Close to 150 million new shoppers came online as the pandemic raged, and it is said that online shopping jumped 10 years into the future in terms of net trading. Mobile adoption accelerated by about 2-3 years with mobile app downloads growing by 7% year-over-year to a record 218 billion in 2020 which equates to millions of new ready-to-buy consumers.
Some say that shoppers will resume their old purchasing habits. However according to a report from Shopify Future of Commerce 2021 48% of online shoppers have expressed that they intend to continue shopping online. One thing is certain, eCommerce is booming and competition is fierce!
To maximise sales for Black Friday, where have retailers focused their efforts?
When the world went into lockdown, where did everyone go? Aside from the kitchen and the beer fridge, they went online of course. Social media, streaming services, search engines, and video games all saw huge increases in demand. This is where smart retailers found a way to interact with customers without interrupting their online experience. The omnichannel approach was the winning strategy.
But along with the higher rates of purchases came one of the main challenges of eCommerce stores - shipping costs and return rates.
The consumers will always be the ones shaping and reshaping the retail space. And *64% of consumers want free, fast shipping! To try to solve this, larger retailers are sourcing more warehouses in wider locations, allowing them to deliver faster. The logistics of delivery has literally millions of variables to consider. It all boils down to time, and the condition of the goods when delivered.
We spoke to Seb Roberts, Founder of Gophr, about how he has built his delivery business from the ground up, factoring in all these variables and reducing the layers of administration between the customer and courier, streamlining efficiencies, and creating an ultra-flexible business model that thrived through the pandemic. Listen to Seb talk about how he did it on season 2 episode 2 of The FOD, due shortly for release).
To combat return rates there has been a huge investment made in Augmented Reality (AR). Allowing the consumer to, for example, try on clothes through a dimensionally accurate avatar, or see a piece of furniture in their house to scale, could drastically help reduce return rates.
Retailers are investing in branding strategies through clever social media campaigns, effective UX-centered designs, and hyper-personalised online journeys that are tailored to each customer where each product put in front of the consumer has a much higher chance of purchase.
After working so hard to attract new customers in a highly competitive market, retention is high on the list of priorities. Many merchants and online businesses are refocusing their efforts to optimise sales through customer loyalty, using subscription models to enable customers to have their favourite goods or services available to them at all times.
With all these strategies in play at the moment, there is a growing demand for tools that enable better customer services, faster smoother shopping experiences, and efficient cost-effective delivery. These applications require a refreshed focus on talent and have created a growing talent shortage for niche skills.
As eCommerce continues to grow, roles like eCommerce backend and frontend developers, quality assurance and testing, mobile development, solution and enterprise architecture, and product owners will become increasingly relevant in the job market.
*Source: Shopify National Retail Federation June 2021
We asked Vernon our new Finance Director to tell us a little bit about himelf. This is what he said...