After the buzz of the Christmas rush and the post New Year sales, now is a good time to set our sights on the horizon of 2008 and see what is coming our way online this year.
By all accounts, this year may well prove to be one of the most important for e-commerce, with social networking and web 2.0 user-generated content playing a much greater role in purchasing decisions. The challenge for web site owners is to be prepared to up their game to keep pace with increasingly web-savvy consumers who know how to sniff out a bargain. Conversely, as shoppers become more acutely aware of price comparison sites and the use of social media to research products, vendors are realising the value of customer data analysis to upsell and cross-sell their products and services, and target marketing at consumers in a much more personalised manner.
This is a view shared by Ariel Ludi, of e-commerce software company, hybris: “2008 will see the bar being raised as consumers are eager to adopt new technologies and reap the benefits of online shopping… 2008 will be an exciting year for retailers, consumers and e-commerce experts alike.”
What is beyond dispute is that current models for consumers to research products or services are being drastically altered. Social networking sites have enabled much greater interaction among online consumers thanks to the widespread availability of broadband and growth in web shopping.
User feedback sites and the like will, some industry watchers predict, lead in time to search engines being less relevant to both consumers and businesses. Entire online strategies will require to be reworked in order to adapt to the paradigm shift. Search engines, however, are unlikely to stand still and watch advertising revenue dry up. They, too, will respond to utilise the growing volumes of data and content created by this new generation of social media.
According to Will Beresford, Strategy Director of research company, beyond analysis, search engines will be looking to introduce tiered services providing more accurate results to those willing to pay.
“Whilst this will begin with services to business, over time we will see tiered search services bundled into our ISP packages as value differentiators. Likewise traditional models for businesses to research their consumers will fundamentally change,” says Beresford.
As more businesses realise the value inherent in their customer data and the strategic role it plays for the future, reliance on traditional qualitative research will fall into terminal decline. Customer data will be enriched by data found on the social web to supersede traditional research tools such as questionnaires and focus groups.
The new emphasis on feedback and the collective overview offered by social networking could – and sooner than we think – tip the balance away from price and brand as the main drivers of online purchasing decisions. A trusted group of web-based ‘friends’ and opinion-formers will hold more sway with consumers and business buyers than traditional marketing messages.
The opportunity therefore exists for small to micro-sized companies to create a fan base for their products and services in a way that would normally be denied them due to size and budgetary constraints. Networks where groups of like-minded people gather will, almost inevitably, evolve into a significant purchasing force.
Whatever the label attached, be it web 2.0, user-generated content, social networking sites, forums, blogs or networks, there is a rich seam of marketing info there for the collection. It has always been around, it’s just that now there is more of it upon which to draw insights and conclusions on what our customer base is thinking and saying about products and services. By knowing a potential customer’s inner thoughts about a brand it is infinitely easier to sell to them.
E-commerce sites will also undergo change. Among the developments and functionality tipped for prevalence in 2008 are:
· improved website accessibility and usability due to increased use of AJAX, Drag & Drop, One-Page-checkouts and rollover lists
· user-friendlier retail sites which offer tools to build communities and improve user input and involvement
· sales catalogues with intuitive page turning
· greater integration with physical stores (store pickup, returns, POS terminals)
· more catalogue viewing and refining options
· the growth of desktop shopping applications
· shopping trolley contents being used to more closely target shoppers with personalised offers
· checkout data integrating more closely with stock levels in order to focus sales strategies and stock control
· and wider use of live chat and click to call functionality to assist users with buying decisions.
