2017 taught us that e-commerce is much more than transactions made from a desktop computer or mobile device. Whether you’re in a B2B or B2C market, e-commerce remains a critical sales tool with a wide influential reach estimated at more than 50 percent of in-store purchases. Estimates for online annual sales increases are about 15 percent for each of the next four years.

As the first quarter of 2018 nears its end, it seems a good time to feature three of the most noteworthy trends emerging from a new quarter of e-commerce data:

Email Marketing

Instant messaging and social networking apps haven’t replaced the power of email marketing quite yet. In fact, email marketing remains the most revenue driving e-commerce tool with relatively little investment beyond a strategy that drives traffic to your website. Or, that was until 2018.

Email marketing platforms are now experimenting with functionality that allows consumers to purchase directly from within an email, reducing the purchasing cycle and making purchases even more convenient by never forcing the consumer to leave their email inbox.

Mobile Checkout

Mobile checkout allows consumers to make purchases without interrupting the flow of their day.

As companies like Apple continue to innovate with technology like facial and thumbprint recognition, mobile sales are estimated to account for more than 70 percent of e-commerce sales by the end of the year, meaning we’re also beginning to see mobile sales surpass desktop sales. In 2017, Starbucks’s mobile orders accounted for 9 percent of total sales, with mobile orders accounting for nearly a third of all sales in the last quarter.

ROPO

No we didn’t say FOMO (fear of missing out), although you may be experiencing FOMO if your sales strategy doesn’t already consider “research online, purchase offline” (ROPO).

The process by which consumers educate themselves online before going into a brick-and-mortar store, ROPO’s key benefit is that it allows consumers to filter purchase decisions based on the best price point available worldwide or the product with the highest reviews.

Even local business are impacted by ROPO, as mobile apps make it easier for consumers to search for product categories by location only – an estimated 82 percent of local shoppers begin their purchasing cycle from their phone, with 18 percent converting to an in-store sale within 24 hours.

With a new quarter of 2018 data nearly complete, it’s clear that e-commerce remains a crucial component in just about any marketing playbook.

Just as consumers are utilizing e-commerce data to better strategize their purchasing behavior, businesses are utilizing e-commerce tools to better strategize their conversion rates and make purchasing more convenient than ever.

Emily Cupples, marketing strategist at RedRover Sales & Marketing Strategy, can be reached at redrovercompany.com.