As we could say, Digital marketing landscape is constantly shifting and if we want to truly boost the sales and convert visitors to buyers, there are some techniques which need to be followed.

Before getting into in-depth strategies, there are certain steps which need to be done by our digital marketers. They are:

1. A shift to Social media spend

2. Consumers Want Deals and Promotions

3. Creating a Brand Awareness

4. A Shift to a Younger Demographic

5. Taking a Stand on Ad Fraud

6. Mobile Marketing to Drive In-Store Sales

According to Statistics, global e-commerce sales are expected to increase 246.15% by 2021, from 1.3 trillion in 2014 to 4.5 trillion in 2021.

The e-commerce industry is booming and shows no signs of slowing down.

Nowadays, stores can’t compete without offering excellent e-commerce options, and 56% of in-store purchases are influenced by digital commerce. This means, if you aren’t reaching your customers online, you could be losing half of your potential revenue.

Discover a framework for running more impactful, measurable marketing campaigns.

With e-commerce's rapid growth, some rapid changes. It isn’t enough to post product images to your site and hope your ideal customers will find them. In 2018, there’s a whole line-up of new trends that could kick-start major growth for your e-commerce company if you pay attention.

To help you reap the many benefits of e-commerce in 2018 and into the future, we’ve chosen the top 10 trends we think will change how people buy and sell online.

1. Shopping natively

In an experiment we ran in 2017, we found our Facebook audience favoured native video content 160 xs more than non-native content.

That same preference for native content is true with e-commerce: there are great visual platforms being used by millions of people already, like Instagram and Pinterest, and a lot of those users don’t want to leave the platform to visit your site.

A great example of native shopping is Pinterest’s Shop the Look feature. When you see a picture of an outfit you like, you can click any part of the outfit you’re interested in purchasing, and find details about the item of clothing within the Pinterest app. You only need to exit the app when you’re ready to purchase (you can also pin it and return to it later).

2. Augmented reality and virtual reality

You know what’s even better than seeing a product in-store before purchasing?

Seeing it in your home before purchasing.

Augmented reality and virtual reality are going to gain some serious traction in 2018. Eventually, it will become standard for companies to offer AR and VR options.

Ultimately, these added benefits are worth the initial investment in new technology. As e-commerce grows, consumers are going to buy from companies that allow them the option of visually testing out products before purchase.

3. Automation and chatbots for online ordering

With 1.3 billion people on Facebook Messenger, it makes sense to take advantage of Chatbots for marketing, customer service, and sales.

With e-commerce, you can take it a step further.

Domino’s uses its Messenger bot, Dom, for full-menu ordering. The implications of this are huge: when fast and simple are priorities for consumers, Domino’s will beat out all the competition.

Plus, chatbot ordering is an opportunity for Domino’s to cater to its audience in a new way, proving it to be a helpful and forward-thinking company.

4. Voice search compatibilities

As Amazon Echo, Google Home, and other voice-activated devices grow in popularity, voice search will become the preferred method of search. 40% of millennial are already using voice search before making an online purchase.

It’s critical to optimize your business for voice search in 2018, or you could lose the vast majority of consumers who choose to shop through voice-activated devices.

Walmart made it possible for consumers to order any of their items by voice on the Google Express, and in the future, they’re going to allow consumers to place in-store pickup orders via Google Home. Target, Costco, Kohl’s, Staples, Walgreens and many other stores are in the process of creating similar options for consumers.

5. Mobile primary, desktop secondary

62% of smartphone users have made an online purchase on their mobile device within the last six months. As mobile purchasing continues to grow, it’s important to create an ecommerce site that’s optimized for mobile.

Fingerprint and facial recognition technology, as well as one-click payments, will simplify mobile payments and further encourage consumers to switch from desktop to mobile. Mobile will soon become the preferred payment method for ecommerce transactions. It’s estimated that mobile will reach 70% of ecommerce traffic by the end of this year alone.

6. ROPO (“Research Online, Purchase Offline”)

It can be tricky to track how your digital efforts translate to offline sales.

Luckily, ROPO (“research online, purchase offline”) is a tool that will become more advanced and reliable in the upcoming year, and can help retailers accurately measure how well their digital ads are contributing to in-store sales.

ROPO combines information from social media, mobile tracking/geolocation, mobile payments, in-store inventory, analytics tools, CRM systems, and more, to figure out which ads and site pages led consumers to in-store purchases.

7. Machine learning and AI

You come across machine learning and AI every day. You just might not realize it.

Take Netflix: rather than dividing viewers by age, location, or gender, Netflix created 1,300 “taste communities.” Netflix makes recommendations on similar movie or TV show preferences based on what's most popular for the viewers in that community. This is the future of machine learning.

Other ecommerce platforms will soon see personal benefits from using machine learning and algorithms to uncover which content they should deliver to which audience. In the future, content will be divided by machine learning and AI, so consumers are fed only the content (or products), they’re most interested in.

8. Image search

Picture this: you’re in a store and see a beautiful couch but don’t feel like paying full price, so you take a picture of it and use eBay’s image search to find similar products for a better deal.

As ecommerce transitions to mobile, companies will begin offering options to visually search for products by using personal photos, or photos found online. It’s estimated that image and voice search will make up 50% of all searches by 2020.

9. High-quality product videos

Even when consumers are online, they’re still going to have the same questions about a product’s functionality and design that they’d have in-store. To compete in ecommerce, you’re going to have to answer all their questions digitally, and one of the easiest ways to do that is through video.

A high-quality video addressing your product’s design and function is one of the best ways to sell your product. Your video can appeal to your consumer’s emotions, persuading them more convincingly than text.