Five Ways eCommerce Marketing Will Be Different in 2024

Orlando Mollica, marketing manager at Continental Clothing Co., an award-winning wholesaler of ready-to-print apparel, believes that social media videos will become even more important this year. He explains, “Social media have drastically changed the content consumption landscape, shifting it towards faster-paced formats like videos and images, challenging traditional eCommerce marketing strategies.”

He specifically feels that younger consumers will Google less and TikTok more. “[Most] Gen Z internet users favor TikTok over Google for search. If your strategy is solely based on classic, text-only Google Ads, you might want to rethink it.”

Alex Golick, a growth marketer for eight-figure eCommerce brands and founder and CEO of Intensify, an eCommerce growth marketing consultancy, believes that going forward videos will need to have strategic, well-crafted scripts, engaging actors, and great editing. “In 2024, brands will diversify their creative efforts across in-house teams, multiple agencies, and freelancers at the same time. They’ll continue to work with whoever performs best and continuously experiment with new providers.”

While he believes that eCommerce brands will need to do more than just send products to influencers and plop whatever they make into the ad account, Tracy Atieh, a digital media strategist and founder of UGC Shop and Hire Creators, expects that 2024 will be the year that live streaming will be used by more industries. She highlights, “I’m seeing it mostly in the fashion and gadget industry now, but I think we will be seeing it get more traction across many verticals soon.”

Other industries interested in leveraging a livestream shopping platform can check out buywith. While it’s loved and trusted by leading fashion brands like Steve Madden, H&M, and Havaianas, it’s also used by brands like Dyson, Samsung, proving that live shopping isn’t mutually exclusive to shopping for clothing or gadgets.

Josiah Roche, fractional CMO at JRR Marketing is seeing a big shift with eCommerce brands embracing more augmented reality (AR), allowing customers to “try before they buy” in immersive ways. While it already featured prominently in 2023 and brands like IKEA have been using it for a couple of years already, in 2024 it will be even bigger.

In fact, a study Snap commissioned from Deloitte Digital predicts that in 2024 the number of frequent AR users will top three billion to reach 3.5 billion. To put this growth into better perspective, it works out to an increase of 600 million users in the span of only a year.

As Deloitte explains in a piece it wrote for The Wall Street Journal, the change that’s set to take place in the coming years is that where AR was once merely seen as a fun feature, consumers and brands will start to view it as a serious tool. Going forward, expect to see more online businesses use it to engage with shoppers meaningfully and improve the overall customer experience.

Where online shoppers were previously impressed with traditional personalisation efforts that relied on historical data, in 2024, hyper-personalisation that leverages real-time data too to take it one step further will become the new standard.

To bring the human aspect back into eCommerce and answer the growing demand for enhanced one-to-one guidance, buywith has developed a personal shopping assistant that allows brands and retailers to engage personally with their customers and retain loyalty while driving higher conversion rates. It’s a case not so much of relying on real-time data but rather real-time interactions. Basically, it copies the in-store experience online, offering the convenience of online shopping as well as the personal interaction of in-person experiences.

Trivium’s Buying Green Report reveals that since 2021, the number of consumers willing to pay more for products in sustainable packaging has increased. Not even the worsening economic climate could dampen consumers’ eagerness to support brands’ sustainability efforts.

As a matter of fact, packaging can be a deciding factor. More than 70% of consumers are actively picking products based on whether or not the packaging is sustainable, while 63% are less likely to buy something if it’s packaged in material like plastic that’s bad for the environment.

According to the Subscription E-Commerce Global Market Report released by The Business Research Company at the beginning of 2024, the subscription eCommerce market will have a massive year. It’s predicted to reach $330.58 billion in 2024 — a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 65.8%!

The fact that shoppers can look forward to regular, scheduled deliveries make this model super convenient. Combine its convenience with the perceived value that it offers and it’s a surefire way for online sellers to attract recurring sales amid inflation concerns.

That said, consumers still want some level of control. Considering that personalisation has become an expected norm, going forward expect to see sellers offer more benefits and customisation options.

In 2024, personalisation will be taken to the next level. With the stakes higher, eCommerce brands will need to leverage technology to analyse historical and real-time data about their target audiences’ browsing and purchasing habits. Then, they need to tailor their content and products accordingly.

When it comes to content, video will remain a firm favourite. However, instead of simply using an influencer-generated video, they’ll experiment with a wider variety of video formats including live shopping.

With regards to tailoring products, expect to see subscriptions getting a new lease of life. It might come in a repurposed, cardboard box to help with the brand’s sustainability efforts, but the content itself will be modified to the customer’s preferences.