5 Trends Currently Shaping Online Selling

Because of the rapid growth in e-commerce in recent years, technology, techniques and strategies have grown in tandem. Presently, consumers can find virtually any product or service they want online and with ease. Thanks to the deepening of the internet and advancing technology that are shaping e-commerce trends. As things stand now, it looks like these trends are going to remain relevant into the foreseeable future. The reason e-commerce businesses cannot afford to overlook or ignore them. In fact, an estimated 80% of small businesses presently have some basic e-commerce capabilities and do tap into these trends. Going forward, e-commerce is likely to become commonplace among small business owners and these trends will hugely shape the process.

For many small businesses that are presently grappling with challenges like inflation and supply chain issues to keep pace and remain competitive, they need to keep a keen eye on e-commerce trends that can help them drive growth into the foreseeable future. Here are 5 of such trends.

1. Simplified Shipping Options

Evolving technology most of which is now simplified is greatly enhancing shipping operations for e-commerce business owners. They now rely on digital platforms that simplify and enhance shipping operations using advanced e-commerce technology. These platforms are great in empowering e-commerce businesses to seamlessly ship bulk purchases taking advantage of discounted rates thereby making huge savings on shipping costs. This trend is bound to continue into the foreseeable future since most businesses are always worrying about operating costs. Some of the platforms are so sophisticated as to have even more than 80 integrations that include leading marketplaces with data and insights that help business owners make smarter and cost-effective shipping decisions that include branded tracking and even return capabilities. This is made possible by a collection of apps, widgets and application programming interfaces that help to make it easy to configure new workflows and seamlessly meet the demands of business growth.

2. Personalized Products

Aside the initial purchase, customized reports and shipping notifications are also trending in online selling. Presently, shippers use alerts to notify customers about the status of the products they purchased. The information they give include products’ delivery status, including any delays and or changes in delivery times and dates. These alerts usually go out via email, text, video message or, in some cases, a customizable dashboard where customers can view incoming shipments. If tied to customer accounts or addresses, they can receive a request for different delivery time or location, pre-sign for packages and even more. These special arrangements provide great opportunities for shoppers who appreciate buying products that are uniquely their own. There are presently online buying platforms that allow for this customization of products to make shopping much easier and convenient for consumers.

3. Micro Purchasing Moments

Many e-commerce business owners have since discovered that impulse buys or convenience shopping are not exclusive preserves for brick-and-mortar stores. Thanks to micro-purchasing trends in online shopping that involves purchases which are typically made by someone looking for a quick solution or information in a hurry and in most cases from a mobile device. It is thus convenient for such shoppers to quickly compare two or more similar products and clicking a “buy now” link to conclude the transaction. This allows e-commerce business sites to establish themselves as a resource, make information easy to digest and substantially simplify the purchasing process for shoppers. Doing this ultimately earns such sites more customers and sales.

4. Video Content

Video content marketing is a social media trend and social media keeps developing. This now makes video content in very high demand on e-commerce sites. Most of these videos are essentially how-to videos that concisely explain to customers how to use products. They additionally offer tips for using the products and in some cases showcase testimonies from customers who have used the products before. These videos also highlight product features, video reviews on social media and “live shopping events” on the social channels of e-commerce retailers. These videos help to drive engagements and offer a quick and appealing way to demonstrate new or popular products to attract shoppers. The ultimate marketing aim of using videos is to provide a more appealing interactive experience for shoppers with a view to enabling a steady stream of conversions.

5. Flexible Payment Options

Cumbersome payment options usually engender high cart abandonment particularly if online purchases are limited almost exclusively to credit card purchases. What is trending is that businesses have found a way around that by granting more flexibility to shoppers when it comes to collecting payment for products purchased. This trend has been growing for several years. As a result, many e-commerce sites now accept a variety of payment options such as credit/debit cards, online checks, digital wallet and mobile payment services, crypto-currency and even installment payments via third-party providers. This trend promises to continue into the foreseeable future.

5 Simple Ways E-Commerce Retailers Can Boost Sales

In today’s e-commerce retail environment, there’s not much difference in the shopping experiences of most shoppers. Every shopper craves to easily find online the products they are looking for, purchase them and have them delivered safely, quickly and intact to their chosen locations. This is why most shoppers prefer to carefully browse products online before making a purchase even if some may ultimately visit brick-and-mortar stores looking for same products. For e-commerce retailers therefore, it helps to have a strong e-commerce presence if they want to boost sales. These days, as consumer behavior continues to shift toward digital engagement, retailers must strongly enhance their e-commerce strategies if they want to boost sales and stay competitive.

These here five quick tips are very handy in that quest.

1. Carefully Craft an Engaging Homepage

As most e-commerce retailers very well know, the homepage of a business’ website is often the first interaction online shoppers have with e-commerce stores. It is really crucial therefore to ensure your homepage is designed and positioned to have a strong first impression with shoppers. You must always endeavor to prominently feature your best-selling products and current promotions to easily catch visitors’ attention. Ensure the page is easy to navigate with intuitive menus that guide visitors to browse products, sign up for newsletters and view special offers. Clearly provide essential information such as store hours, contact details and delivery options in a prominent location on the page to ensure shoppers have the information they need at a glance. You may in addition choose to optimize the page for mobile devices to increase the likelihood of conversions. This is because presently, 70-80% of online shoppers do so via mobile devices. Deliberately and carefully optimizing your e-commerce website is hugely important because failure to do so can result in a poor user experience, high bounce rates and lost sales. To enhance this and continue to boost sales, make sure to regularly test your website on various devices to identify and quickly fix any issues as they crop up.

2. Always Keep your Homepage Fresh

Yes, keeping your homepage fresh with content is always cool with search engines. This is why you must always endeavor to keep your homepage timely and engaging by regularly updating it with new products, promotions and seasonal specials. It is a good marketing strategy to always try to highlight limited-time offers, new arrivals and holiday-themed promotions. Doing so can help you to easily capture visitors’ interest and encourage repeat visits as well. If you manage to keep your homepage dynamic and fresh, it is possible for you to consistently maintain customer engagement and drive continuous sales growth.

3. Leverage Customer Data

If you have the right analytics tools on your website, you can significantly harvest valuable customer data. These analytics tools are quite handy to track customer behavior and gather data about purchase patterns and demographics. Such data can provide valuable insights into shopping behavior, preferences and trends. This valuable information allows you to carefully tailor your offerings and marketing efforts for best results. You may choose to also start a customer-loyalty program that can help you gather valuable data while rewarding repeat customers along the way. You can move a step further by leveraging such data to personalize marketing campaigns, optimize product recommendations and improve customer engagement. These tips will ultimately help you enhance user engagement and boost sales.
 
4. Leverage your Website for E-Commerce

For organic traffic purposes, search engine optimization, SEO is hugely important in your e-commerce retail website. A well-designed and SEO-optimized website can significantly impact your store’s visibility and attract more customers to your e-commerce store. This is especially given the fierce advertising and marketing competition on the internet. You can thus leverage WordPress with its vast array of plugins and customizable features to position your website well enough to compete favorably. The customizable features of WordPress allow retailers to set up product listings, manage inventory, process orders and accept payments securely on the same platform. Should changes arise as they are bound to, WordPress is well positioned and proactive enough to create the right solutions which can be implemented via the platform’s global marketplace.

5. Pay Special Attention to the Content you Create

You need high quality content on your website for Search Engine Optimization, SEO purposes. You are no doubt aware that in digital marketplace, content is king. So, you must always try to create high-quality and relevant content on your website. Good content helps drive organic traffic to your site and improve your rankings in search engines particularly Google. If you regularly update your website with stories about topics related to your products, do product reviews and provide related industry news, it can attract and engage visitors on your website. For optimization purposes, you can carefully incorporate SEO best practices. This you do by using relevant keywords on your content, optimizing meta tags and building backlinks. Good SEO on your website can help the site to rank higher on the SERPs of search engines. That means more organic traffic to the website because SEO makes it easier for new and established customers to find you. More customers finding you translate to more sales and a boost in business.