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The Top Five E-commerce Trends You Need To Know To Impact Holiday Sales

Posted on by darion

In 2024, e-commerce isn’t anyone’s second option. It’s a $6 trillion business reaching billions of people annually.

With 94 percent of shoppers preferring to start or end their shopping experience online, e-commerce is critical for engaging consumers and converting browsers into buyers.

It’s also highly competitive.

With more than 26 million e-commerce sites globally, standing out and capturing consumer attention has never been more difficult.

This is especially true during the holiday shopping season when revenue opportunities abound and consumers are inundated with options and promotions.

In response, global brands are busy preparing for the holiday shopping season, looking to capture as much of the $7.5 billion in available revenue as possible.

Knowing the latest e-commerce trends is the right place to start, allowing brands to capitalize on relevant innovations, adapt to consumer expectations, and drive sustained growth.

Here are the top five e-commerce trends you need to know to maximize your holiday sales potential in 2024.

#1 Generative AI

Generative AI (Gen AI), the seemingly ubiquitous technology that can create text and images, conduct complex simulations, and interact with customers, could have enormous implications for the e-commerce industry.

Many consumers are already anticipating that this technology will impact their shopping experience.

One consumer survey found that 72 percent of consumers expect their online shopping experience to evolve with Gen AI, including integration or amplification of pre-purchase product education and virtual shopping assistance. However, Gen AI isn’t a silver bullet to achieving customer satisfaction. More than 90 percent of those consumers surveyed had high expectations for brands’ use of Gen AI, while just 54 percent were willing to share personal information to enhance their shopping experience.

This means that brands must look beyond the hype to invest in, develop, and implement Gen AI solutions that make the most impact on the buyer experience and bottom line outcomes.

An analysis by Boston Consulting Group found that the use cases with the highest adoption rate emphasize productivity, efficiency, and automation, including accelerated creative processes and optimized testing and adaptation.

Meanwhile, consumers are most excited about using Gen AI this:

  • Automatically filter products based on their needs and preferences
  • Design custom products
  • Synthesize product reviews
  • Interact with chatbot-based customer service
  • Receive personalized shopping advice

The stakes are incredibly high. Adobe’s research found that nearly half of consumers are “more inclined to shop with brands that use Generative AI on their website,” and 58 percent believe that Gen AI has already improved their shopping experience.

Additionally, Adobe Analytics determined that brands using Gen AI are experiencing significant increases in web traffic, surging by 304 percent year-over-year.

How Gen AI will continue to develop and impact the e-commerce space is still being determined, but it’s already reconfiguring customer expectations and brand offerings, making it a trend that e-commerce platforms can’t ignore.

#2 Data Management & Data Harmonization

Effective e-commerce is predicated on data. It’s the key to unlocking personalization, optimization, engagement, efficiency, and growth.

Customer data is often one of the most valuable assets for brands, but only if it’s collected responsibly, managed appropriately, and applied accurately.

This is easier said than done.

Many brands and e-commerce platforms are drowning in an ocean of potential insights. They have infinite potential at their fingertips, but they can’t seem to grasp it.

According to one study, just 24 percent of executives say they successfully created a data-driven organizationan eight percent decline since 2019.

similarly, Forbes reports that “91% of business leaders say the growing volume of data has limited the success of their organizations.” At the same time, nearly three-quarters acknowledge that data volume has eroded trust in data as a decision-making tool.

In this environment, it’s unsurprising that 85 percent of business leaders say they suffer from “decision distress,” an imprecise but self-explanatory expression of a modern leadership malady.

Simply put, for most e-commerce platforms, data is an abundant resource that can be capitalized on but isn’t currently delivering the insights and strategic advantages needed to maximize growth and customer satisfaction.

Investing in a data warehouse and a handful of dashboards could be eye-opening for any growing business. Specifically, focus on key data sets that point toward optimal outcomes, including:

  • Sales data
  • Customer insights
  • Inventory levels
  • Performance marketing
  • Website metrics
  • Customer support outcomes.

In other words, e-commerce platforms are failing to achieve the right level of detail and segmentation to unlock data-driven decisions. Focusing on specific data sets and actionable solutions can help.

#3 Post Purchase Communication

E-commerce companies have learned that the checkout screen can’t be the last intentional interaction they have with their customers. They must continue to engage their customers after they complete a purchase, providing personalized post-purchase communications, including:

  • Gratitude for choosing their platform to make a purchase
  • Opportunities for customer feedback
  • Methods for receiving support
  • Regular updates on order and delivery status.

Many e-commerce platforms, including Shopifyare recognizing this trend, developing and implementing post-purchase communication tools that allow brands to communicate with their customers after checkout.

The post-purchase experience is part of the holistic customer experience that will determine if buyers will be back again.

#4 Omnichannel Customer Experiences

Today’s shoppers expect everything, everywhere, whenever they want it.

They consumer survey found that nearly three-quarters of customers expect to do anything online that they can do in person.

AND separate analysis found that the average buyer turns to nine channels to make purchases, highlighting the need for seamless, omnichannel experiences that meet consumers wherever they are and whenever they choose to shop.

As I share in my new book, MBA Disrupted: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Bootstrapping $1M+ Digital Businesses, for e-commerce platforms, this means they need a holistic strategy for integrating various shopping channels, including desktop and mobile-friendly ecommerce sites, online marketplaces, email campaigns, and social media presence.

#5 Returns & Resale

Online shopping isn’t simple and convenient, putting limitless merchandise just a tap away. It also makes sending items back just as easy.

This is a problem for retailers, supply chains, and even customers.

Forbes reports that 20 percent of online orders are returned, costing retailers $642 billion annually.

The problem was so bad that at one point nearly 60 percent of retailers reported “keep it” policies, preferring customers just keep their unwanted merchandise rather than navigating the cost and logistical nightmare of reclaiming unwarranted inventory.

Now e-commerce companies are pushing back, updating their policies to close this loophole.

As they are Atlantic headline recently declared, “The free-returns party is over.”

Even Amazon, which started and proliferated the free returns movement, is charging to return some items.

Today, more than 40 percent of retailers charge return feeswhile others offer free returns in exchange for signing up for loyalty or other incentive programs.

E-commerce companies can’t continue to take a 20 percent haircut on returned merchandise. However, they can’t afford to infuriate their customers in the process, creating opportunities for creative platforms to implement compelling solutions that appeal to customers and benefit the bottom line.

Know the Trends to Meet the Moment

To remain relevant, competitive, and compelling, e-commerce platforms and the brands they serve will need to remain agile.

Adapting to the latest trends will allow e-commerce platforms to accommodate customer expectations ahead of the holiday season to successfully maximize engagement, drive sales, and foster long-term customer loyalty when it matters most this holiday shopping season.

Call to Action:

Get Your E-Commerce Business In Order for the Holidays or the Year Ahead with the New book by Mario Peshev, MBA Disrupted: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Bootstrapping $1M+ Digital Businesses. Or, give the gift that keeps on giving – knowledge & purchase it for the aspiring digital entrepreneur in your life! Available on Amazon and join the community by visiting https://mbadisrupted.com/.

About the Author:

Mario Peshev is the CEO of DevriXa global WordPress agency providing scalable, long-term technical partnerships along with marketing, and business consulting. Peshev is the author of the new bestselling Amazon book, MBA Disrupted: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Bootstrapping $1M+ Digital Businesses.

Since 2015, DevriX has consistently ranked among the top 20 WordPress consultancies worldwide, scaling both world-known enterprise brands and high-traffic publishers with up to 1 billion monthly page views on top of WordPress.

In addition to leading DevriX’s 50+ distributed tech teams crafting high-scale WordPress solutions optimized for revenue, he is also a certified Business Coach with MindValley an Inbound Certified marketer, and a multi-disciplined business owner with a wide scope of skills frequently featured on Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc. Magazine. Peshev helps businesses scale operations, invest in digital transformation, implement successful recruitment and management strategies, and incorporate the right culture of the 21st century.

Peshev empowers entrepreneurs with sage advice through the Growth Shuttle advisory and by supporting local and global aspiring technologists with scholarships, internships and educational opportunities. He is also an ambassador with SeedBlink and Flippabridging the gap between investments and acquisition deals. Follow him on Twitter @no_fear_inc and connect on LinkedIn.