eCommerce Path to Purchase & Amazon Alexa Expansion

By Cleveland Admin

Mobile Consumers Increasingly Important for eCommerce
eCommerce players continue to emphasize the importance of mobile platforms for eCommerce, including both mobile websites and apps, with a number of them showing mobile representing 50% or more of total orders. Specifically, we saw Alibaba note that mobile users are outpacing total customers, while Etsy and Wayfair continued to highlight mobile consumers as over 50% of the eTailers’ respective sales. As a result we have seen eTailers continue to invest heavily in improving their mobile experience, with many players indicating significant investments in mobile apps to meet consumers where they shop. For vendors, this is one reason why we see more manufacturers looking to include text inside of images as a way to improve the consumer experience of learning about a product while on their mobile device. 

Amazon Unveils New Devices with Focus on Alexa Expansion, Including GM Integration
Yesterday, Amazon held a hardware event where the eTailer unveiled a number of new devices with Alexa integration, including improved Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show devices as well as all new devices such as the Echo Frames (glasses with Alexa integration) and Echo Loop (smart ring with Alexa integration). Most interesting to us was a simultaneous announcement by General Motors that the automaker would be adding Alexa integration to model year 2018 and newer cars beginning in 1H20. Our research has indicated strong adoption for Alexa smart devices into consumer homes, with nearly 30% of consumers owning an Alexa device, but limited commercial usage with only 7% of consumers viewing voice shopping as a key Prime benefit and only 21% of Alexa owners purchasing products via the service.  

eCommerce Path to Purchase
Feedback from our LiveCast earlier this month indicated that branded manufacturers have a mixed understanding of their customers’ path to purchase online. We view this as key to establishing a leading strategy for eCommerce and expect brands to continue to look to improve their understanding of online customer behavior.