eCommerce trends to watch in 2022

Visual Commerce

Interactivity is the name of the game. Selling with decent product images is still important, but for more and more products, Visual Commerce is where it's at.

This started with simply enough; a shirt that comes in two colours. The retailer would upload two photos, and the customer could see the image change as they selected their options. 

Straightforward.

In 2021, we saw high end, complex products, take this to the next level. If you start to look at the Apple store, or companies like made.com, every product comes with a way of visualising it.

Gone are the days of buying a product without knowing exactly what it looks like. 

This is a huge challenge for all retailers, made all the harder for those that sell complex made to order items, like the furniture sector. When manufacturers simply don't supply the images, there have to be alternatives.

Digitally Rendered Images

One option is to invest in your own assets. This isn't a cheap solution, but can give you the images you need. You can either have unique images made for every eventuality or start from a single monochrome image, to which textures and colours can be applied. 

This can be perfect for a sofa, for example, which comes in one shape, but 100 colours.  

Augmented Reality

You might remember this from the Pokemon Go craze a few years ago, but the concept is still out there. Essentially, the customer uses the smartphone's camera on their device; an app then superimposes the product into the space.

The idea is that the customer can see exactly how the product will look. 

This works equally well for furniture, which can be placed into the room, or for fashion, as they can have a pair of shoes rendered on their feet.

It's still a little gimmicky, but some of the big players are getting involved, so watch out.

Product Wizards

The last approach is a little simpler; companies like All3D and Cylindo are offering retailers the chance to show images that alter 'on the fly' as the customer selects their options.

This is a little more complex than the shirt example (take a look at one we built for J Marshall below), in that you're not changing the whole image, but parts of it.

You want a red bed with silver legs and purple cushions? No problem. You want to try that with green cushions? Easy!

For added interactivity, a lot of these models can be made 3D, so the customer can view the product from all angles. 

Social Media Marketing

A lot of companies will already be advertising on social media - Facebook and Instagram are two of the most popular - this is a great place to start. If you're still on the fence, or think social media isn't for your business, just think; the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit has already be used 8 billion times!

Here are just a couple of things to look out for in 2022.

Social Selling

This is a way of using social media to find new business prospects. In short, you would use your social media channels to reach out and build a network - it's relationship building. 

In a lot of ways, this is just an extension of a traditional social media policy, but when you tie in the continued growth of the sector, the prevalence of smartphone use and the growing presence of influencers, it's a sector that is only going to grow!

Livestream Shopping

Like so many things, this has come to us from China, where it's already proved to be a big hit. There, Tik Tok lets users purchase items straight from the app, and as of December 2022, they're doing the same in the UK.

Now, Tik Tok is great, but it's userbase is skewed young, predominantly under 20s, so if that's your target market, then great, but otherwise, how does this affect you?

Well, where one goes, others will follow.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube all allow users to go 'Live', and all allow adverts. It's just a short hop to allowing in app purchases.

If you want to succeed in 2022, you need an eCommerce platform that's built for the modern retailer. IXO Commerce comes with all the features you need to make it a successful year!