eCommerce Industry Trends & Predictions for 2024
With the successful rise of competitive marketplaces, and with the industry as a whole experiencing an incredible growth rate, 2024 is shaping up to take sellers to new heights. With a variety of marketplaces, sellers have a unique opportunity in the year ahead to take advantage of exciting advancements in digital advertising and retail media, whether on Amazon, Walmart, Target, or others.
Our highlighted trends and 2024 predictions run the gamut this year, with Amazon rolling out new streaming ads for sellers, Walmart opening new marketing avenues within video game metaverses, an industry-wide focus on sustainability and authenticity in branding, and a major move toward integrating eCommerce with social media. By honing their strategies and best practices, sellers look to have a great year ahead.
Trends & Predictions Fast Facts
In 2024, the eCommerce industry will likely see:
- Continued growth as eCommerce continues to expand
- Amazon roll out new streaming ads and open the door for high-value eCommerce sales
- Wider targeting with Walmart’s first-party data, and new inroads for in-game advertising
- Further eCommerce / social media integration
- Successes for early AI adopters, disadvantages for those who don’t
Recent Trends in the eCommerce Industry
As eCommerce continues to transform in new and exciting ways, it’s vital to keep up to date on key industry trends. Alongside last year’s major sellers’ shift toward targeting mini-season sales events, two key trends that emerged over 2023 and will continue to impact brands throughout 2024 and beyond are:
-
-
- The importance of sustainability
- Brand authenticity for consumers
-
Especially among Gen Z, which continues to be the fastest growing consumer demographic,
- Target Niche Communities — Brands should continue to build their strategy around targeting mini-sales events, alongside major eCommerce tentpoles like Prime Day. Identifying and defining the market niche, and staying up to date (and ahead) of potential trends enables smaller brands to successfully drive sales throughout the year, even if they are overshadowed during major events by bigger brands. Check out our 2024 eCommerce Holiday calendar to help you get started!
- Highlight (and Practice) Sustainability — Deepening connection with environmentally conscious consumers, while also being a helpful force for good, has repeatedly been shown to be popular amongst consumers. Highlighting and prioritizing sustainability continues to be a popular payoff for brands in the eCommerce space, with the added possibility of reducing costs and inventory returns in the future.
- Be Authentic on Socials — Social media platforms like TikTok continue to impact consumer behavior in increasingly tangible ways. It’s redefined the way that consumers (especially Gen Z) discover new products and reconfigured brand values that matter before purchases can be made. With the extreme ease of marketing on social media, savvy consumers want to avoid scams and counterfeit products — making brand authenticity a vital trait to drive consumers back to marketplaces successfully. Influencer marketing has been, and will continue to be, a key component of a brand’s marketing strategies to meet young consumers on their terms.
15 eCommerce Trends to Watch in 2024
In 2024, here are some of the trends we see the eCommerce industry going.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Further eCommerce growth on Social Media Platforms
- Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Content
- Targeting Niche Communities for Micro-Sales Events
- Highlighting and Practicing Sustainability
- Increased Prevalence of Voice Searches on Marketplaces
- Social Media Marketing Authenticity
- Augmented Reality for Product Visualization
- Emphasis on Ethical & Independent Brands
- Machine Learning for Sales Optimization and Analytics
- Chatbot Integration with Marketplaces
- Conversion Driven Strategies
- On-Site Personalization for Users
- Expanded Payment Options
- More Advertising Competition
- Continued Focus on Mobile Shopping
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Amazon versus Other Marketplace Retailers
New sellers and consumers have continued to flock to eCommerce marketplaces in record numbers — with Prime Day 2023 boasting the single largest sales day in Amazon’s history. And though Amazon remains the top retailer of choice for American consumers, major expansions by retailers such as Walmart, Target & Home Depot, with in-house marketplaces and advertising operations, have led to increased marketplace competition and a wide array of options for potential customers.
Amazon
Amazon 2024 is not Amazon 2014. The old strategies and ways of doing business on the platform no longer cut it as more and more sellers fill out the marketplace. In 2024, expect to see even more previously hesitant retailers establish a presence on the platform to avoid being left behind by the competition. With more brands joining, Amazon’s already immense customer base and unparalleled logistics network will continue to ensure that strong performers will remain popular.
However, it will be even more vital in 2024 than ever for smaller brands to prioritize building strong listings and implementing best practices; this means careful attention to your creative content, SEO copy, and even obvious things like maintaining inventory. Brands will want to focus on incremental data, such as identifying the specifics that drive desired consumer outcomes, and intently focusing on areas with maximal impact and opportunity.
Notwithstanding Amazon’s tremendous success in eCommerce, Amazon’s strong inroads into streaming entertainment will provide additional avenues for reaching consumers in new and exciting ways. Expect ad opportunities for brands to reach large target audiences, drawing upon the wealth of robust consumer data Amazon has at its fingertips, with useful metrics for measuring streaming against D2C web purchases.
Easily one of the most interesting innovations we’re looking forward to on Amazon will be the ability to purchase cars through the marketplace. Initially running as a partnership with Hyundai, 2024 will be the year the automobile industry starts taking part in the eCommerce marketplace phenomenon, opening up exciting new avenues for consumers to simplify major purchases. This will be a major boon for industry-adjacent sellers, with major rewards for brands that can position themselves to be a part of the looming one-stop shop car market.
Walmart
Although still an eCommerce newcomer when compared to Amazon, the brick-and-mortar giant Walmart has leveraged its extensive reach and customer base to make a significant (and successful) leap into eCommerce. With a logistical network that already comprises thousands of stores, Walmart continues to innovate its supply chain and expand its suite of services with strong omnichannel options.
Expect Walmart to continue to expand its market share in grocery eCommerce in 2024. With its widely expanded delivery capabilities, sellers in the food and beverage industry will continue to enjoy increased offerings through benefits with the Walmart+ membership program and Sam’s Club. With full-funnel targeting capabilities now rolled out within the Sam’s Club app, advertisers can layer Connected TV ads, Sponsored Videos, and interactive videos using Walmart’s tremendous first-party consumer data war chest.
An exciting trend to watch in 2024 will emerge from Walmart’s partnership with the video game software developer Unity. Integrating Walmart marketplace APIs into Unity-based video games and applications, brands will be able to connect with consumers in metaverse environments to sell them real-world, physical products — seamlessly blurring the line between real and virtual eCommerce.
Further eCommerce Trends
In 2024, expect to see eCommerce expand further into social media and artificial intelligence. With major changes on social sites being rolled out daily and new and exciting applications for AI being highlighted just as regularly, sellers would be doing themselves a disservice by not approaching either service as a way to help optimize their brand.
Following the continued wild successes of services like TikTok, you’ll see more eCommerce expansion into social media domains in 2024. Allowing users to discover and purchase directly from their personalized feed, incorporated and enhanced eCommerce features will make the customer journey tremendously easier. Rather than being ripped from their scrolling, and thereby incentivized to fail at following through on the transaction, one-stop shopping integration will help increase social media conversions. With these major changes ahead, sellers should be ready to adapt to sell on any and all social media platform.
Since the public rollout of ChatGPT in late 2022, the writing has been on the wall in nearly every industry and those who choose not to leverage AI will inevitably become disadvantaged. Now before you start using generative AI for marketplace content creation (something we would not recommend for SEO purposes), consider other ways that AI models can augment your business. Generating relevant and proactive insights on internal metrics, AI can provide solid business advice; analyzing consumer data, artificial intelligence can help you craft data-backed archetypes and deliver a personalized shopping experience for consumers — with unique visual content and special offers based on personal preferences and behavior gleaned from first-party data.
How Macarta can help
We’ve helped large and small brands achieve major successes throughout these last few difficult years, and we look forward to continuing that success in the future. From PDP optimizations to advanced advertising using DSP, we’ve been pushing retail media advertising to its limits to meet eCommerce trends and ensure major successes for our Brand Partners.
From our Denver-based headquarters, and with offices worldwide, Macarta is a global full-service marketplace agency specializing in retail media to drive growth and sustained success for our brand partners. Reach out to us here, and let’s make 2024 your best year yet!