4 E-commerce Trends That Will Help Your E-commerce Brand Profit In 2015, And Beyond!

While the growth of e-Commerce has been phenomenal, anyone who dabbles into e-commerce will tell you that it is a hard nut to crack. In order to better serve our website visitors, we at iSpyPrice track the e-commerce trends constantly which has resulted in us having a lot of acquired intelligence on e-commerce market trends. In this post we share with you, the business owners, 4 e-commerce trends that are sure to help you make profits in the realm of e-commerce.

Ensure that your mobile strategy is as good as your PC strategy

It is no secret that smartphones now play a major role in consumer awareness and connectivity. Consumers know where to find their products, how to score a good deal, and how to get their products at the best prices. In fact, IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark reported that mobile now drives half the e-commerce traffic. However, PC still accounts for about 3/4th of the total e-commerce sales. But that doesn’t mean this number cannot change in the near future. In fact it is a safe bet to assume that the industry is experiencing a certain shift towards m-commerce, albeit at an average pace.

So if you haven’t started working on the mobile aspect of your e-commerce business, now is a good time to start.

Provide an always on shopping experience because customers shop what they want, when they want, and where they want

Technology has enabled customers to customize their shopping experience by shopping from wherever they want and whenever they want. There really isn’t a time of the day that customers don’t shop now. This presents a great opportunity for your e-commerce brand. If you can provide your customers with an always-on shopping experience, your sales are likely to see an upsurge.

Also, data we gathered from multiple sources suggests that during weekdays customers mostly indulge in online shopping in the 12-2 pm range. Most likely because this is the lunch time at most companies. Data suggests that among the most popular times for online shopping during weekends are Sunday evenings.

Don’t miss out on the new mega sales channel – Social

Over the last few years social lead generation has turned into the single most important lead generation channel for e-commerce brands. Social allows customers to interact and provide inputs to each other on a product’s quality and other buyer parameters. This peer-influenced buying decision is something all e-commerce brands ought to respect and look to form a strategy around. In terms of analysing consumer behavior on social platforms, using analytics is a good way to gauge where your brand stands.

It’s important to understand that social is not just a platform for promotion, it’s without doubt a platform that provides insight into what influences a consumer’s buying behavior. In fact social gives e-commerce brands the opportunity to track each individual user’s buying behavior and even how much some buyers spend on shopping during different times of the year. It’s a goldmine worth digging.

 Dedicate half your resource and energy on customer service

As the lines between brick-and-mortar and online shopping experience continue to blur, it is important that e-commerce brands shift their focus on providing impeccable customer service. Customer service is the only vertical where your customers get to interact with your brand. You cannot afford to provide bad customer service in an online business these days because it may result in your customer feeling isolated and frustrated, which in turn may result in public shaming of your brand, and customers are sure talk about your brand to their friends. This is where social plays a crucial role again.

Read more on how to be a customer service ninja from a brand’s perspective

Based on our research of e-commerce trust factor between a consumer and a brand, if you dedicate half your resources to customer service oriented tasks, a rise in consumer trust is very likely. There is nothing to suggest that brands should shy away from offering a great customer service experience to grieving customers.

If you weren’t implementing one or all of these trends in all seriousness already, we hope your focus shifts to these 4 e-commerce trends because these are sure to bring you more profits in 2015, and beyond.