Several businesses are now entering the ecommerce space. With the sector growing rapidly, the competition is fierce and everyone is gearing up with new marketing trends to keep up with the competition. Here are the top ecommerce marketing trends to watch out for in 2018.
Voice Search
Voice assistants are set to be the next big thing. Google Home, Siri and Alexa already making waves the industry is gearing up with a host of several new voice assistants that will redefine the ecommerce space. Customers are now moving from keyword search towards the trend of voice search which will only get stronger in 2018. Given the growing needs of the millennials, research says that by 2020, 50% of the purchases will be made via voice searches. If you want to stay abreast with the competition, you must optimize your website to be able to handle voice searches.
Mobile ecommerce
In today’s date, it has almost become mandatory that your ecommerce be mobile friendly. The millennials don’t like to wait. They want things on the go. 53% of the millennials have at least one shopping app on their phone. Half of the ecommerce in 2018 will come from mobiles as internet users are fast moving to mobiles from desktops. Unless your website is optimized for being used on a mobile, the user experience will take a hit and will turn the user off of your website. Mobile sites are now critical for the future of your brand.
Artificial Intelligence
Providing a good product is no more enough for the millennial customer who is looking for more of satisfying shopping experience. Augmented reality is already making their shopping experience more engaging and efficient. IKEA has already entered this space by making a debut with Apple’s ARKit Place App which allows customers to digitally place the furniture in their living spaces and see how it fits. The app digitally places furniture in physical spaces with a 98% accuracy. More and more ecommerce stores are likely to embrace this as it minimizes the cost incurred on returns and in the long run can make returns extinct.
Video Marketing
When it comes to advertising, video content is the latest ecommerce marketing trend of 2018. It has become the new way brands are telling their stories. No one is interested in reading long descriptions anymore, because, let’s face it – it’s boring. Videos have more “live” feel and are more realistic than pictures. Be it a product description or ads for stores videos marketing is here to stay. Bluestone, in fact, has made videos of all it products which are more than 5000 pieces. Imagine the impact videos are creating in getting conversions for someone to put 5000+ videos on their website. The fact is that videos get 200 to 300 percent more click through rate. Nutralite recently came up with video ad with interactive elements which help get better user engagement. As per research by 2020, 80% of the web traffic will come from videos.
Multichannel Selling
85% of the shoppers conduct online research before they arrive upon a buying decision. When they search, they do so with broadly four kinds of intentions (called micromoments) namely – “I want to know”, “I want to buy”, “I want to do” or “how to do” and “I want to go” or “near me.” Whenever a customer performs these kinds of searches, you must have an answer for it on your website in the form of a blog, a geo-tag or the like as the case may be. You can use google adwords or google my business to explore the most popular search requests related to your website and implant the solution for these searches in your website. The idea is to appear in the search results when the user runs such a search. You must have a presence across multiple channels if you want your brand to be identifiable and have better reach. Availability across multiple platforms is what you need to succeed.
User Generated Content
If you want real traffic, you need to up your game in terms of user generated content which is undoubtedly the most influential kind of marketing technique. It helps you get social proof and is instrumental for achieving customer loyalty. Encourage customers to leave feedback and comments with pictures of them using your product. This helps in building more trust and creates an authentic appeal. User-generated content is so influential that 81% of the customers did not mid paying more or waiting through a longer shipment time if the product had user generated content backing it. No need to even mention that it also increases user engagement.
Chatbots
Chatbots are the new tools in providing better customer experience through personalization. They have made things easier for businesses as well as customers. The other advantage is that, it saves you money which you would have had to spend on hiring chat agents or a customer service representative and providing them with the necessary infrastructure. Plus it is also a useful tool in gathering customer data and understanding his preferences. Conversions are easier as the chatbot can direct the customer straight to the product page based on his preferences.
The good news is all of these trends are not even that cost prohibitive. Technology has developed rapidly and allows for use of these trends across several scenarios. If you want to grow your ecommerce website and gain an edge over the competition choose from these trends as per your needs.
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