Top 10-Latest eCommerce Trends To Develop Your Online Strategy

Like fashion, design trends change…they come and go, but some may last for a longer period, merely for aesthetics.  However, some fail to hit the target beyond a certain level. There are few who manage to create an impact directly hitting the bottom line.It is therefore important to keep a watch on such designs, particularly when you are planning to set up an eCommerce site. You wish that your creation should be liked by your visitors.

We present 10-larger than life eCommerce trending online strategies which would bestow good proceeds on your investment.

1. Multi-Device Shopping
One would not have imagined in the wildest of dreams that before the advent of iPhone one could easily read lengthy texts or articles on the earliest available mobile instruments.  But filling lengthy forms and other online banking procedures were probably not possible with the second generation handsets that were available before iPhone came into the scene.

For the purpose of records, eCommerce revenue through mobile which is at present pegged at over 40% is expected to grow upto 70% or more in a short time; watch out. It is indeed awe inspiring to know that a device can do such multi-tasking as people would begin a purchase process on one device and switch over to another to complete the sale process!

In other words, the website needs to be robust to take up any kind of assignment (read process) perfectly without any hiccups on any tablets, mobile or PC.  Not only it has to pass this test successfully, but also has to perform the process without delay; as time is the essence. The entire process needs to be flawlessly carried out in sync with a uniform consistency as in mid way of the purchase process,shoppers tend to change their device to another high end one.
It becomes all the more necessary to be alert and avoid any technical glitches that could possibly disrupt their joy of purchase.

2. Common UI Patterns
Steve Jobs once famously said: “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”. Similarly, on the same lines, Samuel Johnson said: “Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance”.
A beautiful web design that appears pretty and a work of art are completely different from each other. The user experience of your website bears significance as all the user sin general is what they are yearning for.
As a result your site receives great importance and huge responsibility on the designing aspect of the user interfaces, UI in short. Consistency has to be ensured for navigating seamlessly with appropriate visual appearance.
The concerns only to safeguard seamless experience of customers who should not face any problem while searching, scanning or browsing. Adding new products to their cart without any hitch goes a long way in guaranteeing footfalls.
You will come across some of these common elements that are at play when you take a quick glance through some of the popular and best selling eCommerce trending themes.

3. Personalization and Contextual Shopping
Customers can have the benefit of getting a seamlessly consistent experience when common UI pattern is applied. There is, however, the uncanny resemblance to other websites, including your competitors that your customers might come across.
Personalization being the big trend, the homepage might go for a transformation, without notice. But that depends on which products a customer visited last time.
Please understand that this type of contextual marketing is still at a fledgling stage and needs to take baby steps if not great strides before it hits the market fully. But this concept is fast picking up.Customer experience as their main point of differentiation is getting patronage from over 89% of executives.
Amazon heads the list for being ahead on most of these trending concepts.  Personalizing their homepage that records your prior purchases, including history of searches and recommendations for similar products are some of the salient features that make this largest online store stand above others.

4. Customized Product Demonstrations
Customized page is imperative in a competitive market scene. But interactive product demonstrations to showcase the products are a step ahead in giving a graphic description of the working of the products. Interactivity creates a distinct experience for each viewer thereby building an emotional connect, which a static content would not have achieved.In short,it is a delightful in engaging user experience when you add more features to the initial base product. A dynamic presentation of the product that actually comes alive makes the consumer the exact product that he aspires.

5. Targeting Locations
Alas internet usage through mobile device has finally exceeded PC for the first time. Thanks to the mobile phone revolution that has caught up with the people, particularly the young generation, as they access the internet and browse around on-the-go from booking movie tickets to costumes or accessories.

One of the interesting features of a mobile phone is the inherent integration with a GPS device for guiding location. Therefore,it is not surprising that location-based mobile advertising and promotion of products is going to scale a different vertical.

Think of it, location-based mobile ads perfectly fit the bill in terms of aligning your eCommerce experience vis-à-vis brick-and-mortar stores.The bright side of the mobile device is easy accessibility and possibility of the visitor to see more products on site, virtually of course.

6. Product Videos
It has been found that quite a number of people think product videos explain effectively in detail than a text or pictorial image. They feel watching video helps them to choose the right product before deciding to purchase. They are quite right.
Needless to say, video is the best medium as one could get the correct perception of the product in addition to its working, advantages and technical specifications mentioned in the booklets.Even the statistics reveal that more than 70% purchases are generated by watching the product video.  Incidentally, these so called product videos are graphically descriptive therefore need not be flashy campaigns.
Customers want value for their money and wish to see in advance what they are buying. It is therefore ideal to virtually display the products with features and show directions to enable them the grasp the utility of the product.

7. Multi-Channel Marketing
Mobile phones have brought in a digital revolution, creating a multi-device world where high end mobile devices with amazing features and apps get added regularly without notice. Consequently, the younger generation spends more time on these futuristic devices than on computers.  This has significantly impacted how we shop online with majority of the customers joining the bandwagon.

The shoppers might get hooked to a link while browsing their social feed on their mobile phone and may be prompted to make an online purchase on their desktop PC.  They may even, suddenly, remember while at the work place and add a product to their cart on a device before finally purchasing the product from the home PC.

The long and short of the episode is you have to maintain consistency as the purchase process may not get completed by this haphazard way of shopping.  But the fact is quite a number of shoppers are continuing in this fashion.

8. Social Media Advertising
Campaigning and advertising, though in a subtle manner on social media platforms are not taken seriously and treated as ‘FYI’ or for your information. Advertising done through social media takes a beating as the conversion rate is less as compared to other direct response style options – Google AdWords.
Nothing to worry; help is at hand for eCommerce companies.  A robust and great option is now available; the Facebook’s Dynamic Product Ads.  They have been developed with uniquely trending feature with reminders and timeline elements.  The ads appearing distinctively act more like re-targeting or marketing that enables data from the products that were viewed on your site sometime back reappears like a reminder even while browsing FB.
Customized for mobile phones these targeted ads, showing up at the right time, seek to take credit and capitalize on the growth of mobile advertising as stated else wherein this article.The Honest Company has tasted success;  seen huge improvements, netting a whopping 35% ‘click-through’ rate increase and additionally with a 38% cost reduction.

9. Marketing Automation
Traditionally, email marketing has been controlling other channels such as social media for driving real product sales from regular site visitors. The survey results aren’t even closes email marking was ruling the roster all along with 30% patronage and social media at a mere 1%!
Your experience on your website needs to evolve gradually and progressively to become more personalized like email campaigns.
The inboxes are overflowing with promotional blogs and texts with consumers are flooded with more messages than ever before. The advertisements could be announcements for discounts, seminars, store opening or product launch. As a result the email service providers like Google’s Gmail was compelled to filter them automatically and most people never saw them.
Marketing automation can be helpful many times.  We could also provide you with a large collection of perfect eCommerce email templates with a provision to match with other popular providers or you could even browse through our Mailchimp collection.

10. Flash Promotions
Single day promotions are things of the past.  With ever growing competition among retailers, every day is a promotion day and can be extended for weeks, particularly on festive seasons capitalizing on the importance.  Many popular and hip departmental stores take advantage of the popularity of festivals and celebrations and extend their shopping days.  Shops are kept open for longer hours with tremendous footfalls.

On a macro level this concept is not limited to stores; not to lag behind, popular and not so popular online retailers have picked up as well.  Evidently, this idea of sales and promotions, accounts for nearly 70% of fourth quarter shoppers says Forrester Research.

Apply These Trending eCommerce Strategies
The above ten eCommerce strategies can be experimented as they have been found successful. If you observe, interestingly some design trends are ad hoc creations in flashy moments which may or may not impact your business goals, but leave an impression in the minds of potential customers. These concepts would gain momentum progressively during the next half of the current year and may continue to stay.