IQ-Magazine-Issue-12

IQ ecommerce
The Future of
Ecommerce
Chris Butterworth, Senior Developer at Cubiqdesign,
discusses the online trends for 2015.
Last year saw e-commerce retailers
and marketers taking tips and tactics
from product development with the
use of user experience making it
easier for a user to buy a product, a
trend which is set to continue this
year. With this in mind, more and
more companies will have the budget
to undertake user research and create
the perfect platform for their target
audience.
Along with user experience, 2015
will see a push towards contextual
marketing. Contextual marketing is
data-driven marketing which uses
data gathered from user behaviour
and profiling. Gathering this data can
be easy; web analytics go a long way to
help with it, can be easy to set up, and
will track any user visiting the website.
KISSMetrics, Google Analytics and
Piwik are all examples of analytics
giving varying levels of data. Other
data that analytics can’t tell you, such
as age and interest, can be gathered
via social media and through forms
that would allow a user to find out
more about your products.
This data allows you to deliver
personalised and relevant content at
the right place and at the right time.
Even without contextual marketing,
any analytics you gather can help
find where people are dropping, and
allow you to research why, so you can
improve this.
With most of the public now owning
a super computer in their pockets,
and mobile traffic skyrocketing over
the past couple of years, 2015 will
see a shift in the balance with more
and more traffic coming from mobile
devices. This means that companies
will have to step up their game and
start to create sites that are friendly
for all devices, thereby allowing
prospective customers to be able to
access websites on any device. These
websites should look perfect, and offer
customers the optimal experience and
journey when purchasing a product.
Mobile e-commerce - known as
m-commerce - is growing like wildfire,
with traffic soaring and services like
ApplePay offering more options
to pay for items. This means that
m-commerce is likely to grow, with
more payment options surfacing to
offer users more and more ways in
which to buy an item on their phones
wherever they are, regardless of
connection, and the ability to do so
securely.
Forrester, the well known researchers,
predicts that next year will be the year
of globalisation, with more and more
shoppers being abroad and speaking
another language. If you have the
option of international shipping and
can market your website to best suit
your audience, you’re set, except for
one thing, language. According to
OHT, the world’s largest translation
agency, having the right language
for your user helps with making the
sale, as you’d expect. This means that
globalisation needs localisation too.
Another thing to look out for will be
how wearable tech, such as Google
Glass and improvements to smart
watches, could effect e-commerce.
issue 12 | page 36