Analytics Expert

As we enter 2010 most of you are already planning your online strategies and goals for the first quarter. As such, I wanted to highlight three trends that I see increasing in 2010.

1. Social Aspects of Commerce – We have seen product reviews gain prominence in the last few years. In the next few years we will see an increase in services that allow your customers to talk to you directly and to communicate with each other about your products whether you are listening or not. I see many retailers implementing services that allow streamlined joint browsing, customer reviews and surveys. Online and in your stores, consumers are instantly looking up each others opinions on products, downloading coupons, sharing their opinions with friends and comparison shopping. This transparency impacts the decision to buy. Consumers will know with the scan of a bar code or a quick online search if your competitor offers the same product for $5 less than you. Combine this with a down economy and the result is an educated bargain-savvy consumer. For some retailers this will ignite price wars and for others this will force a price leveling that will bring other aspects of commerce to the forefront.
This leads me to one of the next trends:

2. Customer Service – Retailers will now compete more and more on customer service. Just look at Zappos and Amazon two retailers who dominate in part by making the purchase, shipping and return process as easy as possible. Now take a look at your web site. Is it easy for consumers to look up your return policy? Is it easy for them to track shipping? Is it easy to determine whom to contact if they have a problem? Making it convenient for consumers to buy your products means more than just streamlining your checkout pages. You have to take care of them all the way through the buying process from need recognition to post-purchase re-assurance. If your prices and products are similar to your competitors’, then a buyer’s purchase decisions will increasingly come down to customer service.

3. Mobile – We have discussed mobile on this blog many times but I am still surprised by the number of clients who do not optimize their web sites for mobile browsers. Increasingly common mobile devices, such as iPhones and Androids, use normal browsers and will load your main web site and interact with it. This means that if you are spending a lot of resources on a special non-java, text heavy, low resolution mobile-only site then you might be squandering those resources. Many enhancements that benefit mobile browsers (large text, clear calls to action, streamlined process flows, simplified forms) also lend themselves to improving the experience for your non-mobile visitors. That being said it is worth it to analyze what parts of your website are currently being used by mobile visitors. A good place to start is with services such as store finders, contact information and onsite search.

Conclusion
Overall the economy in 2010 will present both challenges and opportunities for e-commerce and retailers in general. We will see consumers increasingly use social resources to research for products and deals. This increased transparency will in turn impact the way in which consumers make their purchase decisions. To take advantage of these changes, make your company and your products more accessible while at the same time emphasizing two-way communications and customer service.

Sources
For additional information on each of these trends please see these resources:

1. Social Aspects of Commerce:

“JC Penney Tests Mobile Coupon Convenience.”

“More shoppers use Smartphone’s to study, find, buy.”

“Buying, Selling and Twittering All the Way.”

2. Customer Services:

“Consumers Expect Poor Service Experiences.”

“Stages of the Consumer Buying Process”
Marketing, by Berkowitz et al., Fourth Edition

3. Mobile:

“Mobile Web Sites: Designing for Usability.”

“EMarketer Weighs In on 2010 Trends: E-Commerce & Mobile.”