5 must have e-commerce strategies that will shape 2019

Jun 24, 2019 by Lauren Norris
Online retail is not a novelty anymore, but rather one of the fastest-growing industries globally that keeps progressing at a steady pace. According to the report, eCommerce should make almost 14% of the entire retail sales in 2019. At the same time, studies show that China’s retail market will become the largest in the world, topping $6 trillion in 2020.   Such growth would be impossible without major changes in many fields, including IT, marketing, and Artificial Intelligence. Technological changes help eCommerce to grow bigger and become more accurate and effective on a global scale.   However, it also means that online retailers have to follow the state of the art industry trends in order to stay competitive in the long-term perspective. There are lots of new trends to follow here, but we want to point out the most important ones. Here are five must have eCommerce strategies that are going to shape 2019.  

1.     Provide Multichannel Selling

The year is 2019 and you can’t expect every customer to interact with your digital store through one channel exclusively. Modern consumers use all sorts of communication platforms – websites, mobile apps, social media networks, etc. You need to ride this wave and ensure effortless experience across all of the platforms mentioned above.   Online retail goes way beyond Amazon or Shopify because now you can sell goods via Facebook, Instagram, or your own website. The goal is to ensure a user-friendly experience and give prospects the opportunity to switch from channel to channel without going back and repeating any of the previous steps.   Inventory management is the biggest obstacle in this process because you have to pay attention to stocks in real-time. This is by no means an easy task, but there are tools such as Veequ that can help you to handle inventory automatically.   The platform uses complex algorithms to analyze sales patterns and synchronize all sales channels simultaneously. It makes inventory management a lot simpler, so you don’t have to worry about data accuracy or going out of stock.  

2.     Ensure Product Visualization

The most important shortcoming of eCommerce is the fact that customers cannot test products before purchasing. This adds a dose of uncertainty to the consumer journey, which is the problem you need to address as soon as possible.   Of course, it’s not possible to send products for testing, but you can take an extra step and ensure product visualization. First of all, you should create product reviews in video format. Take a look at Apple’s iPhone XS introductory video.   It’s an eye-pleasing tutorial that points out the privileges of using the new iPhone model. The production is amazing, just like the sound and visual effects. You should use the same tactic when shooting product-videos for your digital store. It doesn’t even have to be a four-minute clip as most viewers would be perfectly fine with one or two-minute video.   Another option is to make the visualization even more appealing by playing with virtual or augmented reality (AR) tricks. For instance, IKEA designed a mobile app called IKEA Place that helped customers pick the best piece of furniture without ever leaving their homes.   Company representatives explain that “IKEA Place lets you place true-to-scale 3D furniture in your home using the lens of your iPhone camera.” Instead of guessing how new furniture would really look like back home, app users can test it instantly and choose the most satisfying option from the catalog.  

3.     Personalization Is a Must

Do you know that almost 60% of consumers are willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized offers or discounts? Personalization is ruling the sales world, but you don’t even need consumers’ approval to store and analyze their purchasing habits.   How come?   Well, simple website analytics can show you what they are doing online and reveal their buying preferences. You can quickly discover the products they considered purchasing and use this information to create a new, customized offer.   This is particularly important if you want to recover abandoned cart statistics and convince more users to complete the purchase. Nearly 40% of consumers abandon shopping carts because they are just browsing in the first place, but you can convince them to get back by creating personalized offers.   One solution is to place ads on third-party websites, while the other option is to send tailored offers with one-time discounts via email directly. You can experiment with different personalization tricks until you find the perfect formula for your target audience.   

4.     Use Chatbots to Improve Customer Service

Chatbots are changing the ways eCommerce businesses operate. Users love this website feature because of its constant availability, while you should love chatbots for reducing operational costs and serving as a reliable customer support mechanism.   Chatbots are based on natural language processing, which is a special branch of Artificial Intelligence that helps machines to understand human language and respond accordingly. The system gets better and smarter after each conversation, while your sales team has access to the entire history of communication with each prospect individually.   Another important thing is to emphasize that chatbots can easily replace a whole team of customer service agents, so you can minimize the budget required for normal functioning. You can also customize chatbots so as to match the conversational style of your eCommerce business, making it sound highly informative, funny, entertaining, casual, and so on.   The technology already goes way beyond eCommerce and impacts almost every other industry out there. For example, the best dissertation writing services use chatbots to communicate with their clients:   –          https://assignmentman.co.uk/ –          https://aussiessayservices.com/myassignmenthelp-com-review/ –          Ultius Reviews –          https://www.bestbritishwriter.com/ –          https://www.essayuniverse.net/best-essay-writing-services/   They all use chatbots to serve their customers 24/7, 365 days a year.  

5.     Add Alternative Delivery Options

The last item on our list is a genuine novelty that still requires some time for testing and recalibration, but you should keep an eye on it in the months to come. Namely, eCommerce leaders such as Amazon and Mercato are experimenting with alternative delivery methods that could drastically improve shipping and reduce delivery times.   Drones represent one of the most promising local delivery methods. For instance, GLOBHE and FLYPULSE are Swedish drone startups that combine AI and drone technologies to create a brand new delivery system. On the other hand, Amazon has plans to drop off packages directly into shoppers’ homes.   All these models are developed with the purpose to simplify and improve customer experience. While they can be costly and technically demanding, it is clear that companies which adopt the new systems first are going to experience the biggest benefits.  Therefore, you should stay tuned and follow the latest developments in the field of product delivery.  

Conclusion

Online retail is a gigantic market that keeps evolving and coming up with new trends and standards. In such circumstances, only the most agile businesses can stay competitive long-term. We showed you five eCommerce strategies that would have the biggest effect in 2019, so do your best to follow these trends and take your company to the whole new level of efficiency.   Joe McLean is a content writer at australian writings and a regular contributor for Bestessay, Paper Writing Pro Service, and the top essay writing services. When he isn’t writing, you can find him tracking in nature, doing yoga or playing board games with his friends.

3 thoughts on “5 must have e-commerce strategies that will shape 2019”

  2. I like the article, you help people to understand the importance of this topic. People should appreciate your work. There are few people out there who are doing this type of work.

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