5 predictions for ecommerce in 2015

#1 STORYTELLING Marketing and Commerce will continue to converge as the main agenda becomes getting future customers to be moved by the message. It wont longer be sufficient to focus on changing colors on buttons to convert visitors to customers. Brands will be more transparent and personal. Brands will not just make their products available for purchase online they will have to create concept stores online where the brandbuilding and e-commerce are integrated parts of the customer experience.

Content + Marketing + Commerce = Conversion?

Subtrends: Content marketing, Content Commerce, Conversion rate optimization, Brands are publishers

#2 RETENTIONThe excessive focus on attracting NEW customers will fade and we shift focus to serving

existing customers better. The first step for many brands is to invest in a eCRM setup, where customer data is transferred to the email-marketing or CRM system and can then be used to

send tailored messages to existing customers.

Subtrends: Loyalty clubs, eCRM, Marketing Automation, After sales process, big data, CLTV

#3 PERSONALIZATIONLeveraging upon the abundance of data that we leave behind when we are surfing on the net e-commerce sites will attempt to personalize the shopping experience. In an effort to make their offerings even more relevant and compelling ecommerce companies will focus more on personalization. To leverage the data that they have and try to predict what the customer wants, and display that content or products. The first step for many brands is to invest in a eCRM setup, where customer data is transferred to the email-marketing or CRM system and can then be used to send tailored messages to existing customers.

Subtrends: CEM, Customer journey, targeting, big data, Marketing Automation

#4 OMNICHANNELA widespread adoption of omnichannel strategies probably won’t happen in 2015 either but we will se more and more attempts to streamlining the shopping experience across channels.

Subtrends: Mobile commerce, In-store analytics, In-store online POS, in-store pick-up

#5 ORGANIZATIONIn 2015 ecommerce organisations and the roles within these organisations will be more clearly defined. The growth of ecommerce and digital marketing has spawned an enormous amount of new titles and roles. Companies are struggling to figure out what they mean and how they fit in to their organizations. The often isolated ecommerce departments in bigger retail companies are clearly a big obstacle if you want to achieve omnichannel experiences.