The COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous sectors to reevaluate their business strategy, as global economic projections for the future have fallen through.
However, while a huge percentage of brands are struggling to adapt to the negative situation, eCommerce companies tell a much more positive story.
E-commerce businesses are experiencing a major boost in consumer demand even as challenges spring up elsewhere for the sector.
Understanding COVID-19's Effect on Online Retail Trends
While it was a no-brainer to predict that nation-wide "stay at home" orders and widespread social distancing rules would lead to a rise in eCommerce trends, the long-term effects of that spike in demand may not be that obvious.
If online retailers expect consumer habits to go back to the way they were before COVID-19 they are in for a shocker that'll sweep them off their feet in the competitive eCommerce space. In other words, quarantine shopping has become a new normal.
That's because statistics show that online shopping in economic terms is "sticky" consumer behaviour.
A sticky behaviour is one that gets so entrenched and hard to change, eventually becoming permanent.
If you’ve been studying online retail trends for the last 10 years, you’ll be aware that online spending stays consistent for the first 3 quarters before rising in Q4 as the holiday buying season comes along.
However, the spend doesn’t level off after Q4, locking in e-commerce gains to set higher baselines for the new year.
These trends came about because fresh consumer groups gave online shopping a shot during the holiday season.
And while they may have intended to make just a few purchases, the positive experience encountered caused them to shift their buying habits permanently.
What started as shopping online for just a holiday gift slowly transitions into making daily purchases from online stores.
So now that we've got some clarity on how eCommerce trends work here's what online retail will look like post-COVID.
1. Sustained E-commerce Boom
Online sales rose by about 50% at the height of the pandemic as consumers were under lockdown regulations but continued shopping.
E-commerce will continue to experience the boost that came with the pandemic, especially now that people have made online purchases part of their regular shopping routines.
However, to take advantage of this interest spike most eCommerce brands will put a greater emphasis on SEO as a marketing channel and virtual sales.
Here's why. Data reveals that 39% of e-commerce traffic stems from search. And users loath paid ads. With research suggesting that 80% of users ignore paid ads in the search engine result pages.
So if the target audience rises and users hate paid ads, you can only expect brands to use search engine optimization to capture the rising consumer numbers.
2. Empathetic Marketing will Continue
We're already seeing a lot of businesses transition from outright selling to creating altruistic and emotional ads, and you can expect that to keep happening.
E-commerce brands will focus on building relationships and doing good rather than simply pushing products.
Due to the impending recession and widespread unemployment, consumers will be more careful about their spending.
This will cause businesses to focus on how to create messages that connect with their target audience than tone-deaf marketing.
What this means is that you can expect a surge in brands using word-of-mouth marketing to reach their target audience, which is the most trusted marketing channel.
Consumers trust recommendations from family and friends more than any advertising story.
Trust deals with emotional connections and when your target audience trusts your brand because of word-of-mouth recommendations you achieve the aim of emphatic marketing.
Consumers would want to spend only where they have trust in the product or brand.
3. More Automation
The eCommerce sphere is about to experience a huge automation boom. Businesses had automation in their plan for the future, but in a lot of cases the timeline has hastened up to satisfy safer fulfilment environments.
Many online retailers began automating their supply chains to control human exposure and adhere to government guidelines.
Take for instance Predictive dialers - these systems automatically calculate and even predict agent availability, and then automatically make calls so that your agents do not have to. This prevents downtime when agents are connected to calls that never get answered and maximizes agent productivity in all kinds of dialing modes.
It's much more efficient to fulfil orders via a robot than human employees who have to stick to social distancing rules.
Many businesses decide to “hire” free chatbots to automate repetitive tasks such as answering FAQ. taking orders or rescue abandoned carts. This step does not only speed up the sales process but also eliminates the need for human interaction thus saving time and money.
Here’s an example of this in practice, courtesy of PoochBandana, where a bot welcomes site visitors and guides them through the shopping experience.
Source: PoochBandana
These automation processes will probably remain and spill over into most aspects of running an eCommerce store.
Why?
Because of the stay at home orders, most companies found out it was possible to shift operations 100% remote and still stay profitable by using the right automation tools.
Data shows that 54% of Americans want to continue working remotely post COVID.
This will cause most businesses, e-commerce inclusive, to rely on various automation solutions like email, marketing and content automation and collaboration tools to aid smooth business operations.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot of things globally and introduced new trends into the eCommerce sphere and business.
However, post-COVID, most of such introductions are here to stay. And to stay competitive in the game you must identify what these shifts are as well as how to plan your marketing strategy to satisfy them.
By understanding the trends listed out in this piece you can craft a marketing strategy that works not just now but long after the pandemic season fades out.