7 Ecommerce Trends For 2017

Like previous years, 2017 is expected to unfold new eCommerce trends which businesses such as yours can benefit from.

In less than a month, we bid farewell to the year which ushered in an upsurge of mobile shopping, social media campaigns and cloud-based inventory management, among others.

However beneficial new trends are to one's business, expect a lot of the old ones to continue into the new year.

Here's a list of tried and tested eCommerce trends which will continue to increase your profits and improve your customers' user experience.

#1 Social Media Buy Buttons

Sure, you use Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social media sites to promote your products.

But have these sites helped increase your conversion rate?

If you answered "not quite", then you're probably missing a vital feature on your social media pages.

Customers prefer spoon-feeding to thinking.

They won't waste their time trying to figure out what you're selling or how to buy it.

Make all necessary information obvious to them so that all they have to do is tap on their screen or click their mouse.

For example, instead of just connecting your online store to your Facebook page, set up a buy button in the latter.

That way, they can buy an item which they like straightaway without having to go to your store.

#2 Product Videos

If you failed to take advantage of video marketing this year, list it as among your key strategies for 2017.

People are easily drawn to product demonstration videos, as watching them is the closest thing possible to touching a product.

You'll find a wide range of paid and free recording software on the Web, such as Camtasia, Jing and EZVid to name a few.

Check them out and see which one works for your site.

#3 Mobile Marketing

Mobile commerce or M-commerce will continue its upward trend.

Survey finds over 70% of consumers will shop on a website whose product and checkout pages are easy to navigate on any handheld device.

That explains why your eCommerce site should have a responsive design which works on mobile devices as well as desktop computers.

#4 Mobile Payment

Since a large percentage of online sales are expected to be made through mobile devices, chances are we'll be seeing more walletless payment schemes.

Apart from smartphones, a lot of online retailers will be receiving contactless payment through various devices that use Radio Frequency Identification or RFID technology.

#5 Cloud-based Inventory Management

Keeping count of the items in your inventory to ensure they don't run out of stock is one of the things that you should be doing on a daily basis.

If you're not yet into cloud-based inventory management, you should start looking at it for efficient tracking and updating of your inventory.

#6 Same Day Delivery

Amazon and eBay will continue to have same-day delivery in their shipping options, so it's only logical to echo them.

If you've been running your online store for more than a year, you should know by now that the customer is always king; the worst thing you can do to a king is make him wait.

So satisfy him with great service and you'll be rewarded with not only higher sales, but more loyal customers.

Remember that customers are so good at that cost-free marketing tactic called word of mouth.

#7 Fitting Data Software

Hopefully, more retailers in the footwear and apparel industry will utilise fitting apps or software to reduce their product returns.

The number one reason why customers return stuff which they purchased from your store is wrong size.

With tools like True Fit, you can provide customers information on their actual size based on the current style and size of their footwear or clothes.

There goes our list of trends to rule the eCommerce world in 2017.

Which of these have you already tried or been doing, perhaps?

Online sellers don't be left behind. Multichannel marketing is the quickest route to reach your customers. UnderstandingE offers tutorials on Magento, M2E Pro, Magmi and other eCommerce tools that allow you to sell and earn more on Amazon, eBay and other 
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