Leading experts reveal the Magento trends shaping 2018

6 Magento trends to watch for in 2018

If anyone could know what will be big for Magento community this year, it would be the leading Magento experts. In the interview conducted by MageWorx, the professionals have shared their thoughts on the top growing trends among Magento merchants. Here are the 6 Magento trends they expect to see in 2018:

 

Migarting to Magento 2

Moving to the latest version of the platform will continue to remain trending among Magento merchants. Although we will not be likely to see a full switch this year, the number of migrations to Magento 2 is still on the rise. The platform has been delivered a much improved and optimized version of its previous platform, in terms of scalability, performance, customer experience, mobile friendliness, and admin capability. Since its release in 2015, Magento 2 has made major fixes, tested by millions of clients to grow into the most advanced platform in the market. The platform is proven to streamline shopping experience and boost business growth across a number of industries. While Magento 1's influence in the market is slowly phased out, most professionals expect Magento 2 to be the king in 2018.

 

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

 

With mobile shopping growing at a flashing rate, a friction-free shopping experience is crucial than ever to keep up. As shoppers are demanding the speed and interactions of an app on the mobile browsers, Progressive Web Apps are the trend to watch for. With all they have to offer, PWAs promise to transform mobile shopping for customers by bringing the advantages of a native app to the mobile browsers. As the key to innovate web experience, PWAs can have a huge impact on the mobile conversion to match the rising mobile shopping rate. This year, Magento merchants are likely to jump at the opportunity to upgrade their mobile web stores to a higher performing version - PWAs:

“This is a new technology that will inevitably grow and change over the years as developers constantly improve versions of it, and brands increasingly embrace PWAs as part of their mobile strategies.” - As stated by Peter Sheldon, vice president of strategy at Magento Commerce.

 

Making use of data

In the world where competition is rising, data is truly the key to unlock unlimited potential for both business and their customers. This year, Magento merchants are expected to focus more and more on data to drive growth for their stores. The leading experts agree that data is becoming the most important asset to inform decision making. Understand this, Magento is putting more efforts to help businesses operate with greater efficiency and intelligence. Empowered by Magento Business Intelligence, merchants can have instant access to the advanced reports they need to build a data-driven business.

 

 

The tool offers key metrics by customer that help identify their most valuable customers and develop the most important touch points. For retailers who use it well, customer data can guide personalized content and build stronger customer connection. Meanwhile, other key data points like revenue, order value, top performing categories and products allow for a better understand of the store performance on a day-to-day basis. By linking these metrics with business results, store owners can unlock actionable insights, discover new growth opportunities and ultimately impact the bottom line.

 

Instant Purchase

The one-click checkout is proven to drive repeated purchases by making shopping easier and faster for your existing customers. Since Amazon's exclusive ownership of the one-click checkout process has expired, Magento becomes the earliest adopter of this streamlined experience. Calling it Instant Purchase, they have made the Amazon-like checkout convenience available for free in the recent release of their platform - Magento 2.2.2. Providing a better way to stay competitive, the new standard feature is expected to become trending among Magento merchants.

Using previously saved billing, shipping and payment details to skip checkout steps, Instant Purchase enables customers to place an order with a single click. When reaching product detail page, all the customer has to do is hit the Instant Purchase button and confirm the order with the order review pop-up on the same page.

Removing unnecessary visits to cart and checkout pages, the feature can cut down over 90% on the time to complete an order. Not only reduce friction from the checkout path, this also triggers impulse sales among customers. While enabling convenience for returning customers, it can give others the incentive to create a customer account and save checkout information as well. That would mean more chances to turn any shopper into a paying customer for your brand. Instant Purchase is especially well-suited for shopping on mobile, where friction is the most prominent to cause cart abandonment and drop-offs.

 

Optimizing customer experience across devices 

2018 is the year to watch for customer experience. While price has slowly become the secondary factor, the experts are convinced that online shopping experience is now the key influence. Today's shoppers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy and Amazon has upped the experience expectation among them. In this multi-screen world, any merchant looking to stay competitive must focus on improving customer experience across all touch points - whatever device we're talking about. Today's consumers expect everything from shopping ease to convenience, relevance and smooth browsing. They're increasingly loyal to brands that offer the best shopping experience and soon drop those who can't deliver what they expect. By responding to their demands for fast, personalized and useful experience, Magento merchants can maximize the chance to attract and retain customers so they don't look elsewhere.

 

Enhancing order fulfillment capabilities

With the growing demand for fully integrated omnichannel retailing, fulfilling customer orders has been an increasingly critical part of every ecommerce business. Magento merchants that can provide superior customer service and deliver the goods in a timely and satisfying manner will win the future of retail. Order fulfillment when done right can have a huge impact on the customer satisfaction and drive repeat purchase intent. In order for that to happen, businesses must streamline their operations and optimize delivery accuracy, efficiency and cost. Consumers want the ability to shop anywhere with the most convenient and cost effective fulfillment option. To satisfy them, businesses should be able to manage shipping tasks from multiple locations and display competitively priced delivery choices. Store localization and cooperation with product delivery providers improve omnichannel experience for consumers, providing them more delivery options designed to fit their varying needs.

 

To differentiate and remain competitve, Magento merchants must quickly address the changing customer behaviors and expectations to make adjustments accordingly. Make sure you stay in the know for the expert insights on Magento commerce trends to gain advantages over your future competitors.