Emerging Trends In E-Commerce

With e-retail sales accounting for 14.1% of all retail sales worldwide, ecommerce continues to grow at a speedy rate despite global economic uncertainty. What’s more, experts predict that these figures will keep growing and reach 22% in 2023. With consumers increasingly relying on online shopping — it is estimated that 95% of purchases will be made online by 2040 — ecommerce is opening the doors of opportunity to countless entrepreneurs. And, those ecommerce sales opportunities are rapidly growing. In 2017, ecommerce was responsible for $2.3 trillion in sales, which is expected to nearly double to $4.5 trillion by 2021.

That being said, there are currently some significant e-commerce trends that every online entrepreneur should be aware of (and consider taking advantage of).

Let’s talk about some of the big ones.

1.Omnichannel Is The New Norm

In 2020 and beyond, retailers and manufacturers who have not yet enabled seamless omnichannel syndication are seriously behind their competition. Modern consumers demand the ability to shop from and interact with businesses when and where it’s convenient for them—and that means on every device and channel they frequent.

This is a good thing for business, too—omnichannel shoppers spend more per transaction, generate more overall profit, and have greater lifetime value to retailers than single-channel shoppers.

The need for a seamless omnichannel strategy is driving more and more businesses to cloud-based PIM (personal information manager) software, which allows them to centralize all their product data and push it to all their sales and marketing channels seamlessly, all while ensuring that data is accurate across every channel.

2.Industry 5.0 And Hyper-Personalization 

In 2019, it was predicted that businesses would be collecting more and more data on their ecommerce shoppers—including online searches, demographics, location, purchase history, social media behavior, items that are currently in or were previously added to their shopping cart, and more—and use that to show shoppers hyper-relevant content and product recommendations.

In 2020, businesses are taking personalization even further, and beginning to blur the lines between shopping online and IRL. Using technologies like facial recognition and device tracking, retailers can now link on-store behavior to online data, coming closer and closer to providing shoppers with a truly omnichannel experience.

In-store data like high traffic areas and dwell time can be combined with online data to give businesses clearer pictures of their customers and help them create even more personalized experiences.

3.Google Is No More A Mere Search Engine 

Unless your brand is super well-known, the majority of your customers are likely arriving at your website via organic or paid searches for items that your store offers. So, in order to get your products in front of more customers, you should be optimizing for Google Shopping. This is an extremely powerful sales channel – and can be an incredible SEO hack for online stores.

Integrating your e-commerce platform with Google Shopping will create a PLA (product listing ad) that will automatically top the SERPs on the Shopping tab when a customer searches for a product that matches up with your store. This is exciting news for e-commerce stores that sell niche products.

4.AR And VR Are Becoming More Commonplace

One of the greatest challenges that online stores have always faced is the fact that their customers cannot see the product before buying it. This makes it difficult to sell 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 to virtually try on products without physically touching them. Amazon and Ikea use similar technology so shoppers can test out how pieces of furniture will look in their own homes. E-commerce stores should take note of the ways that technology is revolutionizing the customer experience and consider investing in these digital systems.

5.We Are All Becoming More And More Environmentally Mindful

Caring about the earth isn’t just for tree huggers or Millennials anymore. Most consumers these days are far more conscious about their environmental impact, and they want to support businesses that are doing their best to reduce carbon footprints.

87% of consumers agreed that they would be more likely to buy a product from a brand that offered a social or environmental benefit – giving companies yet another reason to go green.

Many e-commerce brands are doing their best to reduce shipping waste by using recycled or biodegradable materials – such as packing peanuts that dissolve in water. Some businesses are getting super creative here – such as a Skin Care company sends products wrapped in branded socks (rather than bubble wrap) to reduce waste.

Conclusion

Although trends inherently come and go, it is important that e-commerce businesses pay attention to ones that are having significant impacts on the customer experience and conversions. While these trends may change and evolve in time, many online stores are seeing incredible returns by capitalizing on them.