We’ve nearly made it through another year of digital marketing here at X Agency, and 2022 has brought us a multitude of learnings, curveballs, and trends. If post-pandemic life has taught us anything, it’s that eCommerce businesses are here to stay. While our digital landscape is flooded with more competition than ever before, it can be difficult to simply keep up with all the latest changes and demand, much less predict what’s to come in the future. But nevertheless, our team of expert marketers rounded up a list of our predictions, suggestions, and trends for what we’re going to see in 2023:
Our 2023 Predictions:
1. Shopping Through Video
TikTok active users are expected to double in 2023. Video in this form is being shared across multiple platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest, as well as website content on product pages/blogs. These videos are UGC style and provide engaging content showing the products in real life, with details, sizing, and quality. Users are responding to real people talking about the products they love and why they love them. Gen Z is the majority of TikTok users, so getting these consumers while they are young will increase their chances of becoming lifetime shoppers and create brand loyalty.
2. More Investment Into Live Shopping
Instagram continues to experiment with live-stream shopping, attempting to replicate the big boom in other markets. Instagram could look to capitalize on this with the launch of a standalone tab enabling users to access live shopping directly.
3. Ad Placements In AR & VR
Augmented reality is the future of social interactions. The rise in AR triggered Facebook to make a significant and controversial corporate decision, changing its name to Meta and investing billions of dollars into the development of the metaverse, a revolutionary digital world in which people and brands can thrive. Users’ cravings drive the adoption of augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) for a new and engaging shopping experience. Before the metaverse, Facebook reacted to this changing user behavior by launching Horizon. In this virtual world, users can play games and interact with products and services from brands on the platform. Businesses will be able to launch digital billboards in worlds like Horizons. Users will also be able to purchase items in these virtual worlds to be shipped to their real-life homes.
4. Inflation Workaround
With the uncertainty of recession and inflation, brands need to provide consumers with more options to help them feel like their purchase was worth it, from start to finish to after purchase. Ensure the return process is easy for consumers, that what they are after is easy to find on the website & easy to understand, and that it is also easy to act upon. Also considering the implementation of budget-friendly options, such as offering more ways for your customers to pay through a ‘buy now pay later’ option, payment plans, subscription modifications, or paying with cryptocurrency. Giving customers options here makes them feel empowered in their buying journey while shining a positive light on the brand’s flexibility.
5. Brand Engagement via DMs
As the number of engagements happening within DMs continues to rise, Meta is looking to highlight more tools to help brands tap into this shift. Meta recently highlighted the growth in Click-To-Message ads, across Messenger and WhatsApp, hoping to drive further engagements. Marketers should expect additional ad options that align with this new form of engagement.
Whether users actually want to engage with brands in their private DMs is yet to be seen. However, It could be a great way of building a more direct line of communication and understanding between brand and consumer.
6. Diversifying Into New Platforms
With the new year came a new spike in CPCs. As pre-pandemic levels of competition are starting to return, we saw a rise in CPCs in 2022 compared to previous years. According to Statista, “Regarding the global cost-per-click (CPC) of search advertising, it was found that the CPC in the first quarter of 2022 was at 0.62 U.S. dollars, compared to 0.52 U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2021.” And our prediction for 2023? These numbers are only going to continue to get higher. Because of this rise in CPCs, it could be a smart move to diversify into as many verticals as possible in 2023. Especially if you’re planning on broadening your brand awareness, platforms like TikTok and Snapchat typically offer lower CPCs for these higher funnel customers than your typical Google, Bing, or Facebook.
7. Digital Wallets And Biometric Payment Usage
Due to the consumer’s growing concern around privacy and data protection, consumers are choosing to shop online within eCommerce websites that use digital wallets and payment option Platforms like Apple Pay, Paypal, Google Pay, or Venmo. These allow users to pay for online goods and services from their devices without having to enter debit card or bank information into third-party websites or applications. User financial information entered into digital wallets is encrypted, ensuring consumer payment protection versus entering debit/credit card numbers that could potentially be leaked.
8. Sustainability in eCommerce
Search volume for “sustainable goods” is up 209% compared to 5 years ago. Based on research and case studies, 85% of global consumers have shifted their purchase behavior toward being more sustainable in the past five years. According to a survey conducted by Simon-Kucher & Partners, more than 80% of consumers confirm they’ll be purchasing more environmentally-friendly products in the next five years, which will shift consumer behavior in 2023.
