The last few years have caused a surge in eCommerce sales. For many people, online stores have become the most common way to shop for both luxuries and regular groceries. However, public confidence in retail shopping is returning, and eCommerce businesses will need to revise their strategy for 2022.
These are some of the most important statistics that should inform your online retail strategy for the coming year:
Mobile users make more impulse purchases
67% of mobile users are just browsing, but 77% of those make an impulse purchase. That means eCommerce storefronts need to prioritize giving users a more enjoyable experience discovering and learning about new products.
- More than half of all mobile users will leave your site if a page takes more than three seconds to load.
- 66% of consumers expect online stores to anticipate their preferences and make more relevant recommendations.
Besides the obvious quality of life improvements that can be made by speeding up page load times and simplifying site navigation, stores can get a sales boost by improving the personalization of their user experience.
Personalized recommendations and prioritizing product listings according to user preferences can greatly reduce the amount of scrolling and page loading a mobile user has to go through before finding something that sparks their interest.
For example, sports clothing store Lesportsac personalizes recommendations according to user locations, enabling them to appeal to more localized fashions and preferences.
Abandoned carts remain a major area for improvement
- 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout
- 56% of abandoned carts were caused by unexpected costs
- Almost half of all abandoned cart recovery messages get a response from customers
While not every item added to the cart represents an intent to buy, this is still a huge number of potential sales that are being turned away by an easily addressed issue. Clear, upfront pricing, payment, and delivery options are an absolute must.
There are other improvements stores can make to tackle cart abandonment. Much like offering upfront pricing and postage, allowing users to checkout as a guest without signing in removes another unexpected between your customer and their purchase.
Abandoned cart recovery messages such as SMS checkout reminders are another highly effective method of preventing lost sales. Almost half of all abandoned cart recovery messages get a response from customers, and they are even more effective when combined with a discount or other incentive to bring your customer back.
Availability and delivery times matter the most to consumers
The prospect of a long wait for their item to be back in stock, or a long delivery time, can cause customers to lose interest in the purchase. Worse, it could leave them checking out your competitors to find a faster alternative.
- Stock availability and delivery times are the most important factors in making a purchase decision for 43% of consumers.
- 73% of people are more likely to buy an item if it includes free shipping.
- Stock availability messages get response rates as high as 65%.
Offering free faster delivery upgrades on high-value orders can make buying from you more attractive, and even incentivize customers to add extras to their cart for speedier shipping. Similarly, enabling users to pre-order or get immediate availability notifications when an item is out of stock can help convince them to stick with your store instead of looking elsewhere.
It is also good to recommend other alternatives to keep customers from leaving. For example, cosmetics store Sephora suggests other brands and bestseller items when a product is out of stock.
Businesses need to expand their payment options
- 45% of all eCommerce payments made last year used digital wallets like PayPal and Google Pay.
- There are around 6 million mobile users making payments with digital wallets.
Only offering basic payment options in your online store means you are not offering the most popular payment methods for mobile transactions. Mobile users, in particular, prefer to use digital wallets for added convenience and security, making the prospect of buying online without them less appealing.
However, these payment methods come with extra challenges, such as the wide range of apps to support and the many different systems in use in different regions.
Voice searches lead to more sales
As more and more people are using voice-activated virtual assistants on their phones and other devices such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, voice-activated searches are leading to more sales.
- While not everyone is using voice search to shop yet, there were around $40 billion of online purchases that started with a voice search last year.
- Only 39% of consumers pay attention to item recommendations that result from voice searches for items.
As a result, eCommerce stores can benefit from optimizing their site for voice search. The rest are looking for something specific. This means people using voice for online shopping intend to buy, however, your site needs to be accessible to voice search to capitalize on that intent.
Prepare for 2022 by adapting to evolving customer expectations
The online retail landscape has changed rapidly in recent years, and more changes are yet to come. Staying ahead of the latest trends and developments will prepare your business to deliver an upgraded customer experience in 2022.