Ecommerce 3.0: The New Post-Pandemic Marketing Trends
After the Coronavirus pandemic hit the world early last year, businesses all over the world came to a halt and left the people in a frenzy. As industries and companies tried to keep themselves afloat, the one sector that witnessed unprecedented growth was ecommerce. The ecommerce sector witnessed a decade’s worth of growth in the span of one year. The pandemic drastically changed consumer buying behaviour and put ecommerce merchants in the spotlight. Millions of people flocked online as brick and mortar stores became inaccessible. Nearly 80% of Indians have now switched to online marketplaces.
As a response to the influx in the number of new consumers, ecommerce merchants and websites have also continued to keep up with the rising demands for products and services. The shift also reformed how brands operate and grow by focusing on delivering an immersive buying experience for its consumers, whether through mobile apps, brand websites, social media, or live video shopping.
Ecommerce Pre Covid19
Ecommerce in India had already been growing in India before the pandemic hit. With unprecedented digitalisation throughout the country, Indians were gradually jumping onto the digital bandwagon. The shift from brick and mortar stores to online stores was, nevertheless, slow. Although various brands were available online, the number of customers opting for online shopping remained low.
When the pandemic hit, and brick and mortar stores became inaccessible to people, opting for online purchasing became a viable option that was also safe and convenient.
Ecommerce During Covid19
The Indian ecommerce industry became the biggest beneficiary as the new containment restrictions drove millions of new consumers to online stores. Social distancing norms coupled with the massive smartphone base and availability of internet connections allowed consumers from smaller cities and towns to uptake online shopping as well.
Although panic buying made a significant contribution to the initial rise in online shopping, the upward trend continues even after a year. There is no doubt that the pandemic brought about a ‘structural shift’ in the Indian consumers’ buying behaviour, adding traits that are here to stay.
Ecommerce Post Covid19
The transformation of the ecommerce industry only further increased its scope of growth. As we move further and businesses gear up for the new fiscal year, here are some trends that are expected to redefine India’s e-commerce industry:
Customer Journey Is More Personalised
Thanks to technology, strategists can now monitor their consumers’ buying behaviour and patterns and precisely offer them the products they require or maybe looking for online. Brands can also utilise their consumer demographics to customise the buyer’s digital shopping experiences. Hence, brands have begun focussing on strengthening their efforts on creating more personalised and targeted experiences for their consumers to boost retention and maintain buyer satisfaction.
Strengthening Omnichannel Strategies
Our preferences and expectations as consumers are constantly changing, and the past year saw people across the globe prioritise convenience and safety. According to the Deloitte State of the Consumer Tracker, about 73% of Indian consumers were willing to pay more money for convenience. And as a response, several e-commerce merchants have strengthened their efforts to improve the consumer experience across various channels. As brands shift to a more consumer-centric business model, they aim to fortify their omnichannel strategies.
Content Marketing Becomes Crucial
The proverb “necessity is the mother of invention” has probably been the most relevant phrase in the past year.
When the lockdown hit last year, traditional advertising and marketing techniques became irrelevant, and brands shifted their focus towards content marketing as a way to connect with their audience while they were all stuck at home. As brands released more empathetic, relatable and refreshing content with innovative product placement, the ROI increased dramatically. This newfound awareness about the impact of content marketing expanded the idea of ecommerce being beyond just selling goods and services online.
Digital Marketing For Ecommerce
Digital marketing has also taken a spotlight as it helps generate huge revenues while also acquiring more customers and improving the brand’s value. As ecommerce takes over, brands are now required to apply new technologies to revamp their consumer experience. The new model needs to be more personalised and relevant to each individual consumer.
Social Media Is The New Source of Engagement
There are multiple ways in which consumers have been interacting with their favourite brands. However, when the pandemic hit, it changed the way shoppers were consuming information. As everyone was forced indoors, out-of-home advertising became less effective, and the focus moved towards improving the content and engagement practices on social media platforms.
As per a study conducted the previous year, 9 out of 10 consumers are more likely to go for brands that they follow on social media platforms, and about 75% of them are likely to increase their spending on these brands. Another benefit of using social media as an engagement tool is that it has made it easier for brands to approach their consumers globally.
To sail through the pandemic generated sea-change transformation, companies and consumers will have to be forward-looking while considering the emerging trends for future growth, shaping their resilience and profitability.
In order to overcome the revenues that the pandemic drained off, enterprises will have to undertake robust E-commerce strategies:
Innovate Digitisation
Businesses need to respond to the prevailing crisis while simultaneously building to thrive in a new reality based on their capabilities to innovate and personalise.
Apart from the above mentioned, businesses should consider specific strategies to flourish in E-commerce 3.0. These include:
Incorporating solid strategies facilitates getting back on the feet and provides a head start against adversaries in the competitive business world.
While some industries witnessed a downturn in the pandemic business scenario, the new wave of e-commerce has led to others' promising future growth.
The sectors that are expected to grow in the new wave include -
In the rebooted e-commerce industry, the D2C businesses are another example that will encompass the emerging capabilities. With consumer expectations rising higher than ever before, brands will have to deliver in a competitive market, set in motion by the pandemic.
The D2C e-commerce will render numerous benefits to the business. Some of which are:
Increased Sales - With no go-betweens and resellers, D2C e-commerce adds another channel to make more revenue.
Improved Brand Awareness - With increased control over various activities like sales and marketing, D2C e-commerce enhances the brand and helps control the overall customer experience from research to purchase.
Targeting Data - With more control over each step of manufacturing, sales, and marketing, D2C business models allow gathering a considerable amount of data about customers to understand them better.
Testing New Products - The massive amount of data collected can further allow manufacturers in making decisions about product launches based on the customer needs and wants.
Providing Omnichannel Experience - With manufacturers turning into marketers, retailers, and sellers, the D2C business offers an omnichannel experience that shapes customer's view of the business and products in ways that can benefit both the business and customers.
D2C e-commerce, along with a solid marketing strategy, can transform the manufacturing business into a money-making machine by directly selling to end-consumers.
In the times to come, both customers and businesses will continue to emerge. The users will be competent in uniting the real and virtual worlds at a time. With augmented and virtual reality holding grounds, they will be able to explore digitally built shops at their home's comforts and buy products with hand gestures and voice controls.
The author is Abhishek Punia, Co-founder & COO of #ARM Worldwide
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