Ecommerce trends to look for in 2017

Like the years before, 2017 is expected to bring with it another round of ecommerce trends that your business may be able to benefit from. As 2017 rolled in, we waved goodbye to 2016. It was a year that brought with it an increase in mobile shopping, inventory management in the cloud and social media marketing. However, while new trends can also benefit businesses, expect many of the older trends to continue into 2017.

The following is a list of proven ecommerce trends that will help to improve your customer experience and increase company’s profits.

Buy buttons for social media

You probably use Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and other social media profiles to market your services and products. But, have any of these sites actually helped to increase your company’s conversion rates? If your answer is ‘no’, then you are probably not considering one critical feature you need for your social media pages.

Believe it or not, your customers prefer to be gently led to what they need to do instead of thinking about what they should do. They do not want to waste time trying to think about what you are selling and why you are selling it.

Be sure all the pertinent information is on the screen for them to read so all they will need to do is click their mouse or gently tap their screens. For example, the older method of social media integration was linking your ecommerce site to your company’s Facebook fan page. Now, you can simply add a buy button on your company’s Facebook page. This will allow them to purchase right away without having to be redirected to your website.

Videos

If you did not take advantage of video marketing in 2016, make it a priority in 2017. People enjoy watching product demonstration videos because this is as close as they come to ‘touching’ the product before they purchase it.

There is wide range of free and paid recording software online. EZVid, Camtasia and Jing are just a few of the many software video marketing products available.

Mobile payments

A large percentage of Internet sales are made through an electronic mobile device. It is very likely that as technology continues to advance, there will be more wallet-less payment options.

Besides smartphones, online retailers will also receive payments through other devices that use RFID technology and radio transmission.

Mobile marketing

Also known as M-commerce, mobile marketing will continue trending upwards. Recent surveys show over 60% of consumers will choose to shop on an ecommerce site that has product pages and checkout pages that can be easily navigated on a mobile device. This is the main reason why your ecommerce website needs a responsive design that can work on both desktop and mobile devices.

Same day product delivery

Next day delivery is proving to be not fast enough, and if you want to keep customers on your site and not send them to Amazon, you will need to echo this trend.

If you have owned your ecommerce site for any length of time, you should know that the customer is always correct. The worst thing you can do is tell them they are wrong by not offering their preferred shipping options on your site.

When you implement customer wants and needs on your site, you will quickly gain a loyal customer base.

These are some of the trends that can take your online business to a new level in 2017. By staying on top of the trends, you will stay ahead of the competition.