eCommerce Predictions - Issue 35

Five eCommerce Threats and How You Should React

Most eCommerce thought leaders see an acceleration in digital commerce trends as consumers navigate a post-pandemic world. The eCommerce industry just experienced a “fast-forward” of sorts that leaves many sites in “catch up” mode. It’s this urgency to keep up with a fast moving industry that presents threats to eCommerce marketers.

  1. Pay-per-click budgets grow. Expect the future advertising to be more competitive as budgets grow making it more difficult to get noticed. Solution: Consider expanding your ideas of what makes your site unique.
  2. ROAS will fall. The demand for pay per click advertising will increase faster than the supply of clicks creating higher CPCs and a reduction in ROAS. Solution: Resist the temptation to fund unprofitable campaigns and work harder on loyalty campaigns.
  3. Customer loyalty will drop. Frankly this has already been happening for years. There’s a lot of data that suggests consumers are doing fewer branded product searches and more non-branded searches. Solution: Build a content strategy that emphasizes key relevant non-branded keywords.
  4. Marketplaces will dominate. In a post-pandemic world the strong are likely to get stronger. Solution: Sites like Amazon and Walmart are clearly winning, but large marketplaces also have obvious weaknesses that a specialty site can exploit by customizing the shopping experience to the product line.
  5. Failure to act. Those that don’t attempt to fast forward their eCommerce infrastructure this year are likely to get left behind. Solution: Invest in your eCommerce infrastructure and digital marketing campaigns.