The eCommerce sector is growing at a rapid pace and has revolutionized the retail market. With increasing competition, one should constantly monitor the ecommerce trends.
Concepts that didn't exist a decade ago are the norm now.
As a store owner, you should stay in synchronization with the latest ecommerce trends to survive in the continuously evolving world. People needs keep changing and so does the shopping experiences.
The technological advancements in ecommerce have made the whole experience of online shopping convenient for customers. Whether it's enhanced payment and return policies, improved integration, or customization, businesses need to keep updating their stores for better customer experience.
Statistics show that global retail e-commerce sales will reach $4.2 billion by the end of 2020. And, by 2023, it is expected to reach 6.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Moreover, it is expected that over 2.14 billion people worldwide will buy goods and services online in 2021. The numbers are increasing and so it is necessary for businesses to keep up with the ongoing trends.
Top eCommerce Trends of 2020
Whether you are new or a mature store owner, you will be left out in the ecommerce race if you are not keeping up with the latest trends. In order to succeed, you need to constantly look forward.
It is essential to know the latest ecommerce trends so that you can make the most of them. Thus, it is important to analyze trends and adopt them at the right time. This way you will be able to surge ahead in the competition and take your brand to new heights.
Here is a list of the top eCommerce trends you should embrace to be ahead of the competition.
1. Use of AR and VR
The biggest benefit of online shopping is that you don't have to hop from one store to another for what you want. You can sit comfortably at home and have a look at the products available on e-stores.
Moreover, you get cool discounts and that means you can not only save time but also money. At the same time, the biggest disadvantage of shopping online is that customers cannot feel a product or see how it looks like in real life.
This con gets minimized with AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) as it lets visitors visualize the product they want to buy.
The technology helps in increasing sales and that is why right now 90% of e-commerce businesses use AR and VR. When businesses use the former, 40% of the visitors will be ready to pay more in return for the amazing shopping experience.
Visitors are 58% more likely to buy a product after they are able to ' test drive ' it. This trend is the future of e-commerce.
Here is a beautiful example of how Jaquar used AR experience during their launch campaign of its I-PACE car in Berlin.
Of course, it might not be possible for every online store to include AR and VR experience for visitors at this point. But, you should start thinking about alternatives so that visitors can have a better shopping experience in the coming years.
2. Mobile shopping and mobile payments
Mobile commerce is in big trends. The ease of shopping from anywhere is getting a lot of love from online consumers. Nearly 60% of the e-commerce traffic source is from mobile devices like smartphones and tabs.
Additionally, almost half of the online shoppers in the US shop from mobile devices. In 2021, the mobile devices would be involved in sales worth $2.91 trillion (approx) which is quite a sum.
It is the convenience that makes mobile shopping attractive for most consumers. And, if the potential buyers have your store app on their smartphones, they can purchase your stuff from practically anywhere with a couple of taps.
And, when it comes to payments, a lot of Americans feel that card payments will soon get replaced by mobile payments, and by 2021, the latter will dominate the scene.
Online giants like Amazon aim at giving the customers an amazing mobile shopping experience and offer easy one-tap payments. They even have their own online payment processing service, Amazon Pay.
As a shopper, your checkout will be seamless due to it. This is a great way of boosting sales. This trend of adding e-wallets in the payment options is catching up with most e-commerce websites.
3. Voice Search
In this current world of digital assistants like Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant, it is obvious for online shoppers to shop using voice search. It is a rising ecommerce trend and it would be good for you, as a store owner, to join the party.
Making your website voice friendly would help boost your sales and with the current stats coming up, it is a must for you to be prepared for voice search.
26% of consumers own smart speakers and have made their purchases using them. This will obviously increase in the time to come as these days people want to get their work done with the help of hands-free technology.
It has been estimated that by 2025, 75% of homes will have a smart speaker in the US.
To become voice-friendly, you have to put in a lot of effort. There is a lot of background work to be undertaken so that the voice search results are apt and there is enough user privacy.
Once you get started with this, you will see a dramatic increase in sales. By 2022, voice shopping will touch $40 billion and hence you have to plan to add voice search to your website.
4. Influencer Marketing
Reaching the target audience with the help of influencer marketing is a good idea. But, who are the actual influencers? They can be celebrities, radio hosts, or anyone people follow the most. They can even be a blogger or a social activist.
Catching hold of influencers to promote your product or service actually works. This is because most consumers look up to influencers and consider going with what they recommend.
Most of the product choices made by consumers depend on social media influencers. Statistics say that the influencer market holds a worth of $5 and $10 billion.
The industry is booming with new platforms mushrooming every now and then. The biggest platform is Instagram where micro-influencers seem to be having a greater impact than the celebrities.
5. Flexible Payment Options
As a store owner, you have to provide visitors with multiple payment options to minimize cart abandonment, increase sales, and offer a better shopping experience. The most popular option a while back was using credit cards.
However, with the rise in other payment modes like net banking, prepaid cards, COD, and e-wallets, it is important for e-commerce websites to offer them as well.
Nearly 50% of the potential customers abandon their carts during checkout when they don't get to see a payment mode of their choice.
Additionally, when there are multiple and flexible options in front of buyers, it will be easy for them to pay. And, as a result, there will be a boost in sales.
6. Prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The future of e-commerce lies in AI. AI or Artificial Intelligence has a close link with other ecommerce trends like voice search, social commerce, and chatbots. Basically, it can be said that robots have entered the world of online shopping.
Along with Big Data and Machine learning, AI is able to complete tasks that are not humanly possible.
For instance, giants like Amazon change the prices of their products more than a million times a day with the help of AI. Incorporating it into your website would help increase efficiency and learn visitors behavior.
PersonalizationAI is used widely in e-commerce for personalization. The personalized shopping experience offered to customers on shopping sites is because of machine learning and AI.
Personalization works more like the store assistant at brick-and-mortar stores. He or she would recommend certain products to customers and guide them with the shopping.
With AI, websites would be able to make smart recommendations to customers based on their purchase history, search queries, and page visits. So, if you don't want to be left behind, you also need to use AI for your e-commerce business.
Rising use of chatbotsOne of the top e-commerce trends is the use of chatbots. The tasks that were previously handled by humans can now be managed by AI assistants. This involves managing inventory to taking care of customer inquiries.
This helps in giving you the time to concentrate on other areas of the business that robots and AI cannot handle. Chatbots on e-stores listen to complaints from customers as well as answer queries.
As per a study done in 2017, 34% of people feel that getting their queries answered from a chatbot or virtual assistant while shopping online would make them feel comfortable.
There are many tools available online that would help you create one for free. So, if you don't have one yet, integrate now!
7. Sustainability
The global concern over environmental issues is rising and so is the need to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint. A lot of consumers are looking for sustainable products these days.
A study says that 68% of online shoppers feel that product sustainability is an essential factor for sustainability.
The feeling is the same for people of both genders and extends over to all the generations. Consumer awareness of ethically sourced and environmentally friendly products is the biggest ecommerce trend right now.
People are into rediscovering consumerism and finding out the hidden effects of it. Some feel that the fashion industry has to be sustainable while others say that unnecessary packaging of the products has to be done away with.
As an e-store owner, it is important for you to follow sustainable practices and stay ahead of the competition.
8. Social Commerce
Are you aware of the fact that there are billions of social media users across the globe? You can easily find your target audience in this huge pool of prospective customers.
You can channelize the traffic on social media to your website or even sell your products directly on those platforms. Every e-commerce site's marketing strategy has to include social media.
87% of online shoppers agree that their buying decisions are influenced by social media. A positive review of your product on such platforms can help increase conversion rates and thereby increase your sales.
Social commerce is trending these days. 30 percent of the people are in favor of doing their shopping directly from social media platforms. So, you must take full advantage of Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to sell your products.
There are certain things you should do to leverage the power of social commerce:
- Make sure that your visuals are amazing and eye-catching. If not, they would get lost in the social feeds.
- Create relevant content on social media sites and lure users to visit your website.
- Give faster responses to user queries to build a good rapport. This will help in earning the trust of potential customers.
Social commerce is preferred because it is a seamless way to shop online. And, if you are able to give your customers a great shopping experience, it is highly likely that they would revisit your store.
9. Growth of B2B
Statistics show that global retail ecommerce sales for B2B are expected to reach $1.1 billion U.S. dollars by 2021. A lot of B2B businesses have taken the plunge to go online. This has changed the expectations of B2B buyers.
With Millennials and Gen Z into the picture, it is obvious that they would like to self-serve themselves. You should include and provide all the necessary information they need so that there is no salesperson involved.
There has been a paradigm shift from old-school practices to new ones like making the customers get the best experience, engaging with them and building long-lasting relationships.
The Final Takeaway
Over the years, there have been plenty of changes in the e-commerce world. The approach and technology have changed dramatically and the faster you adapt to these latest ecommerce trends, the better for your business.
The aim is to ease the whole process of purchasing online and making the experience unforgettable for the customer. The competition is very tough but with the right changes made at the right time, e-stores can actually flourish.
In addition, make sure you follow the best practices to make your presence feel online.
