Ecommerce & Marketplaces Newsletter – Jan 19th, 2024
In this edition, the lead story from Forbes gazes at the future of e-commerce and the trends to watch out for in 2024. Digital commerce is an ever-evolving sector; as technology swiftly progresses and consumer tastes shift, businesses must stay at the forefront to maintain competitiveness. In 2024, new trends are poised to redefine the e-commerce landscape. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales experienced a 3.8% increase compared to the previous year, reaching $964.4 billion. This rise in sales occurred as consumers continued to purchase gifts and celebrate despite facing an extended period of elevated prices. CNBC’s story looks at the Holiday sales increase that refueled retailers’ optimism for consumer spending in an uncertain 2024. What does the future hold for B2B commerce in 2024? What key priorities should businesses focus on for the year? To guide you, the experts at commercetools have five (out of ten) predictions for 2024. To bridge the gap between the demands of B2B buyers and the digital capabilities of B2B organizations, it’s crucial to prioritize practical initiatives that address customer needs as a route for sustainable growth. How do we gauge the success of a marketplace? Is it by the number of users or the volume of investment? It’s the revenue that counts. In today’s market, various product marketplace business models exist to generate profits, offering entrepreneurs multiple avenues for earning. Presently, marketplaces are adopting diverse business models to maximize their profitability. Sloboda Studio’s blog looks at seven different marketplace business models that work. On Sunday at the National Retail Federation Expo (NRF 2024), Salesforce unveiled a collection of AI-driven e-commerce tools. These tools utilize customer data and offer insights into consumer loyalty, return behavior, and staff productivity. Inc. story has more details. Read this and other great stories in this week’s edition.
Notable news from the past week
The Future Of E-Commerce: Trends To Watch In 2024
E-commerce is a dynamic industry that has transformed the way we shop and conduct business. With rapid advancements in technology and changing consumer preferences, your business must stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive. Several emerging trends are set to reshape e-commerce in 2024. I’ll focus on the ones that are worth keeping an eye on this year and then share some tips for taking advantage of them. AR enables customers to have immersive shopping experiences from the comfort of their homes. It allows them to visualize products in a real-world context, making informed decisions before making a purchase. Ikea has been using AR technology with its app for a few years now, proving that it isn’t merely a short-lived fad. Ikea doesn’t have to be an outlier. We have the frameworks to apply AR technology to e-commerce on a broader scale than we currently do. TikTok and Instagram filters alone prove that we can do this easily, and relatively inexpensively. What we need is for companies that can most benefit from this tech—salons, clothing retailers and more furniture and home improvement retailers—to provide this interactive and engaging shopping experience.
Holiday Sales Climb, Boosting Retailer Hopes That Shoppers Will Spend During Uncertain 2024
Holiday sales rose 3.8% year over year to $964.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation, as consumers spent on gifts and celebrations even after enduring a prolonged period of higher prices. The tallied results, released by the NRF on Wednesday and based on retail sales data from the Commerce Department, were roughly in line with the major trade group’s expectations. The holiday sales total was not adjusted for inflation and included both in-store and online purchases. Ahead of the holiday season, NRF had predicted that sales in November and December would rise 3% to 4% year over year to between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion in spending. The forecast and holiday total exclude sales at automobile dealers, gas stations and restaurants. The results echo findings of the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, which showed that holiday shoppers closed out the year on a positive note. In the two key months of the season, November and December, the Retail Monitor rose 3.7% and core retail gained 3.3% year over year, excluding autos and gas.”
Seven Different Types of Marketplace Business Models That Actually Work
What exactly is the measurement of marketplace success? The number of users or amount of invested money? Nope, it is your revenue. Nowadays, there are different product marketplace business models to make profits that can help entrepreneurs earn. Nowadays, marketplaces use different business models to make profits. In our many years of experience building online product marketplaces, we have discovered that the best revenue model for most is to charge a commission from all website purchases. This approach is scalable and quite lucrative. However, there are instances where the commission model is unsuitable, so alternative business models to make profits are needed. At the start, it is good to have only a single revenue stream in use at a time. When the marketplace grows, try combining different revenue streams to create a product marketplace business model that takes into account everything that is happening on your site.
Five Predictions Shaping B2B Digital Commerce In 2024
Since we published the inaugural edition of the Pivotal Trends and Predictions in B2B Digital Commerce last year, scores of B2B organizations have made incredible progress in digitizing commerce prompted by the ever-increasing (and much-talked-about) shift in customer expectations. Gartner predicts that a staggering 80% of sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels as early as 2025, so it comes as no surprise that the B2B eCommerce market continues to rise above and beyond with a projected CAGR of 18.30% and projected to exceed USD 18.97 trillion by 2028. However, not everything is rosy in the brave new world of B2B digital commerce. Despite manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers digitizing rapidly to align with customer expectations, meeting those remains an ever-shifting target. If there’s one lesson from 2023, it’s that there’s a widening gap between what buyers want and what most B2B organizations can actually deliver. This is because customer expectations in B2B have evolved faster in the last 12 months than anticipated: Consumer-grade experiences, such as personalization and omnichannel interactions, are now top-of-mind.
Walmart Marketing Strategy Uncovered: Key Takeaways for E-sellers
Before diving into Walmart marketing strategies, let’s take a quick look at some relevant information about this massive retail corporation. What is Walmart & Walmart Marketplace? It’s important to differentiate between Walmart & Walmart Marketplace. So how are they different from each other? Walmart is a US multinational retail corporation founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. This corporation has surpassed other Walmart competitors to become one of the largest retailers in the world, with over 10,500 stores in 20 countries. In 2009, Walmart launched its online marketplace, Walmart Marketplace, which allows third-party sellers to list and sell their products on Walmart’s website. Walmart Marketplace provides an additional sales channel for sellers and expands Walmart’s product offerings to customers. It has become one of the top marketplaces for retailers to sell their products.
Salesforce Just Launched 4 New AI Tools for E-Commerce Businesses
Salesforce introduced a series of AI-powered e-commerce tools at the National Retail Federation Expo (NRF 2024) on Sunday that leverage customer data and to provide analytics around consumer loyalty, return activity, and employee productivity. The announcement comes on the heels of Salesforce’s findings that AI played a large role in informing shoppers’ purchases during the 2023 holiday season. The software company’s new offerings are poised to aid SMBs–which comprise 89 percent of Salesforce’s clients–with new features available to marketers, merchandisers, and customers through its streamlined Einstein 1 platform. For merchandisers, the Page Designer feature uses AI language prompts to construct and tailor e-commerce sites. Return Insights in Order Management analyzes return activity and uses AI to digest and interpret trends voiced in product reviews. Inventory Insights gives real-time access to inventory numbers so that merchants can more easily manage product holds and predict sales trends, preventing order backlogs.
How AI, Data and Storytelling Will Power Ecommerce Campaigns In 2024
In the past two decades, the marketing landscape has witnessed three distinct stages of disruption. First came the era of Google search, followed by the rise of social media. Now, as we step into 2024, we find ourselves in the age of commerce media, where the spotlight shines brightly on the significance of retail media and e-commerce. This year offers marketers a unique opportunity: to view e-commerce not merely as a transactional platform but as a transformative brand-enhancing avenue. E-commerce, encompassing the sale of goods and services over the internet, currently claims nearly 20% of the global retail sales share, and projections indicate it will reach 23% by 2027. The imminent transition from traditional media to the realms of retail media and e-commerce media promises a seismic shift in the years ahead. What truly sets this trend apart is its impact, not solely on the conversion ecosystem but also on the strategic allocation of marketing budgets.
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