E-commerce is evolving quickly. The latest issue of Floral Management breaks down five trending technologies, services and commodities you need to understand — and how they might benefit floral industry professionals.
E-commerce has been on the rise for nearly two decades, with an absolute explosion in 2020 when COVID-19 forced much of the world’s population to shop from home. Most florists have become familiar with operating their online store and enhancing their search engine optimization to reach customers. But e-commerce is evolving quickly. In the latest issue of Floral Management, contributing author Victoria Abbott Riccardi breaks down five trending technologies, services and commodities you need to understand — and how they might benefit floral industry professionals. Here is a sneak peek at two of the trends.
Voice-Assisted Search and Shopping
Voice-activated devices are a godsend for multitaskers. (Among the devices: Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby.) These days, consumers can shop while doing just about anything — cooking, driving, folding laundry, changing a dirty diaper — with a simple statement like, “Hey Alexa, we need more Pampers.”
Oberlo, an e-commerce service, reports that 40 percent of the U.S. population uses voice search features — and the numbers are growing. Sahid Nahim, co-founder and CEO of New Blooms Solutions, a Miami-based business solutions and website design agency, believes voice activated shopping is a trend any business owner with a website should embrace. “When used effectively, it can make it easier for potential customers to find your product, website, or service.” His advice? Use “long-tail” keywords in your online content with very detailed descriptions of products. This is important because people typically speak faster than they type, so voice searches often capture more details.
Artificial Intelligence Advertising
You’ve likely experienced remarketing — when you shop for a product but don’t complete a transaction and pictures of the product follow you all over the internet. Now, digital advertising has become even more sophisticated. For instance, imagine a bride-to-be reads an article titled, “How to Get Started Planning Your Dream Wedding.” Suddenly, she starts seeing Instagram and Facebook posts for wedding dresses, florists, hairdressers and makeup artists, musicians and honeymoon destinations. Similarly, a teen watching YouTube videos of prom-posals might start seeing ads for tuxedos, limousine rentals and corsages.
This is artificial intelligence (AI) advertising, which uses algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data, such as text, speech, imagery and geolocation in real time and then identifies patterns to make predictions and reach each customer. For marketers, this highly targeted tactic is far more efficient than paying for newspaper, radio or television ads and hoping whoever read, heard or saw the ad might become a customer.
Google’s Chief Search Evangelist Nicolas Daveau-Garneau, who gave a keynote address at the Society of American Florists’ 2021 annual convention, highly recommends AI to help you find the right customers based on demographics and online behavior. Small business owners can partner with an advertising agency to handle the details of personalizing ads for your products, he says.
Learn more about these and three other trends — cryptocurrency, augmented reality, and omnichannel and multichannel retailing — in the Floral Management article, “E-commerce: The Next Wave.”
Katie Vincent is a senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.
