Accorin E-Commerce Newsletter Q4

As we go into Q4 and the Holiday Sales Season, we’re optimizing and locking down our clients’ e-commerce sites for holiday  sales spikes. In today’s newsletter, we have a roundup of some of the latest trends and some strategic moves within e-commerce that will help you take advantage of what is for many of our clients the busiest time of year whether its your biggest sales quarter in B2C or whether you’re planning your B2B e-commerce strategy for 2017. 

B2B E-COMMERCE

Accorin recently launched another B2B-focused e-commerce website for a major nutrition supplements manufacturer Vital Nutrients of Middletown, CT.  Vital Nutrients is yet another Accorin client that has taken advantage of Magento as a B2B e-commerce application in 2016 and we have one more major B2B client getting ready to launch on Magento before the end of the year. With its B2B Ready offering, Accorin has developed B2B e-commerce features that can also be combined with rich content management capabilities  to give manufacturers, distributors, and brands that need B2B exactly what they need.

In addition, Magento has launched its own B2B feature set which we are sure that when combined with our own will provide even more options for companies looking to deploy customized B2B e-commerce solutions. We look forward to providing a review of those new Magento features soon.

MARKETING

When Google removed side-bar ads recently, the online marketing community went wild. Some details are now in (Data courtesy Search Engine Watch). Paid search click-through rates have risen.

DESIGN

So it may be a bit early but here are some early predictions from the Accorin Strategy team on 2017 design trends

1. Many companies will begin designing for mobile screens first with desktop views as being equal or less important.
2. Mobile websites and apps will start to replace responsive design
3. Material Design’s Influence Grows
4. Long Scrolls and Lazy Loading will gain wider acceptance due to mobile design focus
5. Hamburgers on the Left dues to mobile focus
6. Cinemagraphs, or the Return of the GIF – animated GIFs return as content publishers and e-commerce merchandisers pick them over video because of their streamlined, fast-loading nature.

To read more about these design trends in Practical E-commerce click here.

INSPIRATION – The Thrive Market (ThriveMarket.com)

Thrive Market is a healthy food products start-up that is doing a lot of things really well. It’s an interesting new business model because they don’t just offer products. Users are required to have an account and subscription ordering is the core of the value that they offer. Check out some of their UX:

HOME PAGE: Strong and clear value proposition for shoppers, exceptional photography, iconography and branding make this an incredibly appealing niche business to sign up for…

CATEGORY PAGE: Intuitive product categorization / taxonomy, guided navigation and filters that make sense….looks like they did their research and found out what will really work for people before design!

Product Detail Page: Nice product views easy add to cart access, all product merchandising information is easily accessible.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Stay calm this Holiday season!  Be sure to check back next month to find out all of the latest trends, technology, marketing and strategy in e-commerce.