During the start of this year 2017, Magento conducted a survey which involved 2,200 branded manufacturers, web-only merchants and several multi-channel business owners who belong to more than 15 vertical segments worldwide. The intent was to know about the major eCommerce initiatives of 2017. This survey gave a clear and enough insight about the things to expect in 2017 with respect to ecommerce investments and marketing.

Some important insights

Out of all the merchants surveyed, more than half opined that they expect their online revenues to increase by 20% this year. About one fifth of them expected the revenue to go beyond 50%. It turned out that web-only merchants will spearhead the competition of faster revenue growth as compared to their multi-channel peers. Hence, 2017 is going to be a great year of growth for the online retailers out there.

Mobile transactions to reign

Several surveys conducted in 2016 and 2017 have concluded that mobile transactions will continue to rule and will hold a lot of importance. According to three-quarters of Magento store owners, online transactions will sum up over 20% of their online revenues and two-thirds expect mobile revenues to surpass 40%. These predictions have led 45% merchants to invest into technologies that can render a superior mobile transactional experience to their customers. Hence, the physical store owners who choose to opt for a Magento store always prefer a mobile responsive design for better user visibility and engagement.

Implementing Omnichannel Integration

Omnichannel integration is not a mere idea anymore. This year, the retailers are focused in offering excellent buying experience to their client base by making the most out of Omnichannel marketing. 668 Omnichannel retailers were surveyed by Magento. 64% of these retailers said that they will execute BOPIS (Buy Online Pick up in Store) trails this year. 60% out of this number plans to make the online store inventory visible. 46% of merchants will enable ship to store option for the clients. However, only 53% of retailers considered Omnichannel integration to be practically feasible.

Interacting through videos and content

Video and image marketing through social media channels seems to be the utmost priority amongst the Magento store owners. The intent behind this kind of marketing is to enable and encourage interaction amongst the consumers and store owners. 7% out of the surveyed merchants chose to advertise on forums like Pinterest and 38% decided to increase their paid social media marketing budget.

Things Overrated

It seems that a lot of hype has been created around virtual reality, drones, Internet of Things and 3D printing. The survey proved that three-quarters of online merchants are skeptical about investing into above mentioned technologies. It has been observed that more than 50% of merchants who stated that they would be interested to invest in virtual assistance tools and mobile payments (Apple / Android Pay)

In-store digitization still to be adopted

Since the beginning of this year, there has been a lot of buzz around In-Store Digitization. However, the survey revealed that not many omnichannel retailers will invest on in-store digitization. This is because they don’t expect ROI by employing these technologies. Merely 12% of the omnichannel retailer showed the eagerness to deploy in-store digitization whereas 25% have decided to give a trial to mPOS (Mobile point of sale). It seems that it will take time for these technologies to become operationally mature.

The Magento store owners that are looking forward to enhance the productivity of their store can find several quality Magento extensions in the market. And there are various Magento ecommerce development solution provider companies which can assist in following best web development practices.