Soaring e-commerce sales ushered in the decade. Experts project the trend to continue, forecasting a 56% growth in e-commerce sales by 2026. With an expected $969 billion in sales opportunities slated for 2023, the importance of capitalizing on up-and-coming e-commerce trends has never been more apparent.
This article highlights five trends all e-commerce companies need to factor into their digital marketing strategy to thrive in 2023.
Omnichannel Marketing
As many as three-quarters of buyers use multiple channels prior to purchasing. More often than not, those customers don’t find your product on your brand website. Customers find products through any number of channels, including social media, online searches, personal recommendations, and in-person exposure.
Omnichannel marketing strategy continues to gain popularity because it helps fill the growing need for consistent brand tone and vision across all these channels.
Omnichannel vs. Multi-Channel
Omnichannel marketing sometimes gets used interchangeably with multi-channel marketing, but that’s not the case. Both concepts hinge on the idea of engaging customers across multiple platforms, but omnichannel takes it a step further.
While multi-channel looks at multiple specific channels to analyze how a transaction will be completed there, omnichannel goes deeper by taking into account the customer journey that likely spans multiple channels in order to shape a seamless and integrated user experience.
The Benefits of an Omnichannel Approach
Anyone familiar with an omnichannel approach will attest to the results it yields.
Let’s start by familiarizing you with some of the essential benefits it provides.
- Improved User Experience: Omnichannel’s focus on individual experience across channels delivers a better user experience.
- Cohesive Brand Strategy and Identity: By focusing on creating a seamless strategy across channels, companies build an identifiable brand image and tone.
- Increased Revenue: By encouraging users to engage through multiple touchpoints, brands increase customer value. Research indicates customers who engage with more than one touchpoint return 30% more value on average.
- Improved Attribution Data: Tracking user engagement across multiple platforms lends a clearer picture of the journey users takes with your product. Analyzing this data allows you to optimize media spending by creating targeted campaigns.
Subscription Services
Despite accounting for a smaller portion of your customer base, repeat customers contribute 40% of annual revenue on average. Implementing a subscription commerce model serves as a great opportunity to drive retention and revenue by creating long-lasting customer relationships.
For repeat customers, subscription services cater to the expected convenience and simplicity they’ve grown accustomed to with their online spending. At its core, a proper subscription model creates a means for customers to complete their favorite actions with ease. In turn, it gives customers a reason to return for repeat business.
Take Amazon for example. As a member, you can use One-Click to purchase while completely bypassing the checkout process. The subscription also eliminates the need to take time to fill in billing and shipping information for each purchase, creating the optimized user experience that led Amazon to account for nearly 50% of e-commerce sales in the US.
Personalization
Amazon serves as a great example of personalization as well. Amazon is so adept at knowing user preferences, that it can sometimes feel like they’re reading your mind.
While some users balk at the idea of websites collecting their data, a staggering 60% of buyers attribute their brand loyalty to a personalized experience. That means companies need to invest in getting to know their customers in order to optimize their e-commerce strategy.
The drive for personalization doesn’t end with offering up customized suggestions, though. It also means engaging users with personalized content on the channels they prefer in order to create brand loyalty.
High-End Customer Service
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), customer satisfaction declined at the start of the decade. In fact, the customer satisfaction score dipped below 80 for the first time since 2014.
Customer satisfaction has become such an issue, as many as half of all consumers admitted to their willingness to pay more for a better online shopping experience. What do customers expect from high-end customer service online? Speed, convenience, ease of use, and personalized and relevant suggestions.
A single bad experience is all it takes to prevent most buyers from becoming repeat customers. So, be sure to capitalize on every opportunity to create a great experience.
The Fight Against Inflation
It looks as if the ramifications of inflation will carry into 2023. With tight budgets, shoppers understandably grew mindful of their online spending. The key for e-commerce businesses in this climate must be to ease consumer anxieties around spending.
Create flexible and budget-friendly options for customers. A user-friendly return policy represents a simple way to do this. While returns can be costly for businesses in the short term, the longterm benefits outweigh the perceived downsides.
Dissatisfied customers will return products under any circumstance, so creating a flexible policy only serves to foster brand credibility and customer loyalty by providing the ease and convenience customers crave. In fact, over 90% of customers will become repeat customers if the return process is easy.
The benefits of flexible return policies apply to new customers as well. Over two-thirds of customers admit they check the return policy before buying. A user-friendly policy presents an opportunity to promote new customers to conduct business with you.
Additionally, find ways to keep the bottom line as stable as possible. Tiered subscription packages, for example, function to maintain engagement by presenting options for multiple budgets.
Adopt E-Commerce Strategies to Strive in 2023
As we move through the decade, the importance of effective digital marketing practices continues to grow. While implementing a successful e-commerce approach can be complex, digital marketing professionals like us can help you employ the best strategy for your needs. Reach out to us to see the ways in which we can help your business thrive in 2023 and beyond.
