I'm back! Not empty-handed, but with 5 more e-Commerce trends in 2018 that you just can't afford ignoring and not capitalizing on.
Shall we proceed?
6. Encourage User-Generated Content Submission
Especially if you're targeting millennials (too).
Incentivize them to submit their own content to your social media account!
Not only will this strengthen their relationship with you - the online retailer showcasing and thus valuing their own unique content - but it also makes one of the most influential types of online marketing these days.
In short: entertaining, authentic-user-generated content attracts new potential customers. And this is what makes it stand out as one of the most powerful e-commerce trends in 2018!
How do you “tempt” your users to post their content? Get creative and come up with some hard-to-resist-to rewarding solutions for their effort.
7. Tell YOUR Story: Turn Shopping into a ... Unique Experience
Great stories will continue to set brands apart, to engage users, to make them identify themselves with specific brand identities, to create customer communities ...
In other words: great brand stories will continue to sell!
So, what's yours?
If you haven't put it into words and visual elements yet, you'd better start to:
- craft unique, authentic content — chapters of your brand's unique story — for your audience; content covering a range of relevant topics
- “tell” your story across all levels of your e-commerce business: from writing it down on the packaging itself, to telling it on your social media, to using it for turning a common process, such as an order confirmation, into an... experience
Since it all comes down to precisely this goal: using storytelling as a resource to tap into for turning shopping into a full... experience.
8. Chatbots: One of the e-commerce trends in 2018 Expected to “Explode”
Even if you ignore all the previous 7 trends in the e-commerce industry expected to get huge in 2018, you can't afford to ignore this one.
… to ignore and to “refuse to unlock its great potential.
Chatbots & messenger apps will make an invincible team among all other trends this year. So... you'd better jump right on it!
It's quite predictable if you come to think about it:
- implementing a chatbot with your e-commerce website will offer your customers instant support 24/7
- it suits you, the e-commerce retailer, as well: you'll get to use your messenger app-integrated chatbot to send your customers personalized content, special offers, custom-tailored shopping incentives
In short: if you're still looking for an impossible-to-argue-with reason why you should get on the chatbots bandwagon, how about statistics?
Over 1.2 billion people access Facebook's messanger on a mothly basis.
It's up to you now: will you be turning statistics into... gold and opt for a chatbot operating via a messenger app? Or stick to your current means for assisting and interacting with your customers instead?
9. The Rise of Voice Shopping: Aim for User Convenience at Its Best
Since convenience is the very reason why voice searches are expected to skyrocket in 2018!
What more convenient way for users to order their food or look for a nearby resto then by... asking a question? Or just uttering a request?
Now if you want to “get a piece of the pie” yourself, too — to capitalize on this rising trend — then you'd better:
- make sure your Google My Business listings are optimized; your local pages should have unique URLs (and needless to add that they should be indexed if you want your business to EVER show in the search results)
- strategically adapt your content to searchers' queries and to the possible terms they would use for formulating their questions (empathy's your best ally here: what words would a searcher use in his/her query?)
- adopt a conversational/long tail type of approach
10. Video Content
Say Hello to your “old” friend: video content!
Although it never gets old. For it continues to be one of the most effective e-commerce trends in 2018, too.
Moreover, since the technology itself advances, with new apps and platforms emerging:
- it will be easier than ever for your customers to create video content (speaking of user-generated content's “hegemony”, right?) to be posted on your social media (take Slidely, for instance)
- it will be easier than ever for you, too, to identify precisely the moment(s) when your e-commerce site/app's users stopped watching one of your videos or, on the contrary, the parts of your videos that they did watch
Video content is, after all, the closest you can get to a face to face interaction with your (potential) customers, right?
Tip: particularly live video is getting huge this year. It's affordable and it's highly engaging, 2 heavy-weighing factors that quickly turn any “experiment” into a powerful trend in the e-commerce industry!
And it looks like I've reached the bottom of my 10 e-commerce commandments list!
Can't hide that I'm curious now: which one of these e-commerce trends is more appealing to you? Which one of them would you invest in trust? Trust that it's going to get highly influential this year, so you're getting ready to jump right on it and... tap into its potential?
And which trend(s) from my list do you think that I shouldn't have even included? It might be a trend that you predict to be fading away this year. Or maybe one that you don't consider powerful enough to grow into an influential trend in the e-commerce industry. A penny for your thoughts!
