Ecommerce marketing trends

We asked a group of ecommercemarketing experts for their

predictions about the trends that willshape the industry in 2016.

Here's what they had to say

With so much digital whizzing by us everyday, millennials in particular are looking fora digital detox and to share in real world experiences.

A brand that can offer more than just a product or service and that provides anexperiential element will be remembered and valued. This experience may be an

integral part of the brand or can be built into a marketing campaign.

Either way, the experience will most likely be documented and shared through socialchannels such as Instagram, Snapchat or Whatsapp which brings it full circle back in to

the digital realm.

LISA RODWELLCEO, WOOL & THE GANG

CUSTOMEREXPERIENCE

It's all about the experience now.

I have a two-sided answer: what I predict will happen and what I think should happen.

I think we’ll continue to see the gradual rise in conversion rates on mobile web,a trend which started in September 2014 with the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6plus.

Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable in completing user journeys via mobile.

What should be happening is that companies are working hard to deliver excellent userexperiences via mobile web; however I don’t think this is happening enough.

Forget apps: most retailers don’t have the frequency of interaction with their customer tomake it worthwhile for the customer to download it and keep it.

STUART MCMILLIANDEPUTY HEAD OF E-COMMERCE, SCHUH

MOBILE CONVERSIONRATES

The allure of integrated commerce, community and contenthas been calling digital retail for twenty years, and the time finally seems to have arrived to allow us to craft

exciting and new experiences.

From the merging of fashion media and commerce at Net-A-Porter and MatchesFashion, or the storm of usergenerated content from GoPro users to the extraordinary interiors content at Houzz or our own community

of makers at LoveCrafts, blending media, retail and social engagement opens up new opportunities anddeepens the relationship with your audience.

Jeff Bezos has it right: twenty years later it really is Still Day One -it will be exciting to see what kind of amazing digital experiences can be

built knitting content and community around commerce.

EDWARD GRIFFITHFOUNDER, LOVECRAFTS

CONTENT &

COMMERCE

There are a million products that help you with the mechanics of weboptimisation. That is, to help you test out a bunch of stuff.

But there are very few methods that help you with what to test.

This is an important point - if you're testing out two crappy things, and onewins, it's not the best - it's just the least crap!

Advanced technologies can help you predict what to test now (mine is one ofthem) and this is key. In controlled variant spaces (like product

recommendations or email subject lines) machines can out-perform humans.The technology is nascent but expect to hear a lot about it in 2016 and beyond.

PARRY MALMCEO, PHRASEE

MARKETINGOPTIMISATION

1) As Facebook and Twitter continue to improve their advertising analytics reporting platforms, advertiserswill be able to allocate budget more confidently to social enabling them to

measure ROI more effectively and target customers more accurately on social platforms.

I expect to see more seamless advertisements on social platforms which will often be difficult for the visitorto know what is an advert and what is content.

2) There'll be stricter guidelines around product placements and endorsements from the AdvertisingStandards Authority. The ASA will begin to target Vloggers and Bloggers who clearly ignore the ASA

guidelines. Social platforms may start allowing for Vloggers to clearly label features as advertisements.

3) Content marketing efforts will increase, but large ecommerce retailers still aren't doingenough to create really engaging content that turns visitors into customers. Blog style content and 'outfit of

the day' editorial will no longer be enough to drive traffic from social platforms to ecommerce website.

CARL HENDYDIGITAL ECOMMERCE CONSULTANT

AD ANALYTICS,

LEGISLATION & CONTENT

The ad networks, including social, have accelerated the introduction of targeting tools foradvertisers in 2015 as the fight for increasing media spend (especially on mobile) intensifies.

Perhaps the best example is Google’s Customer Match, which enables marketers to ‘follow’signed-in users across devices and deliver highly personalised content and promotions. I know

several retailers and many agencies/consultants already planning how to test this and integrateit into the media mix.

It needs careful thinking though because you can’t deliver relevant personalised content withoutfirst having the right data on the customer. I can already see strong use cases for areas like

loyalty, rewarding high value/loyal customers with unique content and promotions. The otherapplication I’d expect to see is funnel remarketing, expanding from the standard email approach

to using advertising as a tool for nudging people back to sites to complete their purchase.

An increase in personalised marketing.

JAMES GURDFOUNDER, DIGITAL JUGGLER

PERSONALISATION

1) Going deeper and getting more creative when it comes to social media customer acquisition -using a mix of content units and ecommerce advertising. Especially for independent ecommerce

brands. Content units are the new ad units.

2) More, more and more branded ecommerce sites will also start posting their products directlyto Amazon, Etsy, and other online marketplaces to expand reach with mainstream (Amazon)

and niche (Etsy, Scoutmob).

This is easier than ever now that Shopify and Amazon have joined forces. Shopify sellers willsoon be able to export and post listings directly to Amazon, synchronising product, customer and

order data between the platforms. This means you can get all the benefits of Amazon’s hugecustomer base and traffic alongside all the customisation and individuality of your own branded

ecommerce site.

3) Ecommerce sellers will take care of their best alpha customers with a combination of premiumcustom content and concierge services.

JED WEXLERCEO, 818 AGENCY

MARKETPLACES, CONTENT &

HERO CUSTOMERS

For me the big thing next year will be next-level personalisation in CRM and othermarketing - going way beyond the "Hello *|FNAME|*".

I want to create marketing experiences that make people go, "how did they do that?".

It will be about understanding the customer, their relationship with other customersand the creative approach that appeals specifically to them. This requires smart

customer databases that can hold all this information, as well as systems that candynamically generate personalised content and insert it into different channels. It will

be so cool.

IRA WICHMANNHEAD OF LOYALTY, LOST MY NAME

PERSONALISATION

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