If there is anything that can be said about eCommerce in 2016 with some degree of certainty, it’s that in the next 12 months we will see all kinds of barriers gradually disappear. Without a doubt, this will have a profound impact on the way eCommerce works to acquire and retain customers. Learn what you can do to benefit from that phenomena in the immediate as well as distant future.

1. GET THE MOST OUT OF
ECOMMERCE
TRENDS 2016
WITH THESE SEVEN
ACTIONABLE TIPS
by

2. 2016
Various sales and marketing channels are coinciding with each other.
They produce a synergy effect that can take your eCommerce business
to the next level.
Go ahead and see what we mean!
start
2016 is the year of disappearing
barriers and blurring boundaries.

3. 2016
Over half of the marketers surveyed in 2015 believe that social media
has a direct impact on sales.
Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest offer new exciting sales opportunities
with sales buttons or even...
...the ability to sell directly on your social media channel!
How to take advantage of this sales-driven social channel?
Social media and sales go together.#1

4. #1
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
Are you using Magento? Test Magento plugins that allow your
users to log in with their social media accounts.
Check social eCommerce apps such as Facebook’s StoreYa.
Test all kinds of new ways to sell through or with the help of social media channels.
Invest in rich content dedicated to social media.
Check which social media channels convert best in your niche (e.g. Pinterest is
more efficient with products purchased mostly by women, Twitter does well with
professionals).

5. 2016
The offline and online worlds are coming together as well.
BeaconsandtheBluetoothLowEnergytechnologyarefinallybecoming
as popular as they have been hinted to be for the last few years.
You can communicate with your clients inside your brick and mortar
store based on where they are and what they are looking at.
Is it still offline?#2

6. #2
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
Learnmoreaboutwhatleadingbeaconmanufacturersoffer(Blue
Sense, Estimote, Kontakt.io among others).
Find out more about proximity technologies.
Visit the website of the Bluetooth standard and learn more about
Bluetooth Low Energy.
Buy a few beacons.
Hire a software house to develop an app for them and…
...test, test, test.

7. 2016
Augmented and virtual reality have been on the rise for a few years -
they will have reached $150 billion by 2020.
Butonlynowaretheybecomingaccessibleenoughtomakeadifference
for your business.
You can now use an app like Cimagine to let your customer visualize
how your product will look like in their apartment.
Virtual and augmented reality for eCommerce?
It’s closer than you think!#3

8. #3
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
Investigate different ways to use AR and VR in your eCommerce
business.
Check out Angel List to find many startups that offer innovative
AR/VR solutions.
Implement an AR solution on your website.
UseA/BtestingtofindoutifproductpagesthatusetheARmodule
convert better.

9. 2016
According to IDC, the big data and advanced analytics market will be
growing at a rate of over 20% per year.
Dataisusedwidelybybusinesses,butrealtimedataonlynowisstarting
to be considered an asset.
With real time data, your marketing team can instantly react to
unexpectedeventssuchasashorttermriseinthepopularityofacertain
product.
When it comes to data, time is real.#4

10. #4
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
ExplorefreeandpowerfulanalyticstoolssuchasGoogleAnalytics
or Piwik to take advantage of real time data.
Use various tools available on the market that let you benefit from real time data.
Kissmetrics Live allows you to instantly check whether a marketing process you
developed (such as events triggered when making a purchase or adding items to a cart)
works properly, since you can go through the process yourself and see results on the fly.
Crazy Egg produces heatmaps, the visualization of how your users navigate through
your website. Use it to give more exposure to your most important sections.

11. 2016
Marketers can see more clearly now that acquiring new customers is
more costly than making them stay.
It is thanks to an increasingly data-driven decision-making process.
A bigger focus on the cost efficiency of retention also means that
acquisition itself will in turn focus more on getting as many leads as it’s
possible - regardless of costs.
The underestimated power of retention#5

12. #5
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
Try to use your data to find out how much it costs you to acquire
a new user from each channel separately.
Think about customer retention strategies. Marketing
automation may be the way to go.
Tools such as Hubspot Workflows can send automated emails
in bulk to keep your existing customers informed and pleased.
You can also use marketing automation to acquire customers
gradually (nurturing process).

13. 2016
Content marketing now rivals advertising as an acquisition tool.
According to Demand Metrics, it generates three times as many leads
for the same price.
In 2016 content marketing will be more successful than ever before as
a marketing strategy.
You may actually not need ads#6

14. #6
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
Estimate how much of your budget is spent on outbound marketing.
What kind of content can you create to entertain and involve your
target audience and at the same time support your sales?
What kind of content do they find valuable?
Answerthesequestionsanddevelopafully-fledgedcontentmarketing
strategy.

15. 2016
eCommerce has always been a race.
It’sincreasinglybecomingaliteralraceaspagespeed’sbecomingamake
or break feature for eCommerce sites.
But now, with Amazon Prime’s same-day delivery, the meaning of “race”
in eCommerce has again been redefined.
Longstoryshort-youhavetobecomeevenfasterifyouwanttocompete
for the top spot in your niche.
It’s a race#7

16. #7
What you can do today:
To do later this year:
Improve your delivery - use quality inventory management
software.
Itmayprovideyouwithdataontheperformanceofyoursuppliers.
Consider drop shipping as a delivery method.
Try to shorten your delivery time as much as you can.
Make it your competitive advantage.
If you succeed, tell your customers about it. They’re waiting for
this!

17. A lot of what’s happening in 2016 is just a continuation of the trends
that have been slowly emerging for years. But this time, the pace of the
changes and the phenomenon of these different worlds coming together
is becoming really apparent.
Make sure that you don’t get left behind - act today!
FINISH