As an owner of an eCommerce site, you’re probably constantly trying to please your customers and visitors, in order to increase sales.

Even so, no matter what type of products you sell, the market develops, and customers become more and more demanding. Staying on top of eCommerce marketing trends will help you meet customer wishes and preferences, and avoid getting smashed by your competition.

It can be quite challenging to identify the best and latest tendencies, and choosing the wrong trend to follow may lead to loss of potential customers and therefore loss of profits. So here I’m ready to help you.

In this article, I’ll inform you about all the potential future eCommerce marketing trends you need to know and implement.

So let’s dive right in!

9 eCommerce Marketing Trends Expected To Emerge And Grow

Following are nine eCommerce marketing trends we expect to continue rising for the foreseeable future.

1. A product’s immersive AR, VR or MR experience will increase its value

Of all the potential future eCommerce trends, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies are of course of the utmost importance.

These three innovations have completely changed the shopping experience and will do so even more in the future. Thus, we can include them among the emerging marketing trends in eCommerce.

So let’s see their definitions and ways of application:

• Augmented Reality (AR). AR enhances the live view with digital elements often by using the camera on a smartphone or AR glasses. The IKEA Place app is one of the best examples of augmented reality in eCommerce. 
  
• Virtual Reality (VR). It is one of the latest eCommerce marketing trends and involves the user being fully immersed in a virtual environment. Virtual reality occurs when using tools such as a head-mounted display (HMD) or headset, you can interact virtually with a computer-generated world of images and sounds.
• Mixed Reality (MR). The real-world and digital objects interact in a way that combines elements of both AR and VR. Microsoft’s Hololens is a popular example of mixed reality. It is a holographic computer, which you wear around your head, that emits holograms you can interact with and manipulate as though they were real.

AR-based IKEA Place app

As you now know more about these technologies, it’s time to discover how they can actually benefit your online business:

• Offer a richer and more immersive shopping experience that leads to more sales

VR, AR, and MR technologies allow users to experience certain emotions with their bodies, minds, and souls. This fully immersive experience will certainly appeal to your customers and make them more likely to purchase and optimize your eCommerce conversion rate.

• Reduction of customer return rates.

AR’s immersive 3D visualizations, virtual fitting rooms, and product demos are all current trends in eCommerce and give consumers the chance to try before they buy. Thus, augmented reality helps to reduce high return rates by enabling customers to make informed purchases. Stay ahead in the rapidly evolving world of eCommerce marketing by utilizing a virtual data room.

• Improve Digital Marketing Efforts

AR, VR, and MR may also go some way to improving eCommerce marketing strategy in the future. In fact, in eCommerce, these technologies offer a ready-made digital marketing campaign. You can, for instance, offer people the chance to try your products instead of trying to lure them with pictures. In other words, you can turn traditional methods into interactive marketing, something people actually enjoy.

2. The popularity of voice search for online shopping will increase

The more people complete their homes with smart voice speakers, the more likely they are to make use of them for online shopping as well. This is already happening, but the percentage will rise substantially soon. This means voice search is among the best eCommerce marketing trends.

In terms of keywords and content, voice search will undoubtedly represent a significant change.

You will therefore need to follow this eCommerce marketing trend and optimize your content for voice search. Here are a few tips to help you with this:

• Include FAQs on your website
• Use conversational language in the content
• Target long-tail keyword phrases
• Leverage Google My Business listings
• Think mobile and think local

3. Artificial intelligence (AI) will help you learn more about your customers

AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) deserve to be included in the list of the best eCommerce marketing trends as well. By utilizing them, consumers can have an automated and personalized shopping experience.

By analyzing the actions your clients take before making a purchase and what they desire in a product, artificial intelligence helps you gather insightful information and data about them.

You can use this data and predictive analytics to rethink how you market a product so that it has a better chance of success.

Another profitable area of utilizing AI in eCommerce is a recommendation engine that determines consumers’ needs and preferences and offers the relevant items based on this behavior data analysis.

Recommendation engine used in Amazon

4. Intelligent chatbots increase customer interaction

Like in-store sales associates, chatbots assist online shoppers as well, and they are very good at it.

With shoppers becoming less patient and expecting answers within a few seconds, chatbots will serve this purpose well.

In fact, customers can type their questions into the chatbox and receive immediate responses. It is built on a knowledge base that contains all previous customer issues or most frequently asked questions. That’s how chatbots handle almost 70% of all business chats from start to finish.

By avoiding having an assistant write all the same answers again and again, it is possible to reserve humans for more complex situations.

Chatbots, being among the emerging marketing trends in eCommerce, will become more intuitive and will represent a powerful marketing tool, even suggesting products according to individual preferences.

Moreover, chatbots will also enable you to collect visitors’ and clients’ email addresses and create a targeted email marketing campaign to increase your ROI. If you are looking for a personalized experience, you can consider hiring an Ecommerce Virtual Assistant.

eCommerce chatbot example

5. Social media shopping will increase your sales opportunities

Social media marketing is certainly one of the most powerful current trends in eCommerce, already influencing the purchase decisions of millions of online shoppers.

Using social media encourages customers to buy something new or try the brands that the influencers they follow are using. 

As a result, social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok, represent an alternative approach to persuading users to make a purchase and this digital marketing trend will certainly increase significantly soon. 

Some of the most popular social apps have already integrated in-app shops that allow users to purchase products in a few clicks. It will make the purchase experience more direct and efficient, preventing customers from losing interest when they are trying to find the website or navigate it for too long.

Facebook eCommerce features

6. Mobile shopping will be on the rise

As you may already know, an increasing number of users are using their mobile phones to access the web, research, and not lastly make purchases online.

There’s no doubt that this eCommerce marketing trend will grow over the next few years, as users will be more inclined to use their phones instead of laptops and computers.

This illustrates why it is important to adopt a mobile optimization strategy and make your eCommerce website 100% mobile-friendly. The responsiveness of your website will ensure that every page and element will automatically adjust to the screen size and resolution used by the user, providing a more seamless experience and better ranking in SERPs. Choosing the best responsive website builder can further enhance these advantages.

As a further step to ensuring a better ranking for your eCommerce website among search engine results, consider improving your SEO writing as well.

7. The importance of sustainability is growing

Businesses and consumers alike are becoming more environmentally aware. Because of this reason, consumers are paying more attention to where they shop and the impact it has on the environment. This lets you visualize that eCommerce’s future is not only about the mechanism of buying and selling but also about saving the environment.

As sustainability is one of the latest eCommerce marketing trends, it is worthwhile to invest in more eco-friendly ideas and ways of marketing products. Consider, for instance, how you can make your packaging more eco-friendly, or how you can produce your products in a more environmentally friendly way. You don’t need to worry if this costs you more: consumers are willing to spend more on products that don’t pollute the environment.

8. There will be an increasing demand for customizable personalized products 

More and more businesses are coming up with products and features that let users personalize products according to their needs and preferences. For example, some businesses let buyers create their own beauty products by selecting their skin type, frequency of use, etc.

With their popularity and appreciation, these types of products are now among the emerging trends in eCommerce. So evaluating and implementing this idea will help you come up with a unique selling point that will keep you ahead of your competitors.

9. Adding more payment methods will reduce cart abandonment and increase your sales

When it comes to payment methods, customers have personal preferences. If they can’t find the one they like during the checkout process, they’ll probably abandon the website. 

It is, therefore, crucial to offer several methods of payment to enable users to choose one that suits them. There is no need to embed all the payment methods, but at least the most popular ones. By implementing this eCommerce marketing trend, you’ll reduce cart abandonment rates and improve your sales.

In addition, if you allow users to save their payment information on your site, you’ll make the checkout process even faster for the next purchases (e.g., the one-click purchase button on Amazon).

As the needs of your audience develop continuously, you need to stay updated about the top trending payment methods that they prefer and incorporate them into your website as soon as you can. This will prevent you from losing clients and give you an advantage over the competition.

Conclusion

A new generation of technologies is about to change the way eCommerce works. Several of its developments are unknown, but others are quite predictable. There is no doubt that all of the best eCommerce marketing trends listed in this article are going to be true since they are predictable and they have ways of working.

Don’t you know what techniques to implement and how to get started with the digital innovation of your eCommerce business? Contact ReVerb! We’ll help you implement the trendiest eCommerce solutions that will allow you to stay ahead of the competition, as well as increase your online sales and brand awareness.