Featured article by Tom Buckland, Founder of Amazon SEO Consultant & HQ SEO
Ecommerce has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with reported global ecommerce revenues of $2.8 trillion in 2018, a little more than the GDP of the UK in the same year. What’s more, this growth is projected to not just continue, but accelerate, with estimates that the global ecommerce market will reach $3.5 trillion by the end of the year. There is no denying that this sector is highly influential internationally, and has important implications for many businesses, not just those who are directly involved in ecommerce.
Here’s a look at the top ecommerce trends we can expect to see in 2019.
New and Innovative Marketing Techniques
Marketing ecommerce businesses has long been a complex process. As the ecommerce sector grows and more sellers enter the market, this will make for a more competitive landscape. Accordingly, we will see ecommerce sellers look for new and innovative ways to market their products and stand out from the competition.
There has already been a recent shift towards sellers marketing their products outside of their platform as opposed to simply employing in-platform advertising methods, such as Amazon Ads, for example. Ecommerce businesses are establishing a greater social media presence to promote their products, as well as using content marketing techniques. In the case of ecommerce sites, they are also employing link building strategies to drive more traffic to their site over other ecommerce platforms.
The Burden of Data
2018 saw Governments around the world introduce tighter restrictions on how data can be stored, accessed and used. The European Union introduced its GDPR laws to protect consumers’ privacy in regards to their data, and in the US, the California Consumer Privacy Act introduced similar protections. More generally, governments and consumers alike are becoming more aware, and not to mention concerned, about how their data is used by businesses.
On the other hand, the flow of data is not letting up. In the ecommerce sector, businesses process huge amounts of data every day, and these volumes are increasing. Many businesses in the sector are using the data to track buying habits, run A/B tests, discover competitive advantage, among other uses.
However the data-savvy context of 2019 means that ecommerce businesses and sellers will have to be very careful on how they manage consumer data. For example, any business operating in the EU, or specifically marketing to European consumers are legally required to comply with the tough GDPR laws.
The Influence of AI
AI, or artificial intelligence, like ecommerce, rose to prominence in 2018, and is now an important part of technologies used across almost every sector. AI is already present in ecommerce: you can see it in the AI live chatbots which are now being used in stores. Slightly less obvious but equally prevalent are the AI-driven analytics and inventory management tools for ecommerce.
In 2019, get set for AI to become more widely used throughout the ecommerce sector. We can expect more stores and platforms to start using chatbots for customer service and conversion aids. We will also see more ecommerce and Amazon seller tools developed thanks to the technology of AI that will aid sellers with their operations and to grow their businesses.
AR Will Also Have Strong Impacts
With so much hype around AI recently, it can be easy to overlook another important emerging technology, AR (augmented reality). We have already seen some brands take advantage of AR to promote their products, such as beauty products which let consumers test out new hair colours or make up through the power of AR.
This represents fantastic opportunities for ecommerce businesses. One of the biggest barriers to buying products online has always been that customers are not able to try the products out, as they would in a physical store. However AR technology can give consumers the ability to “try before they buy”, improving ecommerce conversion rates and sales. This has implications for many kinds of products: not just cosmetics, but also clothing, furniture, household goods… the applications are almost limitless.
In the context of technological innovation, shifting customer expectations and rapidly expanding competition, the ecommerce sector is finding it needs to adapt. Many of these changes have already started and we can expect change to only accelerate throughout 2019.
About the Author
Tom Buckland is the founder of Amazon SEO Consultant & HQ SEO – An organic marketing agency helping businesses grow through the Amazon channel.
