Contextual Commerce, Part 2: Shopping For Tomorrow’s Consumer

Change is happening fast in the world of ecommerce, thanks to substantial growth in big data and its role in contextual commerce. Marketers are learning how people want to engage with brands—on their computers, within social networking sites, and on their connected devices. They know more about their customers’ every day, and the ads they deliver to them online are getting more relevant, less intrusive, and more purchase-oriented.

Yet contextual marketing—and early forms of what’s considered contextual commerce—is most effective with impulse purchases: those made at the exact time a consumer has a pressing interest or sees web content and says, “I need that!”

Supporting the Buy Cycle

Not all purchases are made on impulse, nor should they be. It’s at this juncture that one sees the possible future of contextual commerce. Markers are taking a 360-degree look at the online buying cycle and seeing the importance of giving consumers more than option to buy a product. Rather than always prompting a purchase action, they’re pointing customers to other meaningful information, in context, which supports their purchase decision. It’s a more consumer-led strategy; more opt-in. And it’s the opt-in approach that gets consumers closer to enabling their connected everyday objects to make purchases on their behalf.

The end result of a contextual commerce experience is to simplify and even automate the entire shopping process, so consumers will have no need to navigate through a website or even go to the store to purchase a product they need. The trilogy of thought-leadership posts from Digital River, starting with The Commerce of Things (Part 1): A Brief Introduction, explores the future of contextual commerce and how it might reinvent business.

Enabling Payments

It’s well documented that consumers expect to make payments that are convenient and easy, and that solve real problems. That’s why payments innovators are always looking for ways to enable invisible payments—making payments part of process that solves another problem or fulfills another need. Contextual commerce depends on this capability. Payment solution providers are working on new ways to put payment access inside of apps or on websites, leveraging digital wallets to allow consumers to buy with a single click, and making it simple and frictionless for people to tie payment data active logins. They’re also working to integrate inventory and shipping information into purchase/payment platforms to provide one-stop-shop convenience for consumers. For more insights, explore Searching For A Customer Experience in the Payments Industry.

We’ve seen the tip of the iceberg with contextual commerce—and its opportunities for payments solutions. This blog will continue to cover these topics, bringing you the information and insights you need to stay on top of the quickly changing marketplace. For more, read Contextual Commerce, Part 1: Taking Contextual Marketing to the Next Level.