Top E-commerce Trends Every Retailer Should Know
The world of e-commerce has been rapidly improving in the past few years, especially since the epidemic in 2020. E-commerce has revolutionized retail in various ways and aspects, making it the future of retail. E-commerce has evolved to meet the rapidly changing needs of consumers and made online shopping much more accessible. The e-commerce industry has experienced a massive boom since many people have been fulfilling their shopping needs with online shopping. However, this boom was short-lived as the pandemic ended, and the e-commerce landscape has seen a lot of changes since then. In 2022, the world was shocked by the economic instability and crises caused by the war in Ukraine.
In order to thrive in the e-commerce business, you need to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to emerging trends in e-commerce. It’s time for e-commerce retailers to start thinking out of the box and consider what’s coming ahead, and one of the most significant trends expected is industry growth. According to Statista, the retail e-commerce revenue in Europe is expected to grow to 939.7 billion dollars and is estimated to amount to 1.1 trillion dollars in 2027.
The industry’s fast growth is also leading to higher competition among e-commerce companies, with many investing in technology and marketing to differentiate themselves from the competition. Today, the increased number of online shoppers and the rise of new digital payment methods every day are paving the way for e-commerce to grow more than ever.
So as a retailer or a business owner, your online presence through online e-commerce platforms such as Dubuy.com and following e-commerce trends is strongly demanded if you want to increase your income and expand your business. In this blog, we will go through the latest e-commerce trends in detail to help you better understand the market and push your business beyond limits.
1. Social & Live Stream Shopping
Social and live stream shopping has become increasingly popular in the past few years, especially in the wake of the pandemic. This new trend merges online shopping with theinteractive experience of traditional brick-and-mortar stores, allowing customers to engage with products and brands in real-time. Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram have recently introduced features allowing businesses to sell products directly through their profiles or influencers linking to their shops or page with dedicated “Buy Now” buttons. Revenues from social media shopping are expected to reach approximately 6.2 trillion dollars in 2030.
On the other hand, live-stream shopping events hosted by influencers or by the brands themselves provide an incredible opportunity for customers to interact with products and make purchases in a fun and engaging way. During live broadcasts, viewers can ask questions, comment and, of course, make purchases. Customers may also be eligible for special offers and limited-time offers. China is currently the leading country for live stream trading.
Businesses are now able to create a more fun and proactive way for their customers that is more personalized and immersive, building stronger connections with the audience and leading to higher sales. As a business owner, you need to adapt this new approach to your marketing and sales strategies to ensure you’re not falling behind the competition.
2. Augmented Reality E-commerce
Augmented Reality online shopping is the future of online and in-store shopping. Now, customers don’t even have to try on clothes or go to the store to check products. Both can be done from the comfort of their homes with a few clicks using augmented reality shopping apps.
For example, suppose a customer is looking for a living room table with AR shopping. In that case, he can simply point his smartphone to his living room and get an augmented reality view of how that table would look and fit with all his other living room furniture and decor.
Augmented Reality in the fashion industry has taken it to a whole new level. Now customers can upload their pictures and see how clothes will fit on them. Stores also have taken AR to a new level with Phygital stores now based on the idea where customers walk in, digitally fill their carts using touchpads or tablets, then ask to try on what they have put in their cart.
Visualizing a product would definitely make customers more likely to buy, and researchers say that conversion rates increase by 90% with augmented reality. That’s why if you can’t include augmented reality shopping in your strategy now, you should definitely have it planned in the future because, sooner or later, it will take over the online e-commerce market.
3. Personalization in Retail
Customers are always looking for personalized shopping experiences that fulfill their shopping needs, but they are always concerned about their personal details' privacy. Personalization in retail is significantly important, as a survey concluded that 60% of online shoppers stated that brands delivering non-personalized content would lose their loyalty, but maintaining customers’ privacy is key.
Recently many countries have issued new regulations and rules to protect online customers’ privacy, such as China’s Personal Information Protection Law, California’s Privacy Act, Brazil’s General Data Protection Law, and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
This means that retailers will need to innovate new ways to offer a personalized shopping experience, excluding privacy concerns. This includes product recommendations based on past purchases, creating conversation pop-ups that engage consumers, or adding personalized assistants that ask shoppers for their preferences.
4. Application of AI in E-commerce
Today, Artificial intelligence is leading the way in customer personalization and recommendation methods to scale any marketing capacity. Leading e-commerce companies are now getting pretty impressive revenues from upselling and cross-selling using AI.
The role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce isn't only to make upsell and cross-sell recommendations. Also used to add chatbots to answer consumer questions, automate product descriptions, recommend sizes, improve search results, and prevent chargebacks and fraud. Yes, the technology can evaluate consumers based on a number of criteria and issue warning signals or block potentially fraudulent transactions, which is huge savings for online retailers.
AI can significantly increase customer satisfaction and revenue, in addition to decreasing costs by eliminating wasted time on development. If you haven’t included AI in your website or mobile application yet, you should do it, or you’ll be left behind.
5. Providing More Digital Payment Options
Asking customers to type in a credit or debit card number is not the most user-friendly payment experience. More than two-thirds of customers drop out somewhere between filling their cart and making the payment. That’s mainly caused because users may not like the payment methods available, or may not feel comfortable or secure filling out their payment information.
Saving payment information for upcoming purchases is a good solution for this problem, but emerging digital payment methods are the ideal solution. Today the use of Apple Pay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and more new payment methods is exponentially growing and consumers are quickly adapting to using them. These methods are easier and safer as they use customer biometric information for confirmation, minimizing fraud.
6. E-commerce & M-commerce
As of January 2022, mobile commerce accounted for nearly two-thirds (65.7 percent) of all global e-commerce retail sales, introducing voice-command searches and even easier payment options than using computers. As a retailer or a business owner, it's of utter importance to optimize your online store for voice commands and m-commerce. In addition, your mobile application will represent a large margin of your sales, so it has to be seamless and user-friendly to benefit from the advantages of m-commerce.
By keeping up to date with these trends, your business is guaranteed to exceed its limits and your customer base will be through the roof. E-commerce is the leading way of retail now and it still has more potential to control the future of retail. Start adapting now to book your place in the future of retail.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How can following e-commerce trends help my business?
Following e-commerce trends can help your business in various ways, such as:
Getting ahead of the competition.
Increasing income through sales revenue.
Reaching more audiences and increasing your customer base.
Making it easier for your customers to reach and buy your products.
Helping you promote products through campaigns and pop-up ads on your website and mobile apps.
Leveraging upselling and cross-selling in new ways.
- How is the future of e-commerce affecting global retail?
E-commerce has grown exponentially since the pandemic and is already forming up more than 50% of global retail, with the potential to grow even more in the coming years. The future of E-commerce is expected to bloom, proving that E-commerce is the evolved future of traditional commerce.
- How can I import my products to other countries and expand my business?
Online b2b e-commerce platforms such as Dubuy.com can easily help you import your products. Become a seller now and benefit from their vast network.
