4 major tech developments transforming ecommerce

What an exciting time to be selling online! Change happens fast in the ecommerce industry, with today’s technological developments impacting every aspect of the selling process, from product listing to product delivery.

Here are four major tech trends we think you should keep your eye on:

#1 Artificial intelligence is changing market accessibility and economies of scale

• Tech giants—Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon—have unveiled their own generative AI features for advertisers in 2023, signaling a major industry shift towards AI-infused tools for ecommerce.

• In July 2023, Dukaan, an Indian ecommerce startup, replaced 90% of support staff with AI chatbots, leading to a 98% reduction in issue resolution time. While the long-term efficacy of this move has yet to be seen, it’s an example of how generative AI tools are being adopted into regular ecommerce operations today.

AI tools aren't restricted to content generation alone. Pioneering tools like FeedAi are already in use across the industry, speeding up the online product categorization process with 17X faster speeds than manual categorization and 98.4% accuracy.

#2 Social commerce has further bridged the gap between content and sales

Changes in content preferences paired with developments in native checkout technology and advanced personalization algorithms mean that brands need to put extra effort into understanding and communicating with their customers.?

• Native checkout on social platforms is now the industry standard with TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook all having native checkout features, bridging the gap between content and sales.?

• Short-form video has taken over: 73% of consumers prefer to watch short-form videos to learn about products and services.

• There are an estimated 161.4 million live-stream viewers in the U.S. in 2023. In China, 70% of internet users consume live-stream content.

• LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and Amazon all have live features that allow creators to communicate with customers in real-time.

#3 Developments in product data optimization, syndication, and synchronization have simplified omnichannel commerce

• Omnichannel commerce became a viable strategy once organizations found efficient ways to share data across critical systems.?

• Data feed management platforms are one of the tech advancements driving the omni wave, bridging the gap between wherever a business houses its product data, the shopping channels it wants to sell on, and other downstream systems.

• Using a single source of data, merchants can create unique catalog exports for every channel and automatically update product listings when data is refreshed. This makes scaling and adding new channels a simpler proposition because it doesn’t require in-house developers to build additional integrations each time.

#4 Fulfillment processes have significantly changed for consumers and corporations since 2020

• The pandemic led to the sharp rise of buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup. In 2023, nearly one third of U.S. ecommerce shoppers use these methods. Omnichannel retailers capitalized on this trend by using local inventory ads (LIAs) to drive in-store traffic .

• In December 2022, Amazon announced that its Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service would start delivering packages without Amazon branding on them. This update allows merchants to fulfill orders from marketplaces that have rules about how products are packaged upon delivery.

• Omnichannel-minded businesses are pairing advanced order management tech with the modern logistics networks of companies like Amazon to consolidate their fulfillment operations on two fronts.

Interested in learning more? Check out the full blog to hear what industry experts had to say about these changes:

https://feedonomics.com/blog/4-major-developments-in-ecommerce-technology-that-are-changing-the-industry/

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In this newsletter, we mentioned how advanced order management tech allows businesses to streamline their fulfillment operations. Learn how order routing and splitting software can solve certain fulfillment challenges.

Want to learn more about some of the larger trends in product category growth, channel popularity, and payment methods? Don’t forget to download our free 2023 merchant trends report .