Not all trends are favorable. Sometimes you need to evaluate the bad as well as the good to set yourself up for success.
Here are 3 trends etailers are worrying about that should grab your attention.
Barriers To Entry Are Weakening
With technology advancing so rapidly and with so many online tools available, the eCommerce market already has low barriers to entry and those barriers are getting lower. Coupled with relatively low maintenance costs and practically free marketing and advertising, no wonder etailers are finding success.
Free and relatively cheap tools like Ubersuggest, SharedCount, and Majestic SEO help etailers do everything from keyword research to tracking online reach to analyzing all things SEO.
You don’t have to know everything to get into the game, and for already established etailers, this is worrisome, because low barriers to entry mean. . .
Competition Is Big And Getting Bigger
As everyone knows, the web is a crowded place. In 2012, the number of online stores (with at least $12,000 in sales) in the U.S. grew 13.5% from 90,500 to over 102,000.
In terms of content, it’s estimated that nearly 92,000 new articles are posted on the web each day. The Huffington Post alone produces at least 1,200 pieces of content a day, and the ever-useful Forbes produces about 400 pieces.
The sheer volume of etailers and the content that’s floating around the web makes it hard to get attention, and it’s only going to get harder. Trends are pointing up.
A Higher Dependence On Customer Reviews
With more products and services to choose from, customers are starting to depend heavily on customer reviews.
Nearly 82% of consumers value user-generated reviews, and 71% of customers agree that reviews make them more comfortable when buying a product or requesting a service.
Need a little good news? About 95% of unhappy consumers will return if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently, so monitor your online reputation and attend to those less-than-stellar reviews.
Staying on top of trends like these can help you stay prepared as the eCommerce market shifts.
What trends are you worrying about this year?