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What can the trends of 2024 tell us about 2025's eCommerce world?
If 2024 proved one thing, it’s that eCommerce really is the always on industry that we so frequently big it up to be. WIth a shorter period between Christmas and Black Friday, there was less time for brands to act on all of the insight they attained.
If this has been yourself, and you’ve not had the time to keep up to date with the latest innovations, we’re here to swoop in and give a relaxed round up of all the things you need to be aware of as we head into 2025.
We have 10 predictions to get through, so let’s not hang about, and instead get right into it.
With AI and “fake” content dominating devices in 2024, customers are less trusting than ever before. It’s much harder for customers to figure out if what they’re reading is real. Now, if a customer sees that a product has stellar reviews on one platform but not another, they’re unlikely to buy.
Review syndication is becoming essential for online retailers to boost brand visibility and build trust. By sharing reviews across multiple channels, potential buyers see the same positive feedback no matter where they are in the buying journey.
This approach enhances the overall customer experience and boosts trust. For example, products with glowing reviews on both Instagram and Google Shopping are more likely to gain consumer confidence than scattered reviews across different sites. As we head into 2025, make an effort to encourage reviews across all of your different channels.
The idea of optimising for mobile has been preached so much in the eCommerce sphere, but this shouldn't dilute the importance of looking at every other touchpoint too.
We need to be prioritising optimising for the platforms that our customers use most frequently, eCommerce or otherwise - then reviewing the rest.
Shoppers expect both content and services to work seamlessly across any platform or situation—whether they're on their phone, computer, or in real life too. The experience should be just as smooth no matter how they choose to shop or where they've come through from.
So we - as merchants - need to stay hot on the heels and ready to solve consumer problems in every context, otherwise we can’t expect customer loyalty.
This is less of a prediction for 2025, and more something that’s already happening. Guides on how to market to Gen Z have been making the rounds for many years now, this may make you think that Gen-Z are children, but heading into 2025, the oldest members of Gen-Z will be turning 28 years old.
Despite being the most tech savvy generation, Gen-Z expect shopping to be a seamless experience with minimal hurdles. And if they encounter one, they WILL just head elsewhere. To further press on the stress button, it was revealed that consumers actually think less of a brand as a whole, if their website is hard to use.
Rigorous testing and a seamless experience across your whole site is required as we head into 2025, more so than ever before.
Customers want to engage with the brands they follow. Go figure.
We are currently in an era where we are just drowning in content. It’s become so easy for customers to shop at every opportunity, that many are getting bored of the same old thing over and over again. This is to say that customers want their shopping experiences to be more memorable, and they want there to be more for them to bite down on.
As we know, the modern shopping journey takes many twists and turns, with content and messaging being the only thing you can do to ensure you’re having a positive impact on customer’s perception of your brand.
Assuming your product isn’t above and beyond your competitors in regards to quality, the brand with the more interesting content will win. That can be content on your social channels, on your website, or your presence in real life if you have one.
It’s important to still place an emphasis on eventually converting customers, as making sales is the ultimate goal. But, striking a balance between an immersive and content dense brand presence and conversion rate is going to reap you big rewards.
We may not think of it as a search engine that much, but research has revealed that 42% of customers use tools like Chat GPT within their shopping process at some point.
Ironically, many customers have got sick of brands with strong SEO dominating their searches, as it has little bearing on the quality of the product they end up purchasing. As a result, they’re turning to alternative search engines such as ChatGPT. These customers, who have started using AI for faster, more accurate decision-making, aren’t so much bypassing traditional search engines and product discovery methods but using the two in tandem.
Instead of manually searching through multiple pages or relying on on-site filters, they ask AI-driven systems to surface the best, most relevant options in real time.
This means that meta data now does more than help with SEO; it directly influences AI-driven product recommendations. Brands need to ensure that every product listing includes comprehensive, structured data that describes key features, dimensions, colours, materials, and even ethical considerations (e.g., sustainably sourced). This allows AI systems like ChatGPT to pull the most relevant options for consumers.
Brands who fail to optimise their meta data and site structure for AI-driven models may see reduced visibility and conversion rates, even if their products are competitive.
Here’s a disheartening fact for eCommerce business owners - 74% of product searches start on Amazon, not Google.
However, over the past two years, a number of changes to Google’s Shopping tab has turned its search engine results pages into something resembling an Amazon-style category page, as Google looks to kick Amazon from its top spot.
Users have the option to refine their search results to prioritise price, colours, and to narrow down on certain product features. Like with ChatGPT, this model relies on metadata, but on the meta data of product pages exclusively,
This is just another avenue for shoppers to begin their buying journey, so don’t think “product page SEO is now more important than collection page SEO” but rather that SEO strategies need to be more all encompassing and give equal priority to product pages.
Brands have always followed in creators footsteps, and the key innovations we’ve seen in the influencer marketing and creator space, are likely to become mainstays for eCommerce brands too.
There are a few considerations to make in this vein. Firstly, in the creator space, “link in bio” is the new indicator that you aren’t with the times, as tools like Manychat have gained popularity.
Manychat allows niche creators to offer a sense of personalisation between them and their audience, and it’s likely to see further adoption from eCommerce brands. Other tools such as Instagram’s broadcast channels have become mainstays too, even if their usage has dwindled in recent months.
Similarly, with AI spreading its wings so wide, if you’re a brand who prioritises SMS communications, you’re finally getting access to the personalisation tools you were promised 10+ years ago.
“We really want customers to buy our products because they’re ours, rather than because it’s 10% off, 20% off… We want it to be a considered purchase.” said Alexandra Ratcliffe, CRM Executive at Adanola, when asked why the brand doesn’t do Black Friday discounts.
It’s a perfect illustration of one increasingly important truth in eCommerce - you can’t compete on price alone.
eCommerce brands are facing constant competition from mega discount providers such as Temu and Shein. Through aggressive marketing campaigns and super-low prices, these retailers successfully attract customers.
Whilst marking down your products to be £5 less than your competitors equivalents may net you a few quick sales, it's ultimately the brand that can strike up an emotional connection with their customers that is going to win in the long term. This truth has been silently brewing for many years, but with Temu’s prolific rise in the past year, it could not be more pressing.
As we head into 2025, you’re much better off building up rapport with your customer base so that they feel obliged to choose your product over the competitors who are charging less, than simply charging even less than them yourself.
One for our friends in the B2B space.
In eCommerce, B2B has long been looked at as the clunky, no-swag-having cousin of B2C, due to many business owners viewing their offering as unique, and therefore as the only avenue for clients to buy through.
That no longer cuts it and B2B buyers now have similar expectations to B2C and D2C buyers. A fast checkout, appealing visuals, instant help if needed and a personalised, account-based order management.
After all, behind every B2B eCommerce customer is a real person who lives in the modern day and is a shopper for themselves too - they have expectations.
An eCommerce solution that doesn’t provide value and an enjoyable experience for online buyers won’t keep, win, or expand on new business. Plus with Shopify’s Unified methodology making B2B an essential part of any ecom business, there’s no longer an excuse to have a sub par site.
Not to be dismissed. Sustainability can no longer be considered an option or a “nice to have” in modern commerce. As we head into 2025, it’s verging on becoming a necessity. Eco-friendly and conscious shopping is expected to dominate the eCommerce market next year. We can already see this happening with thrifting and second-hand shopping apps increasing in popularity and an increasingly vocal cry from consumers to rid themselves of environmentally damaging products such as fast fashion.
Brands that already have a sustainability offering in place need to make more of a big deal about it, as it’s a powerful marketing tool in today’s eCommerce era. Finding a way to reward customers for eco-friendly shopping habits via increased loyalty points or future rewards is a great way to nurture a relationship with an ever-climate-conscious consumer base.
2025 will be the year that many long standing eCommerce predictions finally become commonplace - not just limited to the brands that can afford to implement them. If you’d like to be on the receiving end of this insight on a much more regular basis and want to learn from a full-service eCommerce agency, then contact us to learn more.
