Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

We all know that 2015 has scared everyone, and there are a lot of new eCommerce trends that are emerging in the market. We can say that it is a fun time to be in the eCommerce industry for all the businesses, who are thinking about turning their brick-and-mortar store into an online store.

If you have decided to enter in the eCommerce market, there are numerous trends that you have to adopt to give tough competition to your competitors.

Let’s have a look at 2015’s top eCommerce trends that you should check-out and adopts to give sturdy competition to your competitors....

Ebay enterprise with CFI Group conducted a survey on over 500 shoppers to understand who is shopping online, how they are using the Internet and what matters most to maintain their loyalty.

“We all know that shoppers are using the Internet to research and purchase products these days, but as retailers are trying to catch up to the new fast-paced landscape of real-time omnichannel shopping, it is important to understand the online methods consumers are using and for what purpose,” said the report.

The study found that customers  are using multiple channels when shopping. When asked how often the shopping is done using both the store’s website and physical locations, 96% said the utilized both channels, and 49% use both channels frequently. Moreover, 32% are now using mobile devices to shop, which is said to grow in future. This shows that, to boost their sales, retailers need to be aware of synchronized communication across all channels...

A few years ago, two marketing professors conducted a study involving jams. It’s since become a landmark. The researchers set up a tasting booth in a supermarket and offered jams to customers. On one Saturday, they offered 24 flavors. On the next Saturday, they offered 6 flavors.

What happened? The results are nuanced, so pay attention.

When 24 jams were available, 60% of the customers stopped for a taste. When 6 jams were available, 40% of the customers stopped for a taste. So it’s better to offer more options, right?

Not really. Of the 60% who tasted one of 24 jams, 3% made a purchase; of the 40% who tasted one of 6 jams, 30% made a purchase. Here’s the key takeaway: 31 people purchased jams when they had 6 options, and 4 people purchased jams when they had 24 options. That’s nearly an 8X difference.

In other words, when you offer more products for sale, more people will visit your store, but fewer people will make a purchase. And as great as it is to get lots of visitors, your sales are what matters.The researchers suggest that when there are too many options, customers get into a state of “choice overload,” or “analysis paralysis.” Sometimes when choices are too great, people choose nothing at all....

Mobile, social, and the cacophony of modern interruption marketing has transformed the retail path to purchase, and forced retail marketers to focus on building lasting relationships that benefit customers.

...“Now, because of smartphones and tablets, marketers need to fundamentally rethink things. Shopping is becoming an iterative rather than a serial process. Consumers no longer go shopping, they always are shopping.”

Among the less frequently discussed casualties of modern marketing is the path to purchase.The path to purchase is not a sidewalk leading from the shopper’s front door to a store; it is a cycle repeated over and over, and it requires marketers to take a different tack....

Gone are the days when a mobile strategy was far down on the priority list—a “nice-to-have” bonus for retailers. With a mobile audience of 874 million potential customers, leaders in the ecommerce space are making serious investments to maximize the new opportunities created by the technology we carry with us everywhere we go. In fact, 53% of retail marketers position mobile as their number one strategic priority, according to a Shop.org report.

eMarketer recently interviewed top marketing executives from Williams-Sonoma, Sephora, Gilt.com, and Macy’s to dig into the trends, challenges, and opportunities they’re seeing in the increasingly digital world of retail. Mobile is still a rapidly evolving channel, but here are four key takeaways on what these top retail executives had to say about the exciting digital possibilities that lie ahead....

How much is your customer worth?

One approach would be to re-focus acquisition strategy based on the Customer Lifetime Value or CLV. According to the 2015 RJ Metrics Benchmark report, a new e-commerce customer is worth, on average, $154 in their first year. This number varies by type of retail. For instance, the categories of housewares, food and drugs tend to be above this average.

What is more interesting is that only 32 percent of these new customers are likely to make a second purchase in their first year. The report also reveals that the top 1 percent of customers are worth 18 times more than the average customer, which equals about $2,772.

Armed with this information, an e-tailer can easily calculate ROI on programs targeting new customers vs. programs targeting your biggest fans—the top 5 percent....

There’s a tsunami of change coming toward the retail business environment and interaction with the customer that may turn today’s approaches and strategies in completely new directions, impacting everything from store design to communication with consumers.

It’s termed “living services,” and according to a new Accenture report it will let retailers deploy less intrusive customer experiences while boosting customer engagement and fostering stronger and faster sales.

The report provides information on how some brands are already putting ‘living services’ to work within the retail spectrum. One is example cited is how fashion retailer Nordstrom is determining store merchandising now on a weekly basis through tracking and gauging consumer product interest using the social network tool Pinterest.

“Living services will allow retailers to move away from the industry’s standard scenario of bombarding shoppers with offers on arrival at a location. By working with Pinterest Nordstrom is also providing staff with an iPad app to make it easy to show customers trending products and merchandise live,” stated the report.

The technology enabling “living services” is now mature enough for brands to create and deliver them at scale, the report said....

One of the bigger implications of our new mobile world is the hurt it is putting on the retail supply chain.

There used to be a day when the only way a consumer could get a product from a specific brand was to find it in a store. That isn’t true anymore. With so many brands now reaching the consumer directly and the expectations of the consumer reaching orbital requirements, what will happen to the legacy supply chains still being used by most retailers today?

RSR released a report on the impact that mobile is having on the supply chain and, in case you didn’t know, it has been disruptive and destructive. More change in retail = more opportunity for differentiation....

Smartphone savings programs, in-store Wi-Fi, and better customer service are some of the ways offline retailers are leveraging their advantages.

E-commerce businesses have upended the retail industry and put bricks-and-mortar companies on the defensive.

But now, many offline retailers are moving to capitalize on their offline advantages. Retailers are actively harnessing a trend that's actually far more popular than online buying, and always has been — 'reverse showrooming' — when people research products online and then ultimately buy in-store....

PNo industry has been more transfigured in the past year than retail. Stores now behave like websites, tracking customers as they browse. American malls have pretty much died (but maybe on their way back to life). And in some parts of the country you can have your milk and eggs home-delivered along with your new iPod on the same day. Those who lead the field strike the right balance between physical and digital, experience and affordability, convenience and quality....