--- title: "US E-commerce Field Notes - A Brief Look at E-commerce Traffic Changes in 2023" description: "Analyzing the structural changes in US e-commerce traffic in 2023, including rising ad costs, the impact of the cookieless era, the rise of short-form video and TikTok, and strategic adjustments to capitalize on new media opportunities." canonical_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/post/website-traffic" author: "Mark Ku" author_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku" site: "Mark Ku's Tech Notes" date_published: "2023-10-14 01:01:35 +0300" category: "E-Commerce" tags: ["ecommerce", "traffic", "tiktok", "seo", "advertising", "marketing"] language: "en" license: "CC BY 4.0" license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" attribution: "when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original" --- # US E-commerce Field Notes - A Brief Look at E-commerce Traffic Changes in 2023 ## What is Traffic? The cost of acquiring new customers is the cost of doing business. Think of it like real estate: opening a shop in a bustling downtown area versus a quiet suburb. The rent you pay is essentially a fee for traffic. ## Website Traffic Can Be Broadly Categorized As: * Organic traffic: Visits from natural search engine rankings. * Paid traffic: Visits driven by paid methods like advertising. * Content traffic: Visits from users attracted by rich content. * Social traffic: Visits from social media platforms. ## How Traffic Has Changed in 2023 * Ad traffic is getting more expensive, making it harder and costlier to acquire new users. * Due to the EU's GDPR, Google will go cookieless in the second half of 2024. This will make ad placement costs higher and targeting less precise in the future. * Google Search Console's search engine algorithms are becoming stricter, especially regarding performance requirements. * Traffic from long-form videos has plummeted, while short-form video, led by TikTok, has seen a powerful rise. [Link](https://youtu.be/_gvGQCaBPN0?si=x_e6QvW725Qiy-Ct) * [TikTok Shop](https://tw.stock.yahoo.com/news/%E6%8A%96%E9%9F%B3%E8%AD%A6%E5%A0%B1-tiktok-shop%E6%AD%A3%E5%BC%8F%E4%B8%8A%E7%B7%9A-%E7%9B%B4%E6%92%AD%E5%B8%B6%E8%B2%A8-%E8%83%BD%E5%90%A6%E5%9C%A8%E7%BE%8E%E5%9C%8B%E9%96%8B%E7%96%86%E9%97%A2%E5%9C%9F-075800775.html) has launched in the United States. ## Identifying New Business Opportunities The emergence of new media and sales channels, such as the rapid rise of [Skytech Gaming](https://www.cw.com.tw/article/5124812?template=transformers) on Amazon, and the success of the San Zhi Yang network and Shein through TikTok, demonstrates the business opportunities created by diverse traffic and audiences from new social platforms. ## How to Adapt * Expand social features: Support more social login options to make it easier for users to connect. * Manage the Discord community: Enhance the Discord bot's functionality to better serve community members and boost interaction. * Gamers don't just come to our platform to buy computers. By increasing interaction and providing a community space, we can increase user stickiness, which in turn leads to higher conversion rates. * For games like Lineage, Ragnarok Online, CS:GO, and Apex Legends, players will definitely want to find partners to play with. * Focus on member retention: Concentrate on managing existing members, as the cost of retaining repeat customers is relatively low. * Invest in new media marketing: For example, use short-form video platforms, especially TikTok, for product or service promotion and sales. ## Conclusion In conclusion, as the market and technology evolve, flexibly adjusting traffic strategies and skillfully capturing and capitalizing on new opportunities will be crucial challenges for the future of e-commerce. --- ## About this article and its author Originally published on [Mark Ku's Tech Notes](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/post/website-traffic) License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original ### About the author **[Mark Ku](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku)** — Software Solution Provider - 10+ years senior software engineer, now an AI Builder - Focused on large-platform architecture — North-American e-commerce, AI SaaS subscription billing - Combining AI Agents and automation to build evolvable product foundations ### Free tools built by the author All of these are free to use: - [Free PDF Sign Tool](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/pdf-sign): Online PDF sign tool — draw, type, or upload a signature, then drag, resize, and download. 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