The onset of a pandemic catapulted eCommerce into an economic boom. For the year ahead, the market will continue to be shaped by trends and will become even more competitive and unpredictable. As an online entrepreneur, you must be quick to adapt. You must not fight against the stream of trends and instead surf over them as much as possible.
The Best Ways to Become Efficient in the Online Market
- Buy Now Pay Later
You might consider adapting this trend to lift the burden off your consumers. By giving them the freedom to choose from a variety of payment plans, spread out possibly over weeks and even months, you will attract buyers who can’t afford them directly. The rise in cart value and online purchases has been observed in the previous year and the same is expected for this year. As observed, online shops with BNPL formats with astonishingly 0% interest gathered an explosive market, but certain issues come with that as well.
The BNPL market, with its innovative credit option, often results in an unregulated market. Loans could easily pile up and, without a system of accountability, could be abandoned completely. If you consider this trend, be mindful of the mode of payments you allow. Lastly, keep in mind that this isn’t advisable for small shops, as they need money to circulate more.
- Augmented Reality
This new feature of online selling makes shopping easier for consumers in the comfort of their own homes. To illustrate, this technology offers previews of the product before you purchase them, by displaying AR versions on any screen. For example, if someone’s buying furniture, that person can point to any living space to see whether the placement suits his/her palate. This interactive shopping experience also removes the need to visit a physical store, by warranting an unlimited number of trials without a time limit.
Over the last decade, AR technology has become accessible for more kinds of surroundings. As a result, more companies embedded it in their marketing strategy. Even though a report showed that among retailers, only 15% use it, 32% plan to launch applications with AR technology. There’s no question that the “try before you buy” scheme makes a seamless shopping experience, that you in turn can tap into.
- Personalization of Products
Customers prefer products that are catered to their unique needs, products that know them by heart. If you’re living in Finland, and you were shopping for phone cases, then a Finnish eCommerce store Kuoret.net will be a likely candidate to shop for your needs. This website would have an upper hand because it knows where you live, and knows that proximity is your concern. This is how customers think: by their needs and wants, always patterned on their unique personality; they want products at the right place and time when they demand them.
You can build lasting relationships with your consumers this way. With consent, you can store information of items they purchased in the past, advertisements they clicked on, and preferences so that recommended products come up. The next step your customers take can be anticipated from their previous behaviors. Thus this requires that you invest in an expansive database, where every impulse of a customer is recorded and analyzed, to be manipulated for profit.
- Green Consumerism
Sustainable markets will take center stage this year. Consumers care about the environment more than you think, they want products that don’t harm the environment. As an entrepreneur, you need to evaluate if your materials are produced sustainably. It would be prime to rethink your ways and make a change to reduce packaging waste. Finally, you can further encourage that consumers recycle the products and employ green measures for a green lifestyle.
- Get Help From Influencers
Social media has an audience that can be your possible consumers. Luckily, influencers spend their time and effort to gain popularity and therefore more audience. A single post could generate thousands of likes and views in a matter of seconds, with followers flooding their idols’ pages to send their love and support. You can take advantage of this, and make brand ambassadors that will promote your products.
Influencer Marketing Hub predicted that the industry would reach 9.7 billion dollars in revenue in 2020. The trajectory is expected to be skyrocket, as more celebrities emerge and acquire fame.
- Voice Searching
Consumers like the idea of a personal assistant available at their fingertips. Formally introduced by Google, the technology took on a life of its own and more rely on it each day. People with disabilities who are visually impaired, or have lost limbs is a market often ignored by most. You, however, can cater to their needs by using voice searching to promote your market.
According to Google, 52% of smart speaker owners made purchases in their living room. This is convenient because people generally speak faster than they can type. What’s more, biometrics data can be as such that a system would recognize someone’s voice instantly, so that only that person can make purchases in his/her account. This is practical in instances when kids mess around and place orders without permission.
Voice-enabled payments will secure customer’s privacy and improve their shopping experience to become a frictionless transaction. Soon shopping for daily items like groceries will become dominated by voice searches. If your payment modes don’t allow voice-recognition yet, then it might be time to reconsider.
At first, consumers were reluctant to try online modes of shopping. But that’s history, now it’s the rule more than the exception. Sure, eCommerce trends come and go, but before they do you can take advantage of them first.
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