Sales Events and Mobile Purchases
What’s trending in mid-2018 in E-commerce?
‘By 2020, one in ten purchases will be made online,’ claims Australia Post’s most recent 2018 Online Shopping Industry Report. The current year has already seen online market sell 8% of the nation’s total traditional retail. That’s up one full percentage point from last year, and there are few signs of slowing.
So what do e-commerce business owners really need to know?
The more time your customers spend shopping online, the smarter they get at it. In a $21.3bn dollar industry coming off of an 18.7% year-on-year growth, it might surprise you that Aussies are actually spending less per purchase. They are becoming more savvy with online marketplaces—willing to hold out for major discounts (and doing a little research to find them.)
Two major culture-shifts are in the wind:
1) The rise in smart-device purchases; and
2) The importance of major sales events.
Mobile purchases are up nearly 60%, while desktops and laptops fell 11%
Key message: get your mobile site up to scratch!
The growth of android-friendly marketing and web design has been a driving force in e-commerce for almost a decade, but users’ hesitation to purchase has always been a big hurdle.
It seems that this was a year for leaping that barrier, as buyers are becoming more comfortable with spending on their smart phones. Direct payments and purchases from mobile devices are up 58% in 2017. Up six growth percentage points on the previous year, they now represent one in five total online purchases. Customers are feeling more secure shopping from their devices and in turn, retailers are optimising their mobile sites to get the best out of this developing trust.
For your business, this means your mobile integration has to be seamless. Customers need to be able to navigate your mobile webpage easily to minimise the time between deciding to purchase and actually completing the purchase. If they encounter too many issues, confusing navigation or laggy pages, you’re likely to encounter more and more abandoned shopping carts.
Sales events should be the focus of your e-tail year
Sales events are the new holiday season as far as online selling is concerned. No longer do you (or your customers) have to wait all year for a great excuse for a sale, there’s are plenty to chose from all year round!
Many of these events having been imported from overseas and Australian sellers may be somewhat late to the party— but since when has this stopped us from diving in headfirst?
Sales events like Black Friday, and its online counterpart Cyber Monday, have become phenomena capable of shaping a company’s annual sales schedule. These events alone are up 27% in 2017, while Boxing Day sales are up 35% and Click Frenzy has risen 14% according to year-on-year statistics. As a point of reference, 16% of all online shoppers participated in Black Friday 2017, alone.
What does this mean for retail? It means that the sales landscape is spreading its peaks and lengthening its valleys. Your customers are learning to wait for their bargains as the sales event culture grows (just like they’ve been taught in retail). The month of May saw the largest year-on-year growth of any month at 35.8%, fueled primarily by Click Frenzy Mayhem and Vogue Fashion Events. January was a close second with a 34.1% growth in the aftermath of Boxing Day sales and other end-of-year sales. The months between, while still seeing an overall growth in online purchases, weren’t even close to meeting those numbers.
Stocking and marketing around major sales events is proving not only a wise investment, but a necessary move for SMEs to meet their customer’s buying habits.
Start thinking about what you need to do for Black Friday
and Christmas/Boxing Day sales now.
So what should you be taking away from all of this?
As your customers become more comfortable shopping on the web (in frequency and aptitude), the way you structure your online presence needs to adapt as well. Utilising major, recognisable sales events in your retail calendar provides your business with untold free marketing and can draw big traffic to your site – potentially accounting for month’s purchases in a single event.
Your customers have come to expect a streamlined buying experience—they want convenient buying options on their mobile devices, and they expect seriously tight security. Making the appropriate adjustments to optimise interfaces and convenient buying options may prove a powerful investment, keeping your transactions streamlined and your conversions high.
If you’re wanting to make your customers e-commerce sales dreams a reality, we’d be delighted to talk to you. You can always give us a call on +61 2 9828 0111 (Sydney), +61 3 9240 300 (Melbourne) or +64 9 263 8855 (Auckland) or drop us a note via the form below. Alternatively, you can find a full list of available services here.