What is driving e-commerce future trends?
The e-commerce industry has undergone significant changes driven by changing consumer habits and demands, combined with rapid technological advancements.
The industry has changed the way we shop, making it easier and more convenient. As people are getting used to the security and ease of online shopping, the industry is leveraging technological advancements to deliver more than we ever dreamt of.
Trends for 2023
Omni-channel shopping will be a game-changer
You cannot separate omnichannel from e-commerce. Modern customers interact with a brand across multiple channels, including in-store, on websites, social media platforms, mobile apps, and through voice search. And they expect to be able to have a seamless shopping experience across all their chosen channels.
Online stores must find a way to provide a consistent experience across all possible interaction points.
Executing an omnichannel strategy is challenging but rewarding. In fact, retailers that don’t commit to this consumer trend, will struggle with customer retention and revenue.
Consider that more than two-thirds of consumers get frustrated when they have to explain their issue over and over again, something that’s avoided with an omnichannel strategy that collects the same information across all channels. Modern consumers expect to be familiar to the brands they shop with, and want to change channels without having to start their conversation over again.
In conclusion, omni-channel shopping, combined with tools like Cart2Cart, revolutionizes the retail industry by providing a consistent and personalized shopping experience across various channels. It allows businesses to meet customer expectations and stay competitive in the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape.
The majority of global consumers (68%) prefer brands that offer an omnichannel experience, so it’s clear that omnichannel is the way of future shopping.
Mobile shopping will dominate the e-commerce future
Since smartphones have access to the internet, mobile ecommerce is growing rapidly. On a responsive mobile website, shoppers can do anything on their phones that they can do on their laptops or desktop computers, including search for and purchase items while on the go.
In fact, in 2022, 60.66% of online traffic came from mobile phones, and that percentage continues to increase. According to eMarketer, mobile commerce will account for 73% of e-commerce sales by 2025.
Research by HubSpot found shopping via their phone is most people’s preferred shopping habit. In fact, being able to shop on mobile is a deciding factor for 59% of shoppers. This means that there is a clear movement toward brands and retailers that offer shopping via mobile.
The bottom line: if you have a store, you must enable shopping on mobile otherwise you’re going to miss out on customers and revenue.
By embracing mobile shopping and utilizing tools like Cart2Cart, businesses can tap into the growing mobile user base and provide a convenient and accessible shopping experience to their customers. Failing to enable mobile shopping can result in missed opportunities and potential loss of customers and revenue in today’s highly competitive digital landscape.
Expect more payment options
Payment methods keep evolving and increasing. Here is a list of the latest contenders.
Smartphones and bank cards
The cell phone app Bizum, turns your cell phone into a bank card. This payment gateway lets users use their phone and a Bizum account PIN code, which is linked to their bank account to conduct all their shopping. Bizum’s tagline is: If you have a mobile phone, you have money. The gateway is used by 23 million people worldwide.
Invisible Payments
For this payment method, you don’t need a card. Websites that offer this payment method, let you buy with a single click, by only clicking on the Buy Now button. That is if you have stored your banking details on the site.
BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later)
BNLP platforms allow you to buy immediately and pay for the product later. Afterpay, Sezzle, and Zip are examples of this payment method.
With Afterpay, consumers pay in four interest-free installments, with the first installment two weeks after the purchase.
While Cart2Cart primarily focuses on e-commerce migration services, it doesn’t directly integrate with BNLP platforms. However, businesses utilizing Cart2Cart can explore the possibility of integrating BNLP options into their online stores to offer more payment flexibility to their customers. By incorporating BNLP platforms into their checkout process, businesses can attract a wider range of customers who prefer the convenience and financial flexibility of BNLP.
Split Payment
With this method, consumers pay in interest-free installments. This method has several proven benefits, including increased conversion rates, especially in the case of expensive products.
This method allows a buyer to pay in installments, with the first one payable immediately.
Biometric Systems
A biometric system is a digital reader that are can identify you through specific physical traits, like your face, fingerprint, speech, or eyes.
Biometric technologies are more secure than other payment methods.
AI will provide more personalized shopping
Artificial intelligence (AI) can recognize the individual in each random shopper and help businesses to cater to every such individual.
The data that AI collects enables it to provide personalized product recommendations and detailed customer service to each individual it has information about.
The technology can access a person’s browsing history and show them product selections they will probably be interested in.
While customers are filling their online shopping carts, AI can use real-time cart analysis to suggest deals and product bundles. Since AI keeps learning from customer behavior, store owners can also use this data to create truly personal marketing materials.
This is a development that stores can’t ignore as its implementation can have a positive effect on revenue. One study found that revenue increases by 25% when online retailers implement personalized experiences on their website.
On the whole, leveraging AI capabilities will enable retailers to give shoppers the feeling that they are being dealt with directly as an individual.
Look to VR to simulate real-world shopping
Virtual reality is the creation of a simulated and realistic computer-rendered world where people can interact with the simulated environment.
The experience of complete immersion in a hyper-realistic scenario is possible through modern computing systems, sophisticated motion-sensing, and high-resolution head-mounted displays.
VR technology can generate simulated environments, including retail stores where consumers can manipulate and try out products and conduct transactions.
Virtual reality has several applications in e-commerce.
Virtual stores and showrooms
With aid of a virtual reality headset, shoppers can enter a virtual store and interact there as they would in a real-world store. They can pick up products, try clothes on, speak to virtual shop assistants and pay for their shopping.
Shoppers can meet friends there in real time and shop together.
Buy better-fitting clothes
It’s a sad fact of online clothing shopping that most of the clothes you buy fit badly, so much so that some consumers are giving up on the idea entirely and going back to actual shops to try on clothes before they buy them.
Enter virtual reality. With this technology, you will no longer be disappointed when your shopping arrives at your home because it doesn’t fit. You will be able to fit a clothing item on an avatar with your exact measurements and see how it and see how you will look in it.
Feel the texture of fabric (and anything else you want to buy)
For very tactile people for whom the feel of fabric is important, online shopping for clothes has been a nonevent up to now. With the help of haptic technology that creates a sense of touch through vibrations, forces, resistance, and motions, shoppers will now be able to feel how soft or stiff a fabric feels and avoid the disappointment of buying a dress that looks perfectly fine on the website but feels coarse in reality.
VR will provide consumers with another way to enjoy the physical experience of shopping, without the waiting in queues to pay, or having to travel to the shop.
Voice search threatens to overtake traditional search
Search via voice-activated devices is exploding. In 2017, the value of transactions made via voice search was $2 billion. This figure has increased to $40 billion in 2022.
Consumers are using voice search to search for items and to add products to their shopping lists. In fact, voice search is one of the fastest-growing trends in e-commerce. According to Oberlo, 50% of American consumers use voice search features daily.
Voice search has been growing slowly but surely over the last couple of years. According to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, about 70% of consumers prefer to use voice search rather than typing when they have a query.
As ownership of smart speakers is increasing, so is search via these devices growing in tandem. More and more consumers are turning to their smart speakers to help them shop online.
People are already buying health and beauty products, household supplies, and electronic devices with the help of their smart speakers.
Consumers are currently mainly using their smartphones and smart speakers for voice search, but as IoT (the internet of things) matures, we will see more devices being used for search purposes, including smartwatches and wearables, TVs, and home appliances like refrigerators.
E-commerce participants will have to optimize their online stores for voice search, so buyers can use their voices to search for products and get answers to their queries.
FAQs
What is the e-commerce outlook for 2023?
Online sales are growing. By the end of 2023, one in every five retail sales will be made online.
Why must e-commerce participants optimize their sites for mobile commerce?
Customers from all over the globe use their mobile phones to purchase products and services.
Why do online retailers need to integrate voice commerce into their websites?
Voice commerce is the future of e-commerce. Online retailers need to optimize their stores for voice commerce so buyers can make purchases using their voice only.
Conclusion
For online retailers, this is a time of profound changes in the e-commerce landscape. Much of this change is due to technological advances that are making it easier for consumers to shop online.
Online businesses won’t be able to ignore these developments. They will have to follow the trends and adapt their business accordingly.
Because of technological advancements and businesses keeping up with these developments, online shopping will look completely different in a few years.
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