Shimona Mehta, Head of Revenue Acceleration for Shopify Plus, talks about the future of e-commerce and the key trends that are shaping the space. She talks about the three key trends shaping e-commerce today: Constantly shifting consumer behaviour, the need for retailers to innovate, and the rapid growth of direct-to-consumer sales. Watch the video for insights from Mehta on what these trends mean for your business.
E-Com's Future is MAYA In 5 Inescapable Trends
MAYA is influential designer Raymond Loewy's Most Advanced Yet Acceptable idea. If there is a better description for the future of online commerce and web design we don't know it (and would like to learn it so please share).
The Made To Stick rules says too new is BAD. Sell the new from versioning the old and that is what MAYA is all about as we share in this Curagami post: http://www.curagami.com/maya-five-inescapable-web-marketing-trends/
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Raymond Loewy's ideas live on. If there is a better description for the future of web design and development than MAYA we don't know what it is. What do you think?
IBM Watson APIs is about how the future comes to everyone. Can IBM Watson save our predictive analytics future? Maybe
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Can IBM Help SMBs?
IBM isn't the first name that snaps to mind when we think about helping Small To Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs). But IBM has opened their Watson APIs (Application Program Interfaces), and that may help our online merchants not starve as they live next to the largest grocery store in the world (the Internet).
Opening up those APIs was smart. Now the question is can we model a predictive community / commerce future to identify intent, aspirations and...well everything.
The post we shared on Curagami explains how our Community In A Box (http://www.curagami.com/community-in-a-box/ ) quickly leads to starving living next to a grocery store. 100 Ambassadors sharing User Generated Content (UGC) every three days and we get 73,000 pieces of data. Small numbers become BIG NUMBERS fast in our world.
If all of that sounds like we must have a predictive analytics engine funny that is what we were thinking too. Will report back on our work with IBM's APIs.
VR Inside The Dali Store
Watching Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ brilliant retelling of the Salvador Dali experience via virtual reality (VR) should have every e-commerce team reading this email sitting up, paying more attention and wondering what is it for them to start thinking about vr, experiences and the future of a new kind of online commerce.
5 Super Secret Marketing Trends: nowists, share keys to your digital kingdoms, appify and gamify your content and developing blue oceans to win in 2016.
Ecommerc's future is going to be a symphony of feeds. Use SellWare.com to help manage the sell anytime, anywhere future that is coming fast.
In 2014, e-commerce was gradually divided into two groups based on how they treated home page design.
Product grid home page
Custom design home page
Pros
Most changes can be done via backend fast and easy Amuses visitors and ties brand with positive emotions Is remembered easily Adds to the stylish image of the brand/product
Cons
Card design/grids look alike on hundreds of shops No identity or design to remember Requires additional time and resources.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
We see this trend too. We also think animated backgrounds will capture some of the "bleeding edge" sites. We also think some ecommerce design is forgetting the core mission - conversion. Ecommerce design needs to be subtle and out of the way with clear pointers to WHAT you want your customers to do NOW.
Read Don't Make Me Think (or re-read it as it only takes a few minutes) and remember to not make the MUSEUM the subject. The museum should wrap around the art (products) and make it EASY to BUY. Oh, and it doesn't hurt to be CLEAR about what you are all about in SECONDS since that is how much time you have before visitors are on to something else.
Rise of Social Shopping
Blink an eye and big stuff happens. With valuations in the billions for sites such as +OpenSky and in the hundreds of millions for relative newcomer WaNeLo.com Don't get lost in the trap such valuations create.
Remember Arthur C. Clarke's quote:
Any sufficiently NEW technology is indistinguishable from MAGIC.
There are several forms of new ecommerce magic happening now including:
+Wanelo = gamified, social & mobile shopping.
MassDrop = social affiliate program.
+OpenSky = Social Shopping with a #crowdfunding or +quirkydotcom feel.
+fab.com = social shopping.
+Etsy = +eBay for crafters.
+Woot = Daily Deal
We added a new section to our Ecommerce Questions Haiku Deck to reflect the rise of social shopping. We also noted how and why Amazon should be worried. New "social shopping" plays are hitting Amazon right where they are vulnerable - community, social and mobile.
Amazon is "Search and Stab" and they are about to compete with savvy mobile game creators. Shopping as a social game will beat low prices created by scale. Didn't Amazon just prove that point by vanquishing Walmart from the king's ecommerce throne?
Amazon understands the ARBITRAGE of online commerce better than anyone, but what if arbitrage wasn't the driving force anymore? Going to be an interesting fight between SCALE and its many benefits and a new generation of "kids" who don't know any better than to question everything, assume nothing and have FUN.
Fun is contagious. Will follow with video notes soon.
Internet of Things (IoT)
The idea of a connected world where objects can communicate via the internet with each other and with computers and smartphones, does seem to have endless and even overwhelming possibilities. For businesses, IoT technology opens up the potential for smarter process and efficiency, more targeted marketing and better understanding of customers by utilizing data and digital insight. The opportunities are so vast, that for many companies, coming up with a clear strategy for how to implement this new technology is a huge step. In the retail industry, recent research conducted by Forrester found that 96% of retail decision makers are hoping to make the necessary changes to adopt IoT technology in the near future but over half are concerned about integration challenges. And this is a big part of the issue – to really make sure they harness the potential of this new technology, customer focused businesses need to first consider a few key areas....
Marty Note
@Jeff Domanskyhits two key Internet of Things issues squarely:
* Securely and reliably connecting everything.
* Understanding how IoT tech means greater efficiency and a better post-purchase experience for customers.
At Curagami (http://www.Curagami.com) we see several important synergistic intersections including:
* Money becomes less and less important. * Subscriptions become more and more important. * The need to mashup, combine, filter and control the NOISE is going to be huge.
That last point is reinforced by life today. When apps make life easier they scale quickly (Uber) when they add to a noisy world they struggle. Adding to PAIN doesn't scale. Reducing pain in favor of getting more by doing less but getting more or having fun instead of digging ditches feels like a winning idea.
The future could become even more unreasonably noisy. Do we really need to know our fridge needs a new filter, our cat is almost out of food and our car is due for a tuneup? Finding a way to quiet the demand curve of IoT feels like a winner to us. What about you?
E-commerce used to be static, Not So Much Anymore
This excellent Paper.li post from @Cendrine Marrouat - https://www.cendrinemedia.comshares interesting ecommerce research, design ideas and the impact of the social / mobile web on online commerce.
The new ecommerce requires originality, social curation and a supportive tribe as we discuss regularly at http://www.Curagami.com our Durham, NC based startup dedicated to creating cool new tools for online merchants.
After Curagami's annual Black Friday online retail study ecommerce 2015 trends such as free returns and ship to store are clear. This Haiku Deck explores trending online retailing tactics, strategy and pressures merchantsface in 2015.
Zazzle, Cafe Press, Etsy and Sara Harvey show how ecommerce's social future is about collaboration, empowering and sharing. Does your store do that?
By mashing eBay's Pitman with Motif's Walia we see the functional, social and mobile future of online retailing, ecommerce and mobile / social shopping.
Discover the hashtag tracking tools you need to make it easy to create, manage, track and report on social media hashtag campaigns.
Marty Note
I've always felt the #hashtag is a vastly underexploited secret weapon. One reason hashtags have been under exploited for their intense #BI (Business Intelligence) value is tools to easily understand them were lacking.
Not so much anymore as this Social Media Examiner post shares.
Why are hasthags secret weapons? Hashtags are and will always be too "quanty" to become mainstream. No matter how good the tool set you still have to have a math / model geek to help marketers understand implications and form actions.
Imagine a model that understands existing benchmarks well enough to drive a push notification when a tag (and thereby the underlying content) is trending (i.e. its change delta is above some set number). What is the value of being first to surf that social wave?
Could be millions
Problem is wave knowledge rests with the Quants while surfing knowledge rests with marketers. You would think that is a needs based marriage made in heaven.
Not so much since marketers don't know what they don't know and so can't ask and wave smart quants know WAVES not how to merchandise the wave into MONEY.
Trust that our Startup Factory Funded startup Curagami is thinking about how to introduce wave smart quants to ecommerce surfing merchants ( http://www.curagami.com :). M
4 eCommerce packaging trends that we will see in 2014. Discover different companies that are using their packaging with additional value to sell more.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Here is my take:
Green Packaging (unless the supply chain has gotten vastly better I don't agree. If mainstream packaging suppliers are offering green alternatives that are price competitive a smart ecom site could riff marketing value greater than the cost.
2nd Life Packaging - this is an interesting trend. Think of it as can you easy include instructions on making something new from your packaging. If you can then instead of one and done you packing and may have a longer shelf life right along with your marketing message. Longer YOUR packing is in THEIR home and not the landfill the better.
Functional packaging - much like the last trend creating packaging that helps solve pain points is good for branding.
Mixing and Matching packaging concepts - selling baby clothes in sushi packaging and so making your brand and line of baby clothes more "purple".
Marketing driven commerce is about engaging your customers whenever and wherever they are. Get started in creating new marketing strategies and optimizing current ones with guidance from these white p
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Excellent ecommerce white paper from Bronto my favorite email marketing tool. Trends include:
* Mobile Pushes desktop to the side.
* Content is KING but focus is Queen.
* Retargeting works but know when to stop. * Value comes from relevance.
* Beware of ISPs & online services bearing gifts. * Automation is your friend, but don't forget PEOPLE.
Excellent report especially on mobile and how mobile is changing everything.
Marty (@ScentTrail) Note
As a former Director of Ecommerce I know what trends will be a "must respond" while others are "nice to haves" if time allows. Here is my rating for the 5 Ecommerce Trends outlined by FourthSource:
Wearable Tech - Nice To Have
Sure I would blog about wearable tech and I would make sure whatever I was doing had a large PHONE and PAD component, but turning the battle ship to face the wind on "wearable tech" feels way to premature. Give it a year to let the gems emerge and then MAYBE wearable tech becomes a "must have".
Automation - Must Have
Yeah automation of front and back end processes is critical to ecommerce health. The "ship the same day" banner being thrown down by ebay and Amazon means some merchants may need to look HARD at their 80/20 rule (80% of most websites volume comes from 20% of their products) and create faster delivery options for the 20% especially to their VIPs.
The other "automation" trend I see in 2014 but not mentioned here is front end dyanmic presentation based on predictive modeling. We can't keep batching and blasting the same content to every one. Use of personas and segments combined with dynamic zones, zones you fill based on what you know about the visitor either from their "new" or "returning' status, a cookie you previously planted or their behavior. Websites must act more like email with relevant information getting to the right group faster.
Tablets and Mobile - Must Have
The discussion of tablets and mobile misses the mark a tad for me. Biggest issue is how we ARCHITECT information now. Content needs to become a series of highly visual "rich snippets" held together by a flexible map of tags, interconnection, glue and chewing gum (lol). Mobile is a revolution not a thing, so think Mobile First in 2014.
Oliver Jäger's rap at the end is essential:
"In a day and age where information and connectivity have become an indispensable part of a modern lifestyle, it’s not just bricks-and-mortar retailers that need a new strategy. Online retailers are increasingly also having to adapt to the new multichannel, information-rich reality.
What this means is that in 2014 we’ll continue to see more and more retailers moving into the content space. Modern consumers are much more demanding and sophisticated, expecting their shopping experience to be a holistic and comprehensive one. "
Right on Oliver!
Not sure why ComScore expected strong online sales late in the season. With shipping concerns, weather and other December issues the holidays begin to shut down online around 1.15 and sales become very quiet by 1.20.
This year that trend was accelerated by the calendar with Christmas in the middle of the week. As we discussed in our Ecommies piece for Curatti (Is Ecommerce Stuck In The Mud http://curatti.com/is-ecommerce-stuck-in-the-mud/ ) ecommerce wasn't very inspiring this year.
Ecommerce merchants are caught in tectonic shifts in the mobile/social web. Online merchants are slowly realizing social marketing is more than one way communication. Social marketing is a conversation, but few online merchants treat social media marketing like an active two way conversation.
The mobile revolution is about much more than smart phones too, yet few online e-retailers are organized around a "mobile first" idea. Battles continue on free shipping, battles that should be all but over as leaders have adopted free shipping out and back (i.e. for returns too) especially in December.
Free shipping out and back is now a meme, a meme that will take over by 2015 (if not before) since it is easier to understand than using coupons or trigger points. If ecommerce is going to dig itself out of the mud embracing social/mobile will be a good first step.
Letting go of print catalog and bricks and mortar behavior online would be a great second step (though much harder to realize).
Ecommies - Identifying ecommerce trends, rate and review ecom tools and hold annual awards.
Holiday 2013 Awards
First Ecommies Holiday ratings are in. William-Sonoma & REI.com top the list in November and December. L. L. Bean gets "most improved" award from November to December and several trends emerge:
* Free Shipping out and back is trending especially in December.
* Free shipping all orders is trending. * Hiding free shipping behind either codes or triggers is declining. * Deal of the Day is trending with majors like REI.com adding DOD. * Standard credit card based loyalty programs prevalent. * Still many catalog and retail merchandising tactics such as "door busters".
Ratings report card on Google docs: http://bit.ly/1bPhwz3
Holiday ecommerce merchandising wasn't very inspired this year. December ratings went DOWN from November. Based on this year's performance ecommerce is clearly in a rut.
Own The Conversation, Own The Traffic
Just as we shifted from websites to platforms in 2011 so well demonstrated by the difference in Google pages between Etsy.com (19M) and RedEnvelope.com (31,000). Ecommerce and B2B content marketing is changing again.
Consumers are becoming conversation-centric and platform agnostic.
Our social, mobile and increasingly hectic world means we use three to five digital devices (phone, pad, laptop, desktop, game console) to find, curate, publish, share and riff conversations.
This post shares ideas for how to "own" conversations across platforms the way Scoop.it does with their social spidering tool and magazine creation tools.
A infographic featuring web design trends for 2013 created by Enfuzed. This is the original!
Martin (Marty) Smith:
If your Ecom webstie isn't responsive, doesn't have great content and isn't social....well good luck with that and be sue to send a card from where you end up in Jaunuary :).
Email marketing has been used for years to keep in contact and maintain relationships with customers. Lately, with the increasing use of smartphones, we’ve seen the effectiveness continue to rise.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Since email is typically the most profitable channel for most multi-channel retailers staying abreast of how mobile is changing email marketing is critical. The rise of triggered emails als heralds the rise of web 3.0's contingent what if statements filling dynamic zones on web pages with relevant content. Ecom merchants should watch email marketing trends closely.
Checkout is where rubber meets road in ecommerce. Great infographic showing checkout design trends among top 200 online merchants around the world here.
A McKinsey iConsumer survey spotlights key trends in e-commerce, mobile, multichannel, social media, and big data. From McKinsey via Visual.ly. Tons of excellent infographics in one place.
Europe is higher up on the evolutionary Ecom ladder than USA. Perhaps due to high gasoline prices or not having as dispersed or developed a brick and mortar environment (would be hard to duplicate Walmart's distribution prowess when so many countries are involved) England's retail is already at 15% several points ahead of America.
This infographic is instructive about the future of the world, ecommerce, mobile commerce and social media.
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WHY IT MATTERS: another point of view from an ecommerce pure play shopify. Interesting tidbits although there are a few commons grounds.