Today's business world is all about eCommerce ? about you being able to do business and to buy whatever you want, from the comfort of your own home. Instead of waddling through stores, losing your time and energy, harassing salespeople, you can just sit back and do everything with just a couple of clicks. And of course, any good company should take advantage of this.
These eCommerce platforms exist online, and so, like everything on the internet, they are subject to change and evolution at a rapid pace. You need to keep your ears to the ground and watch for any new trends, functionalities, and options that may show up. Below you can see some trends that may appear for 2019.
Focus on mobile
A great deal of online shopping is done via mobile. This plays nicely into the notion that eCommerce is all about the comfort of the customer. In fact, in the USA, for example, mobile commerce brought in over 450 billion dollars! Now, mobile optimization for websites and platforms is nothing new. In fact, these options have been present for some time now. The difference here is that before they were a nice bonus. Now, and especially in 2019, this will simply be a must. There is little chance that you can be successful if you don?t optimize your website. The competition will, simply put, burry you. However, there is another point here that needs to be made ? Google?s algorithms.
You want your platform name to be as close to the top of Google?s first page as possible. The way you can achieve this is by utilizing Google?s algorithms. The thing here is that slowly but surely, Google has been implementing mobile-first indexing.
What this means is that mobile optimization will carry a great deal of weight and power for the relevant algorithms. The main issue here is that even if people search your company and services without using their phones, you will still see a drop in your rankings.
So the takeaway here is that you need to prioritize mobile optimization as soon as possible. And do not do it halfheartedly. Set up proper load times, check if your design responds to mobile properly, and optimize all images and other elements as soon as possible.
Creating communities of buyers
The internet has been a place for communities to grow and expand for a long time. You can find forums and websites dedicated to certain brands and products. However, for 2019, you want to have a hand in doing this, not just letting things go their own way. You should aim at creating a community for your company?s brand, you want fans and followers, not just regular consumers. Then, you want to give them the ability to buy products from you easily. You can accomplish this in several ways.
First of all, set up your social media networks. Writing the best blog posts you can go a long way, but focusing on other media, such as videos and infographics, is also a good idea. Create interesting content, or at least post it on your social media. You should also try to contact and communicate with existing forums and groups.
Google updates
Any good SEO company, like?GWM agency, will tell you that SEO is paramount if you want to get your company or platform out there. But, they will also tell you to search for changes and movements in the market, seek out new trends and ideas. One of these changes that we should all prepare for when 2019 comes around are updates Google makes that will be relevant to SEO. Namely, Google, as is custom, continually tweaks and refines its algorithms. The new focus seems to be time on page, and bounce rates.
Clickbait has unfortunately been king for some time now. But, it seems things are moving towards how much time users spends on a certain page. This, in turn, means that pages with better and more informative content will prosper, while clickbait will, hopefully, become weaker and weaker. You also want to keep your site as fast as possible. Minimalism and quality content is key here.
New tech
Having all spheres of your website development in line is, of course, important. Getting the basics down will not be useful. However, looking at new and exciting technology can be just as important. One of the things that have been talked about the most for some time now is AR. Augmented reality has incredible and varied functionality. For example, IKEA has an app where you use their dedicated AR app to place furniture and other items into your own home. This gives you an unprecedented insight into a product. The same goes for clothing or accessories. A customer can then know exactly whether a product is right for them or not, instead of spending time browsing items offered by other companies.
Conclusion
The future is no! Yes, corny, we know ? but true nonetheless. If you want to be and stay competitive, you need to follow all the trends that are right there, behind the corner. Speak with influencers and people in the field, educate yourself as much as you can. Google is continually updating its algorithms, focusing on time on page and bounce rates. New technology, led by AR, is going to change the eCommerce landscape. Mobile optimization is not an advantage anymore, but a must. And of course, communities of buyers are here to stay.
