Want to see what the coming year has in store—or more appropriately, online—for you? Then behold the future-telling shared by ecommerce colleagues who are in a position to foresee the trends. These prognostications we gathered aren’t just pie-in-the-sky wish lists. Rather, they’re a good read on the directions in which websites and consumers were headed at the end of 2011, meaning much of this information is applicable to your company right now.
In full disclosure, I must tell you that we did not de-dupe the list. So, you’re going to see some trends predicted by more than one expert. That said, each prognosticator lends his or her own perspective to the predictions, adding another layer of insight to bring the big picture of ecommerce into sharper focus.
From a shakeout in the daily deal craze to the Marketplace Fairness Act, free shipping as a differentiator to F-commerce, integrated marketing agency Barkley hits on the macro-trends.
eCommerce Strategy for 2012: Top Five Trends You Should Be Acting On!
GrooveCommerce makes the case for dynamic content, social integration, enhanced site search and more.
Retail in 2012: Let the Blur Begin
New Retail focuses on what it calls the merging of old and new retail, leading to trends big (digitization of retail) and small (SoMoLo shoppers, who combine social, mobile and local).
A Look Ahead at eCommerce Technology in 2012
Forrester analyst Brian Walker talks about the good but crazy challenges associated with ecommerce’s growing prominence in organizations.
7 Top Online Marketing Trends for 2012 [Data Included]
More macro-trends—including device-agnostic consumers, the need for real-time responsiveness, and the rise of content marketing.
4 Ways to Leverage Major 2012 Trends for Higher Integrated Marketing Success
For a softer approach to strategy planning, these predictions incorporate some research on consumer behaviors and attitudes.
Ten Digital Trends Set to Go Mass-Market in 2012
An exploration of the trends behind Google circles, Facebook Credits, PlaneRed, FourSquare Radar and other recent digital developments that promise to drive even more innovation.
2012 Video Commerce Predictions
Since more than a couple experts mentioned video as a continuing trend that’s become impossible for marketers to ignore, here are five trends within the trend to help steer your video marketing efforts in the right direction.
6 Emerging Ecommerce Trends for 2012
More love for dynamic content delivery, F-commerce, mobile, and video, as well as support for marketplace optimization and the new wave of online/offline integration.
Top 5 Social Commerce Disruptors in 2012
Predictions for the social aspect of ecommerce, including daily deals, celebrity-driven marketing and courting the time-starved customer with high disposable income.
Bringing the accountability of inbound marketing into the prediction process, search megastar Rand Fishkin first scores his 2011 predictions before putting forth any educated guesses for 2012.
6 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012
This one’s a little more about gadgets and data than commerce, but many of the trends behind the technology point to consumer behavior patterns that will affect how you sell to customers (see #3 and #5).