eCommerce Investment Shifts for 2017

eCommerce in the new year, 2017, will see an emergence of largely technological shifts in trends. Managers are having a difficult time to place the right bet.

In light of this, we have investigated Managers and Directors to navigate future eCommerce trends. You are probably curious to know which trends are under/over rated in order to be prepared for your budgeting meetings.

Thanks to the research done, we are able to see the most crucial trends to keep an eye on. These standouts in regard to y/y growth: Bots (20%), Big Data (14%), Recommendations Systems (13%), Automated Pricing Optimization (11%) and Data-driven Loyalty (11%).

2017 is the year of the Bot. Two trends merged: popularity of mobile messaging apps and artificial intelligence, to enable a new generation of eCommerce tools. Echo has been a surprise hit — over 3 million units sold in less than 18 months. The device has been receiving positive reviews from customers and has even prompted Google to develop its own version — Google Home. And now Alexa Skills Marketplace is a single place to find every bot available. Competitors like Facebook and Microsoft haven’t gotten hip to this yet.

Big Data = intelligent eCommerce. Data-driven Loyalty will be trending. As more companies offer loyalty programs, top performers are settings themselves apart by using data. Visual search — particularly via mobile, will help consumers to find exactly what they are looking for right away. Price intelligence and Personalization are both a commodity now (Quick Wins for eRetailers).

Among these top dollar trends we can see a downturn of -4% in: Free Shipping, Own Brands, Drones, Security, In-Store PickUp and Digital Content.

Although we can observe a decrease in investments, Mobile itself is still on the rise. Retailers who aren’t offering mobile in 2017 are really going to lose out. At this moment mobile abandonment rates still exceed 80% when customers are asked to input their credit card details. Now there are many mobile-friendly payment systems. Mobile wallets are becoming standard features of new smartphones. Conversion Rate in mobile will grow. In 2017 there will be many major mobile-centric redesigns (see Odlo Case Study: 103% higher mobile conversion rate after mobile redesign).

Big Picture

Our crowdsourcing partners have come to an agreement about upcoming trends at the intersection of potential impact on market and maturity / roi. Big Data, Omnichannel and Mobile are where you should prioritize your dollar. These are a surefire place to make a sound investment.

You can download full eCommerce Trends Report from our Landing Page.