My thoughts on the foreseeable future of eCommerce

Mar 17

Practically every fibre within economics, business and trade is going to feel the shockwaves and impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and as always with a hit of this scale there’ll be winners but most will be losers.

It’s also completely unclear just how much of an impact this will have, but if the last week or so has been anything to go by, it’s certainly going to be a turbulent and unpredictable few months ahead at the very least.

With governments advising lockdowns and an almost cult-like working from home movement in flux, spending habits, priorities and online behaviour are all thrown in to a commotion.

So, here’s my mutterings on how this could all potentially impact eCommerce for the foreseeable future and how brands can better weather this storm and unprecedented shift in online behaviours.

CRO is to become both more difficult and more important than ever

According to Cloudflare (caught from an earlier tweet by Rand Fishkin) Internet traffic has increased by up to 40% in some areas:

Although this is super-top level, it indicates that there’s an increasing appetite for internet browsing as more people are encouraged/forced to remain indoors.

Ensuring you’re removing buyer frictions and technical issues from your eCommerce site is going to be critical.

Before CRO was just about maximising sales. Now CRO is more likely to be what helps to underpin the survival of online brands.

Dan Barker summarised this nicely in an earlier tweet discussing the effects of Coronavirus on eCom and I’m in full agreement with Dan here.

Running CRO tests and experiments with so much turbulence from variables such as web traffic, buyer confidence and supply chain etc. is going to be incredibly difficult and is likely to bring in to question results; good or bad.

However, good CRO is wider than experimentation and brands will need to look past experiments to deliver effective CRO implementation. For example:

Are you addressing the coronavirus head-on in your content?

I’m seeing plenty of emails from websites updating customers, but there’s very little web content to reinforce these points.

Adding a blog post or a web page explaining how you’re actively working to mitigate the spread and impacts of coronavirus in your business could really help to encourage buyer confidence.

Equally, if you’re experiencing disruption that’s likely to cause delays, be upfront, honest and put a solution in place such as live chat or an extended returns window for example.

However I do feel that brands will need to turn to CRO to ensure traffic is converting to its best potential.

Avoid Coronavirus marketing cheap shots

Using promotional campaigns and theming around this sensitive pandemic is unlikely to go down well with your audience. Avoid using themed discount codes or capitalising on your customer’s struggles during this time.

To be clear, absolutely continue to merchandise, market and promote – just be mindful and do so in good taste.

Be ready to accommodate new customers and demographics

Shoppers that are unable to get outdoors to make their purchases or are reluctant to do so may find themselves drawn to browsing and purchasing online.

As it becomes less desirable to venture out to make purchases, users who have not or rarely purchase online may be persuaded to do so.

It’s going to be more important to ensure your website is accessible and as easy to use as possible to help your lesser versed potential customer audiences.

Pay close attention to your internal search queries

Conversion rates can be up to 50% higher than average through site search. Which is why it’s now incredibly important to pay attention to internal search performance and your user’s search habits.

As Internet traffic increases and browsing/buying habits shift, now is a good time to pay close attention to the search queries visitors and shoppers are using when using your eCommerce front end.

  • What new search queries are emerging?
  • What search terms are in high volume but lack suitable products?
  • What questions are people looking for answers to?

Being able to answer these questions can help you to identify missed opportunities and improve your CRO and UX.

The same levels of importance can be applied to SEO too

As brands and businesses will need to work harder to capture customer’s cash, ensuring you’re ranking well for purchase intent and research based queries is also going to be essential.

Potential and existing customers are spending more time online and are looking to brands and websites for advice and tips, especially in the travel sector. But the same can be said elsewhere.

Just take a look at these Google Trends examples:

Kids games

Kids bored

Boredom

Based on the above, arts and craft supplies are likely to quickly become low cost necessities rather than trivial or impulse purchases as children are out of school and need to be entertained.

If you’re in the arts and crafts sector, or maybe work in tutoring or childcare, creating helpful, thought provoking and rich content to tackle these queries could open your brand up to new audiences and help mitigate some of the downturn in spending.

As the saying goes, where there’s muck, there’s brass.

To use another example, Aleyda Solis retweeted something that Tobias Wilmann called out regarding SEO and the importance of it within the travel sector:

Ultimately, the point I’m trying to make here is connecting the queries of your customers and potential customers is essential to help survive the impending lack of spending. Investing effectively in SEO can certainly help to close that gap and help to capture more sales.

Customers are more likely to buy on confidence and trust over price

Customers are now more likely to make purchases based on a company’s ability to fulfil an order, and availability over price.

You don’t have to look far to see that panic buying is sweeping across communities. Supply is outstripping demand in many areas.

However, it’s not possible to ‘see’ availability online as easily as you can by stepping in to a supermarket for example. This means that customers will need to feel confident in a brand’s ability to deliver their order(s).

Addressing these increased customer anxieties could be achieved in a number of ways. For example:

Demonstrate genuine empathy and transparency in content and marketing

Be clear with stock levels and the ability to dispatch orders. Again, going back to an earlier point, address how you’re proactively helping to fend off the Coronavirus disruption and how you plan to keep customers updated.

Being upfront, transparent and honest I feel will pay dividends in encouraging customers to spend their hard earned cash with you over competitors or retracting their spend altogether.

An example here could be to increase returns windows to compensate for potential and unforeseeable delays in supply chain and the processing of returns.

A few great examples:

uber eats free delivery email

Predicted areas of growth in eCommerce

I don’t believe it’s all doom and gloom for eCommerce. They’ll be losers, sure – but they’ll be winners too. Here’s my thoughts on the wins (outside of the obvious grocery and healthcare sectors)

Boredom is also a great and powerful catalyst to impulse buying and boredom is likely to hit households globally in droves.

Home and garden and home office supplies

More and more companies are sending their workforces home where technology and circumstances allow. This on top of self isolation could mean more people seek to build a more suitable and ergonomic office space.

I’d expect brands such as IKEA and Staples to do well online via their eCommerce outfits as the necessity to work from increases and people invest in computer desks, additional monitors, peripherals, printer ink and other low cost office supplies.

Home office

Outside of the immediate home office requirement – I would imagine that home and garden would at least remain fairly steady over the coming months if not show signs of eCommerce growth.

One to watch in the home and garden space in the coming weeks and months is Wayfair.

As the weather is set to improve and more people are to remain confined to their homes – spending could increase across home and garden as more people take advantage of their garden spaces over dining out.

Luxury creature comforts and low cost indulgence

I predict coffee machines through to luxury teas are set to flourish in the coming months as people are pulled away from the coffee shops of the high street and spend more time at home

Low cost and impulse driven creature comforts are likely to increase as less people venture out to their favourite café’s and breakfast stops and remain indoors.

Websites such as T2 are likely to see an increase in customer spending, although at a reduced AoV as customers are more weary of spending during uncertain times.

Home study/entertainment, education and books

For some, spending more time at home means more time to try and wind down or invest in self-development etc.

As a result, I foresee an increase in games (of all kinds) and at least a steady influx in online book sales.

However, none of these are particularly revolutionary and are more based on expected behaviours when changes in circumstances are forced upon a society.

Predicted declines in retail and eCommerce

What’s going to be more worrying and interesting to watch is the impact to overall retail and sectors that aren’t likely to fair well whilst trying to navigate and survive this pandemic.

This week’s #ecomChat over on Twitter focussed solely on eCommerce and the impacts coronavirus will have on it. There’s plenty of solid ideas and points discussed. I’m just pulling in a few insightful tweets:

Fashion and apparel are likely to struggle, but a short term pivot could help survival

It’s clear that customer confidence and appetite towards fashion is down. It will be hit hard across all sales channels, especially the high street. However, it’s not all bad news.

If you take a closer look at loungewear specifically, interest has certainly spiked:

Loungewear

My point here is, clothing brands are going to need to potentially adapt and pivot if they’re to continue to capture customers.

Appealing to a buyer that wants to be comfortable in clothing at home could now be more important than before. ‘In’ could be the new ‘out’ in the short-term in regards to fashion.

High street exclusive brands like Primark are most likely to feel the brunt of the pandemic as Steve Paine highlighted:

Supply chain, stocks and people resource challenges

Away from technology, the impact to processes and functions behind the scenes is going to be unprecedented.

Amazon have already announced they’re planning to hire 100,000 additional staff within warehouse and delivery operations to cope with the increased eCommerce demand and fill in for workers who’ve had to take sick leave.

However they’ll be collateral damage to a number of other areas too including courier and delivery services, processing of returns and customer services resources to name a few.

How brands and fulfilment centres manage and attempt to mitigate these hurdles will be really telling over the coming weeks and months. Especially supermarkets.

To highlight this perfectly, have you visited Ocado recently? That’s one heck of a virtual queue. But this is a heck of a lot better than allowing the server to simply fall over due to capacity.

Frustrating? Yes. Crisis averted? I think so. Well played Ocado.

In summary…

No one knows for sure what the immediate and long term impacts the COVID-19 virus will have on eCommerce, business and the economy in general, but we do know it will be trying for many and they’ll be a lot of turbulence to come.

Fingers crossed this is a short to medium term crisis, although I’ve a feeling the face of eCommerce may just be about to experience an evolution. Are retailers and customers ready? Time will tell.

Finally, I think this post from Stephen Kenwright sums up the playing field in digital rather nicely indeed:

PS: If you can, proactively help to soften the blow to small business owners, here’s how you can help:

helpingsmallbiz.co.uk

Chris Green from Footprint Digital has put together a ‘task force’ type gig over at helpingsmallbiz.co.uk, It’s specifically designed to rally free time donations from digital experts that can be donated to help small independent businesses get online to combat the fall in high street retail.

A brilliant idea, and if you can get involved, please do.

Submit your eCommerce website for review – SEMRush webinar

I’ll be featuring on an eCommerce surgery on April 1st at 18:00 (GMT) where you’re welcome to submit your eCommerce website for review. We’ll be reviewing SEO, CRO and other opportunities that can be leveraged to increase your website’s online sales. Especially important at present.

Submit your eCommerce website here and we hope to see you there.

Most importantly, help others, remain positive and buy local where possible.

Thanks for reading!

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About The Author

Luke Carthy is an international speaker, eCommerce SEO & CRO Consultant. Luke specialises eCommerce growth, analytics, strategy and increasing conversion rate and can typically found writing about proven and effective eCommerce SEO advice and case studies. Learn more about Luke Carthy.