Marty (@ScentTrail) Note
As a former Director of Ecommerce I know what trends will be a "must respond" while others are "nice to haves" if time allows. Here is my rating for the 5 Ecommerce Trends outlined by FourthSource:
Wearable Tech - Nice To Have
Sure I would blog about wearable tech and I would make sure whatever I was doing had a large PHONE and PAD component, but turning the battle ship to face the wind on "wearable tech" feels way to premature. Give it a year to let the gems emerge and then MAYBE wearable tech becomes a "must have".
Automation - Must Have
Yeah automation of front and back end processes is critical to ecommerce health. The "ship the same day" banner being thrown down by ebay and Amazon means some merchants may need to look HARD at their 80/20 rule (80% of most websites volume comes from 20% of their products) and create faster delivery options for the 20% especially to their VIPs.
The other "automation" trend I see in 2014 but not mentioned here is front end dyanmic presentation based on predictive modeling. We can't keep batching and blasting the same content to every one. Use of personas and segments combined with dynamic zones, zones you fill based on what you know about the visitor either from their "new" or "returning' status, a cookie you previously planted or their behavior. Websites must act more like email with relevant information getting to the right group faster.
Tablets and Mobile - Must Have
The discussion of tablets and mobile misses the mark a tad for me. Biggest issue is how we ARCHITECT information now. Content needs to become a series of highly visual "rich snippets" held together by a flexible map of tags, interconnection, glue and chewing gum (lol). Mobile is a revolution not a thing, so think Mobile First in 2014.
Oliver Jäger's rap at the end is essential:
"In a day and age where information and connectivity have become an indispensable part of a modern lifestyle, it’s not just bricks-and-mortar retailers that need a new strategy. Online retailers are increasingly also having to adapt to the new multichannel, information-rich reality.
What this means is that in 2014 we’ll continue to see more and more retailers moving into the content space. Modern consumers are much more demanding and sophisticated, expecting their shopping experience to be a holistic and comprehensive one. "
Right on Oliver!
