The ecommerce landscape in 2024 will be shaped by five key trends:
- Building trust on social media
- A rise in direct messaging between customers and brands
- Personalisation tools to predict consumer behaviour
- Subscription services will become more appealing
- AI will revolutionise marketing efforts
This dynamic shift in ecommerce trends points towards a more personalised, interactive, and technologically advanced market.
Read on to discover what impact these trends will have on ecommerce next year.
1. Trust building on social media
Social commerce is facing trust issues, with 52% of US shoppers aged 16-44 distrusting products that can be bought on these platforms. The top concerns were about:
- Scams
- Unclear return and refund policies
- Checkout security
- Counterfeit goods
As a result, direct-to-consumer (DTC) retailers must work harder to prove the trustworthiness of their products and brand.
In 2024, building trust through customer reviews, user-generated content and testimonials will be key for social commerce success.
Brands should also look to display other trust-building elements such as clearly displayed delivery and return policies, credentials, awards and ‘as seen in’ features.
2. Direct lines of communication
As social media shopping grows, so does the trend of customers preferring direct communication with brands through direct messaging (DMs) and texting. A study from Intercom found that 60% of U.S. customers favour this method of communication.
Hubspot backed up these findings in their consumer trends report, which found a year-on-year increase of 45% in shoppers sending DMs on social media to customer service.
Introducing customer service solutions that can respond quickly and easily to social media users will become fundamental. Why? Because customers are more likely to buy if they can get fast answers to their questions.
3. Predictive Personalisation
The Salesforce State of the Connected Consumer report found that 65% of customers expect companies to continuously adapt to their evolving needs. If merchants want to stay ahead, they must anticipate both current customer preferences and also future ones.
Integrating your Magento website with systems like ERP, CRM, marketing automation, loyalty apps and personalisation solutions like Nosto, Klevu, Klaviyo and Salesfire will be crucial for providing a personalised online shopping experience for customers.
4. Sweetening subscriptions
Subscriptions have been a major trend in 2023 as merchants sought to increase customer loyalty and retention, and shoppers looked for convenience and better bargains.
As we move into 2024, the subscription market is expected to expand significantly, reaching over $450 billion by 2025.
With inflation and cost of living still in a state of flux, subscriptions will be more prominently marketed as a value proposition, with brands adding perks and conveniences to retain customers.
To make your subscription service appealing – and retain existing subscribers – merchants should look to provide greater flexibility to customers.
Allow shoppers to adjust or modify the service easily and at their convenience – whether that’s by text, by phone, through customer service or by logging into their account.
Providing a range of subscription options – such as a change in regularity or quantity, plus ‘take a break’ options – will reduce the number of cancellations.
5. Optimise with AI
AI and automation will play an increasingly larger role in ecommerce, freeing up time for innovation and strategic planning. For example, many of our clients now use AI to bulk write product descriptions.
In 2024, AI’s role will evolve from streamlining production tasks to playing a bigger part in analysing customer data. By being able to predict customer behaviour based on this data, merchants will be empowered to deliver more targeted marketing strategies.
Get ahead in 2024
At Fluid Commerce, we work closely with our clients to ensure their businesses are future-proof. Keeping an eye on upcoming ecommerce trends and how the market will adapt is an integral part of our service.
Get in touch to find out how we can work with your business to keep your Magento website and PPC strategies up to date.