Rollback a decade, when web technology was not so much advanced as it’s now, and then people used to shop at nearby fashion stores when they have to buy products pertaining to lifestyle. But the tragedy was they had to argue a lot for price if they want to buy something, or they didn’t find anything then they had to move on other store that was nothing like a Herculean task, but with the passage of time, as technology started to touch every aspect of life, marketplace couldn’t be untouched with that.

Now the scenario is, instead of going to the supermarket or any clothing store, people like to visit specific eCommerce websites to buy stuff that interests them a lot. The reason being, with responsive design and a good user interface, these sites are offering products at lucrative prices. In addition, you can buy products online regardless of time and place. As consumer’s demand and preferences are evolving with a pace, the eCommerce industry is too enriching itself with advanced tools to deliver a better experience with increased sales.

According to the latest numbers released by UNCTAD, global eCommerce sales grew 13% in 2017, hitting an estimated $29 trillion. A similar surge was seen in the number of online shoppers, which jumped 12% to 1.3 billion. While business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce continued to dominate – accounting for 88% of all online sales – B2C was the segment that saw the most growth, increasing 22% to reach $3.9 trillion in 2017.

In this latest write-up, we are going to explore some of the popular marketing trends that are being exploited by major eCommerce brands to cater to the needs of each demographic:

1) Optimizing Social Media Channels

Social Media is such a platform which lures a huge number of prospects quickly, whether we talk about Millennial or Generation Z. If you become active on social networks efficiently then unintentionally you can increase the chances of staying popular in the long run. As you know the target community spends their hours on social networks then it is easy to run your advertisement there.

2) Sponsored Content on YouTube

Wherever you tilt your head, you can find various guys and professionals who are becoming You Tuber. They make a short or long video on a specific niche, resulting in a large base of subscribers. As an eCommerce strategist, you can join hands with them and allow them to promote your service on their platform for a fee. For instance, if a You Tuber provides reviews on the latest smartphones, then he may suggest an audience to buy them on your online store at affordable rates.

3) Talk-bots for Customer Assistance

Artificial Intelligence is becoming an inseparable part of a digital marketing strategy when it comes to eCommerce marketing. As it is affordable in nature, business giants are employing them to accelerate their operations as a form of chat-bots. With the help of it, you can easily communicate with the customers for online products. In addition, you can satisfy personalized customer queries to attract more traffic on site.

4) Machine Learning to Detect Fraud

Long term relationship with customers is a key to business success and this happens when you build trust with them. Now with Machine Learning, you can keep an eye on the rate of data on your site, so when you detect something wrong, you become more agile to get alerted. As a result, you can control online transactions with stolen credit cards which customers trust you a lot.

5) User Engagement through Blogs

It has been observed that for a few years, content writing is trending as a vital aspect of eCommerce marketing. The person, who loves reading, especially goes for the Blog section of a website, if they want detailed information about the product of a specific brand. So if you are an online marketer and want to promote your business to the next level, then you can publish informative content about your service on specific weekdays and how it is beneficial for shoppers.

6) Applying Augmented Reality

If an online retailer utilizes AR Technology with a 3D view for its lifestyle product, then the customer can experience the product in a better way. For instance, if your store deals with the couch, then the customer can easily view the position of the couch and how it would look like in his home. They had to just point the camera at the place where the furniture will be positioned.

7) Responsive Websites

People like to shop online on their mobile devices rather than on a PC. Basically, it is a known fact that mobile transactions are picking up pace every year when it comes to the festive season. In this scenario, eCommerce marketers should pay more heed to make their shopping website responsive that could be optimized for both smartphones or personal computers, so that users could easily navigate the features with a simple interface on any platform.

8) Customized Payment Approach

Various innovative methods are influencing payment options as well. That can be successfully implemented by the eCommerce industry. For instance, with the digital payment, you can accept crypto-currencies for purchases. Similarly, you can allow music-oin for musicians as well as Kodak coin for photographers. All these make payment procedures for e-business simple.

9) Improved Voice Experiences

It has generally been seen that customers like to make purchases from Alexa and Google Home Device these days because it’s very simple to generate queries through voice, rather than typing. Now eCommerce brands can take advantage of this technology. Through voice search queries, you can optimize your product descriptions in a highly impressive manner as a voice device readout them.

10) Automated Marketing

In simple terms, you can understand marketing automation as automating email campaigns and scheduling social media posts. But on the surface, it covers a lot which may benefit an online retailer. With the usage of it, you would be able to send personalized emails to customers and retarget them for drawing them on your site again.

You must have learned more about how emerging marketing trends can be successfully implemented by the eCommerce industry to provide better customer experiences and improved relationships with the tech-savvy people virtually. Even then, to be unrivaled for the long run in the business, it’s not necessary every strategy will work for your online venture. As we discussed various fascinating ideas up there, you can opt one which could work for your Brand image and business strategy.

Written By
Faiz Akhtar
Faiz Akhtar
Faiz is the Technical Content Writer for our company. He interacts with multiple different development teams in Coding Brains and writes amazing articles about new technology segments company is working on. Every now and then he interviews our clients and prepares video & audio feedback and case studies.