Happy New Year! On behalf of the entire Unity Payments team, we hope that your 2023 has already gotten off to a great start. As well, we hope your company enjoyed a lucrative holiday season. If you were selling your products online, you surely benefitted from the vast popularity of online shopping. If you haven’t been enabling your customers to make purchases directly from your company website, it’s definitely time to make a change!
Here are three e-commerce trends to look for in 2023:
1. Ubiquitous access to your online store.
In 2023, it should be near-impossible for consumers to NOT find your online store. Place links in both your social media posts and bios. Send out newsletters containing links to the store as well. Be sure to include calls-to-action in all of your marketing materials. Increase requests for online reviews and testimonials. WakeupData.com reveals that 56% of people who shop in-store use their smartphones to look up products or do product research online while they were there.
To increase your omnichannel customer engagement, the website encourages business owners to personalize customer shopping experiences; make sure their sites are mobile-friendly; and offer social media customer support. WakeupData.com also recommends creating “bridges” between physical stores and digital channels. This involves providing features like a simple returns procedure and shipping to a variety of places.
2. Growing mobile device use.
It should probably go without saying that smartphone use is rampant. Make no mistake that the majority of online shoppers are shopping on their mobile devices. To reiterate an earlier-made point, it’s vital that your online shop is mobile-friendly. WakeupData.com points out that there are currently 7.26 billion mobile phone users worldwide. This equates to 91% of the world’s population owning mobile phones.
“For you as an e-commerce retailer, it means that more and more consumers could purchase your products or services through their mobile devices, and they prefer mobile commerce as their shopping channel,” reports the website, “It is crucial to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile viewing given that more than half of all internet traffic is on mobile devices.”
3. Increased social media commerce.
It’s no longer enough to promote your singular online store. You must also put efforts into selling products directly from your social media accounts. Every day, millions of people log on to such platforms as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to do more than seek entertainment and information. They’re also shopping. According to WakeupData.com, 59% of people around the world are using social media platforms at any moment.
“The most popular social media platforms that offer social commerce are Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and now also Twitter,” informs the website, “If your e-commerce business does not yet use one of these social media platforms for social commerce, now is the right time to boost your sales. Don’t leave them out of your e-commerce strategy!”
Do you allow your customers to make online purchases?
Syncing your payment processing with your online shopping cart is now easier than ever with Unity Payments’ e-commerce payment solutions! We provide a direct connection to our powerful and reliable processing network, which can help eliminate the costs and complexities of dealing with a third-party gateway provider. To learn more, call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca.
