In e-commerce, you feel it all. The economy, the global supply chain, even politics can impact the way your customers shop.
To win with your marketing, you not only need to know the larger trends impacting the retail landscape. You also need to know how those trends can help you stay a step ahead.
To help you craft the right marketing strategy in 2024 (and beyond), we’ll share some of the biggest trends and challenges affecting e-commerce marketers, plus tips to help you turn each one into an advantage for your business.
Top E-commerce Marketing Challenges in 2024
In the game of modern commerce, nothing stays the same. Years after the cooling of the pandemic rush, followed by the cooling of the economy, Q4 2023 finally brought the stability many sellers were looking for.
Yet, some are seeing what feels like “soft” results heading into 2024. To understand what’s happening in the world of online shopping, let’s take a closer look at the trends and challenges that could impact your business this year.
An Extremely Crowded Landscape
Rising customer acquisition costs aren’t news to you. With increasing competition in an already saturated market, it’s harder than ever to position your brand to stand out from the crowd.
Meanwhile, the political ad spend typically funneled to traditional media is expected to make a digital shift this year. Election spend on digital platforms like Meta and Google is projected to increase by 156% compared to 2020’s figures, with spend on Google alone expected to more than triple to $553.2 million.
For brands, this could mean spending even more on ads only to get drowned out by candidates, or ignored by exhausted prospects who aren’t in the mood to shop. The 2024 Paris Olympics may add more fuel to the fire, making it even more challenging to get your voice heard.
Emerging Technology
Let’s be honest. No one really knows exactly what to do about AI in these early stages. It’s anyone’s guess how it will be best used by marketers, or how exactly it will change the e-commerce landscape long term.
We do know that one fast-growing use case for AI is in multivariate ad testing. Marketers can test multiple campaigns, each with different variables, at the same time. This gives sellers the power to test and tweak targeted segments and messages down to the campaign level in much less time than with traditional A/B testing.
The opportunity is huge, but the gray area is just as large. Some experts speculate that generative AI (genAI) search technology could render current SEO tactics useless, forcing marketers to dramatically shift gears overnight.
Merchants and retailers must adapt quickly to avoid getting left behind, but the ability to move from hype to ROI with emerging tech still feels out of reach for many.
Consumer Trust
A recent PWC report found that 46% of consumers will spend more if they can put their trust in a company. However, that trust just isn’t there.
According to the same survey, only 30% of consumers highly trust the companies they buy from. Even more concerning: data from Qualtrics XM Institute suggests that the typical consumer trusts retailers less than they trust the average car salesman.
The truth is, consumer trust has been steadily trending downward since early in the pandemic.
With around 40% of customers saying they will stop doing business with a company they don’t trust, it’s imperative for brands to earn their consumer’s confidence this year.
That could mean being more responsive to customer questions and concerns, protecting customers from data privacy violations, or establishing shared values around things like climate transparency and the responsible use of AI.
5 Tips For An Effective E-commerce Marketing Strategy
As is always the case in this business, you’ve got to adapt to survive. With the right strategies, some sellers may just have their best year yet.
Here are some of the top priorities to focus on to stay ahead of the curve in 2024 (and beyond).
1. Be Bold with AI
Aside from A/B testing, AI will also see more adoption in a number of key areas, including content creation and sentiment analysis. In fact, a recent Forrester study predicts that brands leveraging AI-powered marketing will witness a 15% increase in customer satisfaction.
To stay on top of current trends, try testing a variety of AI solutions and use cases:
- Use AI-powered data analysis and testing to project the effectiveness of new assets and understand the value of past campaigns
- Personalize marketing campaigns down the to the segment or individual level, optimizing for maximum conversion rate
- Predict customer behaviors and trends and design your campaigns accordingly
- Automate repetitive tasks like lead scoring and predicting likely conversions
- Analyze brand sentiment across social media platforms
- Take over basic customer service functions and collect first-party data
2. Leverage Owned Media
Although paid ads still have a role to play, a smart owned media strategy may help you reach your audience more effectively. In 2024, email marketing and SMS could prove to be more visible and valuable than PPC and paid social media campaigns.
Here are a few tips to capture more organic visibility this year:
- Uplevel your email marketing with automated sequences to welcome, nurture, and ascend each subscriber
- Use SMS to retarget, connect with customers, or follow up on abandoned carts — just make sure to give customers an easy way to opt out or you may risk eroding trust
- Optimize for the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) with onsite content that’s rich in keywords but also in information
- Offer something of value by sharing newsworthy content or helpful advice with readers — if information isn’t enough, try a promotion, coupon, or free PDF guide
- Post regularly on social media and engage followers to create user-generated content, or design a clever content curation strategy (this works for email marketing too)
3. Prep for Peak Personalization
You already know personalization is a powerful way to grab shoppers’ attention and optimize the customer experience. In 2024, hyper-personalization could become more than just a winning tactic. In fact, it’s looking more and more like a baseline customer expectation.
Try using marketing personalization tools to:
- Deliver customized onsite experiences using features like dynamic content blocks
- Give customer service agents access to customer information such as past transactions so they can offer personalized their interactions
- Provide personalized product recommendations including the colors, sizes, and styles most relevant to the user
- Offer personalized pricing based on past purchases and browsing behavior, with special deals, discounts, and promotions
Pro Tip: No matter which approaches you take, be sure to use personalization solutions intentionally. The goal is to execute helpful tasks that inspire action, not big-brother your shoppers into distrusting your brand.
4. Put Your Values Out There
Customers still vote with their wallets, perhaps now more than ever. According to research, 82% of consumers say they shop from brands that share their values. However, the values that drive their shopping habits vary widely from generation to generation.
Gen Z shoppers mainly aim for brands that advocate for social equality, as well as those that partner with charitable organizations or support sustainability. Millennials are more interested in brands that focus on treating their employees well, though charitable giving and the environment matter to them, too. For Gen X and Boomers, personal data protection is what matters most.
Whatever your target demographic, it pays to share your mission and values with your audience. Done well, you’ll be able to build a tribe of like-minded shoppers who will remain loyal to your brand.
Here are a few ways to increase transparency in your e-commerce marketing:
- Include information on your packaging, such as whether your products are sustainable, fair trade, responsibly sourced, etc.
- Post on social and use email marketing to inform customers about your latest sustainability initiatives, nonprofit partnerships, cybersecurity updates, and more
- Give employees a voice by inviting them to represent your brand on social media and share positive experiences working with your company
- Use your brand website to let readers know your company’s backstory, how your products are made, and how your supply chain works
- Communicate transparently with your customers about how you’ll use their data and always get their express consent before collecting it
5. Automate your Processes
No matter what marketing task is on your plate, there’s probably a solution that can do the majority of the heavy lifting for you, delivering better efficiency and ROI as a byproduct.
Here’s just a handful of some of the top tools that can help you build better campaigns in less time.
Yotpo
Yotpo offers a tool suite designed to help you grow your store with things like reviews, referral schemes, and visual marketing. You can even craft an SMS marketing strategy to target shoppers with personalized notes for high-converting mobile campaigns. Advanced features begin at $79 per month.
Omnisend
Omnisend is a straightforward platform with features like automated email marketing, SMS, and web push notification campaigns. It’s designed to integrate with e-commerce platforms with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Wix. You can get up to 250 contacts and 500 emails for free, while standard plans for growing sellers start at $16 per month.
Drip
Drip allows you to build visual workflows for your email and SMS campaigns. Its automations and integrations allow you to go hands-free on marketing communication, without losing the personal touch. You can get started with Drip’s 14-day free trial, after which prices begin at $39 per month.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform known for its next-level email funnel building and list segmentation features. You can also build text message campaigns to keep leads warm, boost conversions, and grow your customer base. You can get up to 250 contacts and 500 emails for free. Plans start at $60 and up, depending on features and number of contacts.
Bloomreach
Bloomreach is a personalization engine that helps marketers create and publish highly tailored content, then pushes that content to multiple channels including email, web, ads, and mobile. It also has other features like AI-based product recommendations and data analytics. Pricing is based on individual services and brand size and is available by request.
Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet
Successful marketing is a process of trial and error, especially in a changing landscape. It’s hard to know what will work, but with a clear strategy and a plan for consistent execution, you can still come out on top.
SellersFi is here to help. Explore our seller resources to learn more ways to grow and scale your e-commerce business, or reach out today to learn more about how we can help you grow your brand.
