Three Key eCommerce Trends for 2017

Featured article by Andre Smith, Internet Marketing and E-Commerce specialist

As the maturation process continues for ecommerce, the business is becoming more and more streamlined. Where in brick and mortar it’s all about location, location, location; chief among the three key ecommerce trends for 2017 are logistics, logistics, and logistics. Wherever possible, leading online sellers are doing everything possible to make shipping options as convenient as possible for their customers.

In an interview with eCommerce News, Marcus Fredicsson of Mekster.se said; “Today, more customers disqualify online retailers who send goods directly from suppliers. This is particularly true in cases when the goods come from different suppliers because they’re forced to spend far too much time waiting to collect their goods in different batches.”

Ultimately, this makes drop shipping a less attractive option. Wherever possible, it’s better to aggregate your shipping for customers making multiple purchases. With drop shipping they have to pay increased shipping costs and they have to wait for different pieces of a multi-product purchase to come from different places. This can be a real turn off. Because you only get one chance to make a good first impression, this inconvenience can equal lost future business.

Another trend for 2017 is the continued growth of mobile. Over the past five years, mobile has developed to encompass nearly half of all web traffic and is steadily gaining ground on desktop computing. When it comes to ecommerce, 59 percent of all browsing takes place on mobile devices. However, when it’s time to pull the trigger, most sales are happening on desktop machines, not mobile devices.

A full 51 percent of respondents to a study sponsored by SAP, the German multinational enterprise software maker, said they preferred using a PC to make online purchases. This is particularly true for high-cost items. Primary reasons cited included concerns about the privacy of data, concerns about the security of data and the fact that it can be too difficult to use a retailer’s mobile site to make a purchase. Still others said it takes too long to complete a purchase using mobile sites.

The takeaway here is to make sure your enterprise ecommerce platforms make mobile transactions as seamless and secure for the customer as conducting business on a desktop machine. If this is already the case for you, a social campaign demonstrating the ease and security of your mobile purchase process could go a long way toward increasing mobile conversions and business in general. After all, mobile buying has a tendency to be more impulse driven.

Another thing to glean from this information is the fact that your “mobile user” and “desktop user” are likely to be the same person. After all, most of your customers are currently browsing you on their mobile devices, then buying from you on their desktop machines.

This next trend is likely to come as no real surprise. Competition is ramping up furiously. More and more, long established brick and mortar brands are recognizing the new “location, location, location” is online. As a result, they’re coming around to digital as a way to save their brands.

Macy’s, one of America’s oldest and largest retailers just announced it is closing 68 stores to sharpen its focus on online shopping. With companies of this size and marketing acumen starting to take ecommerce even more seriously, competition is only going to get more heated.

Andre Smith is an Internet, Marketing and E-Commerce specialist with several years of experience in the industry. He has watched as the world of online business has grown and adapted to new technologies, and he has made it his mission to help keep businesses informed and up to date.