2017 Digital Marketing Predictions For eCommerce Businesses

more than $400 billion in 2017. So if you want to be profitable next year, you need to know the latest ecommerce trends and incorporate them into your planning. Below are 8 digital marketing predictions for ecommerce businesses anticipated by some of the best in the business. 1. “A focus on brilliant mobile UX may help a few more mobile customers to convert without switching to desktop, but for higher value items the focus should be providing a seamless experience across devices so users can browse on mobile and convert on desktop.” —Robert Allen, smartinsights.com You can’t think of mobile users and desktop users as different people—because they aren’t. While mobile traffic makes up most of the web traffic (51% for mobile compared to 42% for desktop/laptop), consumers would rather purchase via their desktop, as data shows smartphone add-to-cart conversion rates are lower than desktop’s. This information conveys that consumers may start searching on mobile, but most ultimately end up buying from desktop, so you better provide a seamless experience across mobile and desktop devices to see more revenue. 2. “Influencer marketing is set to explode next year.” —Julie Chomiak, socialmediatoday.com This has already started, but in case you’ve been living under a rock, influencer marketing will help you increase your consumer reach and bottom line. Why? Because 45% of online consumers go to social media before making purchases, while 88% of consumers trust online recommendations over what a brand has to say about a product. So find the right influencers—YouTubers, fashion bloggers, etc.—and start building a relationship with them now. 3. “If you can consistently provide an audience with entertaining information, you can build a relationship with that audience, which in turn many result in sales and profit.” —Armando Roggio, practicalecommerce.com Entertainment and information are both important parts of content marketing. Consumers don’t just want answers to their questions; they also want to be entertained. And Roggio believes you can do both by releasing your own episode-based content. This ecommerce marketing tactic will help you produce a better content marketing plan and receive a high number of returning visitors month after month because consumers will grow accustomed to your style of information sharing and want to regularly check in for what’s next. 4. “Brands will expand globally.” —Paul Thomas, Luxury Retail Consultant at Retail Remedy, cpcstrategy.com To continue competing and driving more sales, ecommerce businesses will look to expand globally. And with technology and social media, overseas expansion and engaging with foreign customers is easier than ever before. And according to Thomas, with the UK leaving the EU, the weaker pound has driven an increased number of international visitors, and that trend will continue into next year. 5. “2017 should see the rise of local drop-off points for online orders and same-day delivery.” —Kit SMith, brandwatch.com Today’s customers want what they buy as soon as they can get it. The internet has made us pretty impatient shoppers, with 61% of U.S. consumers saying they’d pay for same-day delivery. We’ve all used and appreciate Amazon Prime, and more and more brands will start providing faster and more flexible delivery options in 2017, perhaps more even using same-day delivery drones. 6. 2017 will be “the era of beacons” and combining them with loyalty apps. —brightvessel.com

[Source: brightvessel.com]

Beacons first gained their popularity in 2015, but it wasn’t until this year that beacon technology started dominating the retail market. And Bright Vessel believes businesses that combine beacons with loyalty apps—by creating customized rewards and promotions via information gathered from beacons—ecommerce businesses can start better tailoring deals and special offers to their customers based on their past shopping behavior. And as consumers, we know the importance of personalization. 7. “Getting your face out there for people to associate with your brand is going to increase your bottom line.” —Luisana Cartay, digitaldoughnut.com Videos are super effective at capturing consumer attention. Shoppers who watch online videos are 1.81 times more likely to purchase than non-viewers, and Syndacast predicts that 74% of 2017’s internet traffic will be video. And live videos are where you should focus some of your video efforts in 2017, as they capture attention and let you engage with customers. Periscope and Meerkat started the live video trend, but now Facebook’s live-streaming feature is taking over, as people spend 3 times longer watching a live video and Facebook generates an astounding 8 billion video views per day. 8. Chatbots are “going to change the way brands and consumers interact.” —smartinsights.com Chatbots imitate a person a consumer is able to communicate with online. Talking with your customers is important for business growth, but it’s hard to communicate with every customer when you’re running a growing ecommerce business. Chatbots were a breakthrough marketing technology this year, and are expected to come into their own in 2017. They’ll be able to provide one-on-one chats, give personalized marketing messages and shopping experiences and faster product searches and payment processes for consumers. They’ll increase your ROI while keeping your costs low since you won’t need to hire a handful of customer support representatives. What do you think ecommerce business should know heading into 2017? ]]>