Online shopping is establishing new norms in the retail industry, driving innovations in digital window shopping, research and purchasing. Consumers have responded to the shift in platforms, payment options and customer-centric user design by giving e-commerce a full 10 percent of their retail dollars and increasing that amount by 15 percent each year. It’s clear that businesses can’t afford to fall behind the trends that are shaping both web-based and brick-and-mortar companies.
Borderless Revenue
With estimates that global e-commerce revenues could reach $4.5 trillion by 2021, companies that don’t have a strong online presence will find themselves missing out on substantial income. In fact, Asia is expected to comprise the majority of global online retail sales, leaving only 17 percent to the U.S. and Europe.
Borderless commerce is becoming so commonplace that 57 percent of online shoppers across the globe have made a purchase from an overseas merchant in the last half of 2015. Tapping into this retail torrent requires a few key capabilities including:
- An ability to accept multiple currencies and apply local VAT
- A variety of payment options (e.g., mobile wallets, bank transfers, etc.)
- Multiple website languages
- International shipping abilities
- Adherence to global regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR
Augmented Reality
Mobile device cameras are now able to bring the store to the customer via augmented reality experiences that actually revolutionize online shopping as an interactive experience. AR allows online customers to try their items before they buy, putting virtual furniture in a room or delivering a digital vehicle showroom directly to auto buyers. This bit of tech can help consumers make more informed buying decisions and feel more confident about a sight-unseen online purchase.
User-Generated Content
Online commerce continues to be driven by word-of-mouth, with 83 percent of shoppers basing their purchasing decisions on reviews, recommendations and social media chatter. Retailers can take advantage of this community-based trend by implementing social share and product review buttons on websites and apps.
Taking this a step further, companies can establish social media pages to engage customers in a specific way, such as using an Instagram account to share selfies in a company’s signature tee or being part of a Twitter community that encourages people to share their experience at a spa. This user-generated content can work to not only build trust and genuine relationships between brands and consumers, but help cut down on a company’s own content-marketing efforts as well.
Mobile Dominance
A high-performance mobile site has become a prerequisite for successful online commerce, but that’s unlikely to be enough in the coming years. With 35 percent of shoppers planning to make mobile devices their main shopping platform in the near future, a mobile app can help retailers take full advantage of this key demographic. This notion is even more powerful when you consider that the conversion rate on shopping apps is three times higher than on mobile web.
Voice Search
Smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are becoming increasingly enmeshed in everyday life, with 47 percent of owners using the device in the shopping process. Experts believe that nearly one-third of all searches will be initiated via voice by 2020, making this tech a game changer in future years.
Companies can take advantage of this trend by incorporating more long-tailed keywords into their SEO strategies. This approach is more consistent with the conversational, sentence-like searches that happen on smart speakers.
Staying ahead of the game means future-proofing with an eye toward innovation. Seeing the coming trends and understanding the underlying principles is the only way to avoid chasing fads to the detriment of making valuable adaptations.
References:
https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/global-ecommerce-statistics
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/assets/total-retail-2017.pdf
