E-Commerce Trends for 2014

Fast and Free

If you are involved in any form of e-commerce, you’re feeling the heat to provide your customers with prompt and free or inexpensive delivery services. Heavily influenced by the pressure of the popular Amazon Prime program, online businesses find customer expectations center on getting their orders in as fast and cheaply as possible.

These pressures are forcing many e-commerce players to turn to 3PL firms to control costs and take advantage of automated warehouses and order processing capabilities. In fact, there is a national boom in the construction of modern distribution centers and shipping centers.

Marriage of Inbound and Outbound

Speed is only one trend for e-commerce in 2014. While the early rush to digital marketing found many companies ignoring their traditional and successful marketing techniques, maturing marketing strategies are now including a carefully planned mix of the old and the new. For example, e-commerce companies are now including sales sheets and brochures with each shipment, returning to this tried and true way to pick up incremental revenue.

It only makes sense that a customer buying an electronic device or other items might want to know about cases, chargers, or other accessories that make the product more useful. In fact, offering a time-sensitive offer will result in a solid return and additional sales for many products shipped out the door.

A Global Market

Increasingly, being in e-commerce means participating in the global marketplace. According to research by eMarketer, it is estimated that Asia will become the biggest contributor to B2C e-commerce in 2014, generating $502 billion, or nearly a third, of total e-commerce spending.

This fact means a need to focus on multilingual printed materials, as additional research show customers respond much more favorably to marketing materials professionally prepared in their own language.

A rapidly growing e-commerce marketplace means new challenges and exciting opportunities for 2014.