As I write this, we are now over half-way through the year and most of our ecommerce clients are heads-down in Autumn or Christmas campaign planning. Despite the sunshine outside (finally) thoughts start to turn to next year already.
Here’s five things that I think ecommerce brands need to start planning for now, in order to ensure a successful 2025.
M-commerce on the up and up
There’s no doubt that the mobile phone is dominating our lives. By the start of 2025 it’s predicted that 95% of the UK population – approximately 65 million people – will own a smartphone.
Last year 70% of all online orders in the UK were made via a mobile phone and by the end of this year it’s expected that retail sales from m-commerce will hit £100 billion pounds.
Mobile commerce (or M-commerce) is seen as a subcategory of ecommerce and refers to transactions exclusively made on a mobile phone or tablet (not a computer).
We have seen global m-commerce sales increase by 20% since 2023 – and that’s only going to keep increasing.
What does this mean for you? Well the single biggest thing to get right is to ensure that your website (or app) works perfectly on a mobile phone. Users have been conditioned to get frustrated very quickly, so if your website doesn’t display correctly or they cannot navigate easily, they will simply click away and go to your competitors.
Related to this, you need a payment set-up that’s simple and quick for shoppers. Their expectation typically these days is to pay by Apple Pay or Google Pay, as this avoids the need to fill in a form each and every time they shop or make them get up off the sofa to find their bank card.
You also need to ensure that your mobile website is optimised fully for Google, by improving the quality of the pages. Using a tool such as PageSpeed Insights will give you an indication of any issues related to performance, accessibility, SEO or other best practices.
Seamless digital experience (DX)
A related point to the rise of m-commerce, is a consumer expectation of a seamless digital customer experience.
This means that whatever device or platform your customers are using to engage with your brand, the experience they have is the same, each and every time..
So if they have started off browsing your website on their mobile during a commute, then later that evening switch to their computer to continue browsing, this should all work perfectly.
This is where leading e-commerce brands dominate, by using the right technology to help the user on their journey. This especially comes into play when you can encourage users to sign-up for an account – if they add an item to their basket on their mobile and then also log in on their computer, the item’s going to be there for them to easily complete the transaction.
Not only should the technology work, but also you need to ensure you have brand consistency. This means users moving from device to device or platform to platform will have increased trust that they are dealing with an authoritative and reliable brand.
When you think about digital experience, it’s important to also consider your top of the funnel channels, such as organic search or social media, and your loyalty channels, such as email. Everything should look and feel the same, and offer the same brilliant experience.
AI Automation
It’s the one topic that everyone seems to be talking about all the time. And whilst in some sectors it is still all talk, in e-commerce there are serious applications being used to great effect.
AI writing tools – such as Chat GPT, Jasper or Anyword – are being used in their own right to create copy including product descriptions, paid ad copy or social media content. Using these can in theory save you hours of time
The caution here is to ensure you carefully check everything that’s produced, as it’s not error-free. Also you will want to make sure you provide it with the right prompts in the first place, otherwise you will end up spending more time trying to get the right output.
AI automation is also now being integrated into many of the tools you would use to run your e-commerce business, from the likes of Mailchimp for your email programmes or Shopify Magic, which helps with everything from product descriptions to images.
One interesting example of an e-commerce brand adopting AI into its operations is Levi. Since last year they have been testing using AI-generated models in images, in order to help achieve its goal of having an increased number and diversity of models for its products.
Sustainability as a core value
As our society is growing more and more aware of the need to do something to ensure we are protecting our environment and fellow humans as much as possible, many consumers are now starting to want this to be reflected in the brands they are buying from.
We have seen the demand for this increase recently and this is only going to continue next year and beyond.
There are a few key areas that you can look to focus on as part of this, including:
- Eco-friendly packaging – use biodegradable, compostable or recyclable materials as your packaging. This even includes the tape you use to seal boxes or envelopes
- Transparency – clearly state on your website and in your marketing how you are working towards being sustainable, even if it’s just the start of your journey
- Fair trade – talk about how your business supports and develops its people
- Carbon footprint reduction – all business will be producing carbon emissions are a result of operating, however by looking at things such as transportation and waste management, you can positively impact this.
There’s also a consideration of environmentalism when it comes to how you use digital, with the concept of ‘Green SEO’ being taken more seriously. At the top industry conference BrightonSEO, there’s now a spin-off GreenSEO group who are meeting to discuss this and look to take action.
To reflect this drive for sustainability, several retail brands are now becoming certified B Corporations (B Corps). They are assessed on their social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
B-Corp brands operating in the UK currently include:
- Finisterre
- Fat Face
- Berghaus
- Patagonia
- Hurr
- TOMs.
A key overall learning here is to be open and honest, but be careful not to be simply ‘greenwashing’. You have to be genuinely trying to make a difference, with evidence of the impact of this.
Social commerce
Social commerce is simply defined as selling products and services through social media, typically where the entire journey from awareness to purchase happens with the consumer staying on social media.
According to 2024 statistics from We Are Social, there are now 56.2 million social media users in the UK, who spend an average of 1 hour 49 minutes each day on the various platforms..
Social commerce has been dominated up to recently by Meta, with Facebook and Instagram driving the majority of the sales, however it’s TikTok that has seen a boom in usage. The UK leads the world in terms of how much time we Brits spend on the platform – a huge 49 hours and 29 minutes every month, compared to 9 hours 42 minutes on Instagram.
Its e-commerce offering of TikTok Shop has arguably been slow to catch on, however brands such as Hello Fresh and Gym Shark are using TikTok ads to great effect.
Our advice on social commerce is to approach it in two ways – firstly, do so with an e-commerce mindset and use paid advertising with highly optimised images, descriptions, reviews and other social proof,that’s targeted to the people who are most likely to convert.
Secondly, you need to be on top of your social media management game, by posting engaging, interesting and relevant content, via your organic owned accounts, that helps to foster a growing community of both loyal and potential customers.
Remember just because someone follows your account, it doesn’t mean they have bought from you before. And due to the decreasing organic reach of your posts, you do need to ‘pay to play’ if you want any chance of reaching the volume of people you need.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the above. Perhaps you’re doing some of this already? Feel free to drop me a line via here or my LinkedIn. And if you’re interested in giving your 2025 ecommerce activity a boost, then contact us today.
