Last year we came up with a short list of predictions about the state of eCommerce. Most of them came true, as mobile eCommerce played even a bigger role last year, Magento 2 built up a great hype around itself and is starting to gain momentum. This year promises to be even more exciting, as Magento 2 brings in more clients and eCommerce takes advantage of all of the latest tech. 

Magento 2 Will Grow Its Appeal and User Base

Right now there aren’t that many websites using Magento 2.0 for obvious reasons. First of all, the Marketplace, which will replace Magento Connect, isn’t yet live and is scheduled for Q1 2016. It will bring better functionality for Magento 2.0 users and increase the quality of available extensions and other related products. 

At the moment, there simply isn’t enough products to support an eCommerce business, as companies like to have choices when it comes to available functionality. But at the same time, top Magento developers and solution providers are stepping their game up. For example, AheadWorks and MageWorx are working hard to introduce new Magento 2.0 extensions all the time. 

With companies like these and the upcoming Magento events - we’re sure that the interest towards Magento 2 will start growing exponentially. Check out the graph below: 

Notice the growth in interest towards Magento right around MagentoLive Australia, where Magento 2.0 was officially launched. Imagine conference will push this hype even further. By the way, the consequent drop in queries simply corresponds with the holiday season.  

Yes. Mobile Shopping Will Continue Kicking A**

Mobile shopping has been experiencing a steady growth for a number of years. This can be explained by a host of factors. For example, the younger generation that grew up connected and engaged with the mobile world, will feel more comfortable searching for products and shop online. That’s why big retailers, like Target are building up the momentum to serve their mobile customers better. Here’s a great video from Google Shopping, featuring Target’s Casey Carl, where he explains the reasons behind this drive: 

This means that online businesses and stores that make it hard for mobile users to shop will eventually fail and lose even more revenue this year. Google’s Mobile Playbook has all of the most important info for businesses, which want to transform their perception of mCommerce and attract more mobile shoppers. We highly recommend it, if you’re struggling to adjust your business to the latest eCommerce trends. 

Apart from making your website usable for mobile users, you also have to make their whole experience smooth and seamless. With the current growth of mobile wallets usage, you absolutely have to make your website easy to use for this category of shoppers. 

Give Way to New Payment Options

You must have heard of Bitcoin by now. But you probably didn’t realize that Bitcoin payments are on the rise. There have been many debates about Bitcoin, its value and worth. But the facts are pretty straightforward - more people are using Bitcoin, as a payment option.

That’s why big companies, like Dell, are now accepting Bitcoins. Of course, Magento businesses can also make Bitcoin a viable payment method with all of the Bitcoin extensions available. 

But Bitcoin is not the only player. For example, Apple Pay is getting bigger every year. In 2016 they’re expanding to China and this will probably spur this payment method’s growth even further. Here’s a basic tutorial, which can help you start with Apple Pay for Magento and learn more about the platform. 

Of course, credit cards aren’t going away anytime soon. But you have to be on the lookout for the these great opportunities to attract more clients with innovative and convenient payment options. 

Unification of Design Trends

You’ve probably seen the design element above. It’s the floating action button, associated with Material design toolkit. Some big companies have started implementing it, like Viber - the popular messaging app.

It makes a lot of sense, when you think about the user interface and convenience. It makes navigation and shopping a lot easier for millions of people, by unifying their experience on various websites. 

This is just an example of the trend that we’re predicting. More website will look the same and feel the same. Your job is to make your online store as unique as possible, without breaking away from these trends. Other design concepts that will see more implementation will include the Flat UI and responsive design, which grew from hip and trendy approaches to web design to pretty much the standard nowadays. If you’re not familiar with these concepts - you need to start learning about them now. You can already see a lot of these ideas implemented within the latest Magento themes.

Marketing Trends Galore

Let’s face it - marketing automation and other marketing “trends” in eCommerce aren’t going anywhere. That’s why you have to accept these as the upcoming standard of customer acquisition, retention and monetization. When we mention these standards we’re also talking about predictions and personalization, which have been steadily gaining momentum for the past couple of years. 

2016 will be a great year for all of these technologies. The logic behind this prediction is simple - with more competition, more stress from Google’s ever-changing search algorithms and other factors, you have to do absolutely everything to capture the visitor and transform them into a regular customer. You can do that in a number of ways, including personalizing their experience and predicting their behavior/ preferred products. This can’t possibly be done manually, because of the massive amounts of data that you’ll have to work through. That’s where prediction, personalization and other marketing automation tactics kick in to tailor the customer's journey. 

For example, Magento already has a ton of automation tools at your disposal. Even the basic ‘recommended products’ functionality is within this domain, so you’re most likely already exploring these technologies on the basic level. 

So here’s the basic list of technologies, which we think, will play a huge role in eCommerce this year: 

 marketing automation

 predictive marketing

 personalized marketing tools

 localized marketing tactics

 site search tools

Content Will Still Rule the Kingdom

You have to understand that the above-mentioned marketing tools and concepts have a lot to do with content. Automation and predictions allow you to focus on content marketing and its various aspects. There’s a finite amount of time and space that you have with a potential customer. Your job is to use this opportunity to attract them, reassure them and convert. Content marketing is essential for this funnel. 

Content creates tons of opportunities for your business:

 PR

 search traffic

 branding

 lead generation

This article is a small example of a content strategy. Instead of writing something general and/or specific about Magento or a particular eCommerce topic, we decided to have this 1200+ word piece that shares some of our general ideas about the future of eCommerce for 2016. Because it’s fun, relevant to a broader audience, shows some of our expertize and might signal Google that we know a thing or two about eCommerce. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Yes, it takes time and research to do something like this. But it’s also very rewarding in the long run. 

Conclusion

There are a lot of things that will shape eCommerce this year, including some of the tools and technologies that haven’t even been introduced yet. We tried to include the most important growing and overwhelming trends and concepts that will prevail this year, which you would want to start exploring immediately (if you haven’t already). There are some things  that we left out, like virtual reality, which we think will play a huge role in the future (imagine a virtual storefront, which could easily be setup for your store and will transcend the boundary of online and offline shopping). 

But only because we think that these technologies or ideas aren’t ready yet. Think of this post as a checklist of the things that your business should explore this year, like switching to Magento 2.0 or creating a documented content strategy. Good luck and have a great year!

What are some of your predictions for eCommerce this year? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!