9 Ecommerce Trends in 2023 that You Should Watch Out For

A year ago we made 5 Amazon predictions for 2022 that all came true! For example, we anticipated that cross-channel collaboration will be essential for online sellers. Amazon introduced a new feature that allows sellers to run email marketing campaigns from within their Seller Central account. Walmart also created a platform to match business owners with influencers from their niche. Such features have pushed sellers to maintain brand consistency and presence across multiple channels.

Similarly, we predicted that more sellers will use outside experts to grow their brand. Amazon introduced Creative Services—a program that lets sellers find trusted partners for rich media content generation, run ads, and other services. We also discussed additional touchpoint opportunities for sellers through various search options. This also came true. While Amazon continued to invest in voice search, Walmart also launched a visual search tool called Trendgetter to make product discovery easier.

While 2022 was positive for ecommerce owners, we want to look ahead now at what 2023 has in store. Once again, we turned to our experts to discuss the top 9 ecommerce trends for 2023!

Trend #1 Find Products that Will Sell in 2023

“Ask yourself 'what problem is my product going to solve', and 'why would someone buy my product' as opposed to all the others out there? Use data from Amazon reviews, and forums to understand how to make better products and improve the customer experience. That along with understanding keyword demand on Amazon will allow everything to flow more easily as you launch and market your product.”

While inflation is expected to fall from 8.8% to 6.5% in 2023— meaning consumers will have more purchasing power in the next 12 months —you still need to be highly selective about which products you plan to offer in this economy. You can take several approaches to fine-tune your product offerings:

• Look at the previous year’s sales, cut the lowest performing product, and invest that cashflow back into sourcing more products that have been selling well
• Think about a problem you have that a product could solve, and research to see if others have the same issue
• Consider what unique pain points your customers will be facing in 2023—COVID-19 restrictions, inflation, recession, and a digital-forward culture will all impact consumer buying decisions
• Do keyword research to determine what customers are searching for

Tools that Can Help

• Product Research for Amazon—Find winning product ideas that sell well on Amazon
• Shopify Finder—Get insights on 50+ million Shopify products and 100+ million AliExpress products that cover 40+ countries
• Keyword Wizard for Amazon—Get access to a huge database of 200+ million keywords and smart filters, and find high-volume/low-competition terms to help you win in Amazon search
• Ecommerce Keywords Analytics—Learn the top-performing keywords for major retailers, find keywords that convert, and evaluate product potential

Trend #2 Tackle Current/Future Supply Chain Issues with Data

“In terms of next year, I think Supply Chain will be a major emphasis for most retailers. 2023 will mark the first year since COVID hit where we will not have a set of YOY sales data skewed by COVID. Retailers should have more accurate data to forecast and plan for inventory so they're not running out or overly stocked of products.”

Global shortages of items like children’s pain relievers, computer chips, garage doors, and even a beloved hot sauce have created a stressed consumer base. A number of compounding factors caused these shortages, including the novel COVID-19 virus, unemployment, a reduction in raw materials, and global unrest. Unfortunately, these issues are not projected to improve in 2023. But you don’t have to panic just yet.

Knowledge is power and you can use competitive market research to source suppliers and keep stock levels steady. Your inventory might not be as robust as it was pre-2020, but you don’t have to live in supply-chain limbo.

Tools that Can Help

• ImportYeti—Find any company’s suppliers
• Veeqo—Pack and ship your own orders with smart automation and inventory tools
• InventorySource—A wholesale and dropship supplier directory
• Sellbrite—A tool to help brands and retailers list and sell their products on online marketplaces
• Shoppingfeed—Creates a bespoke, game-plan specific business model to help you achieve your ecommerce goals
• Cogsy—Offers total visibility into your retail operations (replenishment needs, incoming orders, promotions, etc.)
• SoStocked by Carbon6—Customizable Amazon inventory management and forecasting software

Trend #3 Do Competitor Analysis—Small Business Is Booming

“To grow your business on marketplaces, you will need to consider tactics outside of advertising to get a real competitive advantage. Consider programs like editorial recommendations, search ads, social media, and email marketing strategies to expand your reach at a reasonable cost per acquisition.”

Ecommerce business is projected to soar. Online retail sales are expected to exceed $6.5 trillion by 2023. That means competition amongst small ecommerce businesses will likely be fierce over the next 12 months. The best way to grow your business is to outperform your competitors; be the website or brand your customers think of first when they have a problem. But you can’t know if you’re beating the competition without doing extensive competitor analysis and research.

How to Do Ecommerce Competitor Research in 2023

First, make a list of your competitors. You can source this by looking at:

• Organic search results
• Paid search results
• Googling your niche/industry with the phrase “near me”

Once you have your list compiled, focus on these top three things:

1. Price: What do their products cost?
2. Product: What exactly are they selling?
3. Advertising: How are they reaching their customers?

“2022 saw a number of new seller tools and improvements from Amazon. I believe that in order to stay ahead of the competition in 2023 brands will have to stay on top of these tools and become the first movers in their categories.”

Tools that Can Help

• Competitor Tracker for Amazon—Automate your competitor research and get crucial data on competitors’ sales, ads, and search rankings
• Instant Keyword Research for Amazon—Collect your competitors keywords in a click.

Trend #4 - Discover Your Market Potential

“Instead of only looking at the direct competitors, look at the indirect or even the market leaders of other segments to understand what works for them. Sometimes, even your competitors might have excellent website traffic but might face conversion issues. So don't blindly look at the direct competition that you decide on. Look at their approach if it's as per the consumer perspectives, the market situation, and customer expectations for your industry and decide which competitor to pick up and what level of research can take you closer to your goals.”

The ecommerce sector is incredibly competitive with many small and large players selling variations of the same products. While buyers get more choices it can be tough on business owners—especially if you are new in the market. To scale your online business you need to be aware of other companies, products, or services that may threaten your expectations. Market research helps you get real-time information about what’s happening in your industry, your position in the market, how to expand your share, and what returns you can expect.

How to Conduct Thorough Market Research in 2023

"The depth of your market research is up to you, but you should consider some key concepts such as:

• Digital market share—The place your business occupies compared to the total market.
• Level of competition—The ease of competition in a given market is key to estimating the resources needed.
• Key players—The number and size of key players help you know who you’re competing against and create innovative strategies.
• Market size—It’s not the same to have a potential market of 1,000 people as it is to have a million. The size of the market is key to defining its potential."

Tools that Can Help

• Traffic Insights for Amazon—A reverse ASIN tool that helps you dissect the promotional strategies of competing products
• EyeOn—Monitor your competitors’ online sales and marketing strategies 24/7
• AdClarity—Unwrap competitors’ digital ads, ad spend, and impressions
• Audience Intelligence—Discover in-depth consumer segmentation and cultural insights

Trend #5 Maximize Your Traffic Performance with Dan Saunders

“What I’ve noticed with a lot of people (clients and a lot of agencies) is that by not knowing what to do with their data, it’s costing the company a small fortune, not just loss of potential new revenue/customers but also lost revenue on acquiring data and not understanding what they should be doing with it.”

Adobe recently reported that 55 percent of marketers see data-driven marketing as their most important business opportunity. Data is a real asset for modern businesses. There are several tools and technologies you can use to collect data about your customer’s buying choices, website behavior, spending habits, personal tastes, and more. You can use the data for personalized product recommendations and highly targeted advertising. For example, if your data shows a large number of visitors but limited conversions, you can analyze where they came from, how they interacted with your site, and where you lost them. You can then reduce barriers to conversion by interpreting data to inform onsite improvements.

How to Leverage Traffic Performance in 2023

• "Combine data from ads, social media, customer habits, and even the economy, to make informed predictions on what your audience wants next.
• Track real-time changes in customer behavior by using adaptive content technologies
• Use data to re-engage customers in a positive and relevant manner.
• Run data-based campaigns to increase brand awareness and strengthen loyalty."

Tools that Can Help

• Ecommerce Keywords Analytics lets you gain data insights from top retailers
• Google Analytics Adcost Import is useful for analysing data from your Google ad campaigns.
• Traffic insights for Amazon help you discover data insights from channels outside Amazon.

Trend #6 - Invest in Your SEO (Content, Technical, Local)

"SEO lends itself very well to e-commerce, especially for sites with a larger inventory, because it's a scalable, low-cost sales channel. In 2022, Google started to invest heavily in shopping Search and changed the SERP design significantly. E-commerce webmasters can now impact their product snippets with shipping times, refund policy, and discounts through Google Business - every online store should look at this!”

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to strategies you use to start ranking higher in search results on Google, Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, or other platforms that you use for selling. SEO requires investing efforts but this channel is cost-effective -- developing a proper SEO strategy is a great way to reduce CAC. Your main goal should be to discover what search terms your customers will search for if they want to buy your products. You then have to use these terms (called keywords) strategically in your product listings, meta descriptions of website pages, image file names, social media, and in all your content. High keyword density coupled with some paid advertising can yield very powerful results in a short time.

How to Leverage SEO Investment Trends in 2023

• Filters matter. Visit your main vertical(product category) and horizontal competitors. Check their filters and apply them to your site.
• Perform extensive keyword research, cluster the keywords, and extract entities from your competitors.
• Consider adding schema—a markup language that exists to help your site stand out in search results. Ecommerce schema essentials include: Product markup, Reviews, HowTo's, FAQ pages, Breadcrumbs, and Video.

“Today, most brand awareness occurs on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. As per the study by KPMG, two-thirds of consumers plan to reduce their non-essential spending in 2023. So if a consumer needs to buy non-essential things, they would have more layers of research before spending. In that case, being present on search engines become unavoidable. Repurpose the content you create for social media marketing, put it on the website as a blog and video, optimize the site for a powerful user experience, and be present at local events to build the brand's authority and visibility. Being seen works far better than being virtual”

“I also believe that Off-Amazon SEO will be a major driver in 2023. We've already seen Amazon Brand Stores indexing for major keywords on Google and I expect to see this expand next year.”

Tools that Can Help

• On Page SEO Checker—Offers a complete and structured list of things you can do to improve the ranking of pages on your website
• Site Audit—Get a holistic view of how your website is performing and monitor tech SEO errors that can hold your site back (especially important for large ecommerce sites)
• Product Feed Health Checker—Get recommendations on optimizing your product’s content, verify that you are employing the most relevant keywords, and create the idea product pages to win in Google Shopping
• Keyword Wizard for Amazon—Make your product visible in Amazon Search
• Search Insights for Amazon—Analyze and improve Amazon Search performance.

#Trend 7 - Influencer & Affiliate Marketing Are Crucial

“Amazon and other marketplaces have posted data about strong correlations in growth with the effective use of influencers”

Consumers trust influencers, their opinions, and their recommendations. Influencer marketing research shows that 92% of consumers trust influencers’ native ads more than traditional advertising. People are more willing to listen to the influencers than the brands themselves— 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations and only 38% trust branded content. Additionally, the ROI of influencer marketing is reported to be 11 times greater than that of more traditional types like a banner advertisements. Hence, influencers are perfect providers for ecommerce brands that wish to win consumers' hearts and increase sales.

How to Get Started with Influencer and Affiliate Marketing in 2023

“It’s no surprise that influencer marketing is becoming more and more popular. Ecommerce brands strive to use the most effective marketing channels, and influencer marketing has already proven to be one of those. If you want to create an influencer marketing strategy, you need to take a look at the search and discovery tools in order to automate tons of manual tasks and partner with the influencers that bring you the best results.”

Tools that Can Help

• Buzzguru Influencer Analytics—Run, monitor, and analyze your influencer marketing campaigns all in one place
• Social Tracker—Track the social media accounts of your closest competitors and compare their growth and engagement levels to yours
• Social Analytics—See your internal analytics metrics for your social media channels
• Captiv8—Find the best content creators to get your message out, execute campaigns, and analyze campaign performance
• ReferralCandy—Reward customers for referrals and grow your sales through word-of-mouth marketing

Trend #8 - Plan Seasonal Sales and Promotions Wisely in 2023

“Prime Day, Prime Early Access & Turkey Five (Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday) will continue to be the most significant ecommerce sales events of the year. Expect more retailers to jump on the bandwagon and run their version of these sales to entice shoppers. Walmart ran "Deals for Days Sale," and Target ran "Target's Deal Days" in July during Prime Day.”

The holiday season is a critical time for ecommerce sellers. Customers are ready to spend and you want to make sure they find your products! While the last quarter of the year is significant, it's also important to keep an eye on Prime Day and other retail events that happen throughout the year. You have to plan your calendar at the start of the year. You also need to be prepared with stock, advertising campaigns, and deals and discounts you plan to run. Whether it is Cyber Monday or Black Friday, the below tips will help you get started.

How to Leverage Seasonal Sales and Promotions in 2023

• Allocate customer service resources to manage the increased volume of inquiries during the holiday period.
• Keep an eye on competitor pricing so you don't lose out on sales for being overpriced.
• Run retargeting ads after the holiday season, to continue getting sales from past site visitors.

Tools that Can Help

• Instant Keyword Research for Amazon—Get thousands of keywords for Amazon search success during the holiday season
• Listing Quality Check for Amazon—Audit your Amazon listings and get actionable advice to increase visibility and conversion rates
• Listing Alerts for Amazon—Monitor your listing and get notifications if competitors drop prices during the holidays!

Trend #9 Build a Responsive Customer Support Network

“What customers are looking for is an ecommerce experience that reads their minds. They want products they love to appear at the top of every product search page. You can now fulfill your customers' dreams by using adaptive content. Adaptive content is a powerful technology that provides tailored content and helps customers discover products they truly desire.”

It is virtually inevitable when running an ecommerce business that you will encounter customer questions or concerns. Even the most conscientious, thoughtful businesses need to be ready to address these comments. Building or growing a customer support arm of your ecommerce business should absolutely be a top priority in the coming year.

While it is great to have foundational solutions like chat support services, a customer care email address, and in some cases a call center, the competition for the best customer service is going to be fierce in 2023. That’s why some ecommerce businesses have opted to go above and beyond to retain and keep their customers happy.

Tips to grow your support network include:

• Collect feedback through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or any other method you feel comfortable with.
• Run A/B ad campaigns and observe which ads perform better. That gives you a hint of what offers, products, or marketing ideas your customers love.
• Use automation like live chatbots for faster customer response.

Tools that Can Help

• eDesk—An all-in-one help desk for ecommerce businesses; unify queries, orders, and customer info into a single view
• Sendinblue—Leverage live chat capabilities and chatbots to help customers solve problems quickly
• Gorgias—An ecommerce help desk that centralizes all support tickets into one convenient place
• Zendesk—A SaaS that helps you streamline your customer support process and handle tickets more efficiently

Trend #10 Make 2023 the Best Year Yet for Your Ecommerce Business

"In a rush to adapt and continue serving online audiences, many businesses were forced to reassess their marketing plans and much of what they knew about their customers. With no room for assumptions, data became even more integral to business success. Businesses needed to understand how customers were reacting to the pandemic, where they were interacting, and what they expected so that plans could be adjusted accordingly.”

Companies that do the following will find profits increasing exponentially in 2023:

• Leverage data using machine learning and smart bidding strategies
• Form effective strategies to gain and retain your target audience
• Collect customer data and utilize its full potential to increase profits.

Ready to start the year off right? Get free trial access to our Solutions for Ecommerce businesses. Save yourself time and guesswork by letting Semrush’s data-driven apps help you develop a winning strategy that works for your business.

Tools that can help:

• The Apps for Ecommerce Businesses

Conclusion

If last year has shown us anything, it’s that understanding exactly who your audience is and what they want is fundamental. 2023 ecommerce trends continue to focus on your buyer’s wants and needs. You have to collect and analyze data before you taken any decisions. Doing thorough market and competitor research will help you launch products your buyers actually want. Planning your marketing calendar will help you take advantage of annual holidays and sales. Running data-driven marketing campaigns, beefing up your SEO, and partnering with influencers are key factors to 2023 success. Go ahead and make 2023 the best year for your ecommerce business!

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