Ecommerce Trends: What's Hot in 2022?

The Ecommerce industry is constantly changing and evolving. To stay relevant and attract new clients in such a competitive space, Ecommerce marketers have to constantly explore emerging trends.

It can be challenging at times to complete your day-to-day activities, and then, at the end of your day, convince yourself to research the market's evolution.

To save you time and effort, we’ve highlighted some of the most prevalent Ecommerce trends of the year. 

Between the rise of the chatbots and the rumored decline of Facebook?

Simple Customer Experiences Will Go Far 

There are so many Ecommerce companies today over-complicating their Ecommerce platform with unnecessary technologies and meandering customer experiences. However, complicated isn’t always better. To keep customers loyal and satisfied, competitive Ecommerce companies need to streamline their interactive online experience.

It truly is “the simpler, the better” in today’s Ecommerce world.

This is one of the many reasons social commerce has become such a big trend. Customers are valuing the ability to buy a product they’re interested in right through Instagram, instead of having to click on a link, visit a store then find a product that way. In reality, it only saves the consumer a minute or so at most—but the concept behind simplifying the process for shoppers truly does deliver results.

Whatever you can do to save your customers' time and streamline their search process—the better! Anything fast, user-friendly, and convenient is going to appeal to today’s discerning Ecommerce shoppers.

Instead of using multi-line over and over...

Chatbots Assist with Customer Experience

One of the things that web-based consumers miss when they shop entirely online is that personalized customer service from a store's in-person customer service rep. This is the hole that chatbots can (to some extent) fill. The concept of chatbots isn’t exactly new, but with advancements in AI and automated chat applications, these bots are becoming far more effective, and helpful to customers.

The chatbots of today are more intuitive and becoming more essential to Ecommerce businesses.

They can be programmed to act as a type of personal shopping assistant—using previously collected data to help anticipate new products that shoppers might want.

Chatbots can also help automatically answer frequently asked questions and help keep browsing shoppers engaged with your store longer. 

The longer customers want to stay at your site and engage with your bots, the more likely they are to make a purchase.  

More Ways to Pay Will Mean More Sales 

This year and beyond, Ecommerce sites are going to see an influx of discerning customers who prefer to pay the way they want to pay. Whether by credit card or crypto, every customer is going to have individual needs and preferences when it comes to their payment method.

And this is one trend that isn’t going away anytime soon—even NFTs seem to be picking up steam as a payment option.

Offering a broader range of payment methods is a great way to increase conversion rates, particularly on mobile devices. Introducing everything from PayPal and ApplePay to popular “buy now, pay later” services is a surefire way to help increase sales as you appeal to more customers.

A centralized payment service, which stores a customer's payment information on your site, is another way to expedite the checkout process and lead to more mobile sales for shoppers who are browsing on the go.

Subscription Models Retain Clients

Subscription services are here to stay too. In fact, in 2022, expect subscription services to become even more popular than they already are. Ecommerce businesses that utilize subscription services are more likely to have a high customer retention rate, which can otherwise be difficult to build.

However, it doesn’t mean that you have to shift your entire company to the subscription box model. Instead, offer to send customers a recurring subscription to certain products you offer. This works well with everything from personal care products to candles, air fresheners, pet products, and even food. 

When customers don’t have to think twice about getting the items they want (and can enjoy a small discount while they do), it is a great way to build loyalty.

Don’t Forget About Facebook 

While Facebook may seem as though it is fading into the background of social media trends in some respects, for Ecommerce companies, Facebook is still king. The key to funneling sales to your Ecommerce platform is to diversify your social media marketing efforts and try new channels, but always make sure that Facebook stays at the heart of your efforts.

Facebook is the most efficient and highest-performing sales channel in history, simply because it uses data. For our data nerds out there, we're not talking about a data lake but rather, a data ocean.

Most marketers looking to diversify their advertising channels will still use Facebook as their benchmark and set out on a never-ending quest to find channels that generate the same or better returns than Facebook. Chances are, you may not find them. So, while you work on diversifying your advertising strategy, don’t neglect Facebook in the process.

Voice Searches Will Grow in Volume

Today, asking about the weather or figuring out a recipe is as simple as asking Siri, Google, or Alexa. Voice search technology has become an integral way to complete daily tasks and discovers pertinent information.

While a growing number of households already rely on smart speakers, Loop Ventures estimates that by the year 2025, 75% of households in the U.S. will have a smart speaker. This means a growing number of households will utilize voice search technology to order food, send messages, and of course, shop online.  

For Ecommerce companies who want to jump on this trend and stay ahead of the curve, it is important to add more voice-enabled solutions to their Ecommerce space. By using the right content and keywords with voice search capabilities, your customers can search for products within your online store, without typing a single word.

Personalization is Critical to Marketing

Research shows a majority of today's consumers become disconnected from your brand as you continue to engage in generic marketing initiatives. That's why personalization in marketing (or 1-to-1 communication) is taking the profession by storm.

When you send a personalized message, no matter which channel it's through, consumers will respond better. Personalization has been repeatedly shown to get marketers better engagement, increased retention, and higher ROI almost anywhere it is applied.

You can apply personalization to almost anything, including but not limited to:

• Ads 
• Direct mail
• Email
• Chatbots
• Landing pages
• Unboxing experiences

There's a caveat though. You shouldn't apply personalization until the consumer is ready for it. It would be easy for a talented digital marketer to generate and place personalized advertisements in front of new prospects, but if you do, be prepared to really upset them. No one wants to feel as though they've been cyberstalked.

Do not, under any circumstances, apply personalization somewhere it would shock or concern your prospect. Use it only where it makes sense and wouldn't otherwise erode their trust.

For example, you can very safely apply personalization in your email campaigns, on special offer pages, and in direct mail or unboxing experiences because people expect you to know something about them at these touchpoints. 

You'll find that some personalization solutions are more readily accessible than others but each personalized channel adds revenue to your pipeline and early adopters will leverage this differentiator as a defining competitive edge. For that reason alone, you should seriously consider making personalization a core competency of your business if you want to remain viable over the next decade.

Conclusion

The Ecommerce world has changed drastically over the last few years and if you've successfully grown your revenue, that probably means you've started wearing a lot of new hats at your organization.

Based on what we've seen happen over the last few decades, the only thing we can truly guarantee is, that you're going to need a bigger hat rack. That being said, you can count on us to cut through the clutter and keep you in the know.

You've made it this far and you've learned so much. Congratulations!

If you still have questions about Ecommerce trends or marketing in general, you can always reach out to us at: solutions@undigital.com