With global e-commerce sales projected to reach US$4.3 trillion this year, marketplaces are relying on technology to enhance the experience and foster loyalty.
Here are five key online retail marketing trends in 2025:
The first trend is personalisation and shopper experience, which can be enhanced in companies’ marketing strategies by combining big data and analytics tools with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
However, pricing is proving a vital threshold when it comes to customer loyalty, with 60 per cent of consumers opting for new brands after taking cost considerations into account. This means your marketing strategy should shift its focus to price-highlight marketing campaigns, such as notifying customers about price drops, special offers, or cost comparisons with other brands.
The efficiency and seamlessness of your online platform often determine whether shoppers will remain on the site or abandon it due to an unresponsive site design or too many steps required for making a purchase. The key features that help businesses stand out on the e-commerce market include transparent shipping, accurate delivery time estimates, flexible return options, real-time assistance, and secure payment.
Browsing for products on mobile
With diverse shopping options, customers are adopting various shopping practices, including searching for products, buying online, using in-store pickup, and returning items in-store. Several online strategies for mobile, such as live e-commerce with product demos, exclusive offerings, and influencer views.
Technology tools in mobile e-commerce can be favourable for tech-savvy shoppers, such as brands’ mobile applications with features like app-only offers, push notifications, and virtual try-on product tools.
Social media and influencers are the dominant factor in e-commerce marketing
Direct-sale shops utilising social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide businesses with shopping features, including shoppable ads, contests, and live shopping options, to engage their audiences.
Suitable influencers for brands, measured by their engagement, can be part of any business’s tactics to attract customers through various partnership types, including visual content with testimonials (eg, sponsored content, product collaborations, brand ambassadorship).
Automating data analytics and marketing
E-commerce retailers are using first-party data and AI tools to personalise shopping, cut costs, reduce redundancy, boost retention and improve checkout.
Incorporating AI and automation advances, including chatbots and assistants, into online marketing enables e-commerce businesses to effectively manage their vendors by building a customer journey, delivering and managing communications across channels, and streamlining customer interactions.
AEO and content marketing on online platforms
The final trend is the growing use of AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) – content designed to be picked up by ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overview – to attract targeted traffic, boost conversions and engagement, and enhance brand visibility.
Using rich keywords in product content, reviews, and user-generated content in video and audio helps inform and educate readers about products and trends, thereby boosting conversions. Voice search is also an emerging trend in online shopping, allowing customers to easily purchase and track orders with hands-off options, optimised for natural language and using long-tail keywords.