eCommerce is one of the fastest growing business niches. It has many advantages when compared to the traditional location-based retail model. With eCommerce, people can run retail business empires from the comfort of their homes. The number of website visitors and the conversion rate are the only two criterions that define business success in the eCommerce niche. Because of this, entrepreneurs need to invest a lot of time and money into creating a marketing strategy that will attract new leads and turn them into customers.
Due to fast-changing business landscape, eCommerce marketing strategies need to be updated on a regular basis. They need to closely follow the latest digital marketing trends. In this article, we have shared some of the freshest marketing trends that will shape the eCommerce market in 2017.
eCommerce marketing trends are shaped by the industry leaders. If we look at the Apple's online store, we will notice that their online sales strategy focuses on upsell opportunities. When you choose an iPad, you will be presented with several options that allow you to see other similar products, iPad accessories, and to compare the chosen iPad with the other models.
Upselling tactics are widely used on many different websites. In 2017, smaller online stores will also start comparing their products among themselves. Small eCommerce websites will start creating online retail networks and offer advanced product comparisons because this will be the only way for smaller online stores to compete with the corporate giants.
In recent years, many online retailers have integrated Instagram into their social media marketing strategy. Due to advanced filters and great opportunities for advanced presentation, Instagram became one of the most popular platforms among online retailers.
Instagram and other social networks also allow companies to use user generated content for promoting their offer. They need to create campaigns that will motivate users to share their photos and videos with the company’s products. Users can be motivated with various incentives, including discounts, presents, free samples etc. This way, companies generate social proof and ensure website visitors that their products come with the promised value.
Content marketing became a highly relevant part of the eCommerce marketing strategies. A few years ago, companies started investing more money into content creation and since then, online stores are quickly turning into niche-specific magazines that share fun and useful stories in different formats.
Big corporate chains missed the opportunity to jump on the content wagon, which is why small business retailers can use content marketing to improve their online store’s search engine ranking and make their customers more loyal. In addition to this, most eCommerce solutions allow users to add blogs posts, categorize articles, moderate comments, and encourage discussion.
When it comes to content types, the video format was the most popular in 2016 and its domination will continue during the next year, probably until the VR takes it off the throne. Other than blogs and vlogs, videos will also be used on product pages, so customers can have much better insight into the features of the products they are buying. To find out what medium works best for eCommerce stores, be sure to check out the reviews first, for example - WooCommerce vs Shopify.
Virtual reality is the next logical phase in the evolution of eCommerce content. It allows customers to view every aspect of the product they want to buy. This will make customers feel comfortable because they will know exactly what they are getting. Virtual reality can engage customers on an emotional level and place them in the heart of the action. This will bring back the real shopping experience and bridge the trust gap between online shoppers and eCommerce companies. Several big corporate retailers already experimented with various VR concepts. This list includes Ikea, Dior, and big companies from other niches, like McDonald’s and Disney.
In the future, every part of an eCommerce business will become fully customer-centric. A few years ago, retail companies were trying to attract more customers with promotional tactics. Now they need to adapt their whole business model to their customers’ needs in order to tell them they matter and win them over on the long-term.
Have a question about something in this article? You can receive help directly from the article author. Sign up for a free trial to get started.
Comments (1)
Commented: