Having strategies for keeping up with the business flow, mainly for small or newcomer businesses is one of the most important things people need to know.
After all, by keeping updated on the latest commerce trends, small businesses tend to raise their name or brands among their customers.
Therefore, they will be able to sell more products and have places in the customers’ shopping carts. Well, how much these strategies could affect small businesses? Truthfully, it will affect them a lot!
In the past, we already knew that new brands or small businesses who want to promote their products need to put their advertisements on big boards across the road. Or they can do promotion from local newspapers, radio, or television.
But does this trend still work nowadays? Therefore, newcomers in the business world need to make a whole observation on the whole latest commerce trends.
GWI Report 2021: An Overview
The 2021’s commerce trends will always be linked to the pandemic phase. The hype of people going out shopping has changed into the restrictions on offline activity.
Following the trends, which we know now we live in the digital era, GWI figures the observation report that is drawn from GWI’s online research. Which consists of internet users aged 16 to 64.
Therefore, the result will be based on the representatives of the online populations of each market, not its total population, also from the ongoing global quarterly research.
But, it is essential to know that many markets in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, show low internet penetration rates.
This can indicate that the community is dominated by young, urban, affluent, and educated people rather than the whole population.
In conclusion, by looking at this report, new brands, businesses, or companies tend to raise their popularity as they know the growth of the market nowadays.
Commerce in 2022: Where Are We?
So, the question is, where are we now? What kind of situation do we face and how can the newcomers in the business get through this?
The simplest answer that we can give you is: that we are in the era where people try to save more money, but also indulge more. It is a balance phase after all. Internet users in 4 of the 7 countries surveyed prioritise savings over spending.
But many also want to treat themselves more than they did before the crisis. Campaigns that show you how to regularly spoil your budget and develop your individual talents are ready for success.
Here are some breakdowns of how commerce trends nowadays!
1. Post Pandemic Dilemma: To Save Or To Indulge
In 2020, most consumers will be the same: when they feel confident, they will spend more money. But, a big change has shown in the post-pandemic situation. This depends on the consumers’ age.
Young consumers suffered more economic losses during the pandemic, but they are generally more optimistic about their bank balances.
In fact, Gen Z, who believes their finances will improve in the near future, is twice as many as the baby boomers. At the same time, people are setting the money for their future, but also trying to buy their personal needs. Mainly, treating themselves for healing.
Obviously, this trend has risen because of the restrictions on going abroad or on holidays in the pandemic era.
2. The Pandemic Drove People To Buy More Online
Still related to the post-pandemic dilemma effect, most people choose to buy any items online now. Based on the survey, globally, 58% of people would rather buy their needs from home or using any online shopping platform.
This trend is rising between 2021 and 2022. Therefore, most of the numbers of these buyers are coming from young internet users that understand the usage of mobile phones to buy their necessities.
This trend has made many offline stores start their career online. They also drove their buyers to use the online platform, so these stores can increase the visitor traffic to their online shop.
3. Mobile Makes Up A Large Percentage Of Online Sales
According to a US survey, mobile shopping is also increasing wave by wave.
The number of Americans who do most of their home and grocery shopping in this way has increased by 36%, and the number of Americans who do at least some of their mobile phones has increased by 25%.
Retailers who don’t have a shopping app will benefit from developing it, and retailers who do have one should take a step further to ensure that it is as user-friendly as possible.
4. Further Increase In Contactless Payments
Next, since the online shopping trend keeps increasing, it also affects the payment methods in offline or online shopping.
The demand for a decline in contacts is underpinned by the rise of mobile payments. During the pandemic, older consumers in the region saw the largest increase in percentage.
About one in four Gen X and Boomer generations use mobile payment services like Apple Pay every month. This is about the same as the young group. As a result, the shop will not become obsolete and will evolve.
5. The Surge In ‘Buy Now Pay Later’
The BNPL program is most popular with consumers in the Asia-Pacific region and those looking to buy cheap items such as clothing, shoes and accessories. That said, Klarna Bank aims to introduce longer-term financing for large purchases.
A holiday-like experience may come soon. The BNPL program continues to increase its share of e-commerce transactions, and there are a few things to keep in mind for brands looking to build a foothold in this area.
6. The Podcast Has Become An Ideal Channel For Brand Discovery
The way media is consumed has changed dramatically. The number of people paying monthly for movie and TV streaming services has increased by 145% since 2011, and the same is true for music streaming services.
This trend has led podcasts as one of the best platforms to promote a brand since the listener rates have increased too. Consumers listen to podcasts through ad-free or sponsored media.
The good news for brands looking to invest is that 75% of podcast listeners live in the United States. In terms of genre, comedy is the most popular among listeners, followed by news and politics, and crime nonfiction.
There is more than one genre that dominates by a large margin. This is a good discussion for sponsoring various podcasts.
7. Discovery Is Critical For Today’s E-Commerce Search Engines
Rather than promoting your newcomer’s business brand by giving them free samples, it would be best if you try to increase the discovery of your brand’s name online.
Therefore, the optimization search engine for your products, the traffic visit to your platform, and related links to your site play big roles.
Today, people are buying and searching on multiple devices. Traditional formats are still a lot of noteworthy and it’s unwise to ignore them, but the outlook for brand discovery is becoming more and more fragmented.
They are now more likely to learn about new products from social media ads than from search engines. This means that search engines, retail, or ecommerce websites will have to work harder to get the same level of attention as before.
Bottom Line
So, what do small businesses or newcomers brands need to prepare to face these changes in the current shopping trends?
Of course, they need to be ready with digitalization in many aspects. From the promoting media, they need to choose, an ecommerce platform to join, and the best payment methods (cashless or by using the buy now pay later service).
Therefore, being aware and keeping up to date on the latest commerce trends is one of the best ways to stack up the best strategies for your new business.
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Adela Belin is a content marketer and blogger at Writers Per Hour. She is passionate about sharing stories with the hope to make a difference in people’s lives and contribute to their personal and professional growth.
