Omniplatform eCommerce Strategy: Influence, Engage, Transact, Connect

Enhancing consumer connections and experiences with omniplatform eCommerce strategies.

With consumers increasingly spending their time on social media and streaming platforms both creating and intaking content, retailers as a result are garnering less consumer attention on their eCommerce sites. Brands have the challenge and opportunity to evolve their eCommerce strategy to meet consumers where their target consumers are, adapt their messaging to speak to their desired customer, and develop content that fits within these digital environments. While already popular in other parts of the world, emerging opportunities like livestreamed shopping and super apps are gaining mainstream adoption to engage today’s digital shoppers. From brand fan communities and personal shopping bots, to live streamed shopping occasions, services that elevate the customer experience will define the next era of ecommerce.

In order to meet the unique challenges of selling online in a rapidly shifting consumer landscape, retailers are actively exploring how best to integrate new payment methods securely, provide on-demand customer service assistance, and foster loyal customers in third party environments beyond the retailer’s digital store. To do so, brands and retailers are increasingly looking to social media, streaming platforms and mobile app leaders for innovative commerce practices. As a result, brands are cultivating an engaged consumer base and designing their strategies based on actual consumer feedback and data driven insights.?

With the growing demand and necessity for digital commerce channels and capabilities, retailers have been quickly transforming their operations and strategies to go beyond the convenience and utility of eCommerce to offer experiences that deliver personalized support, entertainment and a great sense of community. As the online world continues to become more inclusive, retailers are meeting their customers on the virtual platforms and tools of their choice, no longer limiting who, where, when or how a consumer can transact. Meanwhile, service providers are creating more and more tools to make it easier for consumers to pay, engage, shop and create on digital commerce channels. In this report, learn how to take advantage of anywhere eCommerce, how to cultivate an engaged fan base, and what social platforms and service providers are helping reach consumers on their own terms.?

In this?report, the PSFK Labs?team explores the tools, technologies, and solutions brands and retailers are using to influence, engage, transact and connect with consumers across an omnichannel ecommerce and social commerce landscape. Through five featured trends and highlighted marketplace examples, this report will help your organization develop a strategy that provides elevated engagement for customers as they engage with your brand in the digital domain.

Proprietary Insights With This Report

Today shoppers want engagement from brands and retailers in the same places that they are social or where they are consuming entertainment and news.?

• 33% of online US shoppers still prefer to click through and buy a product on a brand or retailer’s eCommerce site, even when that product is discovered on a social media or news site. 25% prefer to buy the product without leaving the social media or content platform, and 13% are still inspired to go buy the product in store.

Already widely used in Asia, livestream selling in the West is slowly emerging as an engaging retail tool.?

• 56% of US shoppers have used a livestream to shop online, and 31% of those shoppers say they are more likely to buy a product that they discover on a livestream.

Expecting convenience across all digital checkout points, consumers are finding ways to remove friction from the payment process.?

• 29% of US consumers are or plan to use shopping assistants (bots) in the future.

Shoppers are engaging in forums and other community spaces to learn more about products.

• Research shows if a US shopper was to join their favorite brand’s online community, engagements that they would expect include redeemable coupons (46%), to receive a token or digital asset for participation (32% of shoppers), guaranteed access to products prior to selling out (32%), promotions about the brand’s product (28%).

Featured Trends:

Influencer Storefronts: Combining community and content with trusted guidance, the role of influencers has evolved from sponsored content to authentic recommendations and reviews. As consumers increasingly look to social media, and the creators they follow across those channels, as their first and sometimes only source of discovery, the platforms these influencers drive traffic to are designing checkout-supported features and affiliate programs that cast influencers as partners and allow them to curate their own shoppable storefronts, while providing brands and retailers with more targeted and valuable consumer engagement.

Livestream Connection: Driven by necessity during ongoing lockdowns, livestream shopping has expanded to become a mainstream offering from today’s brands and retailers. To provide shoppers with greater value, drive participation, and even encourage in-store visits, retailers are scheduling live shopping events with exclusive offerings – think limited product drops, in-store only exclusive announcements, surprise guest hosts and one-time only access codes – that engage fan bases and further develop virtual communities.

Universal Wallets: Alongside the rapid growth in digital commerce has come an expectation for hyper convenience, where all-in-one solutions eliminate the need to toggle between apps, manually compare prices and repeatedly input personal information. Building on the success of super apps like China’s WeChat, fintech platforms are developing their own one-stop apps by combining an array of payment options with a commerce marketplace, social feeds, and even one-on-one retailer chat capabilities in one destination.

This full report is now available to download