5 Trends Changing the Face of the Ecommerce Sector

Gone are the days when people were trading through the barter system. The prolonged evolution of businesses and consumer behaviors gave birth to brick-and-mortar (offline) stores, retail shops, and present-day shopping malls. Moreover, the inducement of technology and digital acceleration produced more convenient ways of shopping, buying, and selling products online also known as e-commerce is one of them.

Appropriately said by Jean Paul Agon, CEO of L’Oreal that “Ecommerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, it’s the new cake”. The digital transformation of commerce enabled e-commerce. The technical advancements allowed the reshaping of the retail industry. In the modern era, the emergence of augmented reality served e-commerce vendors to display their products and create a seamless shopping experience over the internet. On the other hand, the digital payment system provided another in-hand amenity to the consumer. With the verge of mobile commerce and social media marketing, one can easily get connected to the brand.

The requisites during the covid-19 pandemic hiked online shopping and as a result, the e-commerce industry flourished. Social distancing and closed local stores moved consumers from traditional ways of physically visiting a store to online purchasing of items, massively.

AI & ML are spinning the wheel of e-commerce in refined ways. Through smart search, conversion rates leap and benefit entrepreneurs. Data processing with AI helps to make data-backed decisions and accurate foretelling. ML assists in product recommendation which assures more sales.       

As per Morgan Stanly’s e-commerce growth forecast, the e-commerce market has a plethora of space to grow and could increase from $3.3 trillion today to $5.4 trillion in 2026.

From fashion to grocery and electronics to pharmacy, every item had begun to get sold on the online marketplace. Despite digital frauds, delayed delivery, low-quality factors, and hidden costs, customers are vitally relying on e-commerce. Ever wondered why this behavior? With the advent of online purchasing heavily, now, let’s explore why modern consumers are preferring e-commerce.

When it comes to the benefits of online purchasing, it is not wrong to say that convenience is the biggest accolade that binds a customer to get back to the online marketplace frequently. Customers are delighted with the comfort, time-saving, cost-effective, and detailed information about the product. A convenient purchasing process provides a hassle-free shopping encounter in the busy life of consumers. Fast delivery of products at the doorstep has streamlined the entire shopping experience. With the variety in payment options and linked accounts, buyers save time and cut down the wrangle.

Access to wider options around the globe and order by sitting at home fulfills the time-savvy need of the consumer within legitimate cost. The e-commerce logistics, inventory management, and shipping of online orders are continuously evolving to optimize the entire supply chain and enable rapid delivery of products.

Till now we have acknowledged how technology became a medium to dramatically transform the way of doing business and commerce. If you are wondering now about how e-commerce will take shape in the near future and beyond, then this article will reveal the 5 major trends which are going to reshape the ever-changing e-commerce industry for 2022 and beyond.

5 Trends Changing the Face of the Ecommerce Sector

1.      Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is the Present and Future

AI help in tracking user preference through data collection. The collected data helps in predicting the consumer’s behavior and tracking the user’s time spent on the platform or website. It also analyses the purchasing patterns of the customer to promote and recommend more personalized options.

Banks and the insurance sector are carefully employing AI & ML to support cross-selling. ML allows for keeping a track of the most recent activities of the buyer which helps to recommend a more personalized product.

Whether it is e-commerce product recommendation, customer segmentation, or demand forecasting, AI technology has always been beneficial for the industry and will always be needed further. 

For example, Amazon succinctly launched Alexa which is now, the most famous and popular AI product in the market. It helps achieve Amazon’s marketing goals by driving essential algorithms. AI allows amazon to foretell the products in demand and produce customized recommendations.

2.      Enhancement of Interactive Tools

On one hand, chatbots and live texts are keeping users interested by being highly interactive and on the other hand, they are proving to be one of the rapidly thriving communication mediums for the firms. Chatbots assist the consumer 24/7 with the conversation from beginning to end without any human interference. Live texts interact with the customers and provide them with answers to their queries spontaneously.

As the brands are realizing the importance of good UI and aesthetics, they have started emphasizing creating an elegant user interface with profound user experience, and why not! With better UI brands get the competitive lead.

To expand the reach and diversify the business, email marketing has been one of the major marketing activities. Currently, many small businesses also started embracing promotional emails. Sending personalized newsletters, seasonal promotions, and new products (or services) over an email will have a good hold in the succeeding days as well.

3.      Focus on Sustainable Products

The rising consumer demands and initiatives taken by the government led to the introduction of sustainable products in the online marketplace. From local to international, many companies are nowadays going green.

One of the most remarkable facts is that consumers are willing to take on a higher amount to pay for sustainable products. Users are prioritizing renewable products to support the environment. So now, the retailers need to align with the demands of the customers.

To meet the demands of consumers, e-commerce platforms are going to support more green & sustainable companies in the near future. Adidas partnered with Parley for the Oceans which is an environmental organization. Adidas x Parley shoes are launched that obstruct the plastic before it reaches the oceans and makes it over to pumped-up sportswear.

One suitable example is the adaptation of eco-friendly textiles such as hemp, wool, organic cotton, etc, into the clothing and apparel trends. The rise in sustainable fashion, or the creation of ‘long-lasting social and environmental quality through the design, production, and use of fashion’ leaves the responsibility on the consumers’ on how to dispose of the product.

4.      Optimized websites for more conversions

SEO and social media marketing together drive sales and are crucial for a website’s success. Businesses have deliberately relied upon them. As far as seen implying SEO best practices make the website friendly for search engines. It proved to be one of the key efforts for organic lead generation and conversions. Whereas merchandizing through social media has the benefits of brand identity exposure, trust building, engagement, and escalating website traffic. These practices are ever-lasting and continued to be followed down the line.

Refining customer experience is always have been the priority of the brands and A/B testing helps to optimize the perfect customer experience. Carrying out consistent testing leads to being time-savvy with no guestimates.

With these practices, building responsive website design is highly encouraged as it is being said that the future of the web is mobile. On converting a mobile-friendly version to a responsive website, it is more likely to increase conversions and obtain hassle-free navigation for smartphone shoppers.

5.       Voice Search and Virtual Assistants

Digital shopping has gone one step further and introduced voice searches to make it easier. Voice searches are already in practice and their popularity makes them an essential requirement of the user. With the initiation of virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana, voice queries are resolved within less than a minute. These cyber-generated helpers are going to be held on tightly for voice-enabled shopping experiences.

Companies are expected to leverage and upgrade their best voice preferences for better interaction with their customers. AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are extensively in use to build robust speech recognition experiences. 

Voice is now coming to be one of the pillars for creating the ultimate smartphone user experience. These advancements in voice search and digital voice assistants will be continued to be accepted by more e-commerce businesses despite the challenges.

Final thoughts for upcoming days and beyond

E-commerce is an ever-changing industry and with the help of technology, it will continue to advance. Lockdown brought about a worldwide modification in consumer shopping manner and enabled consumer demands to reach newer heights.

In the digital age, there is a need to keep up with the digital requirements of the millennials and gen z. Mobile is becoming one of the major sources of online transactions. Tracking changing customer patterns, digital habits and use of smartphones will leave no doubt while creating an ideal user experience. Keeping an eye on major trends and studying it will never go out of style. Exploring the market trends and reviewing industry standards will always help to prosper. In the bottom line, it is recommended to align with the technical upgradation and adoption of novice trends upon a little observation!