As store owners, we tend to think that having a quality product and a well-designed store is enough to bring in sales. That may have been true in the past, but today it’s not enough 🤷♂️.
Every day new tools, new competitors, and new markets are born. Things are done differently than they were yesterday, and tomorrow will be different too. So we need to be always with one eye on our store and the other one on the world, alert, active, and proactive 👀
Don't get me wrong. Offering a great product is essential! But it's not enough to push the scales ⚖. You need to build a positive and unique experience around your product. Mark the difference. If everyone is doing the same thing, do it in your own way.
When it comes to e-commerce, things keep moving incredibly fast 🏃♂️
So today I want to share with you some trends for 2024 that can help you stand out from the crowd and pad your wallet a little 👛
Let’s dive in!
1) Augmented reality for a better shopping experience
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that makes it possible to see digital things in the real world. Digital images are placed over a camera´📷 to give the illusion of actually seeing an online product in real life.
Consider it this way. You feel like painting your house, and you're a little tired of the usual colors, so you decide to look for brighter, more vibrant ones 🎨. But, there's a problem. What if you paint and then you don't like the way it looks? 😅 Will you live with those walls for years or will you repaint? With augmented reality, this is no longer a problem. You can try how each color and combination will look, and then decide! 🙌
Useful, right? Imagine it for all kinds of products. Will that dress fit? Will that roasting pan fit in my oven? Would this wall look better painted blue or green?
About 16% of U.S. shoppers believe augmented reality is important when it comes to shopping 🛍. This figure is likely to increase as the technology improves and AR becomes easier for online businesses to use.
You want an example, don't you? Well, IKEA already took care of that. They've created IKEA Place, an app that allows you to place their products in your home to preview how it would look. Wonderful move! 🤩
2) Focus on sustainability
Every day there is greater environmental and social awareness among the public. So much so that consumers prefer to choose companies that are aligned with their core values. If you think it's not that big of a deal, here's just one number: 46% of shoppers are likely to buy from a business that donates to charity. This number is not going to decrease.
Want numbers? You got them!
60% of shoppers are willing to invest more in products featuring sustainable packaging.
28% actively consider the environmental footprint of delivery methods when making online purchases.
This is not just a fad, and if it is, it will be a lasting one. Above all, the new generations strongly support environmental causes ♻ and will be much more inclined to buy from a brand that is related to them. This can range from the materials of your products, the type of shipping you do, or even the hosting service you choose. And don’t forget about the packaging! 📦
That said, if they choose you, they will be a loyal audience and may even become ambassadors of your brand, openly communicating their passion for your product.
Are you willing to let this opportunity slip away? 🙄
3) Same-day delivery
A few years ago, we would make a purchase and perhaps wait weeks to have the product delivered to our home. That gap got smaller and smaller, to what it is today: receiving the product even the same day we bought it 🚚. Consumers don't just want fast delivery, they expect it. It's a condition for buying from you or your competitors.
Nearly half of shoppers affirm that same-day delivery makes them more likely to buy online. According to Statista data, this trend will be worth $14.9 billion by 2024. What a number, huh?
Given the widespread adoption of on-demand platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Instacart, we can expect e-commerce brands to soon embrace a similar model.
Put yourself in your customer's shoes 👞. After all, we are all customers of some brand.
You have a wedding tomorrow, and you realize that your one tie has a stain on it. You go to your favorite online store to buy one, only to find that it won't arrive for 3 days 🤦♂️.
But a while later, an ad pops up on your social media 📲. It's your favorite store’s competitor, showing you ties with same-day shipping. Voilá, your preferences have suddenly changed (and someone might have just lost a customer).
4) AI-assisted upselling and cross-selling
Artificial intelligence and machine learning 🤖 do a great job of predicting shopping habits based on browsing history and past purchases. No human brain could analyze so much information and personalize a website specifically for each unique visitor, but AI is up to the task.
Take the example of Netflix 📺. Every user who uses the platform gets different recommendations and even sees a percentage of how closely that series or movie matches the things they've been watching.
The same can be applied to e-commerce. Each product that the user visits, adds to the cart 🛒 or even buys is a piece of data that we can use to provide a superior experience, giving recommendations for related and complementary products.
Not only that, we can also anticipate their next purchases 🛍. For example, if they have bought diapers for 3 to 6-month-old children, we know that they will soon need diapers of a larger size, and we can make them an offer before they go to buy them somewhere else.
As always, we like to drop you some numbers 📊 so that you can appreciate the magnitude of the matter:
AI is helping to increase retailer’s revenues by up to 15%.
Around 28% of top-tier eCommerce companies have already implemented AI and machine learning platforms.
63% of consumers find AI-powered product recommendations to be highly influential on their purchases.
Global spending on AI in eCommerce is expected to reach over $8 billion by 2024.
Artificial intelligence may still seem in its early stages (although it has been with us for a couple of years now), but every day it amazes us with new possibilities. 2024 will be an important year in the blending of AI and e-commerce 🤙
5) Livestream Shopping
In 2019, Amazon launched its livestream shopping platform, Amazon Live. Only two years later, TikTok began testing a live shopping feature in the United States. YouTube and Shopify were quick to follow suit, expanding their live shopping partnerships.
This is not new. We've all experienced it with QVC-style TV shopping. It has just mutated to the world of streaming and social media 📽📱.
Retailers in the US generated $17 billion from live commerce in 2022—a figure set to reach $35 billion by 2024. So it's not just a fad, it's growing increasingly. The investments of e-commerce giants show their interest and faith in this format.
Want to know some advantages of live shopping? 👇
Fewer returns: Products ordered through live streaming have a 40% lower return rate, probably because shoppers can almost look at the products as if they were there in the flesh when they shop online. This fights the 5% of e-commerce returns that take place because a product looks different in real life than it does in the image.
Attract younger audiences: Generation Z is the group most inclined to take part in live streaming, which makes it a smart e-commerce strategy if this demographic is your target market.
Conversion: Retailers have achieved conversion rates of 10-15% with live streaming, compared to 1-2% through traditional e-commerce.
Sounds promising, doesn't it? Are you up for it? 💪
6) Mobile first, desktop second
Day by day, and mainly because of the growth of social media, users are making more use of mobile devices to visit stores and websites 📱. A computer is not necessary anymore to have an attractive shopping experience. Today more than 75% of consumers prefer to use their smartphones, with only 15% opting for desktop 🤷♂️
Given this trend, your online store must be fully optimized for mobile devices, creating a smooth experience for visitors 🌟
Try to look at it this way. When you go out for work, college, or just grocery shopping, do you take your computer with you? Not. We always rely on our mobile phones, and practically have all of our life inside that small device. Contacts, pictures 📷, memories, calendars 📅, passwords 🔐 and credit cards 💳.
According to recent data, the average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone every day. And 1 in 5 smartphone users spends upwards of 4.5 hours on average on their phones every day.
Advances such as facial recognition, payment apps, and one-click payment make the shopping experience through a mobile device much better ✨
Our website cannot be left behind. Almost any e-commerce platform allows you to make changes per device. But make no mistake, this is not a one-time task. We must make modifications constantly to keep improving our users' experience, and thanks to that, they will keep coming back to buy.
7) More personalized than ever!
Customers expect a more personalized service in every sense, from the first touch point to the last. We are no longer just talking about speaking to them by name or sending them emails ✉ tailored to their needs (which remains and will continue to be important). We are talking about crossing the screen and interacting with them.
We are talking about them creating and personalizing their products, making them unique and unrepeatable. Products that they can identify with 100%, and that no one else will have 🤩
Standing out from the crowd is not just important for you, it's also important for your customer. And that's where personalized products come in.
Beyond boosting sales, product personalization builds brand loyalty 💖 and creates a one-of-a-kind shopping experience 💫
But how can you offer products that are so customizable that the shopper ends up designing them themselves before making the purchase? Great news! You can use a product personalization tool like Customily to create unique designs, enabling your customers to edit and buy their very own personalized products 🙌.
If you’re interested in trying personalized products in 2024, Customily is the best solution you will find in the market for it. It integrates with any e-commerce platform, but if you're using Shopify or Etsy, you can access a 9-day free trial today (you’re welcome!!)
Trust me, it’s a game-changer for your business, but test it out and see all its potential by yourself 💪
That's all for now. Are there more trends for 2024? Yes, of course. And more will emerge during the year. But we advise picking just a few and focusing on getting it right. Don't try to do everything together, one step at a time!
We hope this info has been useful to you and that your sales will continue to grow all year long! 😍
Happy New Year! ✨
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Customily Product Personalizer is the best solution to sell personalized products, both in the e-commerce and the print-on-demand market. With the widest range of personalization tools, free clipart designs, realistic live previews that increase conversions, and printing files that help you automate your printing business; Customily is the ally you need to boost your profit margins in a high-competitive market.
Visit our website to learn more about us.
Or try it for FREE on Shopify.
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