Nowadays, people, especially in developed nations, have nearly forgotten to visit a local store and to use cash in exchange for goods. Times have changed drastically, and new things are waiting for us on the horizon.
People are limiting their visits to fast food outlets on a normal working day because they can simply order the pizza at their place without needing to step outside and waste their time picking up the pizza.
Note: Nowadays, Pick up delivery option is there on many eCommerce portals and not only on food outlets’ sites. Sites that advertise this option are increasing their customer base because some customers prefer to visit their local store to physically feel the product before making the payment.
If we observe the current evolution speed of eCommerce business, then delivery guys will soon be replaced by drones and people won’t have to converse with the delivery boy anymore. Another loss of human touch, perhaps, but this is where the world is switching.
Apparently, the world is shifting towards technology and doing tech innovation in nearly everything they can think of experimenting with. From clean energy to drone delivery, the future is set to make this easier for people, and eCommerce businesses can hope to harness the possibilities to produce better output.
LET’S SEE WHAT CHANGES ARE COMING IN THE E-COMMERCE SECTOR
1. CHATBOTS
Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google Allo are introducing Web Bots to magnify the shopping experience by enhancing booking and customer service.
Nowadays, consumers are getting familiar with talking to machines. Many companies are developing their own chatbots. One such example is the clothing retailer ‘Spring’ that successfully developed ‘Spring Bot.’
“Customers aren’t spending their time on a sprawl of apps anymore, but there’s a high concentration of engagement on Facebook Messenger,” said Spring founder Alan Tisch. “So, we created an experience to fit into the natural behaviour that’s already happening on the platform.” Tisch
2. Artificial Intelligence
A.I. is one of the most intriguing subjects that has fascinated modern science, and scientists are working days and nights to find revolutionary technology that can help humans. Considering the so far development in A.I. undeniably, we have come very far and are on the right track to make it better and more useful for people in their daily lives.
Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s Assistant are some of the well-known A.Is. Their main purpose is too easy the user journey and assists in various tasks, like finding and dialing a phone number as per the command, doing research on search engines, switching off/on the phone, or closing/opening a software etc.
Features like these are being enjoyed by the users, and companies are thoroughly investing and spending a huge amount of money on R&D to increase their app’s usability and scalability for better results.
However, all the listed A.I. apps will respond in different ways. Google Assistant will do a search on Google as its default and primarily setting. Cortana will find things on Bing, other than searching the service and Amazon’s Echo will search for products on the Amazon website.
Hence, companies that are offering A.I. features are tricking their users into surfing their website and using the stats to properly outline the buyer persona.
3. Mobile
You are seriously bummed reading posts regarding mobiles and hearing about its importance in the marketing world. Yes, your frustration is understandable, but we simply can’t overlook mobile, no matter how many times we have to mention it. Since it has become a detached body part of most of the users, its substance will be talked, over-and-over.
Google is working on mobile-first web index, giving much priority to the mobile over desktops. Since the traffic on mobiles has overtaken that of desktop, it’s imperative to work on user persona and to enhance their mobile experience.
‘eCommerce websites need to take notes and trim the content for small screen devices.’
4. Mobile Payments
With the advent of mobile payment apps, companies are experiencing a rise in the yearly business revenue. Starbucks, one of the most recognized coffee brands, started a mobile payment trend and generated 12% more revenue additionally by going digital.
Moreover, they got some useful information that aided them further in the R&D department to better target customer persona.
McDonald’s etc. are now walking on the path, and soon, we will see machines on the counter to order and paying for the order without needing to ask Cashier to suggest you from the menu. Machines running on A.I. will be there to guide the buyers in their journey, and the experience will only increase with time.
5. Personalization and Customization
We are literally living in the age of information. Everywhere there’s content and information to use for the betterment of the product and the marketing strategy.
Sometimes the overly available information confuses us to what includes and what ignore in the marketing strategy. In the age of technology, customer experience and what customer buys is crucial for businesses to develop their product and serve what their targeted audience likes to lower cart abandonment.
6. Increasing Demand for Same Day Delivery
Shoppers now want same-day delivery. They are even ready to buy a premium membership that delivers the product within 24 hours. This shows the market’s demographics and how the future will be. Additionally, we will see drones flying overhead and jamming the sky, like a Hollywood Sci-fi movie, or that we saw in the Star Wars saga.
Amazon has started doing it, and many companies are working on their business operations to join the list of delivering the product through drones.
According to a report published by Forrester, 29% of shoppers are willing to pay extra money in return for fast delivery. The possibilities are endless for logistics companies.
Postmates and UberRush are joining the list to deliver things faster and are offering their delivery services to clients globally. In layman’s term, the users want better eCommerce shopping experience, like they get in the real world. Instant access to the things they buy.
In the future, more companies will invest in fast delivery industry and will leverage the current demand to grow their transportation business.
Many reputed eCommerce portals earn negative feedback due to poor logistics operation and late delivery. Hence, it’s one of the pain points to which companies have to work over, and have to follow what Amazon and rest are working over Fast Delivery.
Postmates and UberRush are joining the list to deliver things faster and are offering their delivery services to clients globally. In layman’s terms, the users want better eCommerce shopping experience, as they get in the real world—instant access to the things they buy.
In the future, more companies will invest in the fast delivery industry and will leverage the current demand to grow their transportation business.
Many reputed eCommerce portals earn negative feedback due to poor logistics operation and late delivery. Hence, it’s one of the pain points to which companies have to work over, and have to follow what Amazon and rest are working over Fast Delivery.
7. CUSTOMER REVIEWS WILL DIRECT THE CAMPAIGNS
When you operate online, reputation is everything, and customer reviews are a huge part of that. Ninety-one percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 trust other customer feedback and rate them as high as a friend’s personal recommendations.
It is, therefore, very necessary to keep communication up to and maintain good repo in the customer’s social circle. You can ensure that through:
- Keep posting videos
- Reverting to queries quickly
- Offer special benefits to loyal pack
8. VOICE SEARCH WILL EMERGE
Voice search has been on the spectrum for some time now, but in the rest of this year, it will emerge more fully.
Sources suggest that 35 percent of all U.S. households are fitted with at least one voice assistant, with more than one owned by many customers. So it’s no surprise that in 2019, 26.1 percent of consumers bought an item on a smart speaker.
Note 3.9 percent of buyers say they purchase from a smart speaker every day. Google seems to deliver the most exact responses to trade questions, followed by Apple and Amazon; thus, they are favourites nowadays.
9. REPURPOSING CONTENT WILL IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN
The need for valuable, interactive content is still seething, and for any sole trader or marketing team, it can be a time-consuming activity.
‘Repurposing’ simply involves picking up and modifying the current content to make it more relevant as time goes by or converting it to another site. This is a smart business decision, with increased demand.
Think to convert your documented tutorial into a video clip, or turning the info into an infographic in your podcast feed and its impact.
10. E-COMMERCE WILL GO GREEN
Enterprises are switching to powerful stacks of automation to cut rubbish and make it more effective. Correlated with a multi-site stockpile, smart shipment mapping and computerized rule-based order routing can match stock orders in warehouses closest to the customer. This way, the automated routing of orders saves money, accelerates delivery and reduces shipping costs.
Similarly, the consumer prefers to know the whole lifecycle of a good or service also necessitates the sustainability practices of sustainable commodities and components. It includes mitigating the environmental effects and fair treatment of workers, which is a big yes in the coming years.
11. PEOPLE WILL CHOOSE TO BUY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
eCommerce and social networks will work closely in the near future. Because of that, people are expecting a more automated shopping process. This will get more steam as the new shopping apps will be introduced by several platforms.
New data and storylines also indicate that although eCommerce is growing all the time, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram will take over and become the ultimate platform for people to buy.
Switching customers from social media applications to shop has been a big obstacle to getting those sales. Yet this definitely changes with how users on Instagram and other social media sites have shown interest in the goods.
12. THE GROWTH OF SUBSCRIPTION E-COMMERCE
Membership service may be offered along with a standard eCommerce product, or as a company point of focus.
There are three key ways to do this: a program that delivers goods to the consumer on a daily basis, replenishing their items; a ‘curation service’ that delivers customized goods on a scheduled basis; or a system where consumers pay a monthly charge for accessing or providing a product.
Subscribers can save the company time and money while providing high-quality products and services to customers – it has financial advantages on both sides, and that’s why this year and beyond, we are likely to see a surge.
13. OMNI-CHANNELS WILL TAKE OVER
Experts have also reportedly taken over the Omnichannel experience in the year 2020. This would only be primarily attributable to the existing compatibility between different channels, social media, websites, the global market, shops, etc. The latest surveys have also shown that most Americans tend to purchase items online rather than going to a store all the way.
These are the main Predictions for ecommerce website design trends.
In addition to that, good reviews work as an icing on the cake to pursue potential customers to visit.