From reasons why shoppers abandon their carts to consumers utilizing price comparison apps...................................................................................................................................................................................
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..rush! 🛒
With the holiday season in full swing, retail and e-commerce markets are exploding with activity. From new trends in online shopping to the latest technology developments, here are the top stories that are making waves this week:
Poor website user experience causes a staggering 60% of customers to abandon their shopping carts leading to billions in losses for e-commerce companies.
Google and e-commerce websites will likely continue to rely on CAPTCHA as an essential tool in their battle against bots.
As inflation continues to bite, consumers rely on apps for financial relief.
Amazon bows to the E.U.'s demands by agreeing to amend its operational methods.
Top Retail and E-commerce Stories
#AbandonmentIssues: 60% of Customers Walk Away Because of Poor User Experience
E-commerce businesses are losing an average amount of 5 sales per customer each year
8% abandon more than 10 orders because of inadequate online shopping performance
The top reasons customers abandon an e-commerce website are: limited payment options (37%), subpar navigation and layout (37%), and slow loading speeds (33%).
The CEO and Founder of Storyblok, Dominik Angerer, shares "Consumers want easy to navigate, intuitively designed, and fast loading websites. However, a lot of e-commerce websites are falling short. Five purchases per shopper in missed sales may not seem like a lot, but when you scale this up to the number of potential new customers businesses are missing out on, it becomes a very significant amount of money."
Regarding purchasing decisions, a whopping 56% of people stated that referrals from family and friends influence their purchasing behaviors. Additional data shows that social media has more of an influence on U.S. shoppers than on European shoppers concluding that 48% of Americans prefer seeing products on social media platforms compared to 35% of Europeans.
The unsung hero of the e-commerce world. Google and other e-commerce websites have long relied onCAPTCHA as a tool to distinguish between humans and bots.Cybersecurity professionals have exclaimed that CAPTCHA tools, which are intended to identify humans from bots, have failed due to aiming at us instead of machines. The consequence for e-commerce companies is a large number of deserted sales transactions.
Google, the parent company of RECAPTCHA, is always upgrading its product and according to cyber professionals, this form of bot detection technology has a lasting role in combination with other modernized digital defense models.
The feelings consumers face with e-commerce cybersecurity are relatively split down the middle when it comes to CAPTCHA. The data shows that those within the Generation X and Baby Boomer generations are the most frustrated. According to the Director of the Center for Innovation Technology Policy at Princeton University, Prateek Mittal, an alternative option would be to only present CAPTCHAs when a user first creates an account or profile on a website. However, this idea isn't completely foolproof as it could decrease the number of cybersecurity checkpoints that are in place.
Technology and machines, as we know, are not perfect. The key will be to keep consumers in the loop as data innovations and systems are being optimized for errors.
Inflation Bites: Consumers Rely on Technology for Financial Relief
Cold, hard inflation.As the cost of living rises to its highest level in 40 years, a booming population of American shoppers is turning to apps and web browser extensions that assist them with locating discounts, comparing prices, and capitalizing on loyalty rewards from retailers. Though these helpful tools have been around for some time now, they are experiencing bigger demand than ever before! This year, US consumers have downloaded apps like Upside, Fetch, and Price.com in astonishing numbers – a 40% increase from the same period last year.
Now more than ever, stores are looking for ways to maintain their profits while also attracting new buyers. This sparked a surge in digital tools such as Fetch which is an app that allows consumers to upload their receipts and redeem rewards based on purchases. From a brand perspective, this helped with promotional success as it confirmed to retailers that specific targeted promotions were working.
Now, with inflation creeping in and consumers penny-pinching, apps like Fetch allows retail and brand partners to take part in reward systems such as points within Fetch which can be redeemed by users for gift cards at places like Starbucks, Amazon, and CVS. Since consumers aren't spending more money, Fetch is using an incentivized program to shift their spending and create a more compelling reason to buy.
As part of the agreement, Amazon must guarantee other product producers equal access to prime space on its website - as well as prevent any use of private data collected from independent sellers for influencing their own offerings. Additionally, other measures are required under this resolution.
The uphill battle for European regulators went against Amazon, and soon-to-be Apple, Google, and Meta, for new and improved business changes which have since caused big powerhouses like Amazon to "thwart competition, undermine data privacy safeguards and allow illicit online content." Currently, in place, there are new European laws that specifically target the tech sector and could be announced as soon as 2024 that will cause changes to app stores, social media content, and advertising online.
Read More about Europe's demands and how Amazon will need change.
As we have and are still going through the holiday rush, which of these ad platforms have or are giving you the most ROI?
QUICK TIP
Try this. Dig deep into keyword research to uncover the topics and products that your target audience cares about.
FUN FACT
The average online shopper spends an annual amount of $1,250 on their Internet purchases.
LISTEN UP
On this 64th episode of The E-Comm Show, our host and BlueTuskr CEO Andrew Maff is with Jodi Benjamin, founder of Life of Colour, an Australian art brand that strongly believes we all have a colorful, inner-creative being bursting to live a more connected life.
Tune in to this episode of The E-Comm Show as Jodi shares her story on how she has successfully built Life of Colours all without the help of Amazon. From understanding her target market to settling down on a niche and expanding her product line, Jodi’s here to share all her secrets to scaling her own brand.
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