The Ecommerce industry is continually changing the way we buy and sell goods. It is rife with technological advances and innovations too, that are poised to revolutionize our shopping experience as well.
Why it’s good to know the industry trend?
Like any other industry trend, knowing the latest developments in the ecommerce sector lets you adapt your business strategies to meet the changing demands and preferences of consumers.
Gaining insight into current trends allow you to find new opportunities, improve the customer experience, streamline operations and boost sales and business growth.
As 2024 starts, I will highlight the top 10 emerging ecommerce trends and show you how to take advantage of them.
So, keep reading read to find out how you can beat out the competition.
Featured image by: Freepik
Top 10 Ecommerce Trends of 2024
- The Gen-Z Factor
- The Rise of Mobile Commerce
- More Personalization, Please
- Q-Commerce Growth
- Social Media’s Changing Role
- Omni-channel Sales
- Prioritizing Sustainability and the Environment
- Visual Commerce is Growing and…
- …so is Voice Search
- Leveraging AI Assistants
1. The Gen-Z Factor
Gen-Zs are known for their reliance on technology. Thanks to technology and social media, they can obtain information very quickly and have learned how to shop smart as a result.
Gen-Zs also value efficiency and are accustomed to excellent customer service. Personalized product recommendations, special deals, and the convenience of online purchasing are some of the reasons why they love to shop online.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| Adapt your business to the preferences and behaviours of the Gen-Z. Consider things like providing a smooth one-click checkout process and increasing your social media marketing efforts to make your brand and products more discoverable. |
2. The Rise of Mobile Commerce
According to Statista, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 58.33 percent of global website traffic in the first quarter of 2023.
With the rise in mobile device usage, mobile-optimized sites, and the growing development of secure mobile wallet apps such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and crypto wallets, consumers are starting to feel more comfortable shopping on mobile devices.
Then, there are trends such as in-app purchases, mobile payments, and mobile banking that have all contributed significantly to the growth of ecommerce.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| Whether you run an online store or intend to sell your goods & services on ecommerce marketplaces, make it a priority to provide a secure, seamless and user-friendly mobile shopping experience. Ensure that your site or your ecommerce marketplace have secure payment options and fast page loading features. They can help you attract more new customers and keep mobile shoppers coming back. |
3. More Personalization, Please
These days, when it comes to online shopping, customers aren’t content with generic products or services anymore. They want more personalization and product offerings tailored to their unique preferences and tastes.
Such personalization can make customers feel valued and understood. It fosters greater brand loyalty and ultimately, leading to repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth referrals.
In 2023, Twilio Segment reports that 56% of consumers expressed their desire to become repeat customers if a retail brand provided them with a personalized experience.
| How to provide more personalized customer experience? |
| Here’s a list of proven go-to strategies to help you deliver tailored customer experiences at scale. 1. Define a customer-centric vision statement A customer-centric vision statement serves as a guiding principle for your organization and business towards creating meaningful interactions, customized offerings, and exceptional service that resonates with your customers. Your vision statement should clearly communicate your commitment to understanding the unique needs and preferences of your customers, and aligning your business goals and principles with fulfilling those requirements. 2. Get to know your customers In business, it’s important to build relationships with your customers, and it involves taking the time to understand who your customers are. Knowing their wants, needs, likes and dislikes can help you tailor your products and services to better meet their expectations. This can be achieved by leveraging consumer data to make smart product suggestions or send personalized messages. You can also gather insights about your customers’ preferences and behaviours through market research, surveys, or plain old person-to-person communication to gather feedback. 3. Create personalized dynamic content Consider creating dynamic content that is tailored to the profiles of each customer. Things like showcasing products based on customer’s browsing history, creating interactive and shoppable videos, providing online personalized styling service and offering relevant discounts based on previous purchases can enhance the overall customer experience and build brand loyalty. You can also adopt AI and machine learning to power up your personalization efforts. Fashion brands like Stitch Fix uses dynamic content personalization to handpick fashion selections for each customer based on their profile, tastes, and past purchases. 4. Regularly evaluate and improve your products and services It is crucial to keep learning, and in today’s digital era, customer needs and habits will evolve. One way to keep up with their changing needs and continuously provide a personalized experience is to regularly evaluate and improve your products and services. By analyzing your customers’ feedback and reviews, you can identify areas for improvement. This proactive approach not only shows that you value your customers’ opinions, but also helps to ensure that your offerings continue to meet their expectations. |
4. Q-Commerce Growth
Q-commerce or quick commerce is the future of online business.
The trend became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanks to services like Amazon Prime, this trend picked up speed as more and more customers want their goods delivered quickly and conveniently.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| Businesses can streamline their delivery processes by investing in efficient logistics. You can partner up with your local delivery or courier provider to ensure fast and reliable delivery of your products. Take a look at Need It For Tonight. They recently teamed up with courier provider Gophr to offer a 90-minute fashion delivery service. They’ve also made their delivery service more sustainable by including real-time delivery tracking in their app and ensuring that no deliveries are missed. |
5. Social Media’s Changing Role
According to Shopify, nine out of ten individuals will purchase from an independent brand they follow on social media.
This trend is rising for several reasons, which can be attributed to the following factors:
- Increased consumer adoption of social commerce
- Frictionless experience
- Engagement and interactivity
- Influencers and community leaders
Take for example, you can now buy things on TikTok thanks to its in-app purchasing features like TikTok Shop and Shoppable Ads. These features let users find and buy products without leaving the app. It is now much easier to make impulsive purchases on social media.
The trend of influencer endorsements will also continue into 2024. With consumers spending more time on different types of social media, brands and businesses are leveraging influencers’ reach and credibility to promote products and boost sales.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| 1. Create a sales-driven social media marketing strategy To increase your chances of success, it is absolutely necessary to create a social media marketing strategy that’s super effective in driving revenue for your business. I’ve put together a comprehensive article that outlines the key steps. For more insights, read this article. 2. Launch interactive campaigns on social media Interactive campaigns can drive engagement and foster community building. Things like contests, giveaways, and interactive challenges can encourage users to share their experiences with the promoted products. You can also collaborate with influencers to create exclusive discount codes or limited-time offers. 3. Setup your ‘Shop’ on social media Consider setting up a TikTok Shop and/or learn how to use Instagram’s ‘Shoppable Posts’ to provide a seamless transition from browsing to purchasing for your followers and target audience. |
6. Omni-channel Sales
Consumers and shoppers alike are shifting between digital and physical spaces. Omni-channel sales uses a customer-centric sales strategy to integrate all channels, including brick-and-mortar to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience.
In 2024, storefronts will have a purpose beyond window displays. They will serve as interactive spaces where customers can engage with products and receive personalized recommendations.
An omnichannel customer journey would look like this:
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| Implement interactive online and in-store shopping experiences Retailers can leverage technology such as augmented reality (more on this later) to enhance the in-store experience and provide interactive virtual try-on options for customers. This merging of the digital and physical worlds can also work in tandem with mobile apps or online stores, enabling customers to save things for later or discover them quickly while they’re in the store. Retailers like Swatch have succeeded in this, by letting customers reserve their favourite watches and try them on at their local store before purchasing. |
7. Prioritizing Sustainability and the Environment
With growing awareness of the effects of climate change, more and more people are embracing green consumerism to reduce their carbon footprint.
According to Mintel’s research, 51% of US consumers are willing to spend more on a product that came from a socially and environmentally responsible business.
Take a look at Reve en vert’s ecommerce site. The promise of green living in the headline on the company’s homepage draws people in. Their focus on assisting customers in achieving their sustainable goals has demonstrated that they place a high priority on environmental sustainability.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| Offering a wide range of eco-friendly products and services that cater to the growing demand for sustainable options can help you profit from this trend. This could include partnering with environmentally responsible suppliers, promoting the use of renewable energy sources in your operations, and actively communicating your commitment to sustainability through your marketing campaigns and social media platforms. Additionally, businesses can help contribute to a greener future by educating consumers about environmental issues and helping them make more sustainable choices through workshops, webinars, informative content, and personalized product recommendations. |
8. Visual Commerce is Growing and…
Another key ecommerce trend that will be making waves in 2024 is visual commerce. This includes:
- Livestream commerce
- Augmented reality (AR)
- Virtual product visualization (VR)
- Consumer-generated media
- Interactive content
- Engaging videos
- Visual search
As the world goes digital, online shoppers are spending more time on electronic devices, making technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) trends to watch out for in the coming years.
Short-form videos will also see tremendous growth. According to HubSpot Research since 2020, businesses that use video content (especially short-form videos) get a high return on investment (ROI).
Visual or image search is popular among Gen Z and millennials for finding products. Thanks to tools like Google Lens, consumers can take a photo of a product nearby and find the website that sells it.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| The audience’s attention span is getting shorter year by year. A video strategy can help you grab people’s attention and provide them with crucial information in small portions. Your social media pages are also an important part of the strategy. Visual and interactive contents can help your audience familiarize themselves with your brand. They can also encourage engagement and sharing, leading to increased brand visibility and potential conversions. Here are some ideas that can help you create an awesome video strategy: • Use AR and VR tools like Shoppable Videos and Virtual Try-Ons to visualize your products. • Use live streaming for product demos, launch events, and to allow customer engagement. • Optimize the visuals on your ecommerce store for visual search. |
9. … so is Voice Search
Besides visual search, voice search is another trend to look out for in 2024.
Though smart speakers like Amazon Alexa made it popular, you can expect to see and hear more people using voice search now that voice assistants are built into smartphones.
In fact, Google reports that 27 percent of global online users are using voice search on their mobile devices.
Voice search allows customers to search for products and make purchases using only their voice commands. This technology not only provides convenience for customers but also opens up new opportunities for businesses to reach a wider audience.
| How to capitalize on this trend? |
| 1. Find out what questions your target audience asks most often Sites like Quora, AnswerThePublic, and Reddit are great resources for finding common questions related to your industry or products. Do a search on these sites and see what common questions pop up most often. 2. Do a voice search on Alexa, Google Voice or Siri Just ask these voice assistants the common questions you found and see how they respond and what answers are currently appearing as the top results. 3. Optimize your product pages Once you have a better understanding of the responses, you can optimize your product pages by incorporating the exact phrasing and keywords used by these voice assistants. You could also add FAQ sections on your product pages that directly address these common voice search queries to provide immediate answers to your customers. 4. Add schema markup to your product pages Schemas or tags are used to make pages search-engine friendly. It helps Google show better results based on what users are looking for. Add them to your product pages, and you’ll increase your visibility, especially in voice search results. Here’s a helpful article I’ve written that will show you how to implement schema markups. 5. Also, consider optimizing for local voice search If your business has a physical address, you should consider optimizing for local voice search as well. This means including location-specific keywords such as your business address and opening hours. This strategy can boost your visibility, especially for users who are searching for products and services with phrases like “near me”. Don’t forget to also keep your company listings on sites like Yelp or Google My Business up-to-date and accurate. This will help customers find you more easily. |
10. Leveraging AI Assistants
I hope this will not come as a surprise to you. AI technology is continuously advancing and becoming more prevalent in almost every industry.
Customers and businesses alike can reap the benefits of AI-powered ecommerce. It offers valuable insights about performance, consumer behaviour and operational shortcomings.
To name just a few applications, AI assistants can automate processes, provide personalized experiences, make predictions and suggestions, and even help prevent fraud.
AI-powered ecommerce has the potential to revolutionize your business operations. Would you agree (if you haven’t already) that it’s time to embrace AI?
My Thoughts on These Trends
Irrespective of what’s trending in 2024 and beyond, I have observed that they are all indicating one thing in common. It’s the ability to adapt and evolve.
They are key to staying competitive and thriving in the ever-changing ecommerce landscape.
Suffice to say, it is absolutely essential for businesses to be open to change, and demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
What impact do you think these trends will have on your online store or ecommerce venture? Come share your thoughts and concerns with us in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
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