Trends in Online Shopping: Speed comes first!
2016 will continue to be the innovators’ market and if you don’t adapt and improve in order to meet the needs of your customers, you might be left behind!
Almost every aspect of our lives and the way we consume products and services is changing rapidly – from the way we choose to go on vacation (Airbnb.com) to getting a taxi (Uber.com or similar services in Bulgaria – Taxime.to или TaxiStars.net). Online shopping is changing constantly as well! It’s no longer enough to have a store with a few good items. The owners of online stores must constantly evolve if they want to compete with giants like Amazon.com.
And even tough the trends are thousands, one word describes them all perfectly: speed!
I. Website loading time
The time your online store takes to load on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) is crucial to maintaining visits on your website. Users no longer have the patience to wait for content load.
Optimizing your content for mobile devices will put you ahead in the search engines, it will lower your cost for advertising and increase the time your customers spend on your website. These are factors that foreshadow better financial results for you.
II. Orders made easy (easy registration and payment)
With comfortable tools like Facebook login или G+ login you can save your customers time allowing them to skip the long and boring order forms. Not long ago FashionDays increased the value of each purchase by 10% when they opened their platform in two ways – all items on the website are now visible without registration and all orders can be done only with shipping details – no registration needed. If these steps seems a bit too bold for you, try another way that is more suitable for your business. But always strive to save your customers time in the purchase process.
III. Comfortable payment
The diversity of payment methods is a great way to draw in customers from all over the world. Because of its affordability and accessibility payment upon delivery is the most commonly used in Bulgaria. But if you want to draw in more solvent and loyal customers, you need to offer them more options, like electronic payment (Epay или Paypal). This diversity will bring you closer to your potential customers. You don’t have to invest in integrated virtual terminals – you just need to embed electronic payments in your website. These payments take place on the platforms of electronic payment suppliers.
IV. Faster delivery
Users are impatient and 5-to-7-day delivery may seem to them like “eternity”. Your delivery time is a key factor when it comes to making a decision to buy. 7 days is too long and many customers would prefer to go through a bit more trouble and order another product with faster delivery or even visit a physical store. This is a significant feature of your customers’ shopping habits – convenience and fast delivery play a major role in the decision making process. Try to optimize your processes so that your products can reach people for 3 days tops. You think 3-day shipping is a challenge? Amazon.com and Alibaba.com offer same-day delivery to particular regions of the world. How about that?
V. Flash sales
Despite being a tool for fast sales and drawing in new customers, not a trend, flash sales are worth mentioning. We are all impulsive buyers. We love to buy things we perceive as a good deal even if they are not planned. That brings out the question, “If this was not planned, is it really a good deal?”
Impulsive purchases of cheap products are among the main factors behind the success of campaigns like the Black Friday. The same goes for online shopping! Flash sales (short period of time, limited quantities, attractive discounted prices) are a great way to draw in visitors and customers interested in your store. Depending on the type of store you have there are different options to promote your flash sale – apps like WP Popup for Wordpress or targeted Facebook adds. Even if people don’t buy anything from you, your store and brand will still be imprinted on their minds and in their browser history. They can always come back later when they need something you offer.
How to stay ahead in 2016?
* Interesting content optimized for mobile devices;
* Easy checkout – make the registration and ordering process fast and painless;
* Convenient and fast delivery;
* Interesting and attractive promotions that bring traffic and buyers.
