Top 5 eCommerce Trends for 2020

020 is upon us. The decade that brought us the iPad, self-driving cars, quantum computers, and the rise of mobile everything is over.

Today, we’re looking forward and examining some emerging operational trends that should be on your radar. Getting out and executing on these will help you and your business score some big wins in 2020.

Trend 1. Channel-specific messaging

‍Your customers have more choice and purchasing power than ever before, and different channels offer different incentives to participate on their platforms.

You need to be able to maintain a consistent brand message everywhere you sell in 2020. Unfortunately, every channel operates differently, and the “write once, run anywhere” axiom never really works out the way it’s supposed to.

Here are some tips to optimize your presence on different channels like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and even your own eCommerce site:

• Product listings should be honest, comprehensive, and exceed the minimum content standards for each platform.
• When possible, every listing should use every option available to communicate your brand message.
• Try to go above and beyond by adding rich content and large, well-lit images.
• Additional information (such as automotive fitment) will grab customers’ attention and help them make the right buying decision.

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‍‍Trend 2. Dynamic inventory

‍The concept of flexible pricing has been around for a while. A dynamic inventory strategy goes a little further to present better options to your customers and help you stay on top of expectations.

A few of the components of a comprehensive dynamic inventory strategy include:

• Flexible pricing. Monitor and analyze your competitors’ pricing. Don’t forget to account for seasonal changes. Make updates in real-time whenever possible.
• Quantity rules. Do you want to allocate all inventory for all products to all channels? Do you control manufacturing and/or your supply chain? Set appropriate expectations with quantity levels that match the limits of your business and delivery capacity.
• Order sync. Every time an order comes in, you must adjust inventory across the board in real time to avoid oversells and negative ratings.

Adopt a dynamic inventory strategy and your customers will thank you!

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Trend 3. Headless eCommerce

‍Headless eCommerce refers to an architecture that decouples an eCommerce storefront from the business’ backend platforms and systems. Instead of relying on a single monolithic application, a headless strategy relies heavily on APIs to communicate with various systems.

By properly separating different functional areas, retailers gain significant operational flexibility and efficiency, and are able to deliver a vastly better experience to their customers.

The benefits of a headless eCommerce approach include:

1. Accelerates site performance and reduces complexity.
2. Improves operational efficiency.
3. Reduces overhead and saves time.
4. Introduces new flexibility and optimization options.
5. Opens up access to more external channels, services, and back-office applications.

Ultimately, as more retailers realize the benefits and move to headless eCommerce solutions in 2020, older full-stack platforms will continue to go extinct.

Chat with a product specialist

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‍Trend 4. Reporting and analytics‍‍

The first step to building knowledge about your business is through reporting: organizing data in order to monitor how different areas of your business are performing.

Questions you should be asking include:

• Are we delivering on time?
• Is my team meeting or exceeding its projections?
• Are our key performance indicators realistic?
• Are we properly set up for growth in the new year?

The only way to get a handle on these questions is through reporting and hard data.

The second step in the knowledge chain is analytics: exploring your data and reports in order to extract meaningful insights which can be used to better understand and improve business performance.

Emerging technologies like augmented analytics and data management offer automated insights into business processes and performance. Affordable artificial intelligence, machine learning, and continuous intelligence tools will be more accessible than ever in 2020.

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Trend 5. Adaptability and agility

‍Just because something worked yesterday doesn’t mean it’s going to work tomorrow. You and your business need to be willing to adapt as conditions inevitably change around you.

Brands and retailers will continue investmenting in technologies and services that help them predict and respond to change. We expect to see more brands running more experiments in 2020.

Don’t be afraid to experiment in order to stay ahead of changes. When your experiments work out, don’t hesitate to implement large-scale changes sooner rather than later.

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Tomorrow is a new day!

What eCommerce changes do you think we’ll see in 2020 and beyond? Let us know at feedback@feedstation.net.