Discover 10 trends that can help you deliver an outstanding online experience in 2022.
As ecommerce sales in the US are set to surpass $1 trillion in 2022, businesses are moving rapidly to prioritize the customer experience to gain a competitive edge. In this article, we discuss 10 key ecommerce trends for 2022.
1. Omnichannel Customer Experience
Today’s shoppers value convenience above all else. An omnichannel approach provides that convenience by creating a seamless experience, whether customers are shopping on a desktop, browsing for items on a smartphone, or picking up items via click and collect services in a physical store. Businesses that invest in their omnichannel strategy will be in a better position to maximize sales and spur customer loyalty.
2. Subscriptions and Loyalty Programs
Building and maintaining customer loyalty is far more challenging in e-commerce space, without the personal contact that comes with brick and mortar businesses. For that reason, customer retention is top of mind for most e-commerce merchants. Expect subscription-based products and loyalty programs to continue to grow, providing convenience, exclusivity, and savings to shoppers. This helps tp forge a close relationship with customers and encourages them to become your brand advocates. (Note for Shopify and Clover Merchants: The Customer Loyalty Accelerator (CLA) app is a spending-based, store credit rewards program that dramatically ignites return customer visits and higher spending. Learn more here).
3. Personalized Products and Marketing
The numbers don’t lie: studies show that 80 percent of consumers want more personalization from retailers. By providing a deeper level of personalization, businesses will be able to cater to shoppers based on where they are in the customer journey, giving each visitor individual attention that encourages them to move down the funnel.
Creating a personalized shopping experience is the key to satisfying customers. Shoppers value a more personalized experience that caters to their needs. Ecommerce sites that get onboard with this trend are investing in technology to send personalized pop-ups, follow-up emails, and relevant marketing offers to deliver a better shopping experience and strengthen that bond with their customers.
4. Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce sales in the US are expected to double between now and 2025. To stay ahead, your business needs to create an easy and engaging experience for mobile shoppers. A solid mobile commerce experience will keep your customers coming back to your business and ensure your sales continue to grow in years to come. Consider including things like push notifications, SMS, mobile content, a mobile ecommerce app, and a mobile-optimized website.
5. Buyer Journey Optimization
Ecommerce has become the primary customer purchase path for many businesses. As a result, it’s critical for sellers look at and improve every customer touchpoint to remain competitive. To optimize your buyer paths, focus on improving your product search, creating a streamlined mobile experience, providing rich product merchandising, and nailing your fulfillment and return processes.
6. Chatbots
As machine learning technology becomes more sophisticated, brands will begin to leverage AI and automation to enhance the customer experience. Chatbots are an example of this in action—software that can communicate with shoppers via a live chat interface. Chatbots provide instantaneous 24/7 customer service and can act as a resource to lead shoppers to the right pages and keep them coming back to your business.
7. Social Commerce
More and more people are turning to social media to browse for new products and brands and brands are responding by meeting shoppers where they are. Social commerce sales are projected to reach $79.6 billion in 2025, giving merchants another channel for sales and marketing.
As businesses plan to increase their social media budgets, you’ll want to build out your social strategy. Consider sharing user-generated content to engage followers, partnering with influencers to expand your reach, using livestream shopping to showcase products, and leveraging paid advertising and in-app shopping features to drive sales.
8.Diverse Payment Methods
Customers want the option to choose their preferred payment method during the checkout process. Businesses that diversify their payment technology are more likely to build trust, reduce cart abandonment, and encourage shoppers to spend more. Interest-free financing solutions like buy now pay later as well as seamless 1-click payment options will continue to grow in popularity and appeal to shoppers looking for more flexibility with their online shopping.
9. Voice Shopping and Conversational Shopping
With voice ecommerce sales predicted to reach $19.4 billion in 2023, we will see businesses continue to incorporate voice shopping to make it even simpler for customers to buy products. Conversational shopping can help you interact with your customers in real-time. Consider experimenting with chat apps like Facebook Messenger and voice technology like Alexa and Siri to allow customers to engage with your business, get recommendations, and even make purchases.
10. Video Marketing
As with other forms of content marketing, videos are an effective vehicle for marketing your products and attracting new customers. Consider creating and placing videos both on your social media and on key sections of your website like your homepage, about page, or product pages. Unboxing videos, tutorials, explainers, and user-generated content are examples of videos that can resonate with customers and help them make buying decisions.
Customer Loyalty Accelerator
The Customer Loyalty Accelerator (CLA) app for Shopify and Clover platforms helps merchants address these loyalty and personalization trends. A groundbreaking loyalty program, CLA uses the power of spending-based store credits to reward return customer visits – and higher spending –generating more revenue for your store. CLA also includes a Referral Promotion feature to broaden your customer base. In addition, Clover merchants can integrate a Gift Card program right within your loyalty program for even greater reach.
Article adapted from source, Miva.com
