Three Trends Disrupting Ecommerce

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Ecommerce business owners know that ecommerce as a whole is
booming, as services continue to improve and more customers get used to
ordering things online. Digital Commerce
360
recently reported that ecommerce “will account for 17.0% of
retail sales by 2022, up from a projected 12.9% in 2017.”

Such a growing market means that ecommerce is constantly
changing, and business owners have to stay on top of the latest trends and know
how to adjust. This includes factors such as technology as well as how
businesses and customers are changing their spending habits. Instead of
reacting to changing tides, look to be proactive by preparing for these three
particularly important traits.

  1. The Fall of Black Friday and the Rise
    of Cyber November

A major trend in retail sales has been the slow decline of
Black Friday as customers prefer shopping online to dealing with the hordes of
crazed shoppers. As Reutersreported last year, Black Friday and
Thanksgiving net sales in 2016 at brick and mortar stores “fell 5.0 percent
over the two days, while the number of transactions fell 7.9 percent.”
Meanwhile, online sales rose by double digits, and Cyber Monday has become
about as important as Black Friday.

But a major key behind Black Friday’s decline is that
businesses have begun offering discounts earlier in November, with major
retailers like Amazon showcasing deals for the entire month. Instead of
focusing everything on one insane weekend, retailers are spreading out
discounts for longer. This approach is superior for online businesses, as the
longer timeframe allows more time to handle logistical matters and reduces the
risk of running out of inventory.

So what does this mean for ecommerce owners? First, owners
should seek to emulate Amazon and start posting discounts not just for the
Black Friday weekend, but for much of November. Second, they must ensure that
their internal logistics are in working order and that customers can actually
get what they want. As Cyber November becomes a reality and ecommerce
businesses offer more discounts, the real challenge will be offering the best
convenience and customer service as opposed to merely the lowest price.

  1. Mobile Shopping

If your business wants to provide convenience, then you must
emphasize mobile shopping. In response to the growing popularity of mobile at
the expense of notebooks, businesses have adapted by making their websites more
mobile design friendly.

But businesses which are truly committed
to mobile have to do more than that. The two most important things to help
mobile traffic and dollars to your site, are setting up a mobile payment system
and personalization. This goes just as much if you’re offering creative cabinets and faux finishes as
anything else.

In the best case scenario, your business has the funds
needed to set up a custom mobile payment app which will allow users to buy from
your business exclusively. Otherwise, businesses should look at integrating
their business wallet with Apple Pay or Android Pay which will allow users to
make purchases with their smartphones. They can now just tap and buy instead of
wasting time typing in their credit card information, address, and other
information which delays them from making a purchase and gives them more time
to change their minds.

Furthermore, if your business can create a custom app, it
becomes easier to personalize and add discounts which appeal to their tastes.
Artificial intelligence could become valuable for its ability to analyze where
an app user is and what pages they looked at the longest. They can then send
relevant discounts and information with the data they have gathered.

But even a basic custom app which ensures that customers can
easily pay with their phones will go a long way towards capturing mobile
customers, a market which is constantly growing in importance.

  1. The Amazon Gorilla

Any ecommerce business has to figure out how to survive in
the face of Amazon. According to Fortune, Amazon will account
for 50 percent of all U.S. ecommerce by 2021 as it continues to grow and expand
everywhere. Given Amazon’s reach, ecommerce businesses cannot just hope to
easily find a niche where they do not have to compete with the titan.

Ecommerce businesses which want to survive and compete with
Amazon need strong innovation and creative, useful marketing. Content marketing
through social media, while not a new phenomenon, can create a loyal customer
base by giving them interesting and useful information. And while no other
ecommerce business can compete with Amazon on scale, a heavy focus on logistics
can help ensure that delivery is on time, orders can be filled, and customers
will remain satisfied without having to head to Amazon.

At minimum, ecommerce businesses should pay
constant attention to what Amazon is doing and what markets it looks to be
expanding into next. But no matter how large or small your business is, any
marketing strategy must talk about what your online stores do well and better
than that hulking gorilla.

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