The revenue of online retailers will blow the hat off anyone who studies this issue in detail. The e-commerce market is estimated at $6.3 trillion worldwide today, while just a year ago it was equal to $5.5 trillion. Retailers are moving online every year, just as consumers are shopping online more often. This growth is accompanied by constant developments, so if you work in the e-commerce industry, you have to keep up with these changes. Start preparing for the coming year now and find out which e-commerce trends you should follow to be successful in 2024.
Looking at the success of online entrepreneurs today, it’s easy to give in to the desire to join the ranks of the e-commerce market. If you’ve started looking into how to start an ecommerce business, there are secondary factors you should also consider.
Startups are very fragile cells that can’t get stronger without first researching your environment. Therefore, the first question you’ll want to ask yourself is “What trends should I be looking at to uncover great opportunities for my business?”. There are many areas you should have looked at, such as demographics in your country, cultural diversity, global banking, cybersecurity, and more. However, all of these factors can be summarized into four main types of trends whose changes you need to bear in mind to be successful.
So, what are four common types of changes and trends that can offer business opportunities? Let’s break it down below.
The state of the economy within your country gives you an understanding of your opportunities. It doesn’t mean that if the economy has suffered and weakened you have no chance of building your business, it just gives you a clear idea of where you can push to succeed. For example, a weak economy means that people are saving and choosing to spend less, they are not traveling abroad because it is too expensive, and people are having a hard time with jobs. The average person looking at this would say: well, it’s unfortunate! While the savvy entrepreneur realizes that it doesn’t make sense for him to start his clothing brand. He can do reselling instead or concentrate on the business sustainability level, he should put more emphasis on local tourism, or open courses teaching trendy professions. With a strong economy, the situation becomes a little clearer, people are not afraid to invest in their homes, their education, and their families, but also pay attention to social and environmental issues, people value quality and personalization, and therefore developing their awareness and brand becomes the #1 goal. In addition to the big picture, you should also delve into an industry analysis of your business, your competitors, your suppliers, your industry outlook, etc.
Technology drives us forward; if entrepreneurs don’t keep an eye on it, they start grazing the rear. The rapid development of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 3d printing are among the few technological advances that can be listed today. It is hard to overestimate their impact on our lives because few people will buy disks with movies or games when there are special platforms where you can buy anything you want without leaving home. By tracking tech development, you can meet the modern needs of customers and improve their quality of life. Chatbots on e-commerce sites will help customers quickly decide on a purchase if the working day of an online consultant has already been completed. 3D printing can be a key factor in the production of unique products for your business, for example, crafted toys, cooking utensils, fine home decorations, ad so on.
Social trends are another key factor that can open more doors for your business. This data can help update the profile of your average customer & always be on time with your offers. They allow you to track changes in user behavior and identify their key desires. For example, conscious aging welcomes health apps, brain and logic training programs, furniture and bathroom fixtures for seniors, grooming products for the elderly, and more.
New laws or new restrictions help businesses understand how to adapt and promote their services. Knowing how to apply legislative innovations to your business can help you achieve a variety of rewards, support, and even savings in certain areas of your business. Today’s regulatory environment is very concerned about the cybersecurity of businesses, apps, websites, etc. Therefore, this is a great opportunity for IT companies to showcase their products with enhanced security.
Business trends are new patterns in your industry or the market that directly affect the business environment. Trends mean fresh ways for businesses to achieve their goals, increase profits and the number of customers, stand out from the competition, etc. These changes may bring new types of products that will be able to improve the quality of people’s lives, new ways of conducting production, communication, and other processes that will influence the efficiency of your business, new ways of financing, etc. As a rule, a new trend starts to gain momentum after one of the entrepreneurs decides to innovate. If this strategy is successful, it becomes a trend.
Even though you have managed to build a strong and stable eCommerce business, you can’t stand still. New trends and tendencies will keep you moving. By closely monitoring them, you will be able to better plan future actions, apply your strategies, and even introduce innovations that can help you improve your performance metrics.
The most progressive field today is technology. Technological innovations influence changes in society, and in particular in business. They empower significant improvements in communication and data analysis and directly affect or rather form business trends. Let’s highlight the most significant advances in technology that continue to influence business trends:
These are software programs that perform the functions of communicating with people in an online environment through correspondence, and voice messages. Their main goal is to satisfy customers’ desire for accessibility, increase the productivity of organizations, automate most of the manual processes, and effectively manage employees’ time. In e-commerce, such assistants are in the form of chatbots and voice assistants that can answer most of the customer’s questions without the intervention of a real counselor.
Artificial intelligence is embedded in most of the tools for analyzing data and beyond. Therefore, AI is already capable of making life much easier for online business owners today. It collects and analyzes data, provides reporting, tracks actions within the system, and can learn and adapt depending on your request.
Virtual reality allows us to merge the computer-moderated world with our reality, and it becomes just an indispensable tool for e-commerce. For shoppers, especially shopping online, it is very important to provide quality visuals of the thing they are choosing. Being able to “try on” this or that thing without leaving the house directly affects the speed of making a purchase decision, besides, it’s a great gamification move. People have fun while shopping, thus increasing their level of satisfaction.
3D printing has made a huge impact on the world of manufacturing. You can use it to create any complex three-dimensional object using 3D modeling specifications. Its use has responded to the owners of manufacturing activities reducing the costs of prototyping and direct production, as well as reducing the time to fulfill orders. Also, this technology has been a breakthrough in the health industry, enabling the production of artificial organs and body parts for patients.
Quality products and services are not enough to successfully promote your business. They should be supported with multiple positive experiences around your offering. And in order to understand how to craft them properly it’s important to start following the new trends of 2024. Whether it is to understand how to build ecommerce website more efficiently or to improve user experience, attract more traffic, increase revenue, and optimize your business processes.
Having an online presence is essential for modern businesses. Until relatively recently, having a branded website was enough for your business to thrive, however, desktop computers are being replaced by cell phones and online sites are having to share their pedestal with mobile apps and social networks. And if you can capitalize on that, why not? The more you expand and unify your online presence the better, thus multichannel commerce becomes one of the key success factors for 2024. In addition to your website, start developing your social media page, not just on one platform, but also on third-party marketplaces.
Today’s consumers are partial to their environment. They want to see that commercial companies are in the same boat as them. That’s why you should show your concern for the world as much as possible. Emphasize the fact that you are ethical in your products as much as possible in your social media posts and under product descriptions. Use shoppers instead of plastic bags for deliveries, and don’t forget to participate in charity programs. It is more pleasant for users to make a purchase from you with the idea that by doing so they are helping someone. Business. Businesses that respond to large-scale events in the world will also be a priority in 2024.
Today’s customer is more demanding than ever, and hence expect personalization at every stage of their shopping experience. E-commerce entrepreneurs are aware of how important it is to collect and analyze data about the customers who come to their page. Artificial intelligence tools enable you to set up more personalized offers for your clients. Guiding users to products they might like based on their recent views, sending personalized push notifications, and other features ecommerce businesses do for more individual experience is a working strategy that will continue in the upcoming year.
Apart from this, the customer experience itself should also be taken to the next level. All because customer interactions are perceived by the customer as the brand itself, and hence service has immense power. Ecommerce owners need to start being more creative, and empathetic, and be able to find the solution to their customers’ concerns at once.
In 2023, according to Euromonitor International Top 10 Global Consumer Trends 2023 report, about 60% of all online purchases are made via cell phone. Smartphones, unlike desktops, are portable and feature-rich, allowing people to take them everywhere and shop whenever they want. Ecommerce owners should realize that making your website more mobile-friendly is a must in 2024. Incorporating the following features into your website can make it more preferable in the eyes of users:
The major disadvantage of online shopping is that you can’t fully review the product. Making short videos showing your offers using local trends and sounds is becoming especially trendy. If you’re lucky, the video will go viral, racking up millions of views, and become widely known. However, posting videos will bring you a lot of rewards without even going into recommendations. Even with a small audience reach, you will give the customer a chance to get to know your brand and your products better.
In addition, in 2024, there is a high probability that live selling will become a trend. Amazon has already launched a livestreaming platform where people can familiarize themselves with certain products and others can place an order. Incidentally, this movement is also growing rapidly on TikTok.
Most shoppers research information online before making a purchase, yet at least half of them end up purchasing in-store. Research Online Buy Offline, or ROPO, is hardly a new practice. In 2024, the tool is expected to be refined to such a point that online merchants will track a clear trend of how their online ads led shoppers to buy that item offline. ROPO combines and analyzes a wealth of information, including social media data, geolocation, in-store inventory, mobile payments, and more, to learn what path shoppers took to purchase in a physical store.
E-commerce entrepreneurs need to keep their finger on the pulse regarding world events and new trends, as they directly affect their business. Find out what e-commerce trends 2024 has in store for you and start adapting your business to the new environment today.
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