How e-commerce startups are scaling to meet high demand

With the continued and strong growth of e-commerce, which is expected to exceed 20% of all retail sales in 2024, owning an e-commerce startup is an exciting and dynamic endeavor.

Moreover, e-commerce revenues are expected to grow at a rate of over 9% annually over the next five years. This puts established online shopping brands in a strong position to reap the benefits of exciting growth opportunities.

But what if you are just starting your startup? Practical steps to scale your online business could appear elusive.

In this guide, we’ll look at some of the key trends shaping the e-commerce area of interest and how to scale your e-commerce business using established best practices.

3 trends shaping e-commerce in 2024

Before we get into the sorts of initiatives you should use to scale your e-commerce business, it is vital to look at the broader trends shaping the e-commerce area of interest and think about positioning your brand to reap the benefits of these changes.

Here’s a quick look at three key e-commerce trends and how they impact your ability to scale.

Ethical BNPL generates more transactions

Estimated demand for BNPL (buy now, pay later) options stays an essential factor for e-commerce brands 79 million users in the US alone.

Short-term finance solutions resembling Klarna Credit and PayPal have remained competitive, providing customers with increasingly seamless experiences through ‘invisible payments’, but that doesn’t suggest BNPL is all the time on the verge of being solved.

Research from 2023 with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau show that BNPL users are more likely to “show signs of financial difficulty than non-users”. This highlights the need for modern e-commerce brands to offer their customers a flexible range of payment options, while balancing this with being as transparent as possible and protecting buyers from taking on debt that will probably be too detrimental to the customer experience.

AI and no-click search

The development of generative artificial intelligence tools was quite a novel phenomenon in the eyes of many retail consumers. However, with the rapid pace at which artificial intelligence is changing users’ relationships with serps, e-commerce leaders need to stay informed about predictions for the near future, resembling the increased emphasis on zero-click searches recently adopted by Google.

Sales channels e.g Google Shoppingwhich, according to performance marketing agency KAU Media Group, account for “over half of UK retailer ad clicks”, are likely to change dramatically as Google and other serps switch to clickless AI-powered searches.

It’s essential for e-commerce leaders to stay on the pulse of those changes and plan to focus their marketing efforts on adapting to the generative search format.

Word of mouth, user-generated content and influencers proceed to drive purchases

Organic, authentic product recommendations have been making a huge impact on the e-commerce marketing landscape for almost a decade.

As Generation Z’s purchasing power increases, it would develop into increasingly essential to take this into account in your strategy for introducing recent products, promoting your flagship products, and defining a unique approach when looking to scale your e-commerce business.

While younger Millennials eat online content in all formats at roughly equal rates, Gen Z consumers display this clearly preference for user-generated content (UGC)and the tendency to attach more importance to product recommendations from friends or influencers they trust.

As wealthier Generation Z becomes a larger a part of the global consumer base, e-commerce brands should try to find space for UGC and influencers in their marketing mix and stimulate and amplify the organic voices talking about their products.

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How to scale your e-commerce business: 3 best practices

As demand grows and changes in the world of e-commerce, online retailers should adapt to these trends with the right strategy.

Here are three best practices to keep in mind as you’re employed to scale your e-commerce business.

Grow your inbound marketing

The e-commerce experience is becoming increasingly faster and more globalized, with online shopping becoming available across more channels and platforms every 12 months.

While this is happening, more and more consumers are using recent technologies to find the products they need, and AI-powered generative search, voice search, and augmented and virtual reality are changing the way people shop online.

While these changes are changing the nuances of the modern sales funnel, one thing that has remained constant is the importance of high-quality, engaging content that may boost your inbound marketing and offer you a strong first point of contact to turn your audience into customers.

By planning a wealthy content calendar that sticks to universal content creation principles while adapting to the demands of recent browsing habits and technology adoption, you may have the opportunity to attract “switched-on” members of your audience for stronger conversions while reaping the advantages of the recent customer journey ahead of many close competitors.

Be as authentic as your audience’s favorite influencers

Gen Z consumers’ attention to influencers and UGC shouldn’t start and end with you social media strategy.

This behavior speaks to a much broader consumer preference for authenticity in sales and marketing, which should impact every step of the customer journey as you look to increase sales.

Beyond the standard considerations of product features, pricing strategy and overall customer experience, more and more buyers expect brands to display authentic personality and positively contribute to the world in one way or one other.

Fostering closer connections with your audience by developing a social media community, being as transparent as possible about your product’s materials and sourcing practices, and using UGC and influencers to provide more authentic ways of communicating can all be effective ways to increase the authenticity of your brand identity in the eyes of your customers.

Personalize every aspect of the customer journey

The increased scope for personalization in e-commerce is having a major impact on what customers expect from brands when they are referred to them when visiting an online store for the first time or searching for support for their product experience.

According to. 83% of consumers are willing to share data to provide a more personalized experience Nine-Tailsharnessing this potential is essential for anyone looking to scale their e-commerce business while adapting to online shopping trends.

Just as BNPL gives customers more control over how they complete their purchase, you will need to embrace the global need for personalization and give your customers the flexibility to tailor their shopping experience.

Initiatives resembling AI-powered upsell recommendations and loyalty programs not only will it enable you tailor each touchpoint to your audience’s preferences and provide a more enjoyable experience, but it would also open up recent sources of information collection to higher understand what your audience finds essential about your e-commerce brand.

This, in turn, will make you higher equipped to fine-tune your experience across customer touchpoints and enjoy improved customer retention and referrals while expanding your database for future personalization.

The right way to scale your online business

The modern e-commerce market is highly competitive and always growing. However, with a thorough understanding of influential trends and the right growth principles, you’ll be able to grow your enterprise at a healthy pace and achieve your most vital goals.

We hope this guide has given you a good place to begin to examine your brand’s relevance to hot industry trends and create a roadmap for scaling your e-commerce business in the future.