Ecommerce Trends

New platforms: media and social media dominate

 
One of the platforms that could well steal a march in the move to visual commerce is Instagram. 2018 saw many retailers start to use the image-based social media site to start selling. M&S famously becoming one of its earliest proponents. Expect to see more brands turning to social media to combine the power of the platform with visual search.
 
It makes a lot of sense. For starters, that is where the consumers are and where they both look for and share inspiration. But is also allows for retailers to sell in a seemingly unbiased way. There is a book to be written on how marketing is going to change in 2019, but the old ways of advertising are dying: people want real stories, from real people, and to share knowledge and information.
 
Social sites such as Instagram and others offer this in spades – and they combine it with the power of visuals. Imagine, when in 2019, visual search is also added to Instagram?
 
Similarly, media companies are also going to find their place as trusted places to buy based on the same merits outlined for social media. Already Marie Claire has opened a website that curates fashion. Marie Claire uses its fashion editors to pick key pieces from the likes of ASOS, Farfetch and Topshop and styles them. These can then be bought from the site.
 
This turns publishing brand into trusted third-party marketplace, gets the goods out through a trusted channel and taps into the modern shopper’s need for independent validation.
 
Time Inc in the US and tech publisher Mashable, have also used their publishing outlets to tie up with brands so that readers can shop what they see in the articles they read online.
 
This shift in where retail happens is going to increase in 2019.
 

Local search

 
With more and more shoppers on mobile, the power of location-based search is going to grow and 2019 is going to see more bricks and mortar retailers adopt local search as a means of using the web to generate much needed footfall.
 
Getting a ‘Google My Business’ (GMB) listing is essential, as is a fully optimised mobile website. Combining these with all the other standard SEO tools will help businesses be found when being searched. It is already starting to become a power tool. Google a type of product on your mobile right now and among the listings will be where you can get that thing locally. In 2019, local is going to be the new… everything.
 

Conclusions

 
So the trends for 2018 can be broadly grouped into (1) new ways to shop and (2) new ways to make old fashioned shopping easier.
 
The first cluster revolves around mobile cementing its position as the go to device for eCommerce and aims to make using it even easier. Talking to the device, pointing the device or using both of these elements in conjunction with social media and location is a powerful mix.
 
Of course, these elements of m-Commerce have long been talked about, but 2019 is going to see them start to actually come to fruition individually, but also – and more importantly – come to fruition as a collective ‘tool’ for retail.
 
Similarly, location – driven by local search – is going to be a tool to help retailers push people into shops. Once there, however, they need to experience a new way of shopping, which is where again 2019 will see key technologies – mostly driven once more by mobile – come to fruition together.
 
All these changes are also going to have a massive impact on logistics – consumers will want deliveries where and when they decide works best for them, not what the retailer offers. This will be controlled by mobile too, from apps and voice devices, but will be challenging for carriers and retailers alike, however it will be the differentiator of winners.
 
So, where 2018 was the year of mobile, 2019 will be the year mobile joins everything together.
 
And with such uncertainty about the economy and with retail becoming more complex than ever, there is everything to play for with making these prophecies come to pass.