Weekend reading: 21st May

If you feel like all you’ve done this week is talk about the weather – or rather, the amazing weather that we would normally be enjoying at this time of year, you’re not alone! The only good thing we can take from the lack of spring sunshine is that least we’re not wishing we were outside. It is certainly making staying at our desks much easier to handle!

This week in our roundup of industry news, we’re talking about the next big thing in fashion, how you may need to review your website in terms of disability guidelines and customer experience, the latest power partnership in eCommerce (it’s a big one!), and how high street retail is evolving with partnerships and investment from some major players.

The latest from us

We’ve had a busy week making some fantastic new suppliers live, with so many great new products for you to source and sell. GB010091 brought an incredible range of lighting solutions that we have no doubt customers will be snapping up (especially since sales of homeware are up dramatically through the pandemic!).

GB010092 also went live, with some beautiful clothing items for babies and children that are a step away from the typical pinks and blues. We think they make the perfect gift for when new parents decide not to find out the gender of their new baby before the birth.

Have you read about marketplace strategy and thought about how you can get further ahead? On Wednesday, May 26th at 2pm UK, Mustafa and Lukas will be discussing exactly that with Alex Huntley, Strategic Seller Manager from OnBuy. Find out more and register here.

The weekend reads

Fashion retailers need to be inclusive if they want to stay ahead. While those of us that don’t understand gender fluidity may not have considered how that may impact customers shopping for clothing, it has been shown that searches for ‘genderless fashion’ were up by 78% in Q1 2021. US fashion brand Nordstrom is leading the way, creating a gender fluid version of their private label to offer apparel that feels good no matter what type of body is beneath the clothes. Read more about gender fluid fashion here – we predict it will be a big thing.

Is your website compliant with digital accessibility guidelines? Not even thought about it? Well, apparently not one of the world’s top 50 retail sites are compliant either, which means there are millions of disabled users that struggle to make a purchase – and while we should act for that reason alone, it also adds up to potentially billions of sales missed out on. Optimising your website for disabled customers can positively impact your SEO too – and you can read more about that here.

Talking about your website, new research this week shows that there is much to be done in terms of online customer experience too. While it is near impossible to replicate the high street experience, customers want more from retailers – and so it may be time to consider how else you can improve their experience when they shop with you.

We’ve talked about the power of partnerships in business plenty of times before – they’re essential to the success of any business, and we’re working on plenty of partnerships to help us to help you. However, this week has seen perhaps one of the most powerful partnerships in eCommerce to date: Google and Shopify. Intrigued? Find out more here.

We’ve mentioned high street retail partnerships in recent weekend reads, and they’re being forged all over the place at the moment – Mamas and Papas and Next announced further additions to their partnership just this week! But it isn’t all about the partnerships – there are indications that confidence in the high street is strong too. Amazon opening another cashierless store in London, and Google plan to open a storefront in New York City’s Chelsea neighbourhood in the summer. Considering it has now been 20 years since Apple opened their first store, and the success that has brought them, if you’re an established online only business, it may be soon time to consider offline as a sales channel too.

Dates for your diary

We’ve already mentioned it, but don’t forget to sign up for our marketplace strategy webinar with OnBuy – happening next Wednesday, May 26th at 2pm. Sign up here.

The Department for International Trade with eCommerce Expo event to help more businesses to scale up internationally is running next week on 26th and 27th May. If you’re thinking of scaling up, particularly into the lucrative USA, Canadian, Australian, and Japanese markets, this event is definitely not to be missed.

Looking ahead to the end of June, the inaugural Ecom World is taking place on 28-29th June, with speakers from Shopify, Facebook, Snapchat, and Wix, with more to be announced. Whatever your role in eCommerce, there is guaranteed to be something for you at this event – find out more here.