E-commerce Takeaways from ClickZ’s 2016 Digital Trends Report

The Digital Essentials, Part 3

Developing a robust digital strategy is both a challenge and an opportunity. Part 3 of the Digital Essentials guide series explores five of the essential technology-driven experiences customers expect, which you may be missing or not fully utilizing.

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ClickZ recently released its Digital Trends 2016 Report which gathers insights from various digital marketing experts and discusses the digital landscape and expectations for the upcoming year’s trends. While the report covers many different areas of digital marketing, here are the main takeaways from the e-commerce section of the report. To read the takeaways from the search trends section, read my last post.
Free Shipping Becomes the Expectation 
Shoppers are looking for free shipping more often than ever. In fact, a majority of shoppers even consider abandoning the purchase if free shipping is not an option. According to ClickZ’s report, “Research by Wharton found that 61 per cent of customers are ‘somewhat likely’ to cancel a purchase if free shipping is not offered, and over half of checkout abandonment is due to delivery costs.”
With programs like Amazon Prime offering fast and free shipping, retailers are under even more pressure to make shipping quick, cheap, and convenient. This will be a significant factor in 2016 business strategies.
On-Site Personalization
Not only do e-commerce teams use user data to tailor and personalize their marketing strategies, but in 2016 it’s likely we’ll see more personalization on-site as well. Imagine a website customizing the home page to show you products you are most likely to be interested in based on your past shopping history. This could be the year that we see that kind of personalization coming to the forefront.
Social Strategy Shift of Focus
Most companies know how important it is to utilize social media marketing, however, social media engagement is now becoming more about focusing on conversions than simply developing relationships. Integration of analytics into social media marketing efforts will fuel success as marketers tailor their efforts to be as relevant as possible to the user.
Testing and Optimization Strategies
Many e-commerce businesses will be increasing investment in testing and optimizing the website, which will be important to stay relevant. Testing leads to making decisions that can have a significant impact on interaction and conversion rate. Once you’ve succeeded in your acquisition efforts, it’s important that you work to get the most out of those visitors.