Expert Ecommerce and Portal Development Agency, PureNet, reveals its top 7 Ecommerce Trends for 2017!

We've drawn on our decade of experience delivering solutions to B2C and B2B businesses such as The Royal British Legion, Krispy Kreme, Saddleback, LighterLife and Puzzler and immersion of all aspects of ecommerce to analyse and define its key predictions.

1. Digital Payment Types

With the likes of Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and PayPal customers are no longer having to take our their card to complete an online transaction, orders can be made with a fingerprint or online pin number. In 2016, more and more customers adopted digital payment types through all channels, using their phones, cards and even watches to complete contactless payments – this is set to continue and expand in 2017 where, PureNet predicts that every customer will expect to be able to complete…

How workplaces at high-tech social media giants meld work and leisure

According to Edel Mahony's research, from All Systems Commercial Fitouts, there is a new phenomenon called 'Bleisure', referring to the blend of work and personal life, or leisure time and he showcases in his infographic how the big tech giants (Facebook, Google and Twitter) are accommodating this for their workforce through innovative work and social spaces. Google provide free food for their staff (is this for the staff to work longer hours or to keep them sweet?) and nap pods (for late nights or does a quick nap increase productivity?). Facebook's 'Bleisure' code is driven to 'change people's thinking' through their work environment by offering cupcake stores, barbeque joints and workable walkways for fast meetings. Jeremy Myerson, Co-Editor of Time and Motion Redesigning Working Life, sees this new future as the 'new contemporary workforce where the gates never close'. This may not be…

What are the most important marketing investment priorities for Smart Insights members for the year ahead?

Each year, we ask Smart Insights members for their predictions of THE most important high-level digital marketing technique for their business or their clients. This has been really interesting to take the pulse of opinion on marketing trends across the main digital marketing techniques. Thanks if you shared your opinion, we had 2,352 responses from marketers around the world! Here are the results for 2017:

How the top trends were selected

From September to mid-December 2016 we asked readers of our post on Digital Marketing Trends for 2017 to select just one marketing tactic which would give them the biggest uplift in the year ahead. While this doesn't have a controlled sample of our free research reports like Managing Digital Marketing, it does canvas opinion widely.This isn't necessarily…

Talkwalker shares their views on the trends to shape social media in 2017 and practical actions businesses should take to gain advantage from them

In 2016 we saw social media networks introduce many new features including Facebook’s live streaming, Reactions, Instagram Stories and major updates to Snapchat. When the first social media platforms were launched they soon became more than just a place to chat with friends. Brands jumped on them for marketing purposes, journalists spread news stories, and politicians shared their manifestos and opinions as we saw recently with the Brexit in the UK and the US presidential elections. Now we can see the big social platform offerings overlapping. Facebook Messenger is experimenting with Snapchat’s disappearing messages. Instagram Stories has also stepped on Snapchat’s toes. So, what social media trends do we expect to see in 2017?

Trend #1 Increasing need to tie social media marketing to tangible results

The big social networks are giving…

How financial services firms can harness the digital revolution

Consumer expectations are growing. Recent research suggests that given the chance, over half of financial consumers would opt to bank with Amazon. Why? Because a company famous for delivery innovation, outstanding customer service and indeed, thinking outside the box, has fundamentally disrupted the service industry, reinventing what it means to provide a best in class customer experience. We believe that in the age of the expectation economy, there is much that retail giant Amazon and disruptors like it, can teach brands about what it means to provide an outstanding experience and stand out from the crowd. There is no shortage of commentators noting that the retail banking is set for change with a new breed of innovators entering the industry. It’s not only Millennials that are demanding more Amazon-like experiences from every service provider and banks need to catch up quickly. All customers…

Chart of the day: In a recent study on customer sentiments on virtual reality, by Ipsos MORI, they find that over 3 in 10 don't care about VR at all, and many think VR is just for gamers

VR devices are currently too expensive according to 66% of respondents and the majority (86%) would like to try VR before buying. The key findings as shown in the chart above include: Over half have an underground of what VR is and just under half are interested in experiencing it 6 in 10 believe VR experiences are made just for gamers Most find the devices are too expensive even though there are cheaper options available The research also found that over 6 in 10 (63%) of 16-24 year olds are positive of the technology, compared to just over 3 in 10 (33%) of those aged 55-75. Over half of…

Chart of the Day: Most businesses address just three or more market segments with their content marketing

Marketers who are focused on campaigns, creative and marcomms can get a narrow view that marketing communications (that's content, social, ads, SEO, outdoor, video, you name it) are actually only one part of the marketing puzzle. But the smart marketer knows that spending time to develop accurate buyer personas and properly plan different strategies for targeting market segments and buyer states is also crucial. The results of a survey which asked over 600 B2B Marketing professionals about their use of content marketing shows that plenty of content marketers are wising up to the need to properly segment their market and target different buyer personas and stages with different messaging and content formats. Half of the companies were addressing three of more market segments, whilst almost half were addressing three or more buyer personas…

Make sure you aren't making any of these costly ecommerce marketing mistakes

Competition is fierce in the ecommerce sector, so to get an edge, you need a planned approach, with clear priorities and a relentless approach to optimisation. It’s likely Ecommerce Marketing is already a massive investment in your business and this will only grow in future as you look to compete. Creating a robust multichannel marketing strategy that balances your business goals with your available resources can be difficult to achieve, but when you succeed, the benefits are immense. Over the last 20 years as we have consulted and trained with many Ecommerce businesses and we have seen many different mistakes which hinder growth. Yet there are some common mistakes we see often, which we have summarised here so you can compare against your approaches.

Strategy Recommendation: Plan, Manage, Optimise!

This is our mantra at Smart Insights and it is shared by many of the…

A case study example of applying the Smart Insights RACE framework to  measure customer engagement and marketing success

You probably already use—or at least have thought about using—some form of marketing dashboard to track and manage your analog and digital marketing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). But how has it impacted your decision-making ability concerning customer engagement? And do you effectively leverage that data to help you manage all the most important marketing factors that drive success for your organization? I subscribe to the basic premise behind the Smart Insights RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage) framework for organizing and tracking digital marketing KPIs as they relate to customer engagement, but I’ve expanded it to include analog marketing activities as well. [Editor's note: Since Kent Huffman wrote this post, Smart Insights have created a RACE dashboard based on Google Analytics to automatically…

Digital Economy Bill update: New Marketing Code Sanctioned By Commons Committee

The Committee stage of the Digital Economy Bill has passed with a change to the Data Protection Act 1998. The key consideration is that the Information Commissioners Office is being given powers to put forward rules for a new direct marketing code that will apply to relevant areas of digital marketing.

The significant element of the act will be the instruction to the ICO to prepare a code that includes practical guidance in accordance with the Data Protection and Privacy and Electronic Communications Acts, plus introduce any other appropriate measures necessary to promote good practice.

The act gives the ICO a broad remit to put forward new rules, but must take into account the views of trade associations, members of the public and bodies that represent members of the public.

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