Every year brings many changes, especially when it comes to such booming areas as online marketing and e-commerce. Which industry events can be considered the most significant? What can we expect in 2019? Our experts answered these questions on the wirtualnemedia.pl website. We invite you to read the excerpts.
Przemysław Pasek, E-commerce Business Developer, Sums Up Online Marketing in 2018
Events in Poland and the World:
It is worth noting that the position of market leader in the global e-commerce sector has been taken over by China, which grabbed the opportunity while the US went out for a smoke (presumably in retaliation for its actions at the UN in the 1950s). According to PlanetRetail RNG’s Ecommerce & Digital Ecosystem Management report, while online retail sales in the US will grow by $269 billion between 2018 and 2022, China will generate a stunning growth of $666 billion over the same period. For comparison, forecasts concerning the Polish B2C market (ranked 13th) assume a growth at the level of USD 6 billion.
Why is this important from an e-marketing perspective? Well, the Chinese market relies heavily on m-commerce, or sales through mobile devices. The trend of rapid growth in m-commerce is also observable in Poland – according to Global Payments Reports 2017, by the end of 2019, sales in the mobile channel are expected to have reached a growth rate of over 400% (desktop will grow by a “mere” 12% in that period). This confirms the need to look for customer interaction via smartphones – e.g. dynamic notifications, instant messaging (contact via WhatsApp has recently been launched by Allegro) and innovative customer value (e.g. in the context of built-in cameras and VR visualizing a new sofa in your living room).
Forecast for 2019
As I mentioned before, the number of interconnections multiplies, as well as the number of databases and content that needs to be personalized to communication channels (versioning). Therefore, solutions are emerging in the market that improve content management (e.g Product Information Manager – such as Pimcore or Akeneo) and customer data management (Customer Intelligence). Many Marketing Automation platforms have already moved in the latter direction – Emarsys and UseInsider, for example, are trying to segment users as precisely as possible by tracking their on and off-page behavior. I think these areas will continue to grow strongly over the next few years.
Referring again to the mobile channel – global trends clearly show that the driving force behind the growth of online sales is and will be m-commerce (the share of mobile devices in shopping processes is constantly increasing). In addition, a smartphone is a strictly personal device, so it makes it easier to build a more lasting relationship with the consumer. Those failing to recognize this in time may make a similar mistake as Toys ‘R’ Us, which at the beginning of the era of digitization abandoned its own e-commerce channel in favor of sales through Amazon – the consequences need no reminding.
How about the market for online sales and e-marketing? According to analysts, we will enjoy a good economic situation until 2025, so we can all sleep well for now. Although there has never been a time in the history of economy when a boom was not followed by a recession, so it is already worthwhile to slowly prepare and optimize internal processes so that you can remain competitive in the event of reduced demand.
Tomasz Gutkowski, E-Commerce Strategy Manager, About the E-Commerce Market in 2018:
Event of the Year
Poland: The event of the year is certainly the implementation of GDPR, which has created a lot of confusion in the interpretation of the new regulations. GDPR caused many changes in the approach to privacy policies, forced shop owners to modify some information functions, and introduced new procedures that were not likely to be welcome. As is the case with new regulations, the correct interpretation of the provisions that are not entirely clear will be determined by the first court judgments. Let us hope there are as few as possible.
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest global events of the past year was Adobe’s acquisition of Magento in May 2018 for $1.68 billion. The move sparked much speculation about the future fate of the open-source version. Adobe is known for the skillful commercialization of its own products, so some predictions point to the closure of the free version and the development of the Commerce version, especially in the Cloud edition. Magento holds a significant share of the global market of e-commerce platforms. It is also a very popular solution in Poland.
Forecast for 2019
Poland: According to market research, Poles are one of the most prone groups to promotions. We mainly buy when we know that the discount is really big. Therefore, Black Friday or fairs (e.g. Wittchen fairs) will be even more popular. Who knows, maybe a significant portion of shoppers will hold off on buying in favor of waiting for the moment of best occasions?
Poles are buying more and more in foreign stores, and I think this trend will continue. B2B consumerization will progress. An increasing number of companies will also strive for digitization by implementing PIM systems for managing product information.
World: China’s continued expansion into European markets. According to reports, the construction of a huge logistics center serving several countries is to start in Poland. In terms of trends for 2019, activities related to artificial intelligence are already noticeable, especially in the use of speech. I think in 2019, more and more customers will be talking to their devices when ordering products instead of clicking on them. I am sure that mobile will again significantly increase its share of transactions in 2019. It is possible that we will witness the premiere of a new payment method or channel.
