Part one of this two-part series features eCommerce insights from our industry partners.
It’s that time of the year again! Time to slow down for a moment to reflect on what we’ve learned this year: our successes, industry trends, and overall journey. And then onto the new year! We asked a few of our partners to contribute their insights from 2022 and going into 2023. Here are the points that we found the most interesting:
This is an exciting time for the marketing world, with so much innovation – sometimes it feels like changes come overnight! At the same time, this can also make marketing in 2023 feel like an overwhelming task. That’s why we decided to pull in our partners this month, as they all help businesses go farther with their unique products. We hope you find value in the perspectives and solutions each partner brings to the table.
Read on or jump to a specific partner below!
2022 has been a hard year. In the wake of the pandemic storm, we’re immediately hit with the gloom of inflation and other seismic macroeconomic issues. How can we weather the uncertainty that 2023 brings while remaining positive about new business opportunities?
The good news is people are still buying, but the channels have shifted in favor of mobile more than ever before. Statista reports that nearly 20% of all global retail sales happened online in 2021, amounting to more than $5 trillion. And it’s showing no signs of slowing down—that number is expected to reach $7 trillion by 2025. A whopping 72.9% of that $5 trillion happened on mobile devices, up almost 40% since 2016. That’s about $4T of potential walking around in your customers’ pockets. That’s where Tapcart can help your mobile app strategy.
Tapcart is a mobile app platform that helps Shopify eCommerce stores transform their website into a mobile app with zero coding skills required.
Purchasing via mobile app appears to be an emerging favored method for shopping in all product categories, including the fashion, beauty, home goods, health, and food & beverages industries. While some folks shop both online and in stores, those who typically shop by only one method identify apps as their preferred method in all five product categories. The number one reason people prefer mobile apps to mobile websites? Speed. Checkout speed, login speed, loading speed, new product awareness speed, and quick access to discounts via push notifications are all top reasons.
And speed to market is Tapcart’s promise. With the same drag & drop interface as Shopify's eCommerce website builder, Tapcart enables you to create an app and send free push notifications in just a few short weeks vs. months of custom coding. In fact, Tapcart has helped thousands of brands, with stores seeing an average 40%+ conversion rate increase and a 2.4x lift in customer lifetime value.
Samantha Samuels, VP of Partnerships
It’s an exceptionally challenging time to try and accelerate acquisition as a brand right now. Paid ads can be expensive and unpredictable. As people start cutting back on spending, it’s a hard sell to convince a customer to convert with a brand they might not have tried before. That’s where word-of-mouth and loyalty can be really powerful. Having your already loyal customers recommend your brand to their friends and family is a sustainable and cost-efficient way to grow.
One of the best ways to do that is by identifying who your best customers are, and motivating them to refer friends or take whichever actions are most valuable to your business. There are a few ways to identify who your best customers are:
By establishing who your best customers are and motivating them to take action with your Referral and Loyalty program, you'll be able to count on sustainable growth through 2023 no matter what comes your way.
Jon Cogan, Founder of The eCommerce Quarterback
The eCommerce industry is rapidly evolving, with new innovations constantly being developed. Here are the top six eCommerce tech trends for 2023 you should keep in mind to take your business to new heights.
It is projected that digital wallets will account for over 52% of eCommerce transaction value by 2025. Offering multiple payment options at checkout will position your brand as forward-thinking and it will show your customers you have their interests in mind.
Blockchain is a highly secure decentralized digital ledger system. The transaction records are maintained across several computers linked in a peer-to-peer network. This data structure makes an irreversible timeline of data that cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed and is therefore viewed as a more secure, transparent, and trustworthy way to store data.
Mainstream adoption of blockchain technology will, and is already starting to, impact everything from the customer experience and transactions to reward programs, and more.
AI-powered live chat can offer your customers around-the-clock support, but chatbots can also gather valuable feedback and provide personalized product recommendations to increase conversion.
Hosting livestream shopping events will attract traffic, engage shoppers, and drive sales. One of the main benefits of livestream shopping is that it is interactive. Livestream shopping can help build consumer trust by enabling viewers to casually browse while asking questions about your products in real-time. It is estimated that the U.S. livestreaming market is expected to hit $25 billion in 2023.
AR’s biggest advantage is it helps customers feel more confident in their purchases by providing a deeper understanding of product details that can't be shown via pictures or videos.
Building a complex AR experience requires time and money and may not be feasible for every eCommerce business. An easy and affordable place to start is by creating 3D models or 360° images of your products.
Defined most simply, the Metaverse is an immersive computer-generated environment where users can interact with the simulated environment as well as other users.
Due to the high cost of development, the Metaverse is out of reach for most online stores. For now, it is worth keeping your eye on how some of the bigger brands experiment with this new technology for inspiration as Metaverse becomes more mainstream and accessible. The fashion industry has been particularly optimistic about Metaverse’s potential to help brands engage with consumers across the world. Several large brands, such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, are beginning to host immersive fashion shows and sell NFT wearables.
Georgie Walsh, Content Marketing Manager
2022 has been a year of ups and downs. The eCommerce industry has finally been able to welcome shoppers back into brick-and-mortar stores - which is amazing - but on the flip side, we’re now navigating a huge economic downturn, as inflation soars to a 40-year high.
If we look back to the 2008 recession, Shopify was 2 years old and was working hard to grow its customer base from scratch. Fast forward to today and there are several million active Shopify stores! eCommerce has boomed - and with it so has the competition. The rapid growth has enabled the industry to perform well through current adversities but has also made it harder to acquire and retain customers.
So with a looming recession and fiercer-than-ever competition, what can brands do to win in 2023? Simple - focus on retention. By focusing on retention and using a loyalty program, you can provide enough value to make sure that you're the one consumers choose to part their hard-earned money with. You’ll also reduce your acquisition costs and create genuine lasting relationships that will survive these uncertain times. Here are our 3 top tips:
Build CLTV by opting customers into your loyalty program as early as possible, engaging with them in between visits to speed up time to purchase, and re-engaging customers when they become ‘at risk’.
Use your most engaged customers to help you acquire new ones more cost effectively. You can do this by incentivizing customers to leave reviews and giving loyalty points for referring family and friends.
Use your loyalty program to build emotional connections and demonstrate to shoppers that you care about the same things. Allow customers to earn points via activities that do good, such as recycling packaging, or redeem those points in the form of charitable rewards such as tree planting or donations to dog shelters.
As consumers make their way through the customer lifecycle, they expect two-way conversations with the brands they’re engaging with via SMS. Whether they’re looking for a specific product or asking a question about an item they previously purchased, they expect answers in real-time. With Attentive Concierge™, brands can do just that—provide human-powered messaging in real time that authentically reflects brand values, tone, and messaging. Attentive Concierge™ integrates conversational commerce into your SMS program and builds long-term relationships while driving sales across the entire customer lifecycle. And the convenience won’t stop there— in 2023; we expect this trend to continue with the emergence of Text-to-Buy — a new way consumers can complete their purchases through SMS. More about our 2023 predictions.
We also asked Digioh employees to share their experiences from 2022 and where they see the market going in 2023. Here’s a sneak peek below:
“There's so many exciting things on the horizon, but one thing as a consumer or site visitor I'm almost starting to take for granted is that technology remembers things for me. For example, websites that remember me and won't show me a "sign up and save" promotion if I'm already on their email list. Reminders that show me what I was browsing last time. Product recommendation quizzes that remember your results when you come back to the site so you don't have to take them again. I think we're going to continue to make things easier for site visitors and stop asking them the same things over and over again or make them remember where they left off, and I'm here for it.”
-Jace, Senior Designer for Digioh
Stay tuned for part two coming next week, and Happy Holidays from Digioh and our partners!
Zero consumption based pricing with zero limits allows your brand to deploy Digioh across your entire marketing funnel.
.png)
