In this post, I discuss the 5 eCommerce trends that your small business may I apply to accelerate your revenue growth this 2022.
eCommerce, as you may know, is a business model where sellers offer goods and services using a website or mobile app over the internet.
Traditionally, physical products are bought in physical stores but this is executed through online ordering and a system for delivery. Quick examples that are being used by the masses now are Grab, Shopify, Lazada, Foodpanda, and more. These are forms of eCommerce.
As a small business owner, you could be wondering how you can make use of such and why it would be beneficial for you. We all know that it was truly helpful in these times of the pandemic, but regardless of the pandemic happening or not, you should be fully prepared and adapted to eCommerce already. There are so many advanced technologies that can go to waste if you don’t choose now in your business to maximize these resources in our generation.
Other than survival, eCommerce brings a wider reach and seamless transactions because of less human interaction which increases buyer convenience. It also extends operating hours when brought online.
If you’re convinced of bringing your business to eCommerce, here’s a checklist that can serve as a guide for you to kickstart adapting.
Number one is to identify your eCommerce model. Whether you’re a B2B, B2C, C2C, being familiar as well with the industry you’re getting yourself in to help you strategize and flesh out your plans. You can use platforms such as Shopify or Woocommerce plugin of WordPress.
I strongly recommend to check out Prosperna, a local-based platform that is fast to implement and connected already with major payment gateways and delivery third-parties. I have an upcoming digital course about launching your eCommerce using Prosperna and promoting them using Facebook or Google Ads. Check out this link for details. https://dennismhilario.com/digital-marketing-course/
The next one is your payment methods. Check the payment gateways you have access to and what you can use. You also have to be able to define your order fulfillment process and your back office is complete.
Just like anything online, there are certain trends that everyone seems to follow and eCommerce is not an exception to it. There are hundreds already on the rise but we’ll only be discussing five.
Trend#1 – Voice Assisted eCommerce. The home-based voice command devices like Google Home or Alexa are where you can easily order around or ask questions. If you’re a business in the Philippines that wants to adapt that firsthand, there are APIs for you to integrate such as https://www.airudder.com/
It’s still an early concept here in the Philippines but in the US you can talk to a developer to help you get that started.
Trend#2 – Look out for is AI-assisted upselling or cross-selling. This refers to your online behavior and historical visits being captured. If you have enough budget, you can spread all the ads you create through the different social media platforms so you can reach more people in AI. AI upselling or cross-selling is more of your platform because when you capture the information of your existing customers, you have to find a way through AI to upsell other than what the customer orders. It can be through a form of an email, SMS, bundled promos, etc. Ginee ginee.com or Granify granify.com are one good platforms to explore this trend.
Trend#3 – Payment/Installment options. You can use payment platforms now that contain installment options. As a small business, it will be good to have as many available payment options as you can. Just know that some gateways have higher commissions, it varies according to their features. These payment gateways also have tools to manage collections. Xendit, Dragonpay, PayMongo, Paynamics, PesoPay, WeePay or PayPal are top payment gateways in the Philippines.
Trend#4 – Coming on the 4th trend is GPS-related eCommerce, This is when you’re in one place, its premises have their store locations, and using such will get you more exposure for your business. Some concepts you can implement are geo-targeting, and geo-fencing which uses the phone’s GPS signal to find out whether someone is in the same neighborhood. Geo-conquesting is used by businesses to lure customers away from the competition using location-based ads. Proximity marketing is a location-based eCommerce tactic where you target potential customers with personalized ads based on how near their devices are to consumers.
Trend#5 -Last but not least is subscription models, which will help in increasing the loyalty of your customers. Even payment gateways have subscriptions that you can follow. With this, it’s important to brand this well and strategize on the content that they will subscribe to. Moreover, it should build a community to be able to keep them around for a long time.
These are just some of the trends you can apply for your small business as you dive deeper into eCommerce.
This blog post is brought to you by our free accounting and payroll software Snap Solutions.
Want to learn more? Check out my Basic Accounting Terms and Definition
Or enroll in my Accounting Course Online or Simplified Digital Marketing