E-commerce is changing, and as always happens in the business world, first come, first served.
As Darwin teaches us, everything evolves: plants, animals, Pokémon, technology, digital businesses. And despite what many believe, the strongest does not always survive, in fact, the rule is clear: the most adaptable to change survives.
This is why, as technology evolves, we must constantly review and adapt our models, otherwise we risk extinction.
In this article, we will try to analyze the changes taking place in the world of digital commerce, trying to predict the trends we will have to deal with in the near future.
Some considerations on the online shopping market
In 2019, more than 2 billion people purchased online.
It is likely that Covid will give a further boost to the growth of this number.
However, if the prospects in the pool of users who connect to the network every day increase, it is also true that competitors will certainly not sit idly by, and the competitiveness of the sector will also grow exponentially.
In this scenario, every missed opportunity is a gift to your competitors.
Every early positioning, moreover, represents a significant advantage.
So let’s see which trends can be explored and exploited in 2021.
Emerging trends for e-commerce
Old and new technologies are arriving in e-commerce:
Voice assistants
Voice search through various devices such as Alexa or Google Home is growing rapidly.
In 2019, China recorded 85.5 million users on these devices, the United States 74.2 million and the United Kingdom 12.6.
Phone numbers serve as a critical identifier a for belarus phone number library communication, whether for customer support, SMS notifications, or user authentication. At first glance, phone numbers seem simple.
It is estimated that 60% of virtual assistant owners have made purchases with voice commands. Due to the immense popularity of this technology, it is expected that by 2022 many brands will redesign their websites to support voice search capabilities.
The benefits of this technology:
High level of interaction
Possibility to contextualize search keywords
Conversational interaction is more engaging
Improved user experience
Catchment area and market not yet saturated
Massive use of chatbots
According to some marketing agencies, 80% of businesses will use chatbots by 2022.
Integrating artificial intelligence into your sales channels is a powerful tool to guide customers in their customer journey, while providing an exceptional customer care and retargeting tool.
Here is what chatbots can do for your e-commerce:
Engage and assist customers in the purchase process on the same landing page.
Provide the information the user needs in real time (about 94% of online shoppers base their purchasing decisions on product information)
Reduce bounce rates by capturing the attention of the most elusive users.
Reduce costs and improve customer care with 24/7 digital assistance.
Collect data on your customers’ purchasing habits to optimize your campaigns
The dawn of social commerce
The impact of social media on e-commerce marketing strategies has been indisputable for decades now. Metrics such as engagement, social sharing, and sentiment are increasingly important for the success of a marketing campaign.
According to eMarketer, users (US data) who purchased online through “
Social commerce” went from 23% in библиотека базы данных рекламы December 2018 to 31% in October 2019.
Popular platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are perfect places thanks to the strong visual component, which pushes users to discover new products and new purchasing channels.
Social commerce is currently on the rise thanks to the easy and fast purchasing experience (drastic reduction in “friction”).
To make the most of this marketing practice, you need to strengthen:
Brand recognition
Visual content.
Monitoring user actions on social media (trends, purchasing habits, interests)
Configuring your online purchasing channels with a mobile-first perspective.
Setting up communication based on social content (copy, languages, media)
Interacting quickly, in real time, with users in your audience.
Social platforms have also recently introduced the possibility for brands to sell directly from their pages/accounts.
Since March 2019, for example, users have been able to purchase directly from Instagram with Instagram Checkout.
Highly interactive Ads, available for the bu leads major social networks, complete this picture that sees social commerce as a fundamental component of business in the coming years.
AR & VR to improve the shopping experience
Although not exactly cheap, AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) technologies have widely demonstrated their potential in the field of e-commerce.
Analogamen
As in the case of social commerce, these technologies also offer an improved user experience, but rather than simply reducing friction, they offer the possibility of increasing user confidence by providing them with a simulation of what the product they are going to buy will be like.
Another important aspect in this context is the playful one.
The possibility of viewing or manipulating digital objects in real contexts stimulates the imagination and curiosity of users.
According to research conducted by Gartner, in fact, 100 million users will use augmented reality online and in stores within the current decade.
Big brands have already equipped themselves with these technologies for online sales, but the lowering of software and tool costs is opening up this possibility to small and medium-sized businesses as well.
Mobile shopping and payments
The migration of the ways of enjoying online content is now almost complete. There are now 2 billion users who habitually use the smartphone as their preferred device for browsing (and therefore also for online shopping).
Here too, it is the user experience that drives this change, and where users go, our business must absolutely go.
Improving the experience, in this case, goes beyond the simple mobile first paradigm.
The major digital platforms have integrated one-click payment systems that are very convenient for smartphone purchases.
An example above all is the Google Pay function, but other online commerce giants have not made us wait with their solutions, such as Amazon Pay.
Users who choose these payments have on the one hand the convenience of doing everything with a “tap” on the device, often using fingerprint scanning or facial recognition as an authentication method, on the other hand they have a deep trust in the security of transactions made through these platforms.
Integrating these Pay Methods on your e-commerce helps break down the barriers between mobile users and the much-desired checkout.
