Future of E-Commerce: Nitin Chopra on what’s in store for Marketers & Entrepreneurs

While e-commerce has always been on a rise, the pandemic gave it a huge boost. Given the digital acceleration since the last year, businesses moved online in an unprecedented way. Facebook India's Nitin Chopra puts the spotlight on key eCommerce marketing trends and innovations that shaped the category.

Nearly 100 million new users have become part of the traditional economy. Secondly, the pre-existing 100 million who were at least buying once a year have increased their frequency of purchase. So, digital presence became imperative for brand discovery because the Internet was the only place that wasn’t quarantined and had people’s time and attention. Nitin Chopra, Industry Head, E-Commerce, Facebook India talks about the eCommerce marketing trends that emerged in the last 12 months.

How can business fuel social growth?

Focus on full marketing funnel, says Nitin. The pool of 200 million Indians is at various stages of commerce adoption. Brands need to create great personalized experiences and help consumers move across the funnel by first building trust and awareness, pushing them for consideration, and finally asking them to make a purchase in a frictionless manner.

Ecommerce Marketing in the New Normal

Digital has provided a wide canvas since last 12 months to marketers. Below are a few trends that stood out according to Nitin.

1. Behavioural shift pushed most brands in creating exceptional customer experiences around video, AR, influencer marketing among other things to increase brand awareness.

2. With people from Tier 2 and 3 cities increasingly turning to online shopping, brands have started experimenting with vernacular content. Nearly 68% of shoppers preferred to see ads and also shop in their local language. Facebook saw a lot of brands investing in this front heavily.

3. Big sale days have gained massive significance. Nearly 35% of ecommerce GMV lands during 40 odd days of the big sale events. Most large advertisers plan extensively for these sale day events driving innovation and personalization at scale.  

Also Read: 5 key takeaways from creators on Content Diversification

Dos & Donts for Ecommerce Marketing

Digital space is evolving rapidly and there is no right or wrong approach. Everyone is building a hypothesis and testing it. However, two common mistakes that businesses commit are:

1. They just focus on one part of the funnel. As a brand, if you just start focusing on driving only transactions that are very ROI-centric then the pool of people who actually transact will either palatinate out or decrease. For every brand it’s critical to keep acquiring new customers and then creating a remarketing tool, You just can’t keep focusing on one aspect and ignore the others.

2. Many businesses also invest in online marketing without adequate focus on measuring what matters. Digital marketing measurement is a very complex and evolving topic. It is very hard for businesses to measure the true impact of advertisements Also, I think the tools available to us have not really kept pace with the changes.

They need to measure truly incremental outcomes as profitability is taking center stage.  Most brands value money now and that is going to be the case forward. As consumer journeys are not linear anymore, Incrementalilty is the way to start determining the measurable value created.

Key Trends

1. Advertisers are building exceptional Mobile experiences

2. Nearly 70% of consumers being Millenials, influencer marketing has become pivotal to drive brand salience within this cohort.

3. Building innovative online experiences with AR, VR has gained significant traction as 80% of people and want to explore more products driven by AR and VR.  

Future Marketing Avenues for Ecommerce Brands

1. Changes in consumer behavior are here to stay and mobile is at the center of the discovery commerce center
2. 200 mn Indians who now ready to join the digital economy – new to eCommerce or new to the category- brands need to devise a strategy to retain or acquire new consumers. They might not be accessible through TV or apps, marketers need to create innovative ways of acquiring them while consumer experience takes the center stage.
3. Measuring incremental business outcome on every dollar spent.