As the end of 2023 quickly approaches, it’s essential to think about the important ecommerce trends that have emerged this year and how you can use these trends to increase your online store sales in 2024.
3 e-commerce trends from 2023
This year, three e-commerce trends emerged and impacted the way shoppers interact with online stores:
- Flexible payment options – including Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)
- A personalized customer experience
- The growth of mobile shopping
Adopt flexible payments
More than ever, it is essential that your online store offers flexible payment options. Around 49% of total e-commerce sales worldwide are made using digital wallets. It is therefore crucial to ensure that your store offers flexible payment options via Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Buy Now, Pay Later.
Customers expect to be able to pay using the method that suits them best, often through Apple Pay or Google Wallet on their phone. If your store doesn’t offer flexible payment options, you might miss out on sales.
We found that merchants who implemented Stripe Link enjoyed a more streamlined experience and saw 6.7% higher revenue in some cases.
A new trend that has gained popularity this year is “Buy now, pay later.” Customers enjoy the flexibility of making payments over time, which helps merchants who offer this payment option increase their sales.
Personalized customer experience
Your online store can increase sales by providing a personalized customer experience. Personalized emails have a 29% higher open rate than non-personalized emails.
Creating a personalized experience for your customer is no longer just recommended, it’s essential.
Businesses of all sizes can create a more personalized customer experience by:
- Know your customers and segment them
- Share user-generated content
- Using Automation Through Email Marketing
Understand your customers
The first step to creating a personalized customer experience is understanding your customers. What struggles do they face? What challenges are they trying to solve? Knowing their pain points will help you recommend the right products to solve their problems.
You can provide an even more personalized experience by segmenting your customers. Grouping them by industry, role, or other category allows you to create content and messages that are of direct interest to them and solve the specific problems they are facing.
One way to get the information you need to segment your customers is to send out a survey. Ask them what challenges they face to get more information.
Get user-generated content
Make your products and content more personalized by including customer reviews on your product pages and customer-submitted photos of consumers using your products. This will make your content more authentic and give a more personalized appearance to your products. Additionally, it will make customers more confident when purchasing your products.
Use automation tools to personalize emails
Adding a customer’s name to an email can be very useful. Sending an email directly to a person helps draw their attention to the email and they are more likely to open it. If you have marketing automation tools, you can also add other personalized content to the email, like special offers and promotions, as well as products they’ve viewed or purchased previously.
Using these techniques can lead to major improvements to your online store, leading to a 5-15% conversion rate and a 20-40% improvement in marketing open rates and customer satisfaction scores.
Mobile shopping is here – and growing
It’s no secret that mobile shopping is big, but you might not realize just how big it is. It is estimated that mobile commerce will account for approximately 70% of retail e-commerce sales by 2024.
It is therefore essential to streamline your mobile payment process. Your online store should be designed with a mobile-first approach, with large touch buttons and streamlined flows to make it easy for shoppers to check out.
It is also essential to have a modern and clean design. Customers are more likely to trust a purchase from a new, modern site rather than an old, outdated site.
How to use this year’s trends in 2024
As 2024 approaches, it’s essential to consider this year’s trends when developing a strategy to increase your online store sales next year.
Flexible payments
You need to offer your customers flexible payment options so that they can complete a purchase using their preferred payment method. Volusion’s preferred payment solution is partnered with Stripe, giving you all the benefits of offering today’s most popular payment methods along with the security of a trusted provider.
You should also offer a Buy Now, Pay Later option and make sure your checkout page is streamlined and easy to use.
Personalized customer experience
Get to know your customers. Using customer segmentation will help you create a personalized experience for your customers, and posting customer reviews and photos will help build trust with new customers.
You should also consider automating your marketing efforts in 2024. As an effective way to communicate with your customers, email automation provides options for sending personalized product recommendations, special offers, and personalized content .
Mobile shopping
As mobile shopping continues to grow in popularity, it is essential to implement a mobile-first payment process. Volusion’s Premium Checkout solution provides customers with a quick and easy way to make purchases.
You should also make sure you have a modern, clean design to give customers the confidence to make purchases on your site. And, as noted above, you should offer Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Stripe Link for faster and easier payment options.
Final Thoughts
Key trends have emerged this year that will impact how customers shop at online stores in the future. To increase your sales, it is essential to offer diverse and simple payment options, a personalized approach to your marketing tactics and a modern online store design.