Every year new trends come to the fore, whilst others disappear off the radar. Keeping up to date with the latest eCommerce trends is important for all developers. After all, the Internet moves at an extremely fast pace, and so if you are behind on what’s in and what’s out your work will suffer immensely. Keeping that in mind, read on to discover the top four eCommerce trends you should be aware of for the rest of the year ahead…
Multi-Channel Shopping
There is only one place to begin and this is with multi-channel shopping. This trend was to be expected when you consider the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones. People want to be able to use their various devices in order to shop online. The PC is no longer enough. Therefore, the importance of optimizing e-stores for use on smaller devices cannot be underestimated. The shopping experience with your business needs to be as enjoyable on a smaller device, such as a smartphone, as it is on a computer.
Offering Assistance
In addition to multi-channel shopping, another trend we are sure to see embraced is assistance. This is one area whereby online shopping typically loses out in relation to traditional shopping. Thus, e-retailers are looking for ways to bridge the gap, and therefore it is becoming necessary to find various solutions for offering assistance during the online shopping experience. Most companies are embracing the option to add a live chat feature to their website.
Guided Discovery
Guided discovery is something we have noticed emerging over the past year or so, and it is only set to grow in popularity during the upcoming year. The internet is all about convenience and finding the right products as soon as possible. Guided discovery epitomizes this notion. You will need to come up with ways of suggesting products to the consumer, yet you must ensure these products are relevant to the customer in question. There are many different strategies you can use. One popular option is to suggest products based on the items the consumer has bought from the website previously.
Content Marketing
Having an attractive and easy-to-use e-store is imperative, yet marketing it right is just as important. After all, what is the point in having an online store if no one can find it? There are many different marketing options developers can make use of, nevertheless, content marketing is one that simply cannot be ignored. This works extremely well because you take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO). It also partners well with social media marketing, which the Scott Surma Pinterest page is a great example of. With content, you are also empowering the customer with knowledge in the hope that they then purchase from your store. This is not an intrusive form of marketing and therefore it tends to be much more effective.
So there you have it, the top four trends in eCommerce that all developers need to be aware of for the year ahead. Multi-channel shopping is definitely the most prominent. If you don’t optimize your customer’s websites for tablet and smartphone use, they are going to seriously suffer. Their bounce rates will rise and they will miss out on a huge number of potential sales. Aside from this, guided discovery and assistance are essential for customer experience, whilst content marketing is imperative when it comes to promoting all e-stores.