9 eCommerce trends to expect in 2024.

It’s that time of the year again- merchants are looking to 2024 and wondering what’s in store for eCommerce this year. How can they stay ahead of the competition and find an edge to drive revenue during a time when shoppers are cutting down on impulsive buying?

We’ve sifted through dozens of trends and found nine trends that we think will dominate in 2024. Let’s get into it. 

1. The Influence of Inflation

Inflation influenced consumer spending in 2023 and we can expect it to do so in a big way in 2024. With the cost of living rising globally, shoppers can be expected to tighten their purse strings and curb impulsive spending- starting with online shopping.  
This does not mean that shoppers will stop purchasing online altogether. Rather, shoppers can be expected to spend on items that they feel offer high value against the cost. 

But what does value actually mean? 

According to Mintel’s 2024 Global Consumer Trends Report, shoppers are reassessing what value means to them when shopping; 

“ Consumers have increasingly diverse ideas of what indicates ‘quality’ in a product or service. As budget pressures force tighter trade-offs, consumers are becoming more realistic in their search for value as they strike a balance between quality received and cost incurred.” 

Therefore when planning your 2024 eCommerce strategy, find ways to highlight value and ease shopper anxiety around expenditure. Some tried and tested tactics include;

• Offer a hassle free returns policy. 67% of shoppers check the return policy before buying online—and a bad policy could keep them from buying, whereas 92% of shoppers will purchase from a brand again if the return process was easy.
• Reward loyalty with perks, early access or exclusive offers- basically bonuses that shoppers actually want. 

2. Everything AI, everywhere

Machine learning influences our decisions everyday, multiple times a day. Ordering from a food delivery app? AI is most likely serving up restaurant options based on your past cravings. Can’t decide what to watch on Netflix? AI knows that all you want is to binge watch true crime docu-series. So it should come as no surprise that AI will have more and more use cases in eCommerce. 

Last year we saw many eCommerce solutions begin to offer generative AI features including chatbots and content creation-tools and we can expect these to keep gaining traction with merchants. 

In 2024 AI and Machine Learning solutions will be helping merchants; 

• Personalize customer experiences and recommendations.
• Optimize back-end operations from supply chain processes to inventory management. 
• Increase ROAS on digital marketing efforts by being more targeted.
  

3. Using post purchase surveys to drive revenue

Before 2023, brands were spoiled with low customer acquisition costs and a strong economy, meaning merchants could focus on growth regardless of the cost, even if the return was negative.

With rising inflation and poor global economic growth brands are looking for ways to drive revenue while keeping costs down. Many brands are already optimizing post-purchase funnels from checkout pages to thank you pages with offers, promotions, discounts, free gifts and more. In 2024 however, we expect to see more and more brands use their post purchase pages to also run surveys and collect data on their shoppers.

One common type of survey is an attribution survey ie, “How did you hear about our brand?”. This type of survey is useful when determining where to increase marketing spend and where to cut spending. For example, if you were previously spending a chunk of your marketing budget on influencer marketing but survey results indicate not many people are discovering you through influencer marketing- that could be an area for you to save on in 2024. 

You can also use surveys to determine what type of offers you should be promoting to your shoppers or what types of items they would like to see in future collections. All of this data could help reduce marketing spend and inventory holding costs while increasing Average Order Value (AOV).

4. DMs for Customer Service

With the rise of social commerce, shoppers have greater expectations with customer service. Being able to connect with your community on social media is a two-way street. According to The State of Consumer Trends 2023 Report by Hubspot, 19% of social media users have sent a DM to a brand they are purchasing from or interested in purchasing from- up 27% from 2022.

What does this mean for merchants? Including social media in their customer service strategy is now key. Ignoring messages and comments on Instagram, X, Meta, etc could result in significant lost sales.

If you notice a significant increase in customer service messages on social, consider investing in a CRM tool to help you manage communications across platforms. Also provide your customer service teams training to communicate better on social media.

5. ROPO (Research Online Purchase Offline)

The acronym might be new to you but the concept is probably familiar. Research online buy offline simply refers to the growing trend of the shopper’s buying journeys spanning multiple channels. Shoppers are increasingly discovering products online, reading reviews online and then heading to physical stores to make their final decision and purchase the item.

So how do you ensure that the consumer moves from your website to your physical store rather than head to a competitor? Offering BOPIS (Buy Online Pick-up In Store) is one way merchants can still close the sale online but still offer shoppers that physical experience to interact with the product. 

ROPO combines information from social media, mobile tracking/geolocation, mobile payments, in-store inventory, analytics tools, CRM systems, and more, to figure out which ads and site pages led consumers to in-store purchases.This is invaluable information. 

By knowing which digital ads are most efficiently contributing to sales, ecommerce businesses can create higher-conversion, more targeted campaigns, and feel confident that what they’re doing online is meaningful to their consumers.

6. Personalization and Curated Experiences Become the Norm

We mentioned how AI will increase the level of personalization for eCommerce buying experiences in 2024 but personalization as a whole deserves its own mention as a trend to keep up with this year.

Curated experiences and personalization do not need to be solely driven by machine learning or AI. With solutions like SlideCart by AMP you can also build time-specific recommendations or trigger based recommendations. You can shine a light on seasonal products, limited edition collections and higher value products. Personalization is the secret sauce to driving AOV without increasing cost in 2024, something all merchants will be keen to do.

7. Short Form Videos Sell More

Tik tok is where the kids at. And by kids we mean Gen Z who are now young adults and a target market that many brands are interested in going after. Gen Z wants information delivered in short sharp, snappy videos. Research suggests that the average attention span is now around 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000.

According to research by HubSpot, 55% of viewers consume video content for less than 60 seconds, emphasizing the need for concise, attention-grabbing material.

The challenge of selling in 30 seconds is that traditional advertisement formats no longer work- there’s too much narrative and too little time. Instead with your short form content consider a more organic “review-style” form of video with captions and catchy music.

Short form videos can also make your marketing dollars go further. These short videos are generally less expensive to produce, but can be repurposed for multiple channels like Tik Tok, Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts and more.

8. Sustainable and Ethical Commerce

Sustainable shopping, eco-friendly options and ethical practices are becoming more important to brands as shoppers are becoming more conscious of the environmental and ethical implications of their purchases.

However as shoppers become more discerning and more informed around sustainability being ethical, brands who do not do enough to ensure their brands live up to claims run the risk of being accused of “greenwashing”. Greenwashing refers to when brands heavily market their ethical and sustainable practices when in actual fact they do very little for the cause. Shoppers are becoming wise to this and brands would do well to invest more in actual sustainable and ethical practices in 2024. 

Merchants can adopt sustainable practices, such as eco-friendly packaging, carbon-neutral shipping, and promoting products with ethical sourcing. This trend not only aligns with consumer values but also contributes to a positive brand image.

9. Livestream Shopping/ Live Commerce

Livestream shopping or Live Commerce combines live video streaming and e-commerce, enabling businesses to showcase their products or services in real-time. This method of selling leverages the benefits of video content and comes across as personalized, relatable and “human” in a landscape where content seems more and more generic.

Amazon launched its livestream shopping platform Amazon Live in 2019 and Tik Tok followed suit. Soon after, Shopify and Youtube announced a partnership to give creators access to live shopping tools.

All this to say that live commerce looks like it’s set to take off in a big way in 2024 so if you’re looking for a new channel to invest in a live stream shopping platform may be the way to go!

That’s our list of top trends to watch and get on board with in 2024. One thing to remember whether you are setting up post-purchase surveys, DM-ing customers or creating Tik Tok videos to sell products, consistency is key! Many of these strategies take time and testing to produce results so start iterating and keep at it!