COMMERCE
PREDICTION
FORWARD
FORWARD
CHRISTINE BARDWELL– Senior Strategist, Oracle Commerce
2017 will be the year we hit peak online brands. Most retail
brands already online. The big change this year is that larger
numbers of consumer brands will sell direct to consumers and
b2b businesses will also shift to a fully online selling model.
At the same time, global brands are expanding into new
geographies, proliferating the number of brands in each market.
“
Winning
brands will
be those that
secure their
customers’
loyalty at the
get-go and
then work
hard not to
let them go.
”
This is also a time of global political uncertainty. Past
experience tell us that this means we can expect
currency fluctuations and a rising costs of goods and
consequentially, consumers hold back on spending.
What does it take for an online brand to succeed in a
troubled, slow growing and over-saturated market?
CUSTOMER LOYALTY
In the digital age, customers have control. They
choose when, where and how they shop. They have
all the product and price information they need at
their fingertips. If brands don’t provide them with the
interaction and service they expect, they’ll simply
shop elsewhere. Focus on what the customer wants
is paramount.
This is why customer loyalty is the Holy Grail for
the leading online brands. But don’t be confused;
customer loyalty doesn’t begin and end with a
loyalty program that enables consumers to collect
and redeem points. Loyalty initiatives need to
look beyond post-sales marketing activity. Instead
customer loyalty ideals need to be ingrained
throughout the entire customer experience.
I asked colleagues and Oracle Commerce partners to describe
the new online commerce trends and initiatives that will be vital
for driving customer loyalty in 2017.
COPYRIGHT © 2017 ORACLE AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
AI
1
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
ONE
The dawning of Quantum
Computing will allow us to
compare much, much more
data in parallel and
simultaneously, which
will lead to much more
powerful uses of machine
learning than we can
currently predict.
Artificial Intelligence
Will Give Personalization
a Quantum Loyalty Boost
KATRINA GOSEK – Senior Director, Oracle Commerce
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will continue to help
us to create one of a kind personalized experiences that will in
turn generate faster higher value transactions online as well as a
more loyal customer base.
Machine Learning can be used today for things such as
understanding sentiment – i.e. scanning social media and rating/
reviews and offering targeted products based on our own
personal feedback.
It can also be used to filter out spam and irrelevant material
to offer high quality content and personalized product offerings.
Showing customers that your brand offers products that are
relevant to them helps gain their trust, and ultimately their loyalty.
COPYRIGHT © 2017 ORACLE AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
2
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
TWO
Seizing Mobile
Micromoments
Will Be The Key to
Driving Loyalty
BRENNA JOHNSON – Senior Strategist, Oracle Commerce
The smartphone is the consumer’s tool of choice -- and the key
to influencing their behavior. Consumers no longer shop in single,
linear session online or in-store. They have mobile-based bursts
of activity (1 minute, 150 times per day on average1), that inform
their purchase decisions across disjointed sessions, scattered
between social media and messaging. Across these sessions are
micromoments: critical influence points within each consumer’s
journey that are up for grabs.
Consumers are only loyal to their need in the moment, with 90%
of smartphone users uncertain of the brand they want to buy
when they begin shopping2.
Retailers who can reach through the flurry of mobile activity
to quickly meet shopper needs will win the biggest prize in
commerce – their loyalty.
2017 is the tipping point where retailers will become mobile-first
because their customers are. 50% of eCommerce retail sales will
be processed through mobile devices, and purchase decisions
will become micromoment-dependent.
Consumers will spend less time per session on mobile but
will convert at higher rates, becoming so informed by bursts
of research activity that they will make faster, more precise
purchases when ready. Retail winners in 2017 will be ready to
meet all unpredictable needs across the lifecycle (discovery,
purchase and post-purchase) in as few steps as possible.
Mobile Web and apps will continue a near-even split on revenue
(with web being the volume of transactions and apps for highervalue customers). More retailers will experiment with text price
alerts, rapid shipping memberships, and loyalty programs that
unlock exclusive savings and products.
While consumer allegiance to their own need will remain the
priority, retailers who think in mobile micromoments to make their
experience easy, and fast and ubiquitous will build loyal (and
lucrative) customer relationships.
Consumers are loyal to their need in the moment, not brands
COPYRIGHT © 2017 ORACLE AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
3
“
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
THREE
Speed and Simplicity
Will Trump Perfection
JERI KELLEY – Senior Strategist, Oracle Commerce
For years, complexity has been at the center of most B2B
commerce conversations. It is this complexity that is prohibiting
businesses from moving online quickly or in some cases even at
all. In fact, in a 2016 study by B2B Online and Oracle, 55% of
respondents identified complex industry challenges as the top
barrier to ecommerce development.
B2B eCommerce
success won’t
depend on
meeting every
complex need;
speed and
simplicity will
prevail
”
2017 for B2B eCommerce will be about simplifying ecommerce
operations while at the same time being able to innovate at a
pace that outdistances your competition – this includes honing
in on a few key areas that will make the biggest impact.
Businesses not yet selling online will adopt phased programs
that allow them to tackle the most pressing issues first, or
focus on the areas that will provide the biggest ROI. Adopting
a phased approach will get skin in the game immediately and
revenue in the door faster.
Those already selling online today will look to streamline their
ecommerce efforts and focus in on the areas that are driving
success today. They will adopt modern technology that will
allow them to increase selling speed and scale as their
business grows.
COPYRIGHT © 2017 ORACLE AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
4
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
FOUR
Direct to Consumer
Selling Will Accelerate
as Companies Seek
to Solidify Brand Loyalty
MARK KNISELY – Director, Oracle Commerce Consulting
The proliferation of direct to consumer commerce websites
will accelerate as companies seek to build direct relationships
with consumers in an increasingly competitive economic
environment.
This trend will be facilitated by the availability of cloud
technologies that allow companies to launch compelling
new brand-centric sites in a fraction of the time required by
traditional on-premises or hosted solutions. These brand centric sites will focus on providing targeted
customer experiences that build loyalty to the brand over
FRANCE
the long term and will put increasing pressure on traditional
reseller channels.
CANADA
UNITED KINGDOM
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
5
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
FIVE
Voice-Activated
Shopping Will Change
How We Interact
With Brands
ALISTAIR GALBRAITH
Senior Director, Strategy, Oracle Commerce
Voice-shopping is a fast path to instant gratification.
Like a magic genie in a bottle, just say your wish and the voice
activated app will command it.
Millennials in particular are less patient and respond well to
such fast paced interactions . Meeting the demand for instant
gratification keeps customers engaged which in turn are more
likely to be loyal and valuable brand advocates.
Enhancements to voice recognition capabilities will continue to
transform how we interact with music, content and services.
Amazon made it available to the world with its first range of
Alexa-enabled devices. Soon device makers, service providers
and application developers will catch the wave and make voiceshopping a new touch point.
COPYRIGHT © 2017 ORACLE AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
6
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
SIX
Shoppable Video
Adoption Will
Educate, Entertain,
Convert and Retain
ALLON CAIDAR – CEO, TVPage, Inc.
One of the hottest trends for 2017 will be the adoption
of shoppable video. Consumers love video because it is
entertaining and requires less effort than reading. These
“Video Commerce Experiences” give merchants more value
from their video assets. Simply adding video to product pages
can create a 2-4x increase in conversions among visitors
who watch video. When fully deployed across an entire
e-commerce site, video commerce experiences increase overall
customer loyalty by educating and entertaining users at every
stage of the purchase funnel.
In 2017, every merchant should have a video commerce
strategy for every stage of the customer journey. Video helps
customers connect and identify with your brand in a more
authentic way which builds loyalty and increases lifetime value.
Advances in technology have made concerns about production
costs, content accessibility and other barriers a thing of the
past. We have become a mobile-first society with the attention
span of a goldfish. Video captures our attention and keeps us
engaged, no amount of text on a web page can do this.
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7
COMMERCE
PREDICTION
SEVEN
2017 Will Be The
Year That Loyalty
Drives Content
THERESA ONEIL – Senior Vice President of Marketing,
PowerReviews
Loyalty programs were built to incentivize shoppers to
make frequent purchases by offering rewards, in the form of
discounts, in return for additional purchases. In 2017 loyalty
programs will expand to focus not only on transactions, but
also on fostering quality user generated content (UGC).
Of shoppers, 86% say reviews are essential in making a
purchasing decision. Businesses in all industries understand
the importance of user generated content in the shopping
journey and offer incentives such as sweepstakes and product
sampling to get customers to write reviews. In 2017, we
predict that loyalty programs will become a key channel for
generating consumer-submitted reviews, images, and videos.
However, the focus on volume and growing concerns about
fake news and fraudulent reviews will need to be balanced with
additional measures to ensure transparent and authentic user
generated content.
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