10 new concepts we will see in eCommerce and Digital Marketing in 2019
eCommerce and Digital Marketing are opening 2019 in a state of major transformation. Physical retailers and traditional commerce are having to close stores or adopt their own eCommerce strategies. Brands are dedicating efforts to creating their own online sales channels. Internet giants such as Amazon and Google are still immersed in a major process of expanding their frontiers, entering worlds such as security, pharmaceuticals, cleaning services and even pointing towards banking. With this outlook, what new concepts does 2019 bring us?
Santiago Sánchez, coordinator of the Master’s in Digital Marketing and the Master’s in eCommerce at La Salle-URL, and CEO and Co-Founder of Etailers Ecommerce, explained the key themes in the most recent session of La Salle Breakfast.
1.Mobile First
Consumers’ habits are becoming more and more mobile-based. In Spain, consumers spend about 20 hours a week on their phones, and 60% of eCommerce traffic comes from mobiles. That’s why it’s important to focus on the mobile shopping experience. As it’s one of the most popular platforms, it is an essential digital marketing channel for retailers to communicate with them.
2.Direct sales and use of the marketplace
The future will see the combination of eCommerce sales channels and physical stores, and a continued march towards omnichannel. For this reason, sellers should adopt direct sales systems and start operating as marketplaces, be it generalist marketplaces like Amazon or specialised in a product category (like Zalando or Uvinum).
3.Same-Day Delivery
The buyer wants the product without complications or paperwork, and they want it straight away. This is why traditional brands and retailers need to integrate resources such as click&collect or click&reserve with stores acting as logistics hubs or local storage.
4.Mobile and Wearable payments
Stores are increasingly implementing moneyless payment methods, such as Paypal Express, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. More importantly, consumers are already adopting them. This is the main frontier in going from mainly mobile traffic to actually having mobile transactions.
5.The revolution in customer service through instant messaging chatbots
Online and offline companies are mired in messages from consumers. They come through all kinds of channels and the customer expects a quick, effective and personalised response. The increasing use of instant messaging systems integrated with chatbots with specialised Artificial Intelligence allows machines to take on the relationship with customers in an efficient, fast, adaptable way.
6.Artificial Intellligence
AI is not limited to chatbots and dealing with relationships with a large volume of messages. Companies have more and more data about customers, but effective interpretation and processing of big data will depend more and more on the use of Artificial Intelligence. Among other things, this will allow the personalisation of services and digital marketing through algorithms.
7.Augmented Reality
The time has come to give eCommerce products that depend on physical aspects or space, such as furniture, the push they need. Augmented reality will allow customers to apply products to real spaces before buying them.
8.Personalised user experience
The more personalised the customer experience, the more relevant it becomes. Ideally, each client should have a completely different experience created exclusively for them. This will increase satisfaction and engagement, and limit communicative noise.
9.Conversational eCommerce through assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Home
The concept of conversational eCommerce understood as transactions made using instant messaging applications and social networks is already well established. However, a new range of possibilities is opening up with the use of virtual assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Home, and their ever-increasing incorporation by manufacturers in all kinds of products. The interactions they offer are natural, dynamic and integrated into consumers’ daily lives, and allow for adaptable conversation and greater emotional connection, all while maintaining the comfort and immediacy that customers demand.
10.Looks to online
Retailers, brands and large marketplaces such as Amazon are committing to omnichannel, meaning eCommerce and traditional commerce are collaborating and feed one another, allowing them both to reach consumers effectively and efficiently. This is why those who until now opted only for online are finding benefits in expanding their channels to the physical world. And vice versa, the mainly brick & mortar businesses find ever greater advantages in joining forces in eCommerce channels.
Online stores that become physical stores, the prominence of mobile devices, the expansion of marketplaces to all kinds of services through the Internet, the enormous potential of Artificial Intelligence... Faced with this panorama of digital transformation, the great challenge for virtual and physical stores is to adapt their business model to continue selling their products and services even as the buying process has completely changed. Faced with the risk of falling behind or only partially implementing adaptations to new eCommerce and Digital Marketing, training and educating the professionals involved is key in bringing this process to a successful conclusion.
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