• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 17, 2019

Email marketing will dominate ecommerce automation use next year, judging by 2020 eCommerce Trends, a study by online payment firm 2Checkout. 

Of the ecommerce brands surveyed, 70% will “resort to the tried and tested automation email marketing,” the study notes.

Next on this list of automation priorities are targeted ad campaigns (56%), machine learning for upselling/cross-selling (39%) and machine learning for customer retention (35%).

And automation is part of a much bigger whole. The survey found that 61% of firms plan to increase their ecommerce budgets in 2020, versus 62% that will boost their overall marketing spending.

Only 5% plan an ecommerce decrease, 19% are still reviewing their plans, and 15% will hold steady. Meanwhile, 17% are still reviewing their general marketing spend, 5% expect a decrease and 16% will keep them as it. 

There’s no big increase in email spending—at least none that is spelled out. SEO is the top means of reaching consumers, and social media has more than doubled in the priority list over the 14% reported last year.

• SEO — 57% 
• Paid advertising — 53%
• Social media — 34% 
• Demand generation — 20% 
• Content — 19% 
• PR events — 9% 
• Other — 7% 

Presumably, email marketing falls into the “other” category. 

Worldwide growth is being sought by 76% and domestic growth is sought by 37%. The geographic priorities are North America (64%), Western Europe (54%), Eastern Europe (45%) Asia-Pacific(40%) and Latin America (37%). 

Of the firms polled, 32% already have targeting and personalization, and 37% are planning to implement them.

In addition, 30% have mobile apps, and 34% are planning to adopt them.

In contrast, only 24% have chatbots and 30% are planning on implementing them. And 21% have videos or interactive content, with 29% planning to add them. 

What does it take to succeed in ecommerce? The respondents list these imperatives: 

• Customer experience — 43%
• Brand building / analysis — 32%
• Analytics — 31% 
• Content — 30%
• Launch new product/service — 30% 
• Cart optimization — 26% 
• Marketing automation — 26% 
• Social media engagement — 25% 
• Shipping & delivery — 24% 
• Targeting & personalization — 21%

And who runs ecommerce? Marketing handles it in 37% of companies, and sales in 15%. Another 11% have a dedicated ecommerce department, and 4% have across-departmental setup. 

But here are the main obstacles:

• Choosing the right technology — 40% 
• Converting visitors into buyer — 35% 
• Generating targeted traffic — 22%
• Customer support — 21% 
• Payment methods localizations — 19% 
• Finding the right partner — 18% 
• Finding the right partners — 17% 
• Hiring talent — 15%
• Fraud & chargebacks — 15%

• Ongoing work with GDPR — 43%
• Compliance ISO frameworks — 28% 
• New privacy laws (CCPA, Brazil, Vermont, others) — 20%
• SOC compliance — 16%

When it comes to payment methods, 60% welcome credit and debut cards, and 27% plan to implement them. In comparison, only 17% utilize mobile, although 31% plan to add it.

The other payment mechanisms are PayPal (57%), payment methods (38%), wire transfers (30%), credit card with installments (27%) and local and biometric technology (11%).

2Checkout surveyed executives from over 1,200 companies, including B2B and B2C.