All at your Fingertips in the Ecommerce World
This past year faced us all with unprecedented challenges and changes, and the world of ecommerce was no exception. Before the pandemic social shopping and ecommerce were not topics that were very widely discussed but as lockdowns continued to occur all around the world, limiting the availability of in-store options, the ecommerce market changed forever resulting in record ecommerce growth. According to the Retail Council of Canada, ecommerce advanced five years during the pandemic, rising from 3% to 9.8% of total retail sales in April 2020. See the graph below for ecommerce sales in Canada from 2019-2020.
After months of thriving, the market began to rebalance, and even though it won’t replace in-person retail, it will continue to grow, just at a slower pace. Keep reading to check out some ecommerce trends and tips!
Omnichannel is a MUST
Having multichannel selling strategy through ecommerce websites, marketplaces, and social platforms has become essential for survival.
D2C Reigns
This is a trend we have seen continue to ramp up, but 2020 altered a lot of consumer behaviors and brands needed to react fast. Consumers no longer need to go through third-parties or “middle-men” with ecommerce platforms like Shopify at their disposal. The ability to communicate directly with your customers about their orders, any issues or concerns they may have, is invaluable to the consumer and we will see 2021 continue to favour these platforms more and more.
Data is the New Black
In the ecommerce world, data will only continue to gain value. Everyone wants it, everyone needs it. Segmentation will expand and brands need to focus on vital metrics provided to them and learn how to best utilize them in order to reach their targets and track where things went well and not so well… The integration of CRM (customer relationship management) and CMS (content management systems) will become more popular as it gives brands the ability to personalize campaigns by knowing specifics of their sales funnel. Each step of the funnel has different metrics and each brand’s metrics will be (or should be) unique to the brand.
This trend isn’t going anywhere, so you better start collecting and gathering privy information about your organization’s ecommerce marketing efforts.
From Artificial to Beneficial
AI (artificial intelligence) has been on the comeuppance for some time now, but 2021 is it’s time to shine! The benefits of AI have been realized and the ecommerce space will change been more drastically than it already has. AI concepts are becoming more mainstream and will continue to appear in the coming years on ecommerce platforms. Brands need to embrace AI because it is here to stay, and brands are already reaping the benefits from their insights.
This year we saw a lot of brands advertising across different channels, platforms and apps, from TikTok to the new shop feature in Instagram. Social media has created this space for brands to promote their products and services by expressing their creativity and create memorable, engaging content.
Some final thoughts…
2020 was a year that will go down in history, in more ways than one. These are only some of many key ecommerce tactics and they will only continue to prove vital to the success of your ecommerce marketing. There’s no time like the present, which tactics will you be adding to your ecommerce marketing roster?