We all know that to differentiate ourselves from our competitors we need to deliver a superior customer experience that helps our audience proceed to a purchase as quickly and easily as possible. And thankfully today there's a whole host of innovative eCommerce technologies making it possible for us to sell even the most complex products and services across the globe quickly easily and intelligently. So while everyone is in the spirit of giving thanks this week we thought we'd celebrate the technologies we're most thankful for this Thanksgiving: 1. Mobile optimisation There are now 2.32 billion smartphone users worldwide. Which is why it's hardly surprising to learn that more than half of all internet traffic now comes from a mobile device. Not only are more users accessing the internet via their phones they're doing so with more eCommerce intent than ever before. During the 2016 holiday season a third of all online purchases came from smartphone users. On Black Friday 2016 nearly 40% of sales on the traditionally brick and mortar shopping day came via a mobile device - up almost 10% from 2015. The fact is it's now statistically more likely that your customers will be interacting with your website from a smartphone than a desktop. And 70% of customers are more likely to buy from retailers that support smartphone shopping apps. Mobile optimisation technology has allowed us to take advantage of this trend and ensure our products and services are available to buy whenever and wherever our customers are. 2. Website analytics tools It's easy to keep tabs on the customers that enter your physical shop but an online shop is very different. You never see your customers in fact you might not even know they visited your store! Which is why website analytics tools have become so important to us. Without them we'd be driving blind. Analytics tools provide us with a complete picture of our customers' shopping behaviour including their average order quantity and their average order value. They also help us analyse that shopping behaviour and understand where modifications can be made to our site/checkout process to maximise conversions. They help us determine which of our products are performing best by tracking user engagement per product including clicks views shares and 'add to carts'. And they give us an insight into how our marketing efforts (online ads promotional codes etc.) are performing. The best part? Most analytics tools (including Google Analytics KISSmetrics RetentionGrid Metrilo) usually display all this information on one easy-to-navigate dashboard. 3. Chatbots eCommerce Nation has dubbed 2017 the year of the chatbot. And for good reason! 55% of the planet's population use a messenger app every day while 90% of our time on mobile is spent using messaging platforms. Consumers are craving conversation and interaction and not just with their friends but with the brands they buy. Which is why chatbots are becoming increasingly popular among eCommerce retailers. Domino's Taco Bell and Celeb Style are all using chatbots on platforms like Facebook Messenger Slack and Kik to enhance their eCommerce offering successfully. So it's no surprise that 80% of businesses say they also already use or are planning to use chatbots by 2020. 4. Personalisation engines Forget retail 'Me-tail' is on the rise. According to research conducted by the Aberdeen Group 75% of consumers 'like it' when brands personalise promotional messaging while 61% prefer personally relevant offers. 56% of consumers say they would be more inclined to use an online retailer if it offered a 'good personalised experience'. And almost three-quarters of online consumers said that they felt frustrated when they are presented with ads offers and promotions that are irrelevant to the objective of their site visit or their interests. Personalisation engines help us discover all sorts of information about our customers - what their favourite products are (and what other products they might like) the kind of deals and offers they prefer (and the sales language they respond to best) as well as what they've bought in the past (and when they need to shop for it again). This information helps us deliver a fully tailored experience for our customers which has been proven to increase sales. In fact O2 lifted its sales by 7.8% when they began adding personalisation to their eCommerce experience. 5. BuyNow Ok so we know we're a little biased on this one but hear us out! We mentioned earlier that to deliver a superior customer experience we need to help our audience proceed to purchase as quickly and easily as possible. Well one of the biggest keys to making this happen is to ensure your customers don't have to jump through hoops to achieve their goal. BuyNow technology helps us do just that. BuyNow technology helps us make our digital content (website video ads social media etc.) instantly shoppable for engaged users. With the touch of a button (and without compromising their online experience) users are brought directly to purchasing options via their preferred retailers (Amazon Best Buy Staples etc.) meaning competitive distractions and funnel delays are minimised. The technology also helps us capture incredibly valuable insights into our customers' buying journey by measuring sales activity and highlighting which content has the highest sales impact. Brands that use ChannelSight's 'Buy Now' call-to-action (CTA) buttons have seen conversion rates of over 20% 20-fold repeat-sales increases and an average increase in customer basket size of over 30%. While most customers receive a year one ROI of over 10 to 1! The Scotts Company (UK) are just one of those customers. They can attribute 35000 leads with a value of over �400000 directly to their ChannelSight 'Buy Now' CTAs results to be very thankful for we think you'll agree! Now that you've read our top-rated technologies which eCommerce technologies are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving? Tweet us your favourites @ChannelSight. And if you want to boost your sales conversions by over 30% get in touch with our team today to discover how we can help you do just that.