In this post, we are going to share hand-picked trends, emerging and already working in eCommerce marketing, as well as tools for adopting them to keep your brand and products in front of the eyes of your customers in 2023.
Trend #1: Chat bots
According to BusinessInsider, the chatbots market will grow from $ 2.6 billion in 2019 to $ 9.4 billion by 2024. The popularity of this channel is due to its advantages in terms of UX.
Chatbots suit online brands to resolve the following tasks:
- Collect and update customer databases;
- Keep an additional channel of communication with the consumer handy;
- Serve as an alternative to call center operators for simple actions (for example, checking the in-stock availability, finding a model similar in price, asking about delivery options).
You can use this trend for those places where people spend the most time: social networks and instant messengers. Chatbots or instant messengers can be embedded in your own eCommerce application to optimize your customer journey map and increase conversions. As part of the BMW X6 advertising campaign, Carat and iProspect launched a Twitter chatbot for the first time. It ensured a high audience engagement rate – 1,78%.
Customization idea:
You can use chatbots and instant messengers by incorporating them into your online platform to amplify your online store performance.
Trend #2: PWA store
Despite the rapid growth of mobile traffic around the world, the mobile version of the site is significantly inferior in convenience to both the desktop and the mobile application. In order to offer an optimal user experience on mobile devices, there is a technology in web development called Progressive Web Application (PWA). It visually and functionally transforms the site into an application. This is a site that functions as a mobile application built into the browser. The main task of a PWA is to adapt and speed up the mobile version of the site, as well as enrich it with features available only for applications.
The combination of PWA and SPA (single-page app) provides the greatest efficiency, allowing you to improve your search engine results and increase website loading speed up to a fraction of a second, which significantly improves the user experience.
Trend #3: Dynamic personalization
Creating a personalized shopping experience is one of the most promising trends for retailers.
Dynamic personalization on the site allows you to create unique and relevant content for users, select personalized offers, and guide the consumer along the most convenient path to purchase.
Now it is impossible to imagine a successful online store, which would not have involved dynamic personalization.
For example, if you are a clothing retailer and a customer visited your site and searched for a red dress – had a look at different styles, spent some time on dresses, but eventually clicked off – you could then use the data you’ve gathered to enhance their further shopping experience.
To allow dynamic personalization on your eCommerce site, you will need to collect data about users. Use Google Analytics, segment data, apply an omni-channel approach to target the customer journey across channels and devices, use hit maps to reconstruct the website layouts and please the eyes of users, apply A/B testing to test marketing hypotheses.
Trend #4: Voice shopping
Voice search is one of the most anticipated trends in eCommerce, as it allows you to communicate much faster with the consumer and lead them to the desired results. According to Statista, voice-assisted purchases are expected to grow by 400% in 2023.
Voice shopping is a unique type of work with the target audience. It can reduce the load on call centers, facilitate the collection and updating of personal data, increase the average check by reminding them about related products, and increase user loyalty and engagement. For buyers, this is an opportunity to cover immediate search needs and save time on the relatively independent search on the Internet.
Such companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft are the leaders in voice shopping technology. Customers now expect the convenience and speed of asking Alexa to complete a purchase in every mobile shopping interaction. Retailers should rise to the occasion to meet these expectations.
Trend #5. Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) brings an absolutely new experience to online shopping. It helps visualize products and overcome the discomfort of choosing them. Google states that 66% of users would like to use AR to shop online.
For retailers and brands, augmented reality is a rather complicated and expensive development. It does not pay off in the short term.
In the long run, a brand wins that will create the most unique and user-friendly shopping experience. The unique user experience differentiates your eCommerce brand from competitors.
One of the pioneers in the use of AR is IKEA. Its Place application helps to see how furniture from the catalog looks in the interior.
There is a big market of companies who specialize in AR software development kits. Their list includes Vuforia, Wikitude, Layar, and others. The AR technology is a very promising source of income for apparel and furniture retailers with heavy mobile traffic.
Trend #6. Visual commerce
Visual commerce is all about using imagery for product pages. It can be also used for the entire store to entice users to engage and convert.
Big eCommerce players such as Bose and others are already applying visual commerce to influence visitors into purchasing. They have visually appealing images on their homepages accompanied by shortcuts to buy a product directly.
Customization idea:
- Replace your default product picture format from JPG to JPEG2000 or WebP to increase quality and speed up loading time.
- Create 360-degree images or videos for your bestsellers.
- Invest in a visual search tool or a filter by images to allow customers to search for products using images.
- Repurpose user-generated content on your product pages to generate interest.
- Create visual shopping ads on Pinterest to drive traffic to your website and increase sales.
Trend #7: Brand video
Right off the top, we are going to focus on video content.
The use of video content marketing strategy has helped countless businesses improve their conversion rate and it’s getting more and more popular as the years go by.
People respond well to it just because it is:
- more attention-grabbing
- engaging
- convenient
- and actually can convey a lot more information than text
And by information, what we really mean is emotion.
Video can get people motivated and excited to work with you and buy from you way more than any written words on your home page ever could.
With the growth of technology, it’s much easier to create video content now with all the devices, software, and apps that are readily available to you.
There are two techniques popular right now:
BRAND VIDEOS. Educational and narrative-driven. More appealing than basic text. They deliver tons of information in a short amount of time. People will associate your brand with the helpful how-to and entertaining behind the scene look, and they’ll remember you for it.
LIVE VIDEOS. They are blowing up right now. Because they can be interactive, you can invite the audience to participate and join in. And some take part in the conversation in live videos, which is excellent for relationship building. You can go live on your Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Linked-in, and this really connects you with your followers and potential customers in real-time.
You can create product demonstration videos, “how to use” videos, videos explaining your business, promotions, and also reach out to the influencers and see if you can get your product featured with them.
The good thing about videos is that you can repurpose them in different forms: audios for podcasts, a short trailer for Instagram accounts, articles for blogs. There are endless possibilities when it comes to video content, and what you can do with it, and it is going to grow even bigger as we are going into the ’20s.
And here is a great way to incorporate your videos on your CS-Cart store website – the YouTube Video Gallery add-on.
The add-on allows adding videos to the product pages and searching for products with video in your store.
How-to videos on the product page
The Video Gallery block can be placed on any page of your website.
Trend #8: Facebook Messenger Marketing
If you think about it, Facebook Messenger marketing opportunities are endless. It hasn’t fully grown yet. It will completely reshape the way customers shop, book tickets and appointments, make payments, and connect with you as a business. Stats show that Facebook Messenger has 1.3 billion monthly active users. You read it right; it is billion with the B. And since it makes sense going where people already are, it is a really good reason to leverage this as a marketing strategy. Here is what Facebook Messenger Marketing can do for your business:
- Book appointments much easier with smart Facebook Messenger bots
- Generate leads using chatbots
- Get feedback and ratings within conversations
- Deliver content
Facebook Marketing: You want to go where people already are.
Here are some benefits it can bring to your business:
- It can grow your sales – because it is easier, user-friendly, personalized and people are more likely to chat with you over messenger at buying stages rather than over the phone or email
- You can build trust – because it is one of a kind connection with your customer
- You can automate your business activity through chatbots. This will eliminate the burden on your employees answering the same question over and over again.
- It also automates your lead generation process
Trend #9: Audio advertising
We know it’s been around for the last 50 years in the form of radio ads. And while the radio is slowly dying, podcast streaming is definitely on the rise big time.
Streaming services, especially podcasts, have been proven to establish a much more intimate and authentic connection with the audience compared to just about any kind of media.
Podcasts are so popular because they can stay with people all day long, reaching them in moments where visual media can’t, like, when you are running, driving, working out.
Advertising through podcasts can be an amazing way to reach people based on their interests. And if you can get the host who they already trust to talk about your business, the trust they have on your host is going to be transferred onto you.
Streaming service Spotify has recently launched a self-service, advertising platform called Spotify Ads Studio, which makes it really easy for entrepreneurs like you to create Spotify audio ad campaigns yourself.
Spotify focuses on small to medium-size businesses that are looking to expand the exposure of their brand and drive action. You can just give them a script, and Spotify will put a voice over and music with it, and you can also put a clickable custom image that’s displayed right on the stream while your ad plays.
Voice track: more intimate and authentic way to connect with your audience.
And also you can use Spotify to target audiences based on gender, age, and listening preferences (podcast categories they prefer).
It is expected that audio content and voice-enabled devices are going to become more unique and personalized, and we also expect podcasts to continue to grow even more mainstream.
CS-Cart has all the necessary default functionality for you to create and manage your own blog. However, if you do decide on producing podcasts and attaching them to your blog posts, you can order our customization service. Our team will develop a blog extension for audio play in a format most suitable to your business needs and customer preferences.
Trend #10: Interactive content
Your prospects can do much more than just consume your static content. They can interact with it, whether it’s:
- taking a poll
- answering a quiz
- or participating in a challenge of some kind.
This can personalize their experience and prompt them to respond and react while educating and entertaining them on your topic. This gives your business more engagement, which means more views, and that leads to more brand awareness, which eventually translates into more customers.
INSTAGRAM STORY ADS, for example, have a ton of opportunities for being interactive, like pulling stickers and sliders that let people express how they are feeling about something.
Add interaction to your ad and let people express what they feel.
Interactive story ad on Instagram
This doesn’t only help your ads to stand out, but it also can generate more impact on your campaigns by encouraging people to watch further.
Push your new Instagram content straight to your store website with the Instagram Feed Widget add-on. The add-on embeds your Instagram feed on your storefront. Bringing social activity to your business will skyrocket your sales.
Another place where you can add interactivity is your EMAIL LISTS BUILDING. In fact, you need to put a priority on building email lists. It is still number one the best way to build your business even in 2020.
Changing the regular format of your newsletter and adding a quiz or a multi-day challenge to it will take customer engagement up to a whole new level. People are generally enthusiastic about challenge campaigns because they promise to take them from where they are today to a whole new and improved version of themselves over the course of between five to ten days.
Tommy’s Superfoods: Interactive email campaign
The MailChimp Advanced add-on synchronizes email lists generated in your CS-Cart store with Mailchimp online service. Use the add-on functionality to split your email marketing campaign and target your customers with more personalized content.
Wrap up
We really can’t deny that CONTENT IS still KING when it comes to creating effective marketing campaigns. Stay original, creative, and above all else, authentic if you want your brand to be seen as up-to-date and fresh.
Stick to the trends we have covered today to supercharge your customer growth in 2023, so you can make more money and build the business you love to show up for every single day.