If you want to have a dropshipping store that’s raving with sales, you need to stay informed.
And I’m not just talking about marketing strategies, by the way, I’m talking about the whole nine yards (e.g., ecommerce trends, product research methods, ecommerce technologies, etc.).
After all, depending on the crucial piece of information that you obtain, you can very well come across strategies that will enable you to spy on your competitors and dominate them, or, at the very least, get an increase in your sales.
To give you a head start at keeping abreast of the recent — let alone, important — happenings in the ecommerce space, allow me to share with you these ecommerce trends.
1. Workflow Automation
A trend that will continue for years to come is the need for ecommerce businesses to evolve and become more streamlined.
Taking action on this trend would require you to have the right set of tools to nudge your business process towards efficiency.
The good news is, the web has an ocean of automation tools that you can take advantage of.
One such tool is Oberlo, an ecommerce solution that helps its users automate their product integration process from their suppliers to their online shop.
The Oberlo plugin lets you import product details and marketing information directly from suppliers to your Shopify store with just a few simple clicks — allowing for seamless product integration.
In the screenshot below, you can use the Oberlo product integration feature by selecting the product you want and clicking on the “Add to Import List” button.
This feature gives dropshippers the ease and convenience that can streamline their dropshipping operations.
If you find the thought of streamlining your entire process overwhelming, then you can find a specialist to help you with just that.
There are consultants, experts, or even life coaches with proper certification who are well-equipped with strategies and methodologies to help you unpack your ecommerce business and put proper order in how you run it.
These coaches also have connections that you can leverage and network with. As you immerse yourself with like-minded people — people who are serious about growing their business — you’ll be able to see your business from a better perspective, a more positive and strategic one, at that.
2. AI and Chatbots
The use of artificial intelligence and chatbots are gaining traction in ecommerce for streamlining customers’ shopping experiences.
AI and chatbots are starting to take over functions such as managing inventory, responding to customer inquiries, and other digital assistant app functions.
U.S.-based daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal uses a chatbot for its Facebook page which automatically responds to inquiries and provides subscription options for customers.
Chatbots and AI use dialogues with customers to learn, develop, and create responses that address customer needs.
AI and chatbots offer virtual assistant functions to ensure a seamless user experience for your customers, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
3. Marketing Automation
The web of steps that you need to put in place to run a successful marketing campaign can be overwhelming.
Not only would you have to deal with optimizing your content for the search engines, ad copy design, website development, and other tedious — let alone, time-consuming — marketing tasks, but you’d also have to handle the other aspects of your business like product fulfillment, product research, etc.
Even having said that, however, no one can downplay the importance of marketing. It needs to be done. And it needs to be done right — no matter how intricate and long-winding it might seem.
That’s where marketing automation comes in.
With the right tool and automation setup in place, you can run your intricate — and high-converting — marketing campaign automatically.
Let’s take email marketing, for example.
A site visitor clicks on a link in a blog post to sign up to your email newsletter. Your email autoresponder will then send the visitor an email related to the topic of that blog post.
If the subject of the blog post is your product, like an instructional video or a review, the subsequent emails can be about the benefits and features of your product, and then you can offer the recipients a discount if they click a link in your email.
In case the customer ignores your email, you can set up your autoresponder to automatically send another email days after still containing a link to your product. If they end up clicking on the link but abandons their cart, you can still get them to complete the purchase by sending a follow-up email with coupon codes.
Take advantage of marketing automation to boost your product’s value and remind customers of the benefits they can get from your product. This, in turn, helps increase your conversion rates.
4. Product Visualization and Interactivity
Have you ever purchased something online and ended up disappointed because the product did not match your expectations?
Your customers will likely feel the same way in the same scenario. So how can you give them a shopping experience that allows them to inspect your products and determine whether or not your product meets their needs?
Here’s a tip: Use product interactivity and visualization technology through 3D images and virtual or augmented reality.
Gone are the days when infomercials dominated consumer and product interaction. With virtual reality and 3D images, customers enjoy a more captivating and somewhat hands-on experience with your product.
Product interactivity and visualization technology can also play a crucial role in the customer buying decision because it provides an experience similar to brick-and-mortar shopping on your ecommerce website.
Real-time 3D solutions like CL3VER come with a 3D configurator you can use on your ecommerce site to make your products interactive.
The interactive features let you rotate the 3D image 360 degrees, change the exterior color, and even look at the product’s interior and its components.
Creating interactive product pages and 3D images, however, will require a level of technical skills and expertise.
For this reason, hiring a freelancer to get the kind of product interactivity functionality you require on your website without having to handle the nitty-gritty details can be the solution for you.
There are several benefits to hiring a freelancer, one of which is you can leverage the experience, skill, and knowledge they have pertaining to functionality that you’d like to add, or, perhaps, their knowledge of the ecommerce scene overall.
If you want to get faster and better results but don’t have the capabilities or time to do so, find a professional who can do it for you.
5. Customized Products
One goal that online shoppers aim to achieve is to find the right products for their unique needs.
The challenge then is to offer more than just the typical large, medium, and small sizes to meet the growing needs and evolving preferences of online shoppers.
Think about it: If you’re offering limited product options, you’re also limiting your reach and the opportunity to gain more customers.
Since the demand for product personalization is growing, respond by using fit-finder technology.
Brands like Spoke ask customers their height, weight, and waist size, among others to customize their clothing products.
The option to customize products and find the perfect fit is a growing trend in ecommerce. It lets potential customers go through a personalization process that they may not find in other online shops.
Product personalization also offers an aspect of the brick-and-mortar shopping experience – almost like trying on a shirt to see if it fits – that your potential customers can get if you give them the option to customize products to their liking.
Ready to Win in Ecommerce?
In summary, here are the points we covered:
- Automate your workflow for faster, leaner, and more streamlined business operations.
- Use marketing automation to boost and remind your customers about your product’s value.
- Improve user experience with AI and chatbots.
- Integrate product visualization and interactivity technology for more captivating user experience.
- Apply fit-finder technology to respond to increasing customer demand for product personalization.
Remember, as you keep these ecommerce trends in mind, you’ll gain an unfair advantage over your competitors who are oblivious of them.
Not only that, but you’ll also manage to avoid the ecommerce myths that a good number of ecommerce entrepreneurs fall for due to them not knowing anything about the latest trends and happenings in the ecommerce space.
What’s next?
If you have suggestions, ideas, or questions that you’d like to share, feel free to share them in the comments section below. Cheers!
