Shopper behaviors have adapted and changed since the pandemic in 2020, but one thing remains clear — online shopping isn’t going anywhere.
What started as a safer alternative to in-person shopping has become the preferred way to shop for many consumers in the US. 15% of total retail sales happen online, and that number is expected to continue to increase. There is no doubt that eCommerce will continue to increase in 2023, with a heavy emphasis on social commerce. Most social platforms are shoppable, and influencers play a huge role in sparking impulse shopping decisions.
In order to plan for 2023, it’s essential to look not only at general shopper behaviors but specifically at social shopping trends. Read on to discover the online shopping trends, statistics, and predictions shaping the eCommerce landscape this year so you can strategize with confidence.
In our hyper-online world, the most valuable asset we have is data.
Customer data provides insights into key shopper behaviors — from their demographics and interests to insights into product use. Companies then use this shopper data to power their business — through targeted ads, analyzing consumer trends, and personalized marketing tactics.
The best way to level-up your data and increase personalization is by upgrading your data collection tools across your product detail pages. Why? These pages have some of the highest intent, converting at 8%. Most sites use (or have used) cookies — otherwise known as third-party data — to collect consumer information and analyze shopper behavior. However, relying on cookies present some issues, including handling outdated data and privacy concerns from a consumer perspective — 69% of consumers are concerned about how personal data is collected within mobile applications.
In order to ensure the data you’re collecting is not only accurate but actually beneficial and relevant, you should be implementing ways to collect first and zero-party data on your site — like forms or quizzes leading to gated content. Data tracking & lead generation tools like Whym capture every step of the buyer’s journey, allowing you to analyze valuable browsing vs. buying behavior. You can then use this data to create targeted marketing campaigns that are hyper-specific to your shopper’s experience on your site, encouraging them to come back to purchase the items they may have otherwise forgotten.
85% of marketing firm respondents said zero-party data is critical to creating effective personalized experiences.
By using your first and zero party data, you’re able to build brand loyalty and capitalize off of shopper intent by offering intentional, personalized product detail pages to customers who have already expressed interest in your product.
Mobile commerce is quickly becoming the preferred shopping channel for consumers. In 2021, retail m-commerce sales hit $359.32 billion––an increase of 15.2% over 2020.
By 2025, retail m-commerce sales should more than double, to reach $728.28 billion, and account for 44.2% of retail eCommerce sales in the US.
You can capitalize on this behavior by giving shoppers a way to connect their browsing behaviors across all of their devices. 36% of users say it can be hard to find what they’re looking for when they switch from desktop to mobile browsing. Shoppers crave a user-friendly, secure, and personalized mobile experience that gives them seamless access to their favorite finds and one-click checkout options.
Use Whym’s Visual Browsing tools to automatically collecting passive browsing history in a friendly, convenient window where shoppers can save, share and sort the items they saw. Whym helps to solve the problem of keeping track of items that shoppers have open on multiple browsing tabs on their mobile and desktop devices.
Optimize your product page for mobile and web browsing alike with Whym’s Text Me This Item button. Every time a shopper finds an item that they love but aren’t yet ready to purchase, they can text themselves (or a friend!) the item — making it shoppable via a link — on mobile devices or browsers. This unifies the shopping experience, decreases abandoned carts, and allows you to capitalize on browsing behaviors.
As an eCommerce brand, it can be hard to decide where to invest your marketing dollars. You probably feel the need to be everywhere all at once, and you might be asking yourself, “How can I capture my elusive shoppers, without draining my budget?” With the shift that’s happening in the eCommerce space, and the emphasis being placed on social commerce, it’s time to focus on providing new pathways to purchase.
As we analyze shopper behaviors in 2022 and look forward to 2023, all roads lead to omnichannel marketing. Companies that have robust omnichannel strategies retain almost 89% of their customers by offering them seamless and effective ways to purchase — and repurchase. One quick and easy way to begin to implement omnichannel marketing is via custom QR codes.
Dynamic QR codes are a convenient way to implement omnichannel marketing strategies into your physical and digital merchandise. By including QR codes on packaging, customers can quickly repurchase items they’ve already purchased and loved — or scan the QR code in the store to save for later.
Not only does this build brand loyalty, but it allows you to capitalize on shopping behaviors — even when shoppers don’t make a purchase — by providing you with even more zero-party data every time a shopper scans your code. And the numbers don’t lie — shoppers love to scan, as 75% of US consumers are eager to use QR codes in the future.
Dynamic QR code scans saw a 433% increase over 2021 figures in 2022, and that number is only projected to grow in 2023.
One major reason why social commerce continues to boom is the trust that shoppers instill in influencers and brand partners.
When it comes to eCommerce, shoppers are more likely to purchase an item if it has been used and loved by a trusted social media influencer. Unlike physical retail, a shopper can’t try before they buy — or even see the quality of the product for themselves — when an item is bought online.
If an influencer that they already follow says they love it, the consumer is far more likely to hit “buy now” — especially if the product has helped the influencer solve a problem, made their life easier, or is sustainable.
In fact, 61% of consumers trust influencers’ recommendations — more than the 38% who trust branded (and often biased) branded social media content.
This surge in influencer marketing means brands will spend an estimated $4.62 billion per year on influencer-related marketing campaigns — a 25% increase between 2021 and 2023 — and 63% of marketers intend to increase their influencer marketing budget in the next year. If you’re not already allocating a chunk of your budget to influencer marketing, now is the time.
You can make it easy for your brand partners and affiliates to promote your products via custom storefronts, like these Minishops from Whym. Minishops allow you to build a custom collection tailored to an individual influencer that can be shopped via a link in their bios or stories. This helps you promote multiple products at once — and makes it easier for consumers to jump on impulse purchases.
In our data-driven world, purchase intent is just as valuable as actual purchases.
Every time a shopper spends time on your site, you have the opportunity to tag along on their buyer’s journey and get an up-close look at their shopping behaviors.
Defined as intent data marketing, this is a highly personalized approach that involves analyzing and tracking customer behavior to understand their intentions, interests, and needs.
This data can then be used to create targeted marketing campaigns to engage with customers and encourage them to make a purchase. By implementing tools like Whym’s Seller Dashboard, you can see what shoppers are purchasing — along with what they’re saving for later, abandoning in their carts, or passing on altogether.
Tools like this equip you with valuable first-party shopper data. Instead of acquiring a phone number or email with no context surrounding the shopper’s intent, you get specific insight about what items each shopper viewed, collected, & left in their cart. This enables you to understand the entire scope of your eCommerce landscape, giving you insight that goes far beyond the total number of purchases made. This shopper intent data can help you strategically plan inventory for the future, power up sales by generating FOMO about items that are going out of stock, or sending out promo codes for items that need some more love.
Looking at these shopper behaviors and thinking about the importance of social commerce, one thing is clear — now is the time to invest in tools that allows you to understand and analyze the everchanging eCommerce landscape.
Arpan Podduturi, Director of Product Retail and Messaging at Shopify, recently said:
“Commerce is everywhere. The purchase journey is non-linear — it can happen from seeing an ad on Instagram, an influencer on TikTok, or a drop on Twitter. You might be window shopping in person, or a friend might send you a link.”
Whym powers impulse purchases, capitalizes on browsing behaviors, and is a seamless omnichannel marketing tool for your brand. It collects valuable first-party shopper data and gives you the power to craft relevant, personal marketing messages — so every ad dollar spent is intentional. Bottom line: Whym helps you stay ahead of shopper trends, and makes selling your products easier than ever.
No matter how your shoppers find you, Whym makes sure they don’t forget you. Book your demo today.
ABOUT WHYM
Whym is an intent to buy platform transforming the way we shop and sell online. Brands trust Whym’s tools to capture more first-party data and shopper intent across their selling channels. For shoppers, Whym’s wishlist provides an organized and personalized shopping experience—helping browsers collect, save and rediscover their favorite products anywhere online.
