Website Redesign, SEO, and Video - Keys To E-Commerce Future

eMarketer recently reported on some results from an study conducted by Internet Retailer that show us where eCommerce retailers plan to focus their energy in the future. Namely, site redesigns for SEO, video or streaming media, and better customer experience.

The recent survey, Website Design Strategies and Tactics, shows that 2/3 of eCommerce sites have some site redesign plans for this year. The number one focus for web-only retailers is better organization and updated category and product pages. That also struck a chord with manufacturers of consumer brands. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar shops said that better SEO was the reason as did Catalog sites.  Overall SEO ranked second with 40.2% saying that it was one of the priorities for the redesign.

Most said that it would help boost sales or generate a higher sales conversion and almost 50% were hoping it would attract new visitors and shoppers. Of course if you're going to raise sales you're either hoping for more sales from your current visitors or more visitors right? So that seems sort of redundant.

Lower on the list was to improve customer service. In fact, slightly over 1/3 said this was a reason to redesign. That either means they think their customer service is adequate (refrains from laughter) or is simply not an issue. Having recently dealt with Amazon who sent a payment to me that never arrived and I am still trying to find where it went almost a month later, I can't say I agree with their customer service being adequate. In fact, they can't even tell me where the payment went.

What's the number one feature that retailers are planning on incorporating into these new website designs? Well let's see, it's ReelSEO, we covered the SEO so it must be, video! Yes, 33.2% said that video or streaming media would be added to their sites this year when they redesigned them. Second game user reviews and ratings. Way down the list came some more interesting things for consumers, In-stock availability (sure you can buy that, we don't have it, but we want your money anyway) and alternative payments.

So SEO and video win the day, yet again, huzzah! I think an interesting follow up survey at the end of the year will be whether or not they actually did implement those two things and how it's working out for them.