Evolution is part of any business — what works this year may not be as profitable or as effective in the next. Without riding the coming wave of new trends, you run the real risk of getting left behind. In eCommerce, the industry is far more aggressive. Competition between companies and online merchants is fierce. Trendy products and services — other than essentials such as food and digital products — rarely last for years. Much like everything else on the internet, audience interest and attention are transient.

The entire eCommerce ecosystem became more frenetic in 2020. The global population was forced indoors and adopted social distancing protocols due to the pandemic. There wasn’t much room for in-person dining and shopping. Everyone turned their attention to online services. They utilized online stores to shop for everything from food to personal essentials. People had little choice but to get their needs met online.

As a result, the already saturated eCommerce market grew by up to 44%. It added up to 22% of the world’s total retail sales. But that was only the first stage. Eventually, the dust settled and the eCommerce industry found some footing. This transformation created trends in the products that customers shop for. It affected strategies and campaigns used by online stores and marketplaces.

Now that the market is so broad, customer experience rules the day. Companies now use chat support, eco-friendly packaging, personalized thank you cards, and more. The customer is solidly at the center of the eCommerce shopping experience.

The Purpose and Functions of eCommerce

Our evolution into a user-centric experience in eCommerce wasn’t sudden. It’s been gradual. However, the best practices have trended to revolve increasingly around user comfort and positive experience.

The purpose of successful eCommerce trends is to stimulate site users and visitors into making a purchase. Vendors hope to improve the conversion rate for their business. Moreover, happy buyers become repeat customers. They often encourage other customers to make a purchase. After all, one of eCommerce’s main tasks is to cater to the demand and solve the customer’s problem, satisfying their needs.

Another aim of eCommerce this coming year is to improve communication. Customers enjoy giving feedback. They appreciate the feeling of being heard by companies. Whether they’re happy or unhappy, they’ll let the company know. Today, they expect that their feedback matters.

Stay Ahead of Customer Happiness: Notable eCommerce Trends Projected for 2022

Maintaining and improving your conversion rate in the eCommerce industry is critical. Your business needs to stay on top of incoming eCommerce trends, particularly those that emphasize positive customer experiences. Start implementing them now if possible. Commit to adapt to these trends and you’ll future-proof your business.

Listed below are some of the biggest eCommerce trends that analysts and experts project to take root by 2022.

Prioritize an Omnichannel Strategy

This strategy refers to selling and marketing on multiple platforms. This is increasingly important as diversifying the ways customers can find your products makes you more visible. It also improves your conversion rate and reinforces your authority.

Suppose your name pops up on major selling sites such as Amazon and eBay or other specialty marketplaces that facilitate the distribution of products to your niche. In that case, it gives your business the appearance of size and authority. According to a study, 46.7% of customer searches come from Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. More than half of the units sold via Amazon come from third-party sellers. Visibility in social media is always a plus. Approximately 37% of users research products and brands through social media before making a purchase.

Optimize for Voice Search

In recent years, people have become more accustomed to interacting with voice-operated devices and features. Examples include Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri. Using voice commands makes performing tasks such as searching for businesses, asking for directions, and even online shopping even more convenient.

As such, eCommerce companies should prioritize optimizing their sites and pages to be responsive. The goal is to be compatible with platforms these AI assistants search to improve conversion rates. More and more users will be looking into this technology to make their lives easier when they need information.

This technology isn’t fully developed yet. It continues to release updates to make its functionalities more sophisticated, but it’s already a great feature for users. Your brand needs to be prepared to adapt to it sooner rather than later.

Voice Shopping Will Take Centerstage

Along with voice search comes voice shopping. This has already taken hold within the U.S. in a “smart speaker market share.” The smart speaker market is projected to increase by a whopping 55% by the next year. This proves that customers want to use voice assistants in their homes to do more than just search for answers. One of the most common tasks they want voice assistants to perform is to shop for them.

It’s still complicated. Customers have to describe in detail what they want. They must articulate the product, product packaging, ingredients, and other vital information for the voice assistant to return proper results. Unless they have a device that comes with a screen, there are no visual cues. Vendors must make sure their website is optimized to contain the right indicators that allow people to find your products via voice shopping.

It’s also a priority to make the shopping process friendly to voice commands as well. Your website needs to be able to respond to the automated assistant. Product listings must be able to describe the steps a user must take to confirm.

M-Commerce

As mentioned earlier, mobile commerce is rapidly becoming the norm. Smartphones have become the most active form of internet access today. Mobile users are so numerous that Google’s algorithms have changed their priorities. The algorithm now scans and checks websites with mobile-friendly design and features and puts those at the forefront of SERPs.

M-Commerce has grown just as rapidly, with more customers making their purchases over their smartphones. To improve your conversion rate, adding features that will help mobile shoppers can give you an edge. Using filters as a virtual dressing room, geo-targeted promo codes, mobile GPS pins to the nearest branches, or even something as simple as a mobile payment option gives you a distinct advantage over the competition.

Green Consumerism

Eco-friendly practices have become one of the most critical trends in the past few years. More businesses and consumers are starting to understand how vital it is to use sustainable products and create eco-friendly packaging. One survey found that half of its respondents preferred products made of sustainable materials and companies that use eco-friendly components and packaging. Up to 75% of them wanted to do away with packaging (especially plastic packaging) altogether.

Green consumerism is now a significant focal point for many businesses, even tiny businesses that want to make an impact. Their eco-friendly packaging and other touches — water-activated paper tape, recycled paper package padding, cardboard boxes, biodegradable plastic parts, reusable freebies like metal straws, and more — attract customers who want to do their part to fight waste and non-biodegradable trash.

Drone Delivery

This concept made waves last year when Amazon first debuted it. It has since gained some traction with companies such as FedEx and Alibaba preparing to adopt it. It takes shipping into unheard-of levels and creates a unique service that many customers would be willing to pay for just to see it happen.

Furthermore, it’s another way to enforce contactless payment and delivery. There would be no need for delivery personnel to come to a person’s residence to deliver the package. Better still, drones aren’t restricted to the traffic and roads to which land delivery channels are constrained. They can make same-day deliveries from the nearest distribution or fulfillment center.

While there’s still a long way to go when it comes to nationwide (much less global) implementation — along with specific difficulties along the way concerning a perishable product, packaging that withstands potential drops, and other issues — it’s a promising start. The carbon footprint of drones is a lot smaller compared to freight trucks, vans, and other land-based delivery options.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Some years ago, the widespread fame of Pokemon Go introduced consumers to the wonders of augmented reality. Now, it’s widely available and viable for commercial purposes. Many businesses have been implementing it for various features.

Adding AR features provides a unique experience for customers. For example, it can give them the utility of “trying” an item on before they make a purchase, the same way they would if they were in a brick-and-mortar store. As such, it improves the conversion rate as it eliminates buyer uncertainties.

Clothing stores have begun using AR to create virtual dressing rooms. Customers can try on clothes before buying them. Some salons offer hair color testing features to see if a particular hairstyle will suit a customer. IKEA uses virtual reality to scan and measure a room. Buyers can see what a piece of furniture would look like in their home before buying it.

As you can imagine, these types of eCommerce trends aren’t just there to dazzle. They also serve an integral purpose to the buyer experience.

Social Media Enters Online Shopping

Social media has become more than just a marketing vehicle for eCommerce. Now it’s a selling platform as well.

Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram now have their shopping features which improve the conversion rate by lessening purchase steps. Customers can see a product getting advertised on a company’s Facebook page. They can then buy them straight away through a Shop Page or Facebook Marketplace.

Similarly, Instagram now has a much-anticipated shopping feature. Users can click on a photo and see tags that indicate the names and prices of the featured products in the photograph. After that, it’s a matter of making the purchase right inside the Instagram app. This cuts out the rest of the steps that typically lead a customer to a company’s page or selling platform and create an account for purchase there.

Headless eCommerce

As part of the movement to improve conversion rates through positive customer experiences, headless eCommerce was designed to give companies more significant control over their site’s front-end design. It also helps create personalized customer experiences. Changes made in the front end of the design don’t affect back-end functionality.

This way, companies can change and adapt the front-end design more efficiently than ever. They can respond to special events or holidays, or revamp website appearance every so often to fit their customer base’s mood and style. They can even transform the design for web, mobile, and tablet displays as needed. Significantly, they can modify the SEO of their pages as well, all without messing with the complex shop functionality in the back end to make it work.

Increased AI Use in Ecommerce

Finally, there is the increased use of artificial intelligence or AI. You might have already seen this done via chatbots installed in a business page’s social media platform messenger or directly on the website. The AI can act as an FAQ or helpdesk for customers with common concerns, removing the need for a human customer service rep.

Another use of AI is to detect and predict user preferences. AI can study your customer’s browsing and buying patterns. It can then make intelligent recommendations of similar products that they might also be interested in. It helps keep customers in the store longer and find what they need on your site.

Final Thoughts

Trends in the eCommerce field continue to grow by the day, month, and year. More eCommerce trends than ever are springing up. With the advent of more technology, there are plenty of opportunities for online businesses to gain an edge over the crowd by hopping onto the forecasted trends right away. This allows them to deliver customer-centered experiences and demonstrate that they are at the cutting edge in their industry.

The post Future-Proof: Expected eCommerce Trends for 2022 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Some agencies are faring better than others. In a recent survey among marketing agencies around the globe, 16% of participants experienced an increase in revenues.

What sets these agencies apart is their ability to adapt to change. For digital marketing agencies to survive, it’s essential to play the long game—especially since it’s not known when the pandemic will end. This includes being creative, adaptive, and being able to craft as well as implement the right strategies. Here are a few tips to help you keep your agency running at its best:

Understand the Pandemic’s Effects on Individual Clients

COVID-19 has impacted all businesses, but some more than others. Certain industries are hard-hit, while others seem to be adapting well to the change wrought by the pandemic.

No matter how many clients you have, it’s good to assess the impact of COVID-19 on each one. By doing so, you can identify which clients in which industries are in danger of jumping ship. Catching warning signs early allows you more time to formulate and implement retention strategies.

Measuring the pandemic’s impact on your clients also allows you to determine which of them is doing well. Focusing your attention on these customers could be even more beneficial than offering incentives to clients who are considering churning. These types of clients may be more receptive to offers of added services and solutions.

Having a better understanding of your clients’ situations is also helpful in improving your relationship with them. Adding value for your clients and going the extra mile for them will go a long way toward making your relationship last beyond these challenging times.

Analyze your Ongoing Burn-Rate in Both Normal and Barebones Scenarios

Many organizations run with too many excesses—however, you don’t have to be one of them. Many expenses are avoidable, so you will want to go over your spending and figure out what’s essential and what you can do away with. Doing so can help you control overspending and get a leg up on the competition.

Identify areas where added effort and time allows you to reduce spending. Tailor your reductions to your business goals. Typically, you won’t be able to optimize your burn rate with just one significant change. Multiple incremental changes across departments can better help you trim low-value activities with minimal organizational disruption. 

Focus on what maximizes the return on money, time, and effort. The goal is to be as efficient and lean as possible without sacrificing the quality of service you provide to your clients. 

In a Changed Business Environment, Dare to Think Out of the Box

Across all industries, businesses are making major changes to the way they do business to survive in the new normal. Some companies are doing more than just survive. One example is Evil Genius, a brewery known for its cleverly named craft beers and popular bar and retail location in Philadelphia.

Having previously relied on sales to bars and restaurants for about two-thirds of their sales, Evil Genius faced a dilemma when these distribution channels closed off due to the lockdown. According to co-founder Hayward, the closure of bars reduced their business by about 60%.

Employing out-of-the-box thinking, Evil Genius focused on offering carry out service at their retail location and taking online orders for pick-up and delivery. They also introduced new products—a risky move that ultimately paid off when one of them, a beer referencing the wildly popular Netflix series Tiger King, became a hit.

A whiz at staying topical, the company also offered a free roll of toilet paper with a purchase of “The Gang Gets Quarantined,” a beer referencing both the lockdown situation and the popular TV show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Their unique approach to marketing their products have helped them rise above today’s cluttered advertising environment. Their innovations in marketing helped make Evil Genius an online talking point when the news and social media outlets are heavily saturated with both bad news and a slew of competitors eager to capitalize on the public’s increased social media usage.

Evil Genius is an example of how traditional marketing approaches need to be innovative and adaptive. Creativity has always been the lifeblood of marketing, and it is even more so now. Your clients are facing significant changes in the way they market their products and services, and your success in helping them meet their goals rides on how quickly and creatively you can respond to these changes.

Be Flexible and Open to Adjustments

Small- to medium-sized digital agencies have the advantage of being more flexible than their larger counterparts. Since smaller agencies don’t have substantial overhead costs to worry about, they can typically afford to offer competitive pricing. This is especially true for agencies that work with businesses or organizations that are experiencing layoffs.

While the cost of retaining your services is lower than that of hiring an employee or employing their in-house marketing department, your clients must be fully aware of this fact. You would also want to show your clients that the value you deliver to their business far exceeds the cost of having you onboard.

You can achieve this by being more flexible in terms of pricing. At the same time, lowering your rates is an act that conveys your understanding of the current situation’s difficulties. It shows that you value your relationship and that you have integrity.

Flexibility can mean:

• Delaying Invoice Scheduling. If you have the financial capacity to do so, delaying invoices can be beneficial to both you and the client. Deferring payments allows your client more time to meet their obligations, and you also get to keep your clients at the same rate they paid pre-lockdown.
  
• Restructuring Contracts to Reduce Pricing. According to a survey by Upplers, 58% of agencies became more flexible in client terms, and 28% reduced their fees. The reality of the pandemic situation is that many businesses cannot or will not justify marketing spend in these uncertain times. 

To retain clients, consider restructuring your clients’ contracts to accommodate their needs while reducing their marketing spend. This shows that your relationship with your clients is essential to your agency, and at the same time, it’s a move that drives long-term instead of short-term value.

• Offering Limited Services. If your client’s marketing budget is tight or if they don’t need as much work done on their account, consider reworking your contract to include limited services. For instance, your client may no longer need assistance with content creation but could use some help in social media. You can rework your contract to include only the services they need and reduce your rates accordingly.

This strategy results in cost savings for them and allows you to retain their business on an as-needed basis until the overall situation improves.

Learn From Your Competition

The pandemic has affected all businesses, but some are doing better than others. Assess your direct and indirect competitors and identify which ones seem to be toughing out the crisis better than most. Knowing your competitors and how they’re positioning themselves for success can help you identify strategies that allow your agency to succeed.

For example, many small to medium-sized agencies are currently outsourcing or planning to in the future. Outsourcing provides agencies with on-demand access to talent at less than the cost of taking on new team members.

You can use knowledge gleaned from observing your competitors to take advantage of their weaknesses. At the same time, you can improve your agency’s performance. Identify which of their strategies seem to be working and apply them, making adjustments to tailor-fit them to your needs and goals. This also positions you well for when the crisis is over, and your agency resumes normal operations.

Leverage Social Media Effectively and Creatively

Consumers are more active on social media than they used to be in pre-lockdown days. More people are at home and rely on social media channels to connect with their loved ones and get news and updates. Agencies that typically focus on other channels can leverage this uptick in social media usage to increase their clients’ reach, boost engagement, and ultimately improve conversion rate.

Doing so requires more than a little bit of creativity. Making memes, videos, contests, and the like a part of your clients’ social media campaigns allow their products or services to stand out. The key is to stay on-trend and keep content engaging and relevant.    

Deliver Added Value to Your Clients

COVID-19 has not only transformed the way that agencies do business with their clients but also the way their clients do business with their customers. Changing attitudes to what’s essential and what’s not can lead to decreased revenue for your clients and, in turn, reduced marketing spending.

One way to keep your clients is to find places where you can add more value, especially for those businesses and organizations that are at high risk of churning. Determine whether there are additional services you can pitch to your clients. For example, you may be skilled at data analytics or content creation. You can offer these services at reduced or zero cost. This allows your clients to obtain services all from one place while minimizing their expenses.

What if you and your team don’t have additional skills that you can turn into add-on services? It’s best to be proactive and identify the areas with which your clients need the most help. Learn and refine skills in these areas to provide more value to your clients even after the crisis is over. 

Assess Your Clients for Opportunities

As previously mentioned, the pandemic has affected different clients in different ways. For example, while clients in industries like tourism and hospitality are among the hardest hit, clients in the medical and personal care sectors are likely experiencing steady or increased volume.

When rebuilding your agency’s client portfolio, target businesses and organizations that are doing well. Even if they’re not usually the type of clients you take on, getting their business can keep your agency afloat.

E-commerce businesses are also faring well. For instance, if you typically handle local companies’ accounts, it may be worth your while to broaden your scope and pitch your services to online businesses.  

Don’t Forego Strategic Planning

This crisis is rapidly evolving—as societal changes and their effects trickle down to marketing, agencies should be well-poised to plan for and adapt to them. This may mean having to re-strategize your accounts.

One strategy is to incorporate COVID-19 messaging in the ad copy. Doing so shows consumers that businesses are aware of the situation and keeps them relevant. It also allows brands to communicate how they’re helping consumers during the crisis.

Some brands are further adjusting their marketing to show messages of support or information on how they’re helping communities during these trying times. As evidenced by a spike in Love reactions on ads posted on Facebook, this is a strategy that seems to be working as far as brand engagement is concerned.

A good relationship with your clients comes in useful here. You can more easily communicate with them why and how any changes need to be made, from minor updates to ad copy to a complete pivot from traditional to social media marketing campaigns.

Plan for You and Your Clients’ Post-Crisis Recovery

While it’s not known when the current crisis will end and its impact further down the line, agencies should plan ahead. This may involve defining best- and worst-case scenarios, listening for changes in consumer attitudes, and adapting marketing plans on an as-needed basis.

While you may not have the expenses that larger agencies have to contend with, it is still wise to cut costs where possible without sacrificing quality. Keep in mind that all agencies, no matter their size, are going through the same major upheaval to their operations, and the key to surviving lies in resilience and your ability to adapt. 

Making no adjustments and simply hoping to ride out the wave of change can result in your agency sinking. Staying afloat requires being open to change and prioritizing innovation to adapt to the new normal. Lastly, employing a COVID 19 Business Sanitization Services will help sanitize every corner of your office, eliminating the risk of catching the virus.

The post Staying Resilient in a Pandemic: Strategies for Digital Agencies appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.