Ecommerce has been known to face a “summer slump” as people get out and about and soak up the sunshine. But by taking advantage of some of the latest industry trends, you can get business booming well before the holiday height. As consumers look to take a break from work and get outside, make sure they turn to you to help them make the most out of that experience.
But don’t expect your customers’ expectations to go on vacation. As always, they want personalization, agility, and an online shopping experience that lives up to their dream destinations.
That’s why Zmags has compiled a list of the 5 trends that every ecommerce organization should pay attention to this summer.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is improving product descriptions
In the last few months, there are few technologies that have dominated the conversation like AI. Whether it’s generating images, creating shockingly accurate deepfakes, or helping content marketers outline blogs and eBooks based on trending topics, modern AI tools have made the case that—whatever you think—they’re here to stay.
For ecommerce enterprises, these tools present an opportunity to streamline the copywriting process by building off the mass of existing knowledge about what potential customers want and returning customers desire. In the same way that an AI solution like ChatGPT can conjure a pitch for a new Batman movie, it can also draw upon customer reviews of products similar to yours, robust marketing language, and powerful SEO insights to help you build the basis of your product marketing approach.
Given this framework, ecommerce organizations can design more effective and impactful language across their storefronts and more efficiently discern the messaging that will motivate and attract potential buyers.
With knowledge combed from AI and bolstered by your own expertise, you can make your business a summer standout in your industry.
Your customers want the shortest path-to-purchase
Extra work isn’t something anyone wants to deal with when taking time off for summer—even if it’s just a few additional clicks to get to their online shopping cart. That’s why it’s essential that ecommerce businesses provide their customers with the swiftest and most efficient path-to-purchase possible.
Although it might be tempting to promote different deals or membership opportunities as a customer goes to check out on your site, this can dissuade them more than encourage them to return to your storefront. It can even cause them to abandon their cart altogether and seek out a retailer who isn’t adding extra steps to their buying process.
This summer, your focus should be on making sure the customer experience is as simple and stressless as possible. A quick path-to-purchase lets a customer know that you value them and their time—and is more likely to incentivize them to sign up for additional offers or communications in the future.
Here are a few ways that you can shorten the path-to-purchase:
- Adding shoppable hotspots to lifestyle images
- Have ‘Add To Cart’ CTAs on products on your homepage, campaign pages, etc.
- Use product Quick Views on all products (even on the hotspots on lifestyle images)
It’s all about personalization
When it comes to modern ecommerce, there’s likely no greater motivator than a personalized storefront experience. As consumers become more and more aware of data collection, they expect something in return—an understanding of their wants and needs. They want to know your brand is invested in them, before they invest in your brand.
Personalization can take many forms. It can be a movie recommendation based on a previously streamed film. It can be clothing in the size that the customer bought before. It can even be items based on localization data—fishing gear for a customer in Montana, and surfboards for a customer in Hawaii.
The fact of the matter is, when a consumer visits your site, the easier you make their shopping experience—and the more personalized it feels—the more willing they are to return.
In ecommerce, you might not always have the name of your site visitors, but there are still ways to make them feel "seen" from the moment they arrive.
Your product pages should be as exciting as your products
The backbone of your ecommerce storefront are your product detail pages (PDP). They not only convey the basic information about what you offer, but why anyone browsing your site should care.
As such, it’s not enough to simply provide basic details about an item. In an era where Augmented Reality (AR) and AI are becoming more and more prominent, your customers expect interactivity and dynamism. Otherwise, those PDPs might as well be pages in a paper catalog.
As you design your PDPs, you should ask yourself, what makes each individual item exciting and how you can best convey that. Is it through video, audio, AR? There’s no one size fits all answer to this question, but those organizations who are best able to build a distinct character for their products and brand on every single page of their storefront, are those who will be in the best position to captivate and retain customers this summer.
The ecommerce landscape is only getting more and more crowded. Brands that used to be juggernauts in their fields are falling out of style. If you want to make your mark, you need to build a user experience that ensures buyers think of you every time they want to purchase something.
For more information on enhancing your PDPs watch our webinar "Enhancing Your PDPs to Drive Conversion, Cross-sell, and Upsell."
Make your mark on social media
Your storefront is essential—but your impact cannot begin and end there. Each of the previous four trends should extend to your social media presence, your swiftest and most direct line to customers, both current and potential.
As you personalize your customer’s experience on your website, you should mimic the same approach across your PPC and SEM marketing. Consistency from the very beginning of the customer journey all the way through to purchase will drive those immediate sales and improve retention.
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f you effectively build your brand across platforms, you have a better chance of both meeting customers where they are and learning about potential gaps in your existing ecommerce strategy. Whether it’s personalizing ads, running Twitter polls, or gathering engagement data, an effective social strategy lets you go to your buyers, instead of sitting on your hands as you wait for them to come to you. Plus, it allows you to show off all that dynamic, exciting, and unique branding that you’ve created.
It’s your chance to stand out in the public square. Make sure you deliver a cohesive experience from the moment they heed your call, throughout their online shopping experience.
Tackle these trends FASTRTM with Zmags
Zmags is dedicated to helping ecommerce organizations optimize their sales and marketing initiatives, increase their revenue, and build longer lasting and constantly evolving customer relationships. Alongside our Fastr Frontend platform, which empowers business users to get trends in market faster than ever before, we provide ecommerce strategy and design consulting services to support your business’s growth. Tap into the talent of our seasoned team, and take your summer ecommerce strategy to the next level.
Our team of experts stays on top of trends so you don’t have to. Get in touch.