This century is shaping up to be the century of eCommerce Trends. By the end of 2021, the global value of digital retail markets surpassed $26.7 trillion. The year-over-year growth of eCommerce has been, on average, 16% worldwide.
If you’re a retailer or entrepreneur, you can’t afford to ignore eCommerce. Yet, surveys suggest wholly-online businesses fail at a higher rate than conventional businesses.
Fortunately, savvy entrepreneurs can beat the odds by analyzing eCommerce trends. Ecommerce optimization is possible. You just need to get the right data, then learn how to use it.
So, what does that mean in practice? It means learning your target market inside and out. Read on to discover how to find and connect with your target audience by analyzing eCommerce trends.
Discover Ecommerce Trends with Ecommerce Analytics
Ecommerce analytics lets you see how online shopping trends impact your business firsthand. It lets you identify the demographic traits of your target audience, understand their behavior online, and recognize patterns.
The goal of this trend analysis is to determine when in a customer journey does a given person convert? That is, when do they go from being interested to actually purchasing a product or service?
Then, your analysis should give you more granular information. What factors led people to convert? Which factors contribute to a potential customer bouncing, or abandoning their cart?
By the end of your research, you should have a clear enough understanding of your market to develop audience profiles.
And, you should have a thorough enough concept of positive and negative conversion factors that you can effectively audit—and assess—your digital customer acquisition strategy.
Target Market Analysis
A target market analysis is twofold. First, it identifies your target audience. Then, it recognizes different audience members’ behaviors and trends.
Identification
Start with the customers you already have. You can also start with people who are already visiting your site.
Learn about them by examining their transaction records. Or, track their online movements.
Your customers will often voluntarily give you valuable information. Consider creating surveys or contests that reward direct feedback. Surveys can also ask demographic questions.
Social Media
A third identification strategy is to take advantage of your social media accounts. When your business attracts fans and followers online, you have the opportunity to learn more about them as people.
Social media sites maintain demographic and behavioral data. Take advantage of this data by running ads on these sites that target specific types of users.
Market Positioning Map
Look at your competitors. What are they offering? Use your eCommerce customer analytics data to place your business relative to others on the map.
A market positioning map lets you identify gaps in the market. It maps out the intersections between services and consumer needs, including variables like pricing. Market gaps are indicated by a lack of intersections.
Conversion-Focused Audit
Once you have the data you need, audit your online presence. This includes an audit of your:
- Paid advertising strategy
- SEO strategy
- Social media pages
- Digital footprint (website, media coverage)
An audit will show you how well you’re communicating to potential customers that your service meets their needs. Do they know you exist? Is your messaging accurate and persuasive?
You might consider an auditing service like www.upmktdigital.com. Upmkt, and similar agencies, deliver tailored digital marketing strategies.
They develop each strategy after analyzing eCommerce data in your sphere and learning about your customers’ unique needs. The strategy is a plan that outlines how to get more online customers in great detail.
Ecommerce Insights and Beyond
Analyzing eCommerce trends is critical for digital retail success. You can discover and understand your target audience with a few key tactics.
First, conduct a target market analysis. Then, create a market positioning map. Finally, undergo a conversion-focused audit.
With these three strategies, you can take your piece of the giant eCommerce pie.
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