Keeping up with e-commerce marketing trends.
The only thing eminent is change, keeping up with these new trends and changes and making sure these trends are a part of the future marketing strategies is a sign of a good marketer. It is difficult to keep up with the customers’ preferences and demands. But there are several e-commerce marketing trends that can help you deliver better experiences and increase sales. Below are 5 trends that are generating buzz in the e-commerce world.
1. More Visual UGC – Everyone is focused on getting a good rating, good review primarily in the form of comments. But if instead of focusing on comments, if companies get the customers to upload photos of them enjoying the products, it will make a much bigger difference than just plain words would. You can encourage your customers to share on social media the products they bought, and tag it with a branded hashtag. Then you can then collect those photos, and share them on your social media. Additionally, you could also display some of the best user-submitted photos on the relevant product pages.
2. Native content – Many users do not like the option of leaving a social media app to visit another website. Hence focus on native content, meaning make purchasing of products available in the apps. Customers will not have to leave their social media platforms and the company can still sell their products. Brands can also put a “Buy Now” option when they upload pictures of products on social media and continue with the purchase of the app. A great example of native shopping is Pinterest’s Shop the Look feature. When you see a picture of an outfit you like, you can click any part of the outfit you’re interested in purchasing, and find details about the item of clothing within the Pinterest app.
3. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – With the advent of technology, AR and VR are more available and lately easily usable. Consumers like seeing and experiencing the products in their houses. That is now possible. Augmented reality and virtual reality are going to gain some serious traction. Eventually, all companies will start offering AR and VR options, until then e-commerce websites can use them as marketing stunts to get more conversions.
4. Pop up retail shops – There were days when businesses concentrated on their retail stores and used websites as an accessory. Now, it is the opposite. Companies focus on online sales and set up pop-ups to provide customers with an experience they’ll remember for a while. The pop-ups are usually fancy, focused on experiential marketing and gather a lot of traction. Some companies do sell their products in these pop-ups, but most of them are organized for the sake of branding and recognition.
5. Personalization – Some customers are visiting the website the first time and some have purchased products in the past. A one-size-fits-all strategy might not work anymore. Websites can personalize their content, depending on the types of customers. The product recommendations can be based on past purchases or preferences of a customer. The customers will feel valued. The e-commerce giant Amazon already focuses on customer personalization and thus has a very loyal customer base.
Joel Anderson, Walmart CEO once said “You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to succeed you have to create traffic.” To do so, brands will have to keep up with the trends and utilize them as much as they can.
