Looking for the latest trends in e-commerce? Recently, we shared our top picks from research leader Forrester. If you haven’t had a chance to read those reports yet, we highly recommend taking time to do so today.
Of course, Forrester’s reports aren’t the only ones you’ll need to stay ahead. Our e-commerce experts have identified several other resources that address some of the biggest issues facing brands and retailers today.
Here are three more of our top picks from 2019.
Retail TouchPoints: E-Commerce in the Era of Amazon
At this stage in the e-commerce game, you’d be hard-pressed to find an area of the industry that hasn’t been shaped or significantly impacted by Amazon. Throughout the marketplace’s decades-long history, the company has set new standards and reset customer expectations across the entire landscape — from marketing to selling to fulfilling.
Many online sellers are left to wonder what more they could be doing to stay on a winning team. In the era of Amazon’s massive resources and grand plans, is there anything competing retailers can do to get ahead?
According to Retail TouchPoints’ report, Winning with Pages from Amazon’s Playbook, the answer is a definitive “yes.” Many retailers are finding success by “emphasizing their ability to do what Amazon doesn’t: personalize customer engagement and curate product assortments.”
In Retail TouchPoints’ second annual guide, analysts take a look at different pages from Amazon’s playbook and the ways brands and retailers can apply them. It serves as a guide to key technologies sellers can use to keep pace, with actionable takeaways and best practices on:
- Optimising inventory
- Creating frictionless checkouts
- Enhancing loyalty programs
- Getting established with marketplaces
- Creating appealing omnichannel experiences
- And more
If you’d like to get new ideas for using the “Amazon Effect” to your own advantage, this is the report to read.
Download the full report here.
eTail Special Report: Personalising the Consumer Experience
If you read our white paper on using data to map the consumer experience, you understand how important personalisation has become.
But what does this look like in practice?
eTail’s recent report offers several clues.Â
On the one hand, “personalisation” has been a central strategy for engaging and retaining consumers for years. But while product recommendation engines, customised notifications and other automated processes have been widely adopted, there are still a lot of missed opportunities. This is particularly true when it comes to helping brands and retailers understand and meet the needs of each individual consumer across marketing, selling and fulfilling.
For this report, eTail surveyed 100 retail professionals in multiple roles and categories to find out:Â
- How many sellers are currently using personalisation tools
- Where this technology currently stands — and where it’s headed
- What types of consumer segments are most frequently targeted
- Which strategies sellers plan to prioritise for investments in 2020
- And more
Throughout the report, various thought leaders discuss the different ways data and personalization can be used to increase engagement, satisfaction and profitability.
Download the full report here.
Internet Retailer: The Latest Marketplace Trends
When the inaugural edition of the Internet Retailer’s e-commerce marketplaces report was published in 2016, just a handful of channels had been established. Fast forward a few years, and the industry has boomed far beyond eBay, Amazon and Alibaba. With over 100 marketplaces accounting for more than half of online retailing around the globe, brands and retailers have a lot of options to choose from.
This is the first report to analyse them all.
Trends that were just beginning to emerge a few years ago have accelerated within the past 12 months. For example:
- More manufacturing brands are now selling on Amazon, making the marketplace giant an even bigger e-commerce powerhouse
- Sellers and consumers alike are increasingly turning to niche sites that focus on one or two categories
- Many traditional retailers are finding new ways to compete — either by selling on marketplaces or opening their own e-commerce sites to other sellers
We recommend this report to every growing online seller as a way to learn which consumer behaviours are fueling marketplace growth, and what’s likely to happen in the coming months and years.
Download the full report here.
Looking for more insights you can use to plan ahead for 2020? Stay tuned! We’ll continue to update the ChannelAdvisor blog with our top picks from industry thought leaders. Subscribe now to stay updated on important industry trends as they emerge.
