eCommerce can often seem like a quest to ‘keep up with the neighbors’. That’s because we are at a very healthy point in the online retail industry, with plenty of competition. It is also because solutions are being created and adopted at a lightning-quick rate, leaving online retailers with the choice of sinking or swimming. In 2017 we have seen a few trends emerge, or continue their influence, and in this blog, we take a look at three of them.
Personalizing Pays Off
We are learning how to optimize customer experience more effectively all the time – after all, isn’t that what eCommerce really comes down to? With the mountains of data now floating about, 2017 has seen personalization become even more imperative than ever before. Being able to direct customers to certain products based on their buying habits is now no longer a new innovation, and the same goes for advertising campaigns based on customer behavior.
Made for Mobile
The advances in mobile application development, as well as Magento developer tools, have made it easier and less pricey to optimize sites for mobile. Now everybody is doing it, and you need a very good reason not to make your website easily accessible from smart phones and tablets. While a few months ago online retailers might have been putting off making the transition to mobile, it now makes better business sense than ever and is less likely to push them over budget.
Painless Payment
Back in the ‘real world’, stores have taken stock of the threat posed to them by online retail, and have taken a few measures to make the experience of their customers easier. These include contactless payment, which allows customers to pay with a simple swipe of a card. For this reason, online retailers should be doing everything in their power to cut down on the time it takes to purchase goods online. Mastercard are pioneering ‘selfie approval’, which will allow eCommerce firms to accept payment through a quick customer ID check based on facial features. Maybe it will become the norm.
So there are three big trends which have characterized 2017 in eCommerce so far – we wish you every success in grabbing your slice of the market! If you’re looking to wade into the eCommerce world, contact us today.