What Are The eCommerce and Dropshipping Trends to Follow in 2019?
With Black Friday fast approaching, the e-commerce arena is nearing an opportune period to leverage customers. But immediately after the holidays, it will be the right moment for leaders and brands to get back to their hideouts and cautiously plan some new strategies for the year 2018.
To aid you in preparing for the holiday rush as well as the coming year of opportunities, here are some e-commerce trends you need to watch out for in 2018:
1. Commerce via email will be crucial for brands
Disruptive firms such as Rebel are changing the way e-commerce brands can sell items to their customers via email. Email is already driving more revenue than all the social platforms brought together, and it has been an effective tool to drive visitors to a site. But by letting customers buy securely through their inbox, companies such as Rebel are set to make email an incredibly powerful channel.
2. E-commerce and other sectors must work closely with each other
If you take a glimpse at my list regarding content marketing or social media trends, you will witness some overlap, which is not because of laziness. It is solely attributed to the fact that customer experience is pushing each department to gain trust with clients, nurturing good relationships with them, and enhancing their way of living. Therefore, regardless of whether you are in public relations or director of search, you should do everything in your power to align efforts and help your teams connect with different audiences for better realization of your e-commerce targets.
3. E-commerce shall focus on consistent engagement
Come 2018, e-commerce advertising will be an increased expense, and being a media platform will be more vital than ever before. CEO of Hawke Media, Erik Huberman, and an individual I have worked with claim that brands which get ways to continuously engage their audience away from the purchase points will quickly gain ground because those who fail to do so will find it very expensive to try and bring people back to the purchase point.
4. Credibility points in a buyer’s journey are assumed
As customers continue to interact with your specific brand and buy items related to your niche, it is crucial that you manufacture and distribute content that portrays you as their trusted resource. More than 85% of customers will do some research before buying anything online, making it vital for you to own your organic search results. Create your content and have it aligned to your PR strategy so that you attract, educate, and engage your prospective customers as they research their buying decisions.
5. Humanizing and personalizing your brand will be the determining factor.
Disney was among the pioneer brands that greatly stood out of the crowd as having a cemented grasp of personalizing and how to properly use this power. I took my family to Disney World at a time when my oldest child was only 2 years, and she received a personalized bracelet which when combined with the idea that Mickey Mouse knew her name gave her the feeling of being the most special person across the globe. As time passes by, technology gets better and this makes personalization compulsory, particularly on a customer’s e-commerce journey.
6. There is an evolution of the skills required to excel in e-commerce
When we began Influence & Co., I would interact with e-commerce teams that comprised of individuals who had specific skill sets. And as mentioned earlier, departments have now increased their interaction with each other, and there is a need for everyone to understand the other.
This year at Content Marketing World, I came across many people who are not part of the industry than I had ever seen before. People from public relations, e-commerce, human resource, and more were there. When I inquired from then why they had attended the event, they all gave a similar answer: E-commerce is changing to affect other departments, hence the team requires diverse skills for maximum value.
7. Voice search is proving to be a huge factor
When Siri was first introduced, I did not think that I would use my voice to make an online purchase. I mean, is it difficult to make an order with the click of a button? Recently, however, I was driving and my wife whispered in my ear, “You had better never text while driving.” It was after this that I found myself using Siri to make a power cable order. Apparently, I am not the only one who will make this change. The forecast is that by the year 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice search, a number that will greatly affect the e-commerce world.
8. Best Selling eCommerce Niche and Products?
There are already trends researched to define best selling eCommerce products for the current year. Google trends are showing that ear wax remover tools and other cosmetic products close to that will be probably selling best in 2019. Ear wax is becoming more and more of a problem especially for kids and it is really annoying when your can’t hear properly. One of the new products on the market is the Smart Swab which just went viral and is taking the whole industry with it. You can check out the best ear cleaning tools on diyhappy.com
There are many other digital trends which are impacting the e-commerce world which you will want to watch out for, like video, interactive content, and mobile optimization. I do not find it necessary to overwhelm you with the statistics around these trends, but anything which improves the user experience is obviously something to watch out for.
Once you start updating your strategy for the holiday season, be sure to consider the booming e-commerce trends mentioned above. A huge chunk of marketing is driven by the proceeds of e-commerce so be sure to keep tabs on what is coming.
We have just published eCommerce and dropshipping trends revealed by Adrian Morrison in one of our recent post. You can can read more about the on our homepage here.
