Are you ready for 2022?.

Are you ready for eCommerce this year?

Happy new year! We hope you are feeling refreshed and ready to take on 2022.

The team at Zyber are back on board and gearing up to help more brands see BIG results online. Have you set your strategy?

Here’s what we think will disrupt the eCommerce industry this year.

Last year we saw big announcements from Apple with their iOS 14 privacy changes as well as Google’s ban on third party cookies.

This announcement has subsequently been delayed until late 2023. Although these changes caused marketers to be concerned over the loss of personalisation and increase in acquisition costs, it’s also an opportunity for brands to diversify their strategy and stay ahead of the game.

To collect first and zero party data, eCommerce merchants will need to create positive experiences they can offer customers in return for an exchange in data. This includes strategies such as loyalty and rewards programmes, exceptional customer service and exclusive offerings.

Read our blog and listen to our podcast: Personalisation = Increase Conversion with Octane AI, a trusted tool to support brands by building customer relationships with quizzes and pop-ups, recommending products and increasing revenue in return for zero party data.

More and more brands are using artificial intelligence to enable them to deliver personal experiences to their customers.

With the help of AI, it allows us as humans to turn the data and insights into meaningful work and adapt to what is happening to the data. Therefore, we can predict outcomes about the target audience using algorithms without being specifically programmed.

The adoption of AI uses algorithms to provide relevant, personalised content such as product recommendations, email customisation and carousels. Check out our blog and podcast: AI Powered Personalisation with Frankie AI to see how you can reach an ROI of 120%.

It’s important to take a holistic approach to your customer experience and ensure you are present wherever your customers are.

Enhance the integration of your online and brick and mortar stores to provide your customers with a seamless experience. It is becoming more common that consumers are beginning their journey online by browsing online stores, comparing products, and then completing their purchase transaction in-store. Merchants should look to find app integrations and programmes that can be used online and offline.

Check out Shopify’s Omnichannel eCommerce guide for more detail about how to sell where your customers buy.

Social media consumption continues to thrive and shopping becomes a passive activity.

This is resulting in apps evolving from platforms to create brand awareness, to another sales channel. The average amount spent by a social buyer in a year is expected to double between 2020 and 2025 according to eMarketer. By allowing businesses and consumers to make a purchase on their preferred social channel, this will enhance their overall customer experience and provide benefits for merchants.

You may have seen Facebook and Instagram’s founder rebrand to Meta. This year, it’s worth thinking about the Metaverse as part of your on-going brand strategy.

What does the metaverse means for brands? The metaverse is a 3D world, with social connections that acts as an extension of the physical world. As consumers shopped online during 2021, an emerging trend was the increase in augmented reality (AR). AR marketing allows brands to create a virtual journey for customers to visualise products in their homes, clothes to try on and much more. Keep this one on your radar!