2015 will be the year mobile and social channels are taken seriously by the eCommerce industry, according to Monetate.
The retail technology company claims that 2014 has already seen a major move towards mobile being used for shopping and payments, with a year-on-year increase in mobile purchases of 45 percent over 2013.
"Mobile experiences are improving, thanks to advances like in-store and online activation with beacons, disruptive standalone apps and new mobile checkout solutions like Apple Pay and PayPal Mobile Express," said Lucinda Duncalfe, CEO, Monetate.
"Consumers embraced these technologies during the 2014 holiday shopping season, proving that mobile is becoming a key revenue driver. Customers are increasingly expecting one-click ‘Amazon-like’ payment experiences and super-personalised mobile sites, and we anticipate seeing brands make this a priority this year."
As mobile moves from being a peripheral to principal channel for online shopping, brands will respond by targeting their strategy more directly to mobile users.
"Mobile is gaining a larger piece of the ecommerce pie, which presents marketers with a huge opportunity. The first step is to look at what mobile visitors want to do and enable them to do it easily and efficiently," added Duncalfe.
"The key to mobile commerce strategy is creating utility and value for the customer where they are. Their needs are generally different when they’re on mobile than on a desktop."
Monetate suggested this year would see the rise of ‘Cyber Month‘, as the traditional ‘Black Friday’ became obsolete.
"Consumers will expect deals and discounts starting before Thanksgiving and lasting through Christmas, and they will spread out their holiday buying accordingly," Duncalfe said.
Another prediction was that social channels would become more mainstream, citing Facebook and Twitter as two social media sites that had recently debuted ‘buy’ buttons.
"Social is now an integral ecommerce driver. Consumers are relying on their networks for pre-purchase research," said Duncalfe.
"We anticipate merchants focusing on leading consumers from the discovery phase to a purchase by adding ‘selling’ to the list of offerings on social channels."