2019 is already well under way, and new trends in the ecommerce game have showed themselves profitable.
Here are three of these emerging ecommerce trends that you can use to your advantage in 2019!
1.) Personalize Your Store
With ecommerce steadily on the rise, more and more people are doing all of their shopping from the comfort of their home. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that physical stores will fade out of existence any time soon, it does call for something increasingly crucial to be a part of any online ecommerce website: personalization.
Shopping in person gives consumers the ability to speak to personnel, staff, cashiers, or clerks for recommendations based on their needs. Online shopping doesn’t offer that sort of customer experience, instead lacking the human interaction aspect.
A lot of companies have sought to balance out by investing in personalization opportunities. This allows a website to give recommendations to a visitor or customer by taking data from what they’ve viewed and bought.
For example, if you check your Amazon homepage, it’s filled with recommended products for you based on your interests. A lot of ecommerce stores are investing in what they can to provide this kind of experience of customers and remove the need for in-store experience.
In this way, ecommerce websites are providing a valuable service for their customers and make them feel unique, catered-to, and ultimately keep them coming back for more!
2.) AI’s!
You know that little speech bubble that pops up in the corner of that one website every time you land there? Odds are, that’s not a human sitting on the other side of that bubble, waiting patiently and (sometimes) for a very long time for an answer.
A lot of ecommerce websites have added AI’s, Chatbots, and/or virtual assistants to further improve their customer service and satisfaction. In an age where people can go and buy a refrigerator or a car or file their taxes in the dead of night in the comfort of their own home, sometimes customers need help when it isn’t always convenient.
Chatbots are useful for answering customer questions and finding them the info they need, whenever they need it. They can also learn and evolve over time from conversations, thus providing better and better help as time goes on.
AI’s and assistants can do all sorts of tasks that normal employees would do, such as manage inventories, and can free up a lot of your precious time to focus on more important aspects of running your own business.
3.) Product Visualization
One of the key advantages in-person retail offers is the ability to interact with your product before you buy it. You can see just how nice that new pair of shoes are, or how thick that jacket is before you decide to drop the cash and buy it.
That’s one disadvantage with ecommerce, is that your customers really don’t have the opportunity to interact with their products the same way. We’ve hesitated before hitting the “buy” button before. We’ve all questioned the quality of the item we’re about to purchase. Returning the knock-off or defunct product can be a hassle if the risk doesn’t pay off. Despite the thousands of positive reviews a product may have, it just doesn’t paint a fully trustworthy picture in our heads.
That’s another issue a lot of ecommerce stores are looking to address by increasing their product visualization. Some sights offer tons of products photos to showcase their product. Some offer comprehensive 3-D images or models for further, deeper examination. And others put up videos detailing the quality of the materials used or testimonials from satisfied customers.
High-quality product visualization puts your customers at ease, showing your product and your business to be reputable and trustworthy.
Conclusion
Ranging from physical retail experiences to pair with your ecommerce store to website security and implementing voice search, there are no shortage of trends and strategies for you to employ for your ecommerce business in order to maximize your success! You can check out our blog post detailing some more of these here!
Can’t decide which tactic or trend is right for you? We at Gapstow Design would love to help. We offer Ecommerce Consulting as one of our many services. We work with businesses closely to find the best solutions for their unique situations. Let us know how we can help you!
