Important Trends in eCommerce for 2018

Last year (2017) retail merchants learned some valuable lessons about their industry and important trends in eCommerce. New demands on merchant’s automation systems just to keep in the race is taxing and if retailers hope to have a competitive edge today they must have and continually enhance their multiple digital storefronts and operate with flawless efficiency. There’s more on this in eCom Success academy in their latest publication here: https://ecomsuccessacademy.net/

Maintaining a consistent supply of essential items as well as a precise delivery system will be fundamental to building rapport with an increasingly fastidious online consumer pool says Andre Sweeton from GFKAmerica. What good will be all that terrific marketing prowess and awesome whop design if when it comes down to making a transaction you can’t deliver with impeccable service? For example: if your store offers 5 different shades of brown hair colour, then it needs to keep every color in stock or there’s a risk customers won’t come back. Remember that there are fifty other competitors just waiting to pick up your slack, thus you will help your position considerably by getting things right the first time and never looking back.

There is some good news for the challenged and bedraggled merchant however. Boom times are ahead. According to the experts (eCom Success Academy and GFKAmerica), online sales across the USA are expected to reach $500 Billion by 2020, this increase will be fuelled by such precision marketing options as mentioned earlier and the economy as well. If that last holiday sale was an indication of anything it was that clever execution and improved automation is about to pay off in a big way.

Here are five trends that will make for some impressive gains on the ecommerce scene next year.

Automation Frees Up CX Strategy

There has been a significant improvement in the efficiency of processing and reducing negative feedback through automation and the capacity to reduce human error. Meeting the high standards of a more and more fastidious consumer audience will call for improved technologies and the capacity to wield them effectively.

Chatbots voice search and more will need to be introduced seamlessly into existing online storefronts and marketing campaigns. Automations will keep things running smoothly and greatly improve customer experience and they find more reliable transactions and fewer hitches in the process.

Integration Delivers Omnichannel Consistency

The survey was also keen on the point that technologies can’t just be featured, they must be effectively applied as well. For example, one channel is something that many retailers have, but very few actually feel that they are properly executing and reaping full advantage. The mere presence on multiple channels and platforms is not enough, each aspect must have all the applicable integrations that allow for flawless function. Retailers will fund the importance of this flawless integration of your message themes and products across multiple channels essential to their e commerce efforts this year. The Omnichannel will be explored fully and effectively for greater success this year.

Technology Makes Immediacy Real

Another important trend in 2018 will be innovation when creating a unique and innovative customer experience. This could be with new technologies that help to bring better harmony to their back and front stores. Many savvy ecommerce professionals like Adrian Morrison from eCom success academy will choose to use a technology that allows for greater immediacy and supports real-time commerce — this is another point where the omnichannel “state of mind” provides important direction. Adrian Morrison has just published an overview of new features to be used with Shopify and Dropshipping in 2018 which are really likely to change the eCommerce industry. You can find the full insights and a detailed review of all the features of eCom Success Academy here: http://www.gfkamerica.com/ecom-success-academy-review

Social Storefronts Step Up

We are seeing an increasing  amount of storefronts being set up across the social landscape. Instagrammers have shown that as many 33.33% of an audience will purchase an item or service after seeing it mentioned in video apps or images. There are even more exciting possibilities to be found on Facebook and in 2018 we will see a need for retailers to come up with some solid Social Marketing plans to collect from this valuable market.

Need for Speed in the Warehouse

Technology has many solutions to refining your warehouse processing so that you are never out of stock and always have just enough of those really popular items without overstock on less exciting options. This will take some insightful predictions and cutting-edge analytics will provide important solutions to next and same-day deliveries as well as the challenges placed by fluctuating demands and the need for precision inventory counts.