The e-commerce industry is among those that saw tremendous growth in 2020, unlike many industries that got hit hard by the pandemic. An unexpected increase in e-commerce sales saw many retailers opting to transition to online sales channels. This has also inspired many entrepreneurs to venture into the e-commerce scene. With the end of 2020 nearly in sight, the future of e-commerce remains on an uplifting trajectory.
Here are 7 of noteworthy future trends of e-commerce.
1. Voice e-commerce will grow
There is a reason why Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are so successful - people love the convenience and practicality of voice assistant devices. Not to mention both tech giants are pushing for regional languages to update their voice assistant devices and reach more consumers. This will only boost the growth of voice e-commerce; more people will use these devices and more stores will optimize with e-commerce voice searches to tap this market.
Businesses can leverage voice search as one of the recent trends in e-commerce by optimizing content to match voice search queries. It is also a smart move to integrate voice-based navigation on your website or mobile app to facilitate ease of shopping and browsing.
2. Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will boost e-commerce
In a bid to offer customers better online shopping experience, more and more businesses will invest in both AR and AI technologies. Both technologies are already in use, but these business trends will continue to grow.
Since shoppers cannot physically visit the store and try out the items they want, AR technology offers a great way for consumers to get a better view of the items they like to try and visualize the products better.
AI, on the other hand, will offer more personalized recommendations to customers. It will also archive consumers’ browsing and shopping behaviour, purchase history, and best deals to provide a more accurate shopping guide and experience.
3. Offline will shift to online
With crisis comes opportunity. In the case of 2020, the opportunity is in e-commerce. There is an increase in offline businesses that are now selling their products online, capitalizing on the growth of online sales. This will continue to grow in the coming years, not just in 2021.
Clearly, going online is one of the best ways to reach your target customers as a business. E-commerce platforms such as Shopify will facilitate in making this transition easier.
4. Setting up online stores will be a lot cheaper
In this new age of e-commerce, websites will be more affordable and a lot faster than ever before. Website companies and builders will capitalize on the growing number of demand and will keep their prices competitive. This is great news for business owners who are looking to shift to online selling.
5. More brands will use a dynamic pricing software
To attract more customers and to keep up with their competition, more brands will use dynamic pricing software.
Online consumers are meticulous; they want to get the best value for their money. Pricing is an integral aspect of online shopping, especially with the ease of comparing prices online. The goal for every customer is to find the best deals online.
Pricing software helps you determine the right price for your products. It searches the web for the product’s market demand, their perceived value, and the prices from your competitors. This will give you the best chance to sell your product and make profit possible while staying competitive.
6. Mobile e-commerce will rule
More people are using their mobile phones to shop online; they appreciate the convenience and feel comfortable browsing through e-commerce websites and swiping products through their mobile devices.
With this in mind, online sellers should invest in the mobile aspect of their websites. E-commerce sites should not only be mobile-friendly, they should be mobile responsive and mobile-optimized.
7. Consumers will choose brands with flexible payment options
Convenient and flexible payment options are one of the many reasons why people prefer specific brands or websites. Those who don’t offer flexible payment methods will definitely miss out.
As of late, Paypal, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay are common digital wallets used for online shopping. The traditional options such as credit and debit cards will still be available. Cryptocurrencies, however, are on the rise. Bitcoin, in particular, offers multiple benefits for both shoppers and shop owners, such as no reverse transaction and much lower transaction fees. Because of that, it is expected that more website owners and shoppers will use cryptocurrencies by 2021.