Stay Ahead of the Curve with These Ecommerce Trends

14 min read

Global retail ecommerce sales have reached new heights in 2022, with over $5.7 trillion in sales. In fact, ecommerce sales are projected to reach $8 trillion by 2026. While that’s fantastic news, it also means that the market’s competitiveness is growing, presenting challenges for ecommerce businesses.

It’s critical for ecommerce entrepreneurs to keep up with trends in the industry so that they don’t get left behind. Let’s cover some ecommerce trends for 2023 that can keep you in the game.

Offering Inflation Beating Bundles

Economic turbulence is likely to continue throughout 2023, which affects many industries, including ecommerce. To counter the reduced spending during this time, you can always offer discounts on individual products. However, one proven way to keep sales up is by bundling related products and offering a discount on the whole bundle.

Bundling helps keep your revenue up, and customers will still get a deal.

You should also consider adjusting your marketing strategy that includes an element of empathy. Saying something like, “In difficult times, we’re here to help, so we’re offering… .” That kind of marketing will increase the goodwill factor of your brand.

What you can do

Here are some actionable steps you can take:

Try different types of “Buy One, Get One Free” promotions. You can offer different bonuses for purchases, such as discounts, gifts, and even samples.
Use the Product Bundles app to encourage customers to add more products in the cart.
Set up bulk prices (especially helpful if you have wholesale clients).

Bulk prices for a product in an Ecwid store

Selling on Multiple Channels

Multi-channel (or omnichannel) selling helps you reach more people because different people have different buying preferences. Some prefer to shop on online marketplaces, others look for recommendations on social media, and many research products online and buy them in person.

Your first channel is your own website, which you need to build your brand. You can use a host of other channels to sell as well.

Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart are excellent places to expand your audience. There are also product-specific marketplaces, like Etsy, for handcrafted items, and there are plenty of other platforms to explore.

Social media purchases are also on the rise. As such, consider selling on Facebook and Instagram.

What you can do

Here is how to leverage multichannel selling:

Set up Facebook or Instagram Shop.
Sync your online store with marketplaces using the apps from the Ecwid App Market: M2E Multichannel Connect, Channable, or Koongo.
Use the Sell on the Go to accept payments when selling in person at markets or other events.

You can make your Instagram content shoppable with Ecwid by Lightspeed

Did you know? Ecwid by Lightspeed was chosen as The Best ecommerce Software for 2023 by Tekpon.

Striving for Sustainability

Sustainability is an ever-increasing factor in the buying decisions of consumers. People want to know about the products they’re buying and the sustainability practices of the companies they do business with.

If the nature of your business allows it, you should explore adding eco-friendly product options to your offerings. If you can make all of your products eco-friendly, all the better.

Products aside, ecommerce packaging and shipping are other places to improve. From boxes to plastic packaging materials to emissions from delivery vehicles, ecommerce historically has had a negative impact on the environment.

Using recycled packaging materials and shipping products can drastically reduce the environmental impact of your business. Customers will appreciate your eco-friendly practices and likely recommend you to others, helping your business thrive in a green way.

In general, you should also look at all the processes of your business to find ways to increase sustainability. Use recyclable packaging, reduce unnecessary waste, and implement eco-friendly business practices to reduce energy usage.

Then, of course, you’ll want your customers to know about your sustainability initiatives. Create marketing that highlights eco-friendly practices to attract environmentally-conscious customers, all while helping reduce your carbon footprint.

What you can do

Some actionable steps you can take here are:

Add eco-friendly products to your catalog
Research and apply sustainability practices in your business processes.

More customers choose reusable products over single-use ones

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence

AI can benefit ecommerce companies in several ways. One especially amazing way is using AI for personalization. AI helps you not only collect the data that you need to create a personalized experience for each and every customer, create great marketing campaigns, automate how that data is used for product recommendations, and so much more!

For example, AI can help a lot with personalized customer service. You can get an AI virtual assistant who can answer questions and make recommendations. When a customer has a question, the AI assistant can help make the customer feel as though they are interacting with your business and getting personalized service.

AI can also help you manage your inventory, which is always a challenge. It can collect data about purchase histories and tell you how much of each product you’re likely to sell. This can inform your inventory purchases and keep your inventory at optimal levels. The optimal level means that you have enough inventory to meet demand but don’t hold inventory that keeps cash out of your pocket. Optimizing your inventory can give you better cash flow, which can be used to grow your business.

What you can do

Here is how to implement AI in your business processes:

Optimize your Facebook ads with the Kliken app—ads are automatically configured for the best results.
Use the Chaport or Desku app to set up chatbots and provide customer service when you’re not online.
If you’re not ready to invest in AI-powered inventory tracking solutions, be sure to at least enable stock tracking for products; it prevents overselling and helps you manage your inventory more efficiently.

You can run different types of Facebook ads with Kliken

Providing Seamless Mobile Purchasing

In 2023, mobile retail ecommerce sales in the United States alone are expected to exceed $511.8 billion. More and more people are shopping on the go, so optimizing your site for use on a mobile device is critical.

When people shop on their mobile devices, they want it to be fast and easy. Your pages have to load quickly. Customers need to be able to select products with one click. Your checkout process also needs to be as quick and simple as possible, part of which means offering a variety of payment options, including Apple Pay, PayPal, or digital wallets.

What you can do

Consider doing these things for a better mobile shopping experience:

Enable one-tap payments with Apple Pay and Google Pay in your online store.
Add an Amazon Pay button to your store to let customers pay with a click.
For WordPress site owners: update your Ecwid plugin to increase the load speed of your storefront several times.

Paying with a tap in an Ecwid store

Making the Most of Influencer Marketing

According to Matter Communications survey, consumers trust influencer content and recommendations more than brand-produced content. This is caused by a phenomenon called social proof, which means that people are more likely to make purchases when they see others using or recommending a product.

Influencer marketing takes strategy—and often comes with a cost. You can start with nano or micro-influencers to keep the cost lower and grow with them over time as their audience grows.

You should set expectations for your influencers. However, most influencers are creative people, so you should let them have a certain amount of artistic license. You do, however, want to make sure they are representing your brand identity the way you want them to.

What you can do

Here’s how to start marketing with influencers:

Learn how to best include influencers in your marketing plan.
Try influencer seeding instead of the “pay for a post” method for more authentic influencer posts you can then leverage in your advertising.

The Ecwid E-Commerce Show · Influencer Marketing Without the Guesswork

Creating a Personalized Experience

Personalization in ecommerce is one of the most important trends to pay attention to. The more you target your marketing and shopping experience to individual customers, the more likely they will feel connected to your brand and become repeat buyers.

It all starts with your marketing. You need to know everything that you can about your target customers: what they need, what they want, and what they care about. Your messaging needs to show that you can provide them with a product that meets their specific needs.

Personalization also applies to your content. It needs to be highly relevant to your target audience to maximize their engagement with your content and your site. It needs to provide information and answer their questions, which builds trust in your brand and establishes your authority.

Finally, you need to personalize their shopping experience by making product recommendations based on their preferences. You need to collect data about not only their past purchases but what they’re engaging with on your site to know what products they are most likely to buy.

The experience should start when they visit your site with a personalized home page that welcomes them. It should feature product recommendations as well as personalized special offers.

The more your customers feel that you know them, the stronger their relationship with your brand becomes.

What you can do

Here is how to incorporate personalization into your marketing strategy:

Add the “You May Also Like” section to your website.
Enable automated marketing emails that are tailored to your customers’ actions.
Create email marketing campaigns personalized based on customers’ purchase history.

The “You May Also Like” section in an Ecwid store

Focusing on Customer Service

In addition to a personalized experience, customers demand to be treated well. Many consumers will abandon a brand based on one poor customer service experience. You need to ensure that your customer service representatives (including yourself, if that’s the case) are well-trained and expected to give customers the best possible experience.

Customers also want help that is speedy and convenient. Your phone and chat representatives need to respond quickly. And, as a piece of customer service, you should try to make sure your products ship efficiently and are easy to track.

What you can do

Some actionable steps you can take for better customer service are:

Add a Facebook Messenger live chat to your online store to answer your customers’ questions in real time.
Send post-purchase survey emails with the Automated Customer Reviews app to quickly catch and handle negative feedback.

A post-purchase survey message sent with the Automated Customer Reviews app

Wrap Up

The competition in ecommerce is fierce, but there are a host of things that you can do to boost your level of success. Keeping up with the competition means keeping up with trends in the industry, so you’re providing your customers with what they expect.

Being an entrepreneur in any industry should be a constant learning process. Follow what’s happening in the market so that your ecommerce business can grow and thrive well into the future.

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Selling Online

Jan 5, 2023

About the author

Carolyn Young has fifteen years of experience working with startup companies in consulting and management roles. She has written numerous business plans and helped entrepreneurs obtain startup funding. She is the Lead Business Expert for Step By Step Business, a site that helps you save time, money, and stress when setting up your company. She has been a freelance business writer for over ten years and has a bachelor’s degree in Finance from The Ohio State University. She is also the author of a novel, The Perfect View.