Whatever is easy to do...
A year or two after the iPhone came out on 2007 everything was abuzz with the sound of people predicting the demise of desktops. I was at a CEO roundtable when several really smart people postulated that we were going to have to immediately shift all of e-commerce to mobile, based on the adoption of Gen-X. The pivot was coming, but the timing and the demographic that triggered it was a ways off. Predicting the future of e-commerce based on usage by one demographic without sufficient context is like pointing to data on how many shoppers under sixteen rode bikes and predicting the demise of cars. The first demographic shift to iPhones was younger shoppers, but as mobile got easier, everyone started shopping on mobile. Seventeen years later, mobile has taken the lead. That isn’t bringing about the demise of desktops though. People shop on mobile, but they still buy more on desktop. Why? Desktop is a better buying experience, and grownups don’t have to pick one or the other. Shop on the commute, buy on a break. Waiting for a meeting to start, check out the sales and buy at lunch. Flash sales get more mobile adoption because they are time limited. You can’t force customers to shop a particular way, but you can get more sales by creating a better shopping experience.
In the future we will choose to do what’s easy. Period.
Younger shoppers embraced mobile before their elders for lots of reasons:
- They couldn’t afford their own computers
- They were concerned about parents snooping and they had more control over their mobile device
- They developed the dexterity to master mobile at an age when learning new things is a snap.
- iPhones were cool
- Their friends were doing it
- It was cheaper to buy kids a phone than a computer
Once Gen-X got jobs, they bought desktops and laptops. They still do everything on a phone, but it’s often easier to do things with a big screen, so they use both.
Does Your Site Do This?
It can with Stylaquin! Stylaquin is the easy to add Shopify app that transforms your website. Stylaquin makes shopping faster, more engaging, and more fun. Stylaquin shoppers stay longer, view over 85% more products, come back more often, and buy more when they do. Find us in the Shopify App Store.
Is AI going to make online shopping easier?
AI is great, and it’s going to revolutionize our lives in many ways. Not to be Debbie Downer but—AI is just a predictive algorithm. It looks at what most people will do/say/choose next, and meshes that with any known preferences, to come up with a really good guess. That’s an oversimplification, but it’s the gist of things.* Apple is betting on AI goggles. Asking shoppers to wear AI goggles to get a better shopping experience is a huge ask. What’s being offered by that experience that will be better than going to a store?
- Is it faster? Do I need to go fast?
- Is it more fun? What makes it more fun?
- What problem is it solving? Do I have that problem?
- Is it cool? Hard to look cool in goggles…
AI can help with predicting choices for making ensembles, and adding the mythical one more item to the cart. But does being shown lots of options make a better experience? Let’s outline the improved experience: “Hey shopper! We think you might like this, or this, or this, or this. Would you be interested in this, or this, or this?” It get’s old. Not quite as bad as getting spritzed with perfume at the entrance, but not awesome. Do you want to explore while you’re shopping, or do you want to hone in on the thing you’re looking for? These are two very different experiences. I’m going to predict that AI is going to influence the journey eventually, but I don’t see it as the holy grail of e-commerce anytime soon.
Add a Styling Board and a Wishlist!
The Stylaquin Idea Board keeps customers engaged in two ways: it’s an interactive styling board where shoppers can collect and curate all the things that interest them; and it also acts as a wishlist that shoppers can return to. Find us in the Shopify App Store.
Faster and more fun
Here’s something to ponder—is it better to predict what online shoppers may like and try to serve it to them, or is it better to just make it more fun to explore on their own? Stylaquin is a faster and more fun way to shop online. It ticks two big boxes for a better online shopping experience. And it’s cool, don’t want to forget that one, so three big boxes. We’re seeing Stylaquin shoppers coming back three times more often and converting over 4% more when they do. If you are a Shopify site, you should give Stylaquin a look. I predict you will be intrigued.
*Reading x-rays is a great example of how AI will improve our lives. AI looks at a large data set of diagnosed x-rays and catalogs the known diagnosis (broken bones, fractures, arthritis, etc. and then, using that data, predicts what most radiologists will say an x-ray shows. It can’t replace a radiologist, but it can indicate where problems may be faster and with more accuracy. It never gets tired and it never has an off day. AI makes a great radiology assistant.
