The Year Ahead: What Does 2017 hold for Ecommerce ?

Anyone familiar with online business will be acutely aware that ecommerce never stops evolving. Neither do consumer trends. Indeed, the former influences and drives the latter – and vice versa. So what does the near future hold for ecommerce? Here are some predictions for what’ll be hot and not in 2017…

 

A pretty safe bet to start off with, given that last autumn handheld devices overtook desktop/ PC as the preferred device-type for online access, while in the UK mobile also replaced desktop as the preferred method for Internet shopping (the former claiming 58.7% of purchases). It’s also believed that mobile-use will drive up ecommerce-derived revenue by more than half this year. Which is big news, whichever way you slice it.

 

Perhaps a less expected development in 2017 – at least among those not that familiar with ecommerce – is the likelihood alternative payment methods will carve out an ever larger market share. Why? Well, on the one hand consumers appear to feel increasingly unsure about card payment security, while on the other retailers are becoming ever more confident in the improving functionality and reliability of smart platforms like biometric security payments. In which case, alternative payment providers like PayPal, Google Wallet and Amazon Pay could well enjoy a bumper year. And yet, all that said, if you’re a hotelier it’s absolutely imperative to ensure your site’s properly kitted out with a high-quality, reliable hotel website booking engine ; without one you’re seriously missing out on direct bookings and payments – and all the non-OTA-derived revenues they bring.

 

Nowadays, last touch attribution – the last click a customer makes on their journey to an online purchase – is rightly looked on as an unfair model for what’s (not) effective in a campaign. Ever evolving digital technology (we’re talking smarter and more nuanced algorithmic attribution models here) could well see 2017 spell the end for last touch attribution. Clearly, understanding the full user journey to purchase is what’s necessary; not just ascertaining the last step that got someone there. To that end, the attribution of each and every touchpoint in the process – right through contact to purchase – needs to be understood to give thorough and fair insight into the efficacy of a marketing campaign. Goodbye then, last touch attribution; hello, better analysis and improved understanding.

 

Take 10 consumers and ask how many of them like pop-ups and you probably won’t be able to count the answer on either hand – because it’ll be zero. When it comes to the online experience, few things are as unpopular as pop-ups; so much do they irritatingly get in the way of content. They’re simply no longer an effective way to engage Internet users. In which case, their day has surely come, not least thanks to so many better, more sophisticated and less intrusive tools for onsite engagement and information. 2017 then may also see the death knell of the pop-up – and few will mourn its passing.