It’s a New Year opening door to an endless catalog of opportunities. And taking cues from the way people shop to the way online business tech is managed — e-commerce is gearing up for some major changes. According to E-commerce trends infographics, new ones are arising at an overwhelming rate with the increasing rise to e-commerce access after internet penetration and development of facilities available on our mobile devices making everything accessible at our fingertips.
It’s not just enough to trace how far e-commerce has come in the last few decades, it’s more important to pay attention to know where global e-commerce trends are now and where it’s headed for the future for you to keep up with the trends so that you can match (or, ideally, outdo!) your competition.
In this highly competitive e-commerce sector, relevancy is your key to staying in business, hence you need to analyze each trend and adopt it in due course of time if it holds a shot at driving your e-commerce brand forward. Being in the business calls for staying alert and up-to-speed for experimentation to make it better for your customers- the final goal, however, there’s always a risk that accompanies your trials with the latest fads and one mistake can make you pay a heavy price
That being said, there are a lot of questions regarding the trends that you will find in the whole global e-commerce trends 2020.
So, we have listed down the trends to keep tabs on for 2020 and beyond, exclusive for every online entrepreneur to be aware of (and consider taking advantage of)
Let’s talk about the big ones for you to get a better understanding of them.
Flexible Payment Option
There are a lot of expectations around payment options by customers who expect the process to be more friendly by saving the customer’s billing and shipping information for a faster and easy checkout experience without the hassles of data entry.
Similarly, extensive payment options like PayPal, Phonepe, and Google Pay add to the convenience for a frictionless checkout. One of the biggest disadvantages, as stated by online shopping trends statistics, claims that selling products in the expensive range makes it difficult to convert new customers who are not easily convinced to make large investments, so it can be combated by breaking it down into smaller equal payments over several months making it easier for them.
Chatbots to Improve the Shopping Experience
They are a verified way of generating revenue by serving the role of the website greeter and salesperson. A large percentage of shoppers prefer to communicate with the Chatbots which gives them a feeling of personal attention, answers their queries in a short spa,n and provides recommendations based on their likes and dislikes and purchase history. With Chatbots becoming more intuitive, they have changed the direction of online shopping and have turned into an important marketing tool following e-commerce growth.
Consumers are Becoming More Environmentally Mindful
Most consumers are turning conscious about their shopping habits and how it affects the environment. Thus they’re choosing to invest in sustainable products and brands dedicated to social causes and environmental efforts in all aspects of their operations. Thus companies should change their e-commerce products and aspects of working and try employing more local workers, using renewable resources to reduce carbon footprints, reduce shipping waste, support social causes and donate towards them to gain more eco-conscious consumers towards them.
Personalization for the Win
We are residing in an age of personalization where this eCommerce product trend 2020 hasn’t just been fruitful for spiking the revenues but has also helped the customers feel a connection with the brand and simplify the buying experience designed to cater to the needs of an individual customer.
Rather than taking a one size fits all approach, businesses are using interactive content – like quizzes and surveys to understand their customers and using the details to add unique elements on-site browsing, email, social media activity, and even paid ads, change based on the needs and past behavior of customers. So you need to watch out for it as there has been an increasing willingness among customers to share their personal information in return to fetch tailored recommendations and experience.
The Rise of Virtual Reality
One of the greatest challenges that online stores all along faced is the fact that their customers cannot see and feel the product before buying it, which in turn becomes difficult to convince them to buy things like clothing, furniture, and other accessories that people want to preview before purchasing. AR and VR are helping to solve this problem by allowing customers into a simulated environment to virtually access products from far away. Trends in the E-commerce industry are changing ways technology can be used to revolutionize the customer experience and investing in them.
AI and Machine Learning
They remain the hottest trends in e-commerce because of their ability to provide human insights to marketers which is the most powerful weapon contributing to retail and e-commerce. One can’t stress enough the importance of leveraging it to understand human needs and the relevance of repetitive actions and utilize it across all stages of a customer journey. Now, it’s mostly used for automatic search and product recommendation based on a consumer’s profile replacing the traditionally done manual recommendations which are inefficient and prone to error.
More Influencer Marketing – Especially on social media
The dimension of Social media has changed – it’s just about likes, shares, and photos these days. They are turning into mini search engines of their own and online shoppers are buying directly through a brand’s social post. This has opened an effective way to expose people to your business through influencers who are recognized in their specific industries and have an established audience base.
It has taken off especially on Instagram where people are noted seeking recommendations from micro-influencers having between 1000-100,000 followers, who use their tactics to establish an authentic connection with the buyers, increase direct sales through their social pages with built-in embedded links that lead customers directly to a product page, making it far easier to boost impulse buys through online advertising.
There’s a lot of 2020 remaining, so we’re excited to see e-commerce future trends as the year progresses. While there are plenty of trends that may come and go, it’s important to pay attention to each of them individually and try which of them is a good fit for your brand. Keep experimenting and time will determine which of them are here to stay.
So, which of these latest trends do you plan on trying out?