We’ve rounded up a collection of predictions from the experts on e-commerce and retail trends to follow as the new year gets underway. One thing’s for certain, you can expect a wild ride ahead in 2017.
Writing in Fortune, Phil Wahba expects to see desperate department stores and anxious retailers as he looks at prospects for Macy’s, Gap, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble and more. Edwin Choi of CellularOutfitter shares his predictions for e-commerce in the new year including: customer personalization, mobile video consumption, cross-channel marketing and Snapchat marketing. PYMNTS offers nine e-commerce trends that will continue in 2017.
eMarketer said online spending reached $22 trillion in 2016 and will reach $27 trillion by 2020. BrainSINS expects e-commerce trends to include dynamic shopping experience, real-time analytics, live support and engagement, customer retention and growing cross-border commerce. AOL.com cites 10 trends in consumer products from the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and they make for interesting reading. MultichannelMerchant says watch out for mobile shopping, chatbots, personalized retargeting and virtual retail 2017.
Among the key supply chain trends will be Made in America sentiment, logistics automation, e-commerce impact and the internet of things according to LogisticsViewpoints. TechCrunch highlights 11 e-commerce trends that will impact SE Asia in 2017 including the battle for market share between Amazon and Alibaba.
Why 2017 Will See Desperate Department Stores and Anxious Apparel Chains
It was a hard year for many retailers. Amazon.com (AMZN, +0.72%) continued to run away with the e-commerce prize, and consumers, though in much better shape financially than they have been in many years, are getting increasingly bargain-hungry. The result has been declining sales at many major retailers (particularly department stores) and store closings by the hundreds.
But a new year offers the industry a clean slate, whether it be a new CEO or new initiatives to break that sales skid. Indeed, 2017 will be a decisive year for many retailers, as investors will feel many have had enough time to show they can figure out a way to update how they do business in the e-commerce era.
Target (TGT, +1.37%) and Kohl’s (KSS, +3.84%) in particular are under pressure to show their turnarounds are still on track. Meanwhile Walmart (WMT, +0.86%) can’t let up for a second if it hopes to begin to narrow the e-commerce gap with Amazon. Via fortune.com
An online retailer’s e-commerce predictions for 2017
More lookalike marketing, SnapChat and video ads, and online retailers offering private-label goods are all likely to grow in 2017.
2016 appears to have been another banner year for online marketing as the world is approaching a collective record $15 billion dollars of digital ad spend. E-commerce teams invested heavily in social media, mobile and video marketing while also allocating ad dollars toward mature channels such as paid and organic search.
With more explosive growth forecasted for 2017, I look forward to the following e-commerce trends for the next year as customer behavior and marketing technology continues to evolve at warp speed. Via internetretailer.com
Nine eCommerce Retail Trends For 2017
2017 looks like it’s shaping up to be a solid year. Between consumer confidence trending upward and more people spending — and racking up some debt — retailers are slated to be pleased when the ball drops and the confetti settles.
But in order to look forward, it’s important to look back at the past year. And in this case, we’re reflecting on 2016’s eCommerce trends.
Here are nine concepts PYMNTS believes are the most useful eCommerce trends coming out of 2016, propelling 2017 forward. Via pymnts.com
6 Trends to Dominate Ecommerce in 2017
Ecommerce thanks to mobile commerce are growing rapidly. As per a recent prediction by eMarketer, spending through online shopping reached the all-time peak in 2016 amount bigger than $22 trillion. The same figure is expected to reach at least $27 trillion in 2020. So, how much share from this pie of growth your ecommerce business going to grab? Are you ready with all the upcoming trends that are going to rule ecommerce in 2017 and beyond? Let’s have a look at the biggest ecommerce trends for 2017.
Ecommerce Trends 2017
1. Shopping experience must be dynamic
Just like dynamic user experience in web interfaces, shopping must also be dynamic across ecommerce stores. Instead of competing just for sell your products or services you need to offer gratifying experience in order to make your customers your brand ambassadors. The unmatched shopping experience is what going to make your brand loud and conspicuous. From optimizing performance to a smart intuitive interface that minimizes the time to check out and getting in touch with the right products, a shopping experience will give your brand best publicity. via BrainSINS
10 tech trends that will rule Consumer Electronics Show 2017
The first tech event of 2017 is also the year’s biggest: CES arrives the first week of January, and like a tardy Santa Claus, it bestows the world with the gift of new consumer tech of every kind — phones, cars, TVs, drones, VR — you name it.
Looked at another way, CES tends to catapult new devices and technologies at the world like enormous gobs of spaghetti. The thing about spaghetti, though, is not much of it will stick. A large portion of the gadgets, gear and concepts shown at CES will never make it to store shelves, as cool as some of them may be.
Still, while many of the devices and gear on display may be suspect on an individual basis, taken in aggregate, they point the way for the industry (and its many sub-industries). CES doesn’t create tech trends on its own, but it solidifies existing ones and focuses them by refracting them through a common lens: the consumer. Via aol.com
Retail Trends from 2016 Will Drive Success in 2017
Retailers of all sizes are reaping the rewards of global ecommerce, both domestic and cross border. With this upside though come growing complexity and fulfillment challenges as consumer expectations rise.
As you do the postmortem on your 2016 holiday season and roadmap your 2017 plans, here are a few retail trends to mull over while celebrating the New Year.
Store/online experience connection grows stronger
Unified commerce will be the expectation from consumers and what retailers need to deliver. Consumers are almost always using a blend of both the physical in-store and digital experiences. When shoppers are browsing, comparing products, looking for great deals, the buying location is just one step in the journey. Via multichannelmerchant.com
Key Supply Chain Trends to Follow in 2017
The problem with trends is that they are like a freight train gaining speed; everyone can see the train, but at what point do you say the train is really moving at speed? With that in mind, here are the trends I’m following, the predictions I am making, or if not a prediction, the inflection points I am paying attention to.
Donald Trump and the ‘Made in America’ Supply Chain – There was a quote in the Atlantic I liked, “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” But when it comes to trade with China and Mexico, I take him both seriously and literally. I think it likely that by the end of 2017 we will have seen a decrease in trade with China and to a lesser extent Mexico. In Europe, Brexit negotiations could drag, so I’m less certain that trade between Britain and Europe will decline. Large multinationals will be paying very close attention to the design of their supply chain networks – to where their factories and warehouses are located and how they flow products to customers. Software suppliers that sell Supply Chain Design software, like LLamasoft, or have expertise in using this software in consulting engagements, like CHAINalytics, will benefit. Via logisticsviewpoints.com
5 digital retail trends that will be big in 2017
If Black Friday and Cyber Monday are any indication, 2017 should be a good year for ecommerce. Indeed, in the United States alone, shoppers made an estimated $3.34 billion in online purchases on Black Friday and a whopping $3.39 billion the following Monday, breaking previous records.
Besides offering hard-to-resist deals, retailers took advantage of a variety of technologies and apps to help drive sales this season. And analysts and online retail watchers predict these five digital retail trends will be (or become) even bigger in the new year. Via cio.com
11 trends that will shape Southeast Asian eCommerce in 2017
After identifying Southeast Asia as being on the cusp of an eCommerce golden age, Jack Ma and his team swooped in four months later and picked up Lazada, the region’s leading ecommerce marketplace, for a crisp $1 billion.
The Lazada-Alibaba deal, Alibaba’s largest overseas acquisition to date, is a pivotal event for Southeast Asia and its implications span the entire commercial value chain from digital advertising, logistics, finance, insurance and even healthcare. These events pushed back the company’s deal with Alibaba a third time and wasn’t closed until October. Via techcrunch.com
Interesting Times
As you can see by the experts, 2017 will be unpredictable and exciting for retail and e-commerce around the globe. Cashback Industry News will keep you current and you can get weekly news highlights in your inbox by signing up for free at the top of this page.