2018 is here and in full swing… which in the marketing world means resetting budgets, defining new goals, and figuring out how you’re going to improve on your core KPIs over last year. In this blog we’ll be diving into a yearlong study providing a year over year comparison of E-Commerce trends by Wolfgang digital to help you figure out what the numbers are saying, and how you can apply what they say to your E-Commerce strategy (with the help of VITAL BGS, of course).
1. The journey from first interaction to purchase is growing longer.
An analysis of 143 million sessions and 447 million euros in generated revenue found that the number of clicks required to generate 1 million in sales had grown by 12% in just as many months.
More clicks are just the surface analysis, however. The deeper dive shows us that customers more now than ever are doing their research before purchasing — and it’s not just product quality they’re looking for. Customers want brands to have a socially and ethically responsible marketing strategy, and it can cost you BIG TIME by not proceeding with your strategy accordingly.
2. Google is still web traffic king… but others are gaining.
While 63% of E-Commerce revenue was generated from google the 37% that wasn’t is no small matter. As this trend continue into 2018 it’s more apparent than ever that you’ll need to diversify your E-Commerce strategy from being purely Google Ad Words driven.
3. Your consumers attention span matters!
You’ve heard it time and time again — social media and news feed that never sleeps are causing the average attention span to shrink. And while there is some debate about how that applies to good content (Facebook saw it’s average video view time rise in mid 2017) there is no debate when it comes to your website. The data is clear, faster websites generate more sales and retain a not insignificant more traffic than slower counterparts.
4. Speaking of websites, the stickier, the better.
When page sessions last longer, sales go up, and when sales go up everyone is happier. The question then becomes how to make your site stickie for new and returning customers…and well, let’s just say things like that are where we come in!
5. Mobile is ever gaining, but desktop conversions still brings home the money.
2017 was the first year on record where sites claimed more mobile sessions than desktop and tablet sessions (52% compared to 36% and 12% respectively), yet desktop still generates 61% of all online E-Commerce revenue — however websites that saw an increase in mobile sessions also saw an increase in revenue. So, while it’s definitely time to start tailoring content and ads towards mobile platforms, we’re far from a desktop-less utopian mobile-only world — make sure you’re optimizing content accordingly!
6. The bigger the screen, the bigger the cart!
Last but, certainly not least, tablet users are much more likely to splurge on themselves when shopping online, and the average cart value by device shows it! Now that Facebook allows you to target specific devices with your ads, maybe it’s time to send your heftier ticket items towards those who are more willing #TreatThemselves2k18!
There you have it — 6 snapshot analysis trends to consider when devising your new E-Commerce strategy in 2018, the next step you can (and should!) take is bringing in VITAL BGS to help you revolutionize your E-Commerce presence.
And for those of you interested in reading the data yourselves, you can find the full study here.