This document summarizes key trends in ecommerce, including growth in online shopping and changing customer demographics. It notes that the global ecommerce market is expected to hit 3.8 billion users by 2021, up 10% from the prior year. New industries like health and wellness have moved online. Mobile shopping has increased significantly, with 73% of sales projected to occur on mobile by the end of 2021. Younger generations are increasing their online spending more than older customers. Abandoning purchases at checkout is a major issue for retailers. The document also discusses smarter delivery and customer communications options, environmental concerns of consumers, and the need for brands to adapt their customer experience to new online expectations.
6. Harry Dance Justin Wanstall Tim McCarthy
Head of Digital Marketing Digital Production Director Head of Customer Delivery
harry@kayo.digital justin@kayo.digital tim.mccarthy@maxoptra.com
26. New Industries Online
• Health & Wellbeing
• Fitness Equipment
• Pharmaceutical
• Local food & drink
• Home DIY
• Garden Furniture
https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-24-uk-businesses-now-offering-delivery-services-due-lockdown
27. Growth in mobile shopping
Since 2016, sales made via mobile
devices increased by 15%.
By the end of 2021, 73% of ecommerce
sales will take place on a mobile device.
28. Since the pandemic began, 33% of
Gen Z/millennials (aged 16 to 35)
consumers have increased their online
spending
Verses 23% of consumers in older
generations
Source: https://www.asicentral.com/news/newsletters/promogram/june-2020/study-gen-z-millennials-flock-to-e-commerce/
Changing customer demographics
29. Number 1 reason for basket abandonment at checkout?!
Source https://www.sendcloud.co.uk/ecommerce-statistics/
Other reasons
(multiple answer survey)
Free Delivery / Incentivised Delivery
31. Environmental factors
Half of digital consumers say environmental concerns impact their purchasing decisions.
https://blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-week/green-consumerism/
% Who say the following people/bodies are more responsible for the
future of the environment
% Who agree that they would pat more for eco-friendly product
32. Customer experience is essential -
Brands must adapt or risk becoming
irrelevant
Never has the consumer expected more of businesses.
Of the 75% of consumers who say they tried different
online brands during the pandemic, 60% expect to
integrate the new brands and stores into their post-
COVID lives.
Source https://maxoptra.com/holt-farm-case-study - https://maxoptra.com/sambrooks-brewery-case-study
Customers are 89% more likely to by from brands the follow on social media
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-for-retail
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Editor's Notes
Online sales doubled.
Spike in online sales what hasn’t dropped
Online sales doubled.
Spike in online sales what hasn’t dropped
Online sales doubled.
Spike in online sales what hasn’t dropped
Online sales doubled.
Spike in online sales what hasn’t dropped
Online sales doubled.
Spike in online sales what hasn’t dropped
Changing consumer spending habits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic contributed to the spike in ecommerce sales last year as national lockdowns and fear of contracting the virus kept consumers out of physical retail stores.
Retailers that saw success in the first UK lockdown were those who were able to accommodate the change in people’s buying habits - which essentially occurred overnight. Big players such as Amazon saw website traffic increases of 25% in May 2020 compared to February of the same year.
Amidst the changing landscape, businesses were left scrambling to keep up and platforms such as Shopify saw meteoric rises of 178% in their share value. Shopify’s success was attributable to the fact that it offers a quick start approach to setting up an ecommerce website with a significant number of useful tools and features available out of the box for a small monthly fee. To give some context, after Amazon and Ebay, Shopify is now officially the third largest online retail platform.
The success of retailers during the pandemic, regardless of their platform choice has been achieved by extending the traditional ecommerce model. The success of time home delivery and curb side pickup shows that whilst people are happy to order online, brand loyalty and repeat business is far more likely to increase when the website they purchase from can provide a personal service to their door.
2020 caused a lot of people to re-evaluate what was important to them and more importantly to their wallets. Savings being made on reduced commuting and global travel bans accelerated the growth of merchants who catered for their loyal customers as people replaced shopping rituals and self-rewards with online buying alternatives which triggered a boom in the subscription model - anything from Razor blades to Avocados now being available as subscription products.
The pandemic has left an enduring mark on consumer landscape but most people don’t realise just how far reaching the impact has been. I’m sure most people have seen the Amazon delivery drivers turning up at your neighbours house more often but when you take a step back and look at the figures, the changes are astounding.
150 million new people shopped online for the FIRST time
According to a global survey across 11 markets by Shopify, 84% of consumers shopped online during the pandemic
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 years of ecommerce growth happened in just 90 days.
Ecommerce reached an all-time high of 16.4% of total global retail sales
and in Europe alone this reprints growth of almost 20%
The kind of progression that would have taken years, took just a few weeks for some merchants.
Let’s get back to the future. Key drivers for success are easier than you think.
Focus on personalised delivery where possible. Even if you’re already serving customers nationally - If you are able to split inbound orders into those within a set radius of your business premises and deliver them personally you’ll build loyalty and engagement.
Keep delivery costs simple, make sure it’s fast. If you’re using a courier then make sure you offer a branded experience with simple touches such as your own parcel tape and packaging to maximise brand exposure
Strive for excellent across customer touch points, offer friendly customer service and easy returns
Communicate to your audience in a consistent way, be friendly and approachable. We’re all humans!
Drive loyalty – by combining those items already mentioned it should occur naturally but why not incentivise customers with monetary rewards or even free gifts? You can link rewards to spend or new referrals.
Shopify recently updated their payment engine to allow for subscriptions which shows just how important the subscription model is becoming for online retailers, it’s easy to get started and nothing is off limits when it comes to subscriptions. Remember that consumers worldwide are buying items they rarely purchased online before the pandemic, like groceries, health and hygiene, and home essentials. Things they will likely want to receive at regular intervals.
Script Editor – Automated custom pricing & promotions e.g. Buy One Get One Free - Create Product bundles and product combination offers. You can even use it identify VIP customers based on the number of orders and apply rewards automatically.
Shopify Flow allows you to automate workflows and simplify management of your store, for example hiding out of stock products, sending customised thank you messages for large customer orders.
Editable checkout pages – Sounds like a given but Shopify being a fully hosted platform keeps tight controls over its payment pages. With the option to edit you can modify you can add in extra information, we do this with Parsons Nose to show the delivery date they selected
A new feature from Shopify since the pandemic as a result of greater remote working, you can see when someone is editing the same product as you
Extra priority for support issues, Shopify Plus is for high volume stores and their support team provide rapid round the clock assistance when needed
Fat fingers
Simple solutions are often the best
Allow customers to choose if they want to come and collect their order or have it delivered. Shopify provides this functionality by default but using third party apps (we recommended Zapiet) you can take this further and allow customers to choose exactly when they want it delivered or when they want to collect – this makes it easier for you to plan your business operations!
Offering free shipping to the customer doesn’t make your job any easier. By using Shipper HQ or Ship Station you can integrate your store with the major courier companies and automate shipping labels and tracking notifications for your customers.
For personal delivery planning we’d recommend our friends at MaxOptra. Orders can be uploaded in bulk and routes planned at the click of a button and it even comes with a mobile app for driver navigation and signature recording
Either chat bots or live chat are known to convert browsing customers into purchasing ones. You can start with simple free solutions such as Tawk.To and later progress to more automated systems for round the clock customer service
Loyalty specific software such as Loyalty Lion offer a highly configurable way to implement incentives. Customers can start earning points for each pound they spend with you that can be redeemed as vouchers off their next order. You can even configure bonus rewards when they perform a certain activity such as liking your Facebook page or referring a friend.
Adding subscriptions to your products is easy using tools like ReCharge for Shopify, your customers can choose the frequency of when they receive your product and of course you get to increase the lifetime value of customers and continue to engage them with your brand.
Bespoke development don’t have to carry a hefty price tag and can quickly add value to your business operations. Pulling data out of your ecommerce system and generating a report which shows you which products you need in stock on which day is an easy win and fairly easy to achieve by accessing the system’s API to gather data and convert it. You might want to do reporting to identify gaps in delivery zones for example.
Strive to unify as much of your business software as you can. When choosing new tools, always check whether they’re compatible with other software you’re using. Remember what might seem impossible to you can be easy for experienced developers, don’t be afraid to ask!