Since the launch of Amazon 25 years ago, the digital world has undergone many transformations. eCommerce is an extremely competitive industry, with massive potential to expand your revenues, brand recognition, and client base. But, online marketing companies have to consistently focus on the new emerging trends to stay at the top of their game.
Let’s have a look at the new emerging eCommerce trends in 2020.
The Effects of Pandemic on eCommerce
According to Statista, the USA was one of the world’s top countries that made the maximum online purchases during the COVID-19 crisis. About 31% of the purchases included food deliveries and takeaways, followed by the hygiene products.
Experts say the eCommerce industry will be the biggest beneficiary of the pandemic. The current penetration rate is 15%, which is expected to reach 25% by 2025. The Coronavirus pandemic has had the worst effect on the retail stores that did not have any online existence. Hence, many small-scale retailers are gradually redirecting their marketing to the online path.
An Upward Trend in Online Shopping
Everybody loves the comfort and convenience that online shopping offers. The US population in the age group of 18-25 browses multiple websites to buy a single product.
In the process, they end up buying different products that were not even on their list. According to statistics, online sales growth may increase from 1.3 trillion (2014) to 4.5 trillion in 2021.
Social Media’s Impact on eCommerce
The websites, today, have to be designed to cater to the social media platforms. The reason is that the best content and blog links are shared through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more visibility and traction.
About 57% of Facebook users make purchases online based on user reviews. Apart from this, YouTube also has a huge influence on eCommerce portals.
Voice Search for Browsing
SEO is pivotal to voice searches. Websites should have the right keywords to enable voice assistants like Google Home or Amazon Alexa. About 13% of the US smart speaker owners make purchases using voice search.
By 2022, the number of voice search shoppers is predicted to grow by 55%. At present, the customers use voice search to buy low-value products. But in the coming years, this trend will see a tremendous change in the shopping experience.
Augmented Reality Complements the Online Shopping Experience
AR makes it easy to visualize a product in real life. It grants a person the ability to view a 3D model of the product and see how it would look if they were using it.
Gartner once predicted that 100 million consumers would shop in augmented reality online stores from 2020. It is one of the biggest game-changers in the eCommerce sector, as it emphasizes the online shopping experience by closing the gap of vagueness.
eCommerce via Mobile
Most of the online purchases take place through mobile devices. Around 230 million US consumers use internet-enabled smartphones. Web-browsing and shortlisting of the products are mostly done when consumers are travelling. Statista states that there will be a sharp rise of 73% in eCommerce sales through mobiles by the end of 2021.
Hence, more and more businesses have started to optimize their websites and shopping portals for synchronized mobile usability.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Understand Consumer Behaviour
Queries raised by a customer, feedback from a customer, and reviews left by the users are the only sources that help us understand what the customers want. But artificial intelligence will have a ground-breaking impact on learning the characteristics of consumer behaviour.
According to BusinessWire, the global retailer spending on AI will reach $7.3 billion per annum by 2022. Artificial Intelligence will help in other areas like AI-optimized pricing and discounting, as well as demand forecasting.
Image Recognition Set to be the Forerunner in Online Shopping Experience
The only flaw in an online shopping experience is that you cannot have a physical interaction with the products. But image recognition will be the face of visual commerce in the coming years.
Image recognition will have visuals such as interactive content, engaging videos, consumer-generated media, and augmented reality that will become an integral part of eCommerce.
Chatbots offer Personal Attention
A study found that 60% of the consumers loved to interact with the chatbots that resolved their queries. Chatbots offer a great shopping experience because of the query-based recommendations and personal interaction.
The other best aspect of the chatbots is that they respond to the queries at a faster rate. Chatbots are used as customer support, but in the coming years, they will work more like shopping assistant bots and enhance the online shopping experience.
On-site Personalized Experience
Almost everybody loves to receive services tailored to their expectations. Some online studies report that personalization reduces the bounce rate by 45%. Many online marketing companies have made efforts to deliver customized services with the help of AI and Big Data.
Industry experts suggest implementing on-site personalized services can have a positive influence on revenue. The scope of growth due to on-site customized services increases by 25%.
Author Bio:
Sylvia James is a copywriter and content strategist. She helps businesses stop playing around with content marketing and start seeing the tangible ROI. She loves writing as much as she loves the cake.
