follow customers to find out where they are hanging out. For example: In your industry, if most of the customers are active on Instagram then there is no need to spend time and effort on other social media platform. Follow your customers and be active on the same platform where your customers like to hang out. Provide valuable content on that same channel and engage in different conversations to build trust.
Unique customer experience
Creating a unique customer experience for online shoppers should be a priority for every store owner because it is something that acts as a differentiator in this competitive eCommerce industry. Even little details can make a big difference in terms of how customers feel about products and the company:
- Personalize online content and emails to greet your customers.
- Give a clear picture on your store site about how your product solves a problem.
- Provide your customers what they expect – If the majority of your site traffic is coming from mobile devices, make sure your store site is fully responsive and offer a consistent user experience.
Video
In the last couple of years, a lot of content marketing has been shifted to video streaming. Marketing experts predict that this year online consumers will be engaging with videos more than ever. Video marketing tends to bring your industry or business content to life. If you have not started video marketing for your online business you should start is NOW! Consumers are very much interested in learning about new businesses, products or services via video platforms like YouTube. Once potential customers are connected to your content, they will eventually become your loyal customers.
According to a recent study by HubSpot:
- 4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than reading about it. (Animoto, 2015)
- Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. (Google, 2016)
- 4 in 5 consumers believe that demo videos are helpful
- Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. (Aberdeen, 2015)
- Shoppers who view video are 1.81X more likely to purchase than non-viewers. (Animoto, 2015)
Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
Voice search
Voice search originated from smartphones like Apple (Siri) and Android (Google Assistant) but now it has become a mainstream AI-enabled technology with the introduction of products like Google Home and Amazon Echo. As a business owner, ensure that the content on your store site is ready for voice search. The rise of voice search is simultaneously increasing because of its convenience, instant gratification, and ease of use.
According to Google, more than 20% of mobile queries are voice-based - https://searchengineland.com/google-reveals-20-percent-queries-voice-queries-249917
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/voice-assistant-report-2017-3
Chatbots
Did you know, almost 47% of consumers in eCommerce industry are already buying products and services using chatbots, according to a HubSpot research report? In the study, HubSpot explains how chatbots leverage natural language processing to communicate with a human. The chatbot processes a buyer’s request and taps into machine learning to determine the best products or options to serve a user based on purchasing trends. If a buyer asks for snow boots, a bot can suggest the top-rated boots sold by the company. The bot can also recommend wool socks to go with the boots because it knows people who buy boots also purchase wool socks in past purchases.
Chatbots can help online business owners in a number of ways such as:
- Automating a process / checkout experience
- Providing customer service (or chat) around the clock
- Providing a better customer experience
- Personalized shopping experience
Author: Lavish Kumar
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