How to lead the pack in 2022
2021 saw a continued rise in the ever increasing growth of mobile eCommerce - what will 2022 bring?
Interactivity is the name of the game. Selling with decent product images is still important, but for more and more products, Visual Commerce is where it's at.
This started with simply enough; a shirt that comes in two colours. The retailer would upload two photos, and the customer could see the image change as they selected their options.
Straightforward.
In 2021, we saw high end, complex products, take this to the next level. If you start to look at the Apple store, or companies like made.com, every product comes with a way of visualising it.
Gone are the days of buying a product without knowing exactly what it looks like.
This is a huge challenge for all retailers, made all the harder for those that sell complex made to order items, like the furniture sector. When manufacturers simply don't supply the images, there have to be alternatives.
Digitally Rendered Images
One option is to invest in your own assets. This isn't a cheap solution, but can give you the images you need. You can either have unique images made for every eventuality or start from a single monochrome image, to which textures and colours can be applied.
This can be perfect for a sofa, for example, which comes in one shape, but 100 colours.
Augmented Reality
You might remember this from the Pokemon Go craze a few years ago, but the concept is still out there. Essentially, the customer uses the smartphone's camera on their device; an app then superimposes the product into the space.
The idea is that the customer can see exactly how the product will look.
This works equally well for furniture, which can be placed into the room, or for fashion, as they can have a pair of shoes rendered on their feet.
It's still a little gimmicky, but some of the big players are getting involved, so watch out.
Product Wizards
The last approach is a little simpler; companies like All3D and Cylindo are offering retailers the chance to show images that alter 'on the fly' as the customer selects their options.
This is a little more complex than the shirt example (take a look at one we built for J Marshall below), in that you're not changing the whole image, but parts of it.
You want a red bed with silver legs and purple cushions? No problem. You want to try that with green cushions? Easy!
For added interactivity, a lot of these models can be made 3D, so the customer can view the product from all angles.
Typical companies run too many bits of software. Sure, Office 365 is essential, but are all of them? Magento and Shopify users are forced to use plugins to solve every problem, which can lead to dozens of active pieces of software on a single website.
Even something as simple as eCommerce tracking quickly becomes complex. You might use Full Story or Hot Jar to build up heatmaps, Google Analytics to track site traffic, and yet another solution for A/B testing. If you're looking to bring in store sales into the mix, you're looking at yet another solution that will allow you to match sales data with customer location; it all gets very complicated.
Complex order management might require integrations with couriers like DHL, DPD, and Royal Mail, as well as links to ERP systems, Order Management solutions like Veeqo or shiphero, and many more.
Each one of these integrations has it's own pitfalls and crucially, it's own maintenance requirements. What this means is that a typical system is reliant on many plugins; if one fails, it all fails.
The solution is to consolidate your tech stack.
A well-designed platform, offering bespoke solutions, can reduce the need for unreliable (and expensive) third party solutions. That's why Unified Commerce solutions like OMNIS Retail are on the rise; they provide a really simple solution to the problem of omnichannel sales and reporting. With all of your data in one place, there's no need to build a hodgepodge of systems that struggles to communicate.
It just works; lower costs, increased efficiencies, fewer errors.
We've catalogued the issues our clients see on a day to basis, as well as how to avoid them.
Nearly 80% of Brits use social media - a huge marketplace
A lot of companies will already be advertising on social media - Facebook and Instagram are two of the most popular - this is a great place to start. If you're still on the fence, or think social media isn't for your business, just think; the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit has already be used 8 billion times!
Here are just a couple of things to look out for in 2022.
Social Selling
This is a way of using social media to find new business prospects. In short, you would use your social media channels to reach out and build a network - it's relationship building.
In a lot of ways, this is just an extension of a traditional social media policy, but when you tie in the continued growth of the sector, the prevalence of smartphone use and the growing presence of influencers, it's a sector that is only going to grow!
Livestream Shopping
Like so many things, this has come to us from China, where it's already proved to be a big hit. There, Tik Tok lets users purchase items straight from the app, and as of December 2022, they're doing the same in the UK.
Now, Tik Tok is great, but it's userbase is skewed young, predominantly under 20s, so if that's your target market, then great, but otherwise, how does this affect you?
Well, where one goes, others will follow.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube all allow users to go 'Live', and all allow adverts. It's just a short hop to allowing in app purchases.
How do you prefer to pay?
The eCommerce customer is used to being in charge. When they shop at the big brands, they have come to expect a certain way of life, especially when it comes to payments.
PayPal and credit cards are a given, but they're far from the only options out there.
Klarna
In 2020, Klarna grew from a small player to a global giant, backed by a huge investment and aggressive marketing. They've managed to grow a name so big that many customers in their teens and twenties won't shop unless they can use a Klarna checkout. If you're not offering it to them, then you're missing out on a huge demographic.
Apple and Google Pay
Unhelpfully, a lot of traditional payment providers still haven't integrated Apple and Google Pay into their systems, but a big part of your customer base is still coming to expect them; that means you could be looking at a complicated integration or some costly development.
Luckily, forward-thinking payments providers like Stripe are able to provide an all-in-one package that can be integrated with any eCommerce website.
It's certainly something to consider if you're looking to boost your conversion rate!
Would you like to know more?If you want to succeed in 2022, you need an eCommerce platform that's built for the modern retailer. IXO Commerce comes with all the features you need to make it a successful year!
Manage your stock with purchase orders, stock transfers, warehousing. Process orders and returns and watch your stock figures update in real-time.
View your profitability online through sales and customer reporting, while managing your employees through the admin activity log.
Whether you're pushing products to Google Shopping or you're managing stores in eBay and Amazon, IXO Commerce ties everything together.
We have a lot of experience working with third-party systems, from accounts packages like Sage and Xero to mailing systems such as Mailchimp.
Enterprise level eCommerce, tailored for each client by our team of dedicated developers. XTRO eCommerce features a comprehensive suite of leading edge features, including personalisation and intelligent merchandising to drive performance and deliver higher levels of user engagement and conversions.