If you want to promote your online business and take it to a good, new level, you first need to explore the most working methods. Here you can see some of the top trends in 2022 with actionable tips that you can use in your business (like Shopify Development Company) and achieve the desired results.
Some statistics
According to Statista research, online commerce will continue to thrive and should approach $6.54 trillion in revenue growth by 2022. This amount is much higher than in 2019. At that time, the revenue was 3.5 trillion dollars. If you look at the percentage, the income from the online business will grow by as much as 85%.
The business owner needs to act very quickly, to have favorable conditions in order to develop his business. It is most convenient to automate the work, while buyers will not have a desire to look for something else, they will have less doubt.
As we see from our practice, those business owners who are able to succeed in the online trading market are those who try to create a comfortable environment for users who constantly improve their online business. Businessmen understand very well how to increase attendance, not be afraid to use new skills in business, and use the newest, most effective methods. Thanks to this, you can increase your income well, and users will spend less time and effort on this that could be spent on a purchase, and everyone is happy.
Therefore, in the next few years, e-commerce will definitely remain afloat. It is good to have uninterrupted, fast communication between the buyer and the seller so that in a matter of minutes or seconds you can close the issue of buying or ordering the services provided.
Key goals in online business in 2022
The main goal today is to make the purchase easy, and exciting, to involve the buyer in all ways. The one who sells the product must provide his product in such a way that the buyer thinks that this is the best deal for him. Therefore, for the buyer to receive advice on the product, it is important not only to fill the site in full but also to provide him with the opportunity to communicate with real managers, also the waiting time should be kept to a minimum.
A businessman must debug the process of receiving an order from a buyer. As for delivery, it should be fast and deal with the most experienced courier services. If services are for sale, provide them to the customer as soon as possible. It also needs to be a fast payment.
Top Online Business Trends in 2022
The customer must be satisfied with his purchase to return for more, and not look for other stores. All this can be achieved with the help of an online business using the techniques presented below.
Minimalism in interface design
Minimalism is now very valuable in design since the interface is created to perform a service task – establishing user contact with the portal, and performing basic actions. Accordingly, if the site has a lot of distractions, then the buyer will not be pleased, and he may refuse to purchase. The best thing about design is simplicity as well as user-friendliness.
Those who have a stylish online store should pay attention to this. It is also important to remember that the main thing in the photo is the product, the rest is secondary. If there are a lot of distracting details in the photo, then the buyer may change his mind about the order.
If the site page is too bright, the user cannot concentrate only on the product. Therefore, it is best to have a concise design solution.
See how clearly and unobtrusively all information about the product is conveyed to the buyer. For convenience, a large portfolio of equipment, taken from different angles, is presented. Also, the user can read the description of the characteristics, read the reviews of other buyers and see similar offers.
However, it is important not to play with minimalism. When you start creating a website interface, first of all, you need to analyze the business niche well, as this does not always work. For example, if it is a stationery store, the interface should be very minimalistic and convenient. Accordingly, the seller should present all the options well: what is the screen resolution, connectors, the availability of different options, and so on. Also, good sales depend on how well and intelligently the best properties are highlighted. It should be noted that minimalism is not suitable for everyone, therefore, when selling smartphones, and cars, it is better not to use this technique.
Despite the abundance of information, it is necessary that the picture is convenient and clean. The interface should be made as simple as possible without compromising the information provided.
Brand highlight
A brand has long been seen as a collection of ideas, concepts, and visuals rather than merely a trademark. It is able to carry a certain emotional message, representing a special communicative method for making contact between the vendor and the audience of potential customers. The brand helps in creating a strong association with the company.
True, you should not set yourself large-scale goals right away and reach the heights of Coca-Cola and other world-famous corporations. To create a brand, you need to build it gradually. Success will not keep you waiting.
Now the market is such a situation that people have stopped buying specific services and goods, they are puzzled by the acquisition of emotions through new things. The luxury market elevates the buyer’s prestige and sense of accomplishment. While it is true that the mass market often has much better collections than boutiques in Italy, a lady feels much more luxury after purchasing a fur coat in the latter than in Zara. Brand development should be undertaken with extreme caution.
A step-by-step action plan is provided below:
- Take into account the brand’s emotional undertones, its message, and the associations the audience is brought to mind by it.
- Choose the terms that best describe the company’s ideology. You can use not only words but also pictures, and colours.
- Come up with a corporate identity for the brand.
- Develop social networks by designing in accordance with the corporate identity, broadcasting important values to the audience, and conveying the brand’s position.
- You can include a story behind the scenes of the company. Please post pictures for this as well.
- Brand ideas can be broadcast directly through competitions, and company participation in various events both offline and online. You might schedule interviews with journalists or bloggers, for instance.
And most importantly, a brand cannot be built in 1 day. It takes years and months to form values that will help you achieve your goal, win your own audience and make them associate with yourself.
SMM direction
A little higher, we already talked about the need to promote online business using social networks. Great helpers in this will be:
- Instagram;
- TikTok;
- In contact with;
- Facebook.
Each of these platforms is unique and has its own advantages. Instagram is universal. Suitable for every industry sector. You can film narratives that include the general audience in the operation of the internet shop. In publications, announcements, reviews, and presentations of goods give the expected effect, you can make a regular column “Question-Answer”.
There are far fewer ways to grow your business on TikTok, but this is a temporary phenomenon. The company and its concepts are successfully positioned thanks to this relatively recent trend in internet sales. You can shoot sketches on business topics, focusing on funny situations. To display a video in recommendations, you need to use popular tracks. Even if young children are capable of producing brief movies, it’s important to remember the brand’s stance in the market and how to communicate its values.
The other social media platforms enable you to actively grow your online business; you may set up whole storefronts there and upload product cards.
Regarding SMM, I recommend using the following techniques in practice:
- organize live broadcasts;
- encourage users to create content, namely: like, write reviews and repost;
- to establish contact with microbloggers;
- targeted advertising can be connected.
In general, it would be a great idea to expand the staff of SMM specialists, which will be able to take the social networks of the online store to a higher level, ensuring an increase in the number of potential buyers.
Video content
Increasingly, modern web users are liking to watch videos. To promote your online store, you should use this trend. You may highlight the validity of the brand and show the variety it offers to potential customers of the online store by filming a video with products and giving them professional evaluations.
You must take professional-level videos. The focus is on their features rather than quality. Do not be silent about the shortcomings. You need to talk about the cons of the product, emphasizing the pros. Promotion in the search engine will be facilitated by the correct optimization of the description under the video. And another important point – it should be no more than 5 minutes. As a rule, users rarely watch longer videos. Of course, here it is worth relying on the scope of sales of an online store. For example, if this is a test drive of a car, it is unlikely that you will be able to invest in 5 minutes.
Video ideas are plentiful. For example, you can make videos about new products and their application in practice. Film consultations, customer reviews. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in these 2 areas. This situation is connected with the Covid-19 pandemic, when employees of the leading platforms for the online sale of goods (Karcher, M.Video and others) demonstrated virtual assortment displays. They also answered popular questions from buyers as part of live broadcasts. All this made it possible for the audience to associate with the purchase of goods in a real store, providing a certain amount of trust in the seller.
The best platform for posting online store video content is YouTube, but you can also duplicate videos on social networks and on the company’s offiial website.
Virtual fittings
The use of AR technology allows the buyer to try on clothes or see how well a certain colour of a cosmetic product suits him. This is a fantastic chance to get visitors to your site who could become customers. Despite the prevalence of internet retailers, there are still some people who turn down such offers out of fear of selecting the wrong style, size, or colour.
AR technologies enable the customer to be free of this anxiety. From their own experiences, many Russian businesses have come to believe this. For instance, Lamoda’s online store has long offered customers the option of virtually trying on items.
SEO optimization
In internet business, search engine optimization remains important. The firm owner must keep current with new developments and comply with all new algorithmic criteria. For instance, Bert is able to determine a word’s meaning depending on its meaning and the user’s request.
To work with Bert, you should use keywords that match the content of the online store and also stop using a lot of search queries. Additionally, Google’s new algorithm discourages the usage of uninformative and useless resources, it easily determines the “forgery”.
The Yandex search engine has included the Vega ranking, which understands the meaning of the request, can find suitable companies and ranks sites based on the received expert estimates.
Only the best content with solutions to frequently asked problems should be available on the portal. They may appear in the search results in position “0”, but later they will bring a new audience to the site. I advise you to focus on marketing trends in order to conduct online business successfully, increasing the effectiveness of campaigns and new ideas for business development.
Quick ways to pay for an order
Forms of payment in e-commerce play a big role. It is best to provide your company with many sorts at simultaneously, including credit cards, bank accounts, electronic money, terminals, and ATMs. Recently, payments via WhatsApp Pay, ApplePay, and GooglePay have been especially relevant. It’s also worth considering using Facebook and Twitter Buy.
The optimal scenario is one in which the user faces no obstacles while making the final transaction. For instance, Touch ID is the only button you need to tap.
Chatbots
To increase income, it is recommended to add a chatbot to the site. This enhancement reduces the cost of the buyer-seller interaction process, speeds it up, and converts portal visitors. Also, bots can be assigned the task of informing customers about the stages of preparing an application via SMS. Robots-virtual assistants will help reduce the cost of SMS for large and medium-sized businesses. A chatbot can help a visitor order food or fill out an application, accompanying him with hints at every stage.
But all living consultants should not be replaced by artificial intelligence. There is a category of people for whom it is more convenient to conduct a dialogue with the buyer on social networks than to communicate by phone.
Extra customer service
The cost of the assortment of an online store has gradually shifted from the position of the main competitive advantage in the e-commerce market. Attracting customers will be successful if you offer an extra service that operates on the condition of an equal price with another supplier, creating a favorable condition for the buyer. For example, this is a gift in the form of a sticker on the screen when buying a smartphone or free delivery to the point of issue. Extra services are popular in online stores of home appliances. Very often, when ordering a product, you can receive a discount or sweets, engraving on the gadget or keys and other bonuses as a gift.
Customer focus, provided that the cost of goods is equivalent, is the main factor that will push the customer to make a decision. You need to decide which extra services will make your brand stand out among the niche, offering the customer much more than he asks for.
Page loading time in an online store
This trend will never go out of style. The site should load quickly on a PC or smartphone, with no freezes or inability to view images. Even with a slow mobile Internet connection, a decent speed should be possible.
To achieve your goal, you should not skimp on technology development and selection. Software technologies based on speed minimization are currently in high demand. We’re talking about things like Lazy Load, PHP 7.x, WebP, and HTTP/3.
An online store’s owner must personally control how quickly the site loads. You can use desktop and mobile for these purposes. Of course, you should start by contacting a reputable developer who guarantees the high quality of the final product as well as ongoing support.
Smartphone version
In recent years, shoppers have been shopping online using their smartphones, according to available data from Techjury.
For this reason, the business owner should take care of adapting the site to mobile traffic and the smartphone screen. An important point – the user should be comfortable using it. For example, with one hand he will hold on to the phone, ordering pizza delivery, and with the other, he will grab the handrail on the tram on the way home.
In a smartphone, the buyer should be able to see a clear picture of the product and read the description. Also useful will be the option to view video reviews, reviews, and product ratings. Design your site based on the ability of the guest to use the filter. This will help you find an interesting product even faster and not stop considering it necessary to purchase it.
Both versions of the site should be convenient, functional, and informative. Track the distribution of traffic on the project by devices. You will need to check usability if the exit rate and conversion from the mobile version are lower than those of the desktop version. This is an occasion to think about whether the interface is convenient for smartphone owners.
Delivery of goods by drones
With the development of technologies for the production of quadrocopters, many have thought about transporting goods with these compact assistants. Drone delivery is still in its infancy but is gaining popularity and is seen as a viable delivery method, especially for small and local shipments. The coronavirus outbreak has forced governments and societies to adhere to social distancing norms. And this method of delivery eliminates the close contact of the seller, courier, buyer.
The idea of drone delivery is expected to accelerate the development of drone technology so that it will soon become feasible, usable and safer. Due to the urgency of the problem, it is planned that in the coming years this direction will become widespread – drones will be produced more powerful, capable of flying considerable distances and transporting increasingly heavy things, and in addition, the use of AI for competent orientation in space will be improved.
Industry giants such as Amazon, Uber Eats, Fed Ex, Alibaba are at the forefront of developing drone technology and are already using them in some regions around the world.
Smarter mobile shopping tools
Regular retailers may not like to see people looking at their phone screens as this may indicate that the customer is shopping at prices or using the brick and mortar store as a showroom for an online purchase elsewhere. However, these days, savvy retailers are offering their own GPS-enabled mobile shopping experiences that help shoppers shop in-store or elsewhere. For all retailers, a mobile-optimized website and store is a fundamental element of a positive ecommerce experience.
The growing use of FDFC
Some grocery stores, malls, and other public places now have retail lockers where shoppers can pick up their purchases. Order Fulfillment Center (FDFC) – This could just be a collection of automated lockers already stocked with some of the usual purchases. For example, if someone wants to buy a new toothbrush or socks, they might get a notification that the item is ready for pickup nearby as soon as they click the “Buy” button. This reduces the purchase time for customers, which in turn frees up personal time for other needs. In the context of time pressure and high employment, this trend resonates with many users. Therefore, most world-famous companies consider this direction as a real way to improve their business in the coming year.
Environmental friendliness
Online store owners are strongly discouraged from ignoring this trend. According to hbr.org research, approximately 65% of shoppers are willing to pay more for a brand’s more sustainable range.
Businesses that care about the environment will attract more attention. We are discussing the use of recycled packaging. The use of high-impact plastic fillers should be phased out in favor of starch – or paper-based alternatives. Remove any non-recyclable film; Orders should preferably be placed in paper bags.
Organic products may be included in the assortment. It is now very popular to include products with a natural or organic composition. It is also important to remember to interact with the audience through achievements and to constantly state that the brand is concerned about the environment. I also suggest organizing an eco-action and donating the proceeds to Greenpeace or other environmental protection organizations.
Conclusion
I have presented the most important trends in the field of online trading above. As a result, whether or not you use all of this is entirely up to you. First and foremost, concentrate on the buyer’s convenience and comfort; you must shift your focus to customer focus and maintain excellent contact with the audience.