E-commerce trends in 2022

E-commerce 2022 - the most important trends

By its very nature, a trend is broader than a single phenomenon and, based on what the world looks like today, we can try to peer into the future. That is why analysis of trends makes it much more likely to determine what technologies and activities will be the most visible in the coming months.

Artificial intelligence

Thanks to the growing access to computing power in the cloud and the popularization of this technology, more and more companies use solutions based on machine learning in their daily work. The McKinsey report indicates that up to 66 percent. companies are able to increase their revenues thanks to the use of this technology.

From the e-commerce perspective, the most important phenomena in this trend will be:

• Voice search - an analysis by Oberlo shows that even 40 percent of US consumers use voice search. This means that online stores should also adapt their content to voice search using tools such as Google assistant, Siri or Alexa.
• Chatbots - thanks to machine learning, it is possible to significantly improve customer service and improve their shopping experience.

Omnichannel

The term omnichannel itself is nothing new - nevertheless, it is still a very important element of the marketing landscape. Convergence and customer service across multiple channels allows companies to significantly improve customer experiences and increase sales. According to Statista 67 percent of e-commerce managers indicate that the omnichannel strategy is important from the perspective of business development.

The channels that are particularly worth paying attention to in 2022 include:

• Price comparison engines - presence in both local (such as ceneo.pl) and global (google shopping) comparison websites significantly increases the brand's exposure and allows you to shorten the customer's shopping journey.
• Marketplaces - A marketplace like Amazon, Allegro or Empik.com is the equivalent of a digital shopping center that allows you to compare similar products from different vendors.
• Social - sales through social channels, or social selling, are gaining in importance. It allows users to quickly follow the path from inspiration to purchase.

When using many channels in parallel, it may be helpful to use a good product feed management tool, where you are able to coordinate efforts within one system.

Business and social responsibility

Customers of online stores also pay more and more attention to corporate social responsibility. A report prepared by the Fairtrade Polska organization indicates that up to 57% of respondents are willing to pay more for the products of brands that they know act to improve the social and environmental situation.

From the point of view of stores, two aspects are crucial:

• Origin of products - study done by Open Research shows that the country of origin of a given product is important even for 91 percent of consumers. This means that for a store, providing such information can be an interesting strategy for building a competitive advantage.
• Environmental impact - the country of origin allows customers to make good choices for the community - both local and in other countries, and to support companies that treat their employees fairly. In the case of environmental impacts, the key is the impact on the climate and the planet. Deloitte report indicates that even 81 percent of Polish consumers consider climate change to be a threat to the entire civilization.

When entering such information into product descriptions, there are no obstacles to later display it also in other places of sale, for example marketplaces or price comparison websites. The information that the company is ecological because it does not use plastic fillers and that the packaging is recycled can be displayed like the rest of the product information and encourage customers to choose a specific store.

Personalization

Personalization is one of the key elements of modern e-commerce. Customers get used to the fact that products are advertised tailored to their needs and specific orders.

According to data from LiveClicker, even 90 percent of marketing specialists use some form of message personalization, but few of them use the most advanced techniques, such as recommendation engines. Moreover, for every dollar invested in advanced personalization techniques, they returned up to $ 20 back.

Modern marketing tools allow you to personalize almost any element of communication with the client, including:

• Search engine ads
• Display
• Email marketing
• Social media
• Experience on the site

Direct to consumer

While the previously discussed phenomena concern already stable and operating online stores, in the case of Direct to Consumer the opposite is true. The phenomenon itself means selling products directly to consumers, bypassing intermediaries such as supermarkets or shops.

For obvious reasons, the D2C model is attractive to producers who can offer a more attractive price or increase their margin thanks to online sales. For online stores, this may mean the emergence of new competition that competes for the same customers with similar products.

For stores that live on brokerage, this may mean that it will be necessary to enrich the business model with new benefits other than price in order to retain existing customers and attract new ones.

Summary

From the perspective of online stores, the pandemic and the accompanying lockdowns were a real revolution and a giant leap in customer interest. Phenomena that previously seemed to be only a song of the future have now become, or are just becoming, everyday life.

If you want to talk about the ways in which the above-mentioned trends can be used in your store, please do not hesitate to contact us!