Globally, industries are facing several cross currents and e-commerce isn’t immune to them. As pandemic-driven demand dissipates and consumers change their purchase habits in response to increasing financial pressures, business leaders need to realign their goals and strategies in order to sustain growth.
Such seismic shifts only translate to the one fact that e-commerce players eager to win will need to be on their toes constantly. Precision and timing will be crucial in uncovering the next mega trends and leveraging them for a competitive edge. To help businesses see beyond the horizon of 2022, our in-house experts have rounded up some of the most actionable trends and technologies online businesses should know to proactively prepare for the future.
Read more: How e-commerce firms can benefit from competitive intelligence
1. Consumers will be discount hunting now more than ever
With inflation at a 40-year high, there’s no doubt that consumers will be more thoughtful before loosening their purse strings. Consumers will combine their monetary prudence with their desire to spend by being extremely choosy about the brands and experiences they will patronize. The objective will be to maximize the value of each investment. In 2023, e-commerce shoppers will constantly filter their experiences, favoring those that provide high value while dismissing those that do not.
According to NRF CEO Matt Shay, “Consumers are out shopping, but they’re out shopping when they see deals and when they get the promotions that meet what it is they’re looking for, and so you can get them engaged, but you’ve got to deliver value and price.” Here’s a quick look at the current shopper mindset while planning purchases.
2. Omnichannel shopping will continue to reign
As the pandemic recedes, people are increasingly becoming comfortable using various channels in their shopping journey. One study found that a whopping 73% of consumers use more than one channel while they are shopping. As a result, retailers and brands must think omnichannel going forward.
In 2023, e-commerce brands and e-tailers would do well to work on the strengths of both these platforms. When online, shoppers seek personalization and immersive product experiences (consider AR and VR) and when offline, shoppers want to be surprised (think in-store demos, sampling, exclusive in-store deals, or even AR/VR).
3. Driving targeted ads in a cookieless world
With third-party cookies slated to be phased out of Google’s Chrome by 2024, marketers are working on ways to create targeted marketing campaigns relying on first-party data. For those looking for inspiration in 2023 retail and e-commerce, here are the alternatives being explored:
Customer data platforms (CDPs): These platforms aim to provide retailers with a holistic view of customers’ identities and purchasing patterns based on first-party customer data from various sources, including websites, social media, and retail software. Such technology is being used as an alternative to Meta’s first-party targeting by retail giants like Mattel, and Carrefour.
Data clean rooms: These are privacy-friendly solutions that allow advertisers to exchange data. They use first-party data to execute tailored advertising campaigns for brands and retailers. Data clean rooms can be employed by retailers to develop, launch, and assess advertising campaigns across audiences. Carrefour, Walgreens, and Walmart are among the key retailers that have entered the market through vendor alliances.
Media networks: To suit the needs of brands, media networks boast their website traffic, quality, and first-party data. To determine customer demographics, purchasing behaviors, and other engagement indicators that an advertiser may find useful media networks are leveraging shopper data. Retailers are also considering new media formats like connected TV (CTV) – for instance: Kroger’s ad marketplace expanded to include video and CTV in September 2022.
4. E-commerce platform scalability will be imperative
For a lot of e-tailers having a strong, adaptable, and scalable e-commerce infrastructure in 2023 is a top priority. Yet after considerable investments in this vein, many are only partially pleased with their present e-commerce solution’s capabilities. As per a recent survey, apart from 36% of respondents who changed e-commerce platforms in the past three years, virtually all others are looking for a change now.
Yet 9% of them don’t see themselves switching to a new platform. Here’s where plug-and-play solutions like composable commerce make business sense. It enables a flexible framework of various business functionalities based on standard API that allows players to obtain easily replace or integrate capabilities like payments, chatbots, voice assistants, etc., from multiple vendors based on evolving market needs.
5. Mobile shopping or M-commerce will continue to gain ground
Data from Statista reveals that mobile commerce accounted for 72.9% of all retail e-commerce in 2021. What’s more astounding is that this shopping mode has grown by 20% in just five years. Mobile commerce is not just about ensuring a mobile-friendly website or a dedicated shopping app.
Rather, its spans various consumer activities – right from those micro-moments that inspire a quick mobile search to aspects like livestream shopping or social commerce. Mobile shopping has grown to become increasingly pervasive especially in Asia and Latin America, given the popularity of platforms for Instagram Live, Amazon Live, and TikTok Live among other m-shopping apps.
The most successful brands are building strong connections across channels using common platforms and innovative tools. A new era of digital connection is about to dawn in e-commerce 2023: the metaverse. In the near future, augmented and virtual technologies will make social commerce one of the biggest sectors. All of this is marking an exciting time for players in the new-age commerce ecosystem.
To know how Netscribes can help you keep pace with the latest consumer trends to seize relevant e-commerce opportunities to grow your revenue and boost sales, contact us.
