By Hiral Rana Dholakiya
The eCommerce industry has witnessed unprecedented growth in the past few years.
And, guess what?
It isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.
Studies show that eCommerce sales are expected to rise by 16.8% in 2022, to $4.921 trillion.
It’s evident that consumers are increasingly turning towards the comfort of shopping at their fingertips. And companies are committed to making their experience a memorable one.
But the whole concept of eCommerce is built on technological innovation. As the industry braces for growth, it needs to prepare itself for technological advancements that will dictate the customer experience of eCommerce in the future.
Listed below are some of the top technological trends that you need to watch out for if you want to continue to break sales records and create delightful customer experiences.
Let’s check them out!
#1 Live Shopping with Augmented Reality
Probably the biggest beef that shoppers have while making online purchases is the lack of ability to try out and experience the product. No amount of pictures and product descriptions can make up for witnessing the same product at a brick and mortar store.
Fortunately, the introduction of AR and VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) has made it possible for eCommerce stores to address this challenge. The technology allows shoppers to preview clothes, accessories, and check how a piece of furniture would look in their room, all while sitting at their homes.
AR isn’t yet widely used in the eCommerce industry. But that is about to change. Considering this was one of the biggest barriers in eCommerce, AR is a path-breaking technology. So much so, that the AR market is projected to have 2.4 billion users by 2023.
#2 Cognitive Supply Chain Management
As the demand for online retail increases, so does the need for the intelligent supply chain management. eCommerce companies are slowly transitioning from a traditional supply chain to one that is powered by AI and machine learning. These chains can provide advanced data analytics about internal and external factors and facilitate algorithmic decision-making and automated execution.
Cognitive Supply Chain aims to fully leverage the store footprint to meet growing online demand. To do so, eCommerce stores are increasingly enabling in-store fulfilment operations automation and opting for micro-fulfilment solutions. It mitigates risks through real-time insights into inventory and stock-out tolerance limits.
The outcome?
Cognitive Supply chains help online retailers create targeted marketing campaigns and prepare themselves for a sudden rise in demand. You can extensively fill communication gaps in the supply chain, decrease delivery time, and provide a personalized customer experience.
#3 AI Chatbots
Conversations are at the heart of any sale. Just how you’re greeted by a salesperson when you enter a brick and mortar store, you have a chatbot that fills in that role in online retail. While chatbots have been around for a while in eCommerce, AI chatbots are taking it a notch higher.
Reports suggest that the retail spend on AI chatbots will increase to $142 billion by 2024. Chatbots aren’t just having conversations anymore. They’re having intelligent conversations with users. They’re programmed in a way that they know the buyer history, intent, and demographics to provide personalized product recommendations.
eCommerce chatbots can suggest clothes based on your previous purchases and customer inputs like the H&M chatbot is currently doing. It can help you find recipes, ingredients, locate nearby stores like the Whole Foods chatbot is currently doing.
AI chatbots are changing the landscape of buyer-seller interactions online as they’re also able to upsell and cross-sell. They’re setting new benchmarks for providing personalized buying experiences in eCommerce.
#4 Efficient Checkout Process
As an online retailer, nothing is more frustrating than cart abandonment. You work so much on optimizing the buyer journey, having users pass through multiple sales funnel, only for them to leave without making the purchase. And a lot of this is attributed to an inefficient checkout process.
An efficient checkout process is the need of the hour for eCommerce. If you’re striving to enhance your checkout process, you will have to work in building a secure and accessible payment system.
Thanks to technological advances, you can enable a smooth payment process and increase the number of completed transactions. For example,
- Leverage speedy mobile payment solutions like Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
- Provide multiple payment options such as eWallet, credit cards, cash, direct deposits, etc.
- Increase purchases from returning customers by enabling them to securely save their card details
- Provide quick and hassle-free one-page checkout
# 5 Shift to Mobile
The mobile shopping experience is not the future. It’s the present. Statista forecasts that mobile sales will grow twofold amounting to approximately $710 billion in 2025.
Despite their importance, a lot of eCommerce still fall behind in optimizing the mobile purchase experience. If you fail to optimize the mobile shopping experience, you’re bound to lose out on sales. 40% of mobile users switch to a competitor after facing a bad experience.
Mobile experiences are increasingly impacting SEO for eCommerce stores. Google has also begun prioritizing mobile-first indexing when analyzing pages for search engines.
Considering the superiority of mobile experiences, smartphone users need to be at the centre of your eCommerce operations. Facilitating a mobile application, location-based marketing, and optimizing app performance should be on the top of your priority list.
#6 Omnichannel Presence and Support
A sales funnel is not as straightforward as it used to be. A prospective customer goes through various touchpoints on different platforms. It will check out your social media, product reviews, websites, or even your physical store, before finally proceeding to make a purchase.
An omnichannel strategy will continue to gain momentum in the coming years. This means that eCommerce stores will have to continue to optimize their cross-channel strategies and be present where their customers want them. Some top actions you can take are:
- Optimizing your marketing efforts across channels
- Improving your eCommerce infrastructure (Leveraging eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Headless eCommerce)
- Enabling Customer Support on all platforms (Deploying Virtual Assistants & all-round support)
- Purchase to delivery: Inventory management & last-mile execution
#7 Image and Voice Search
Voice and image search have gained immense popularity in recent years simply because of their convenience and speed. A lot of people find it easier to talk than type and nearly one-third of internet users use voice search to shop online.
eCommerce stores will need to solidify their SEO strategies for voice search. Identify what prospects would do differently while doing a voice search. For example, they generally are inclined towards asking questions like how, when, where, etc. You need to align your SEO efforts towards these questions to stay relevant on the search engine.
Similarly, you also need to integrate image search technology. Customers are photographing products to find similar ones in online stores. They’re constantly looking for better deals and if they find it on your website then congrats, you just gained yourself a customer. Just with an image.
Final Thoughts
A lot of eCommerce stores survive only because they keep up. The motive isn’t just to stay relevant but to gain the much needed competitive edge in the eCommerce environment. The growing customer demand and keeping their convenience at the forefront has birthed new advancements that you cannot afford to ignore. eCommerce is evolving and you need to evolve with it.
About the author
Hiral Rana Dholakiya is a Digital Marketing Consultant with over 10 years of experience. She's passionate about all things Digital & Social Media and has conducted training programs at institutes like GLS University and L.J. Institute of Media & Communications. Hiral also shares her insights and knowledge with the audience of publications like AdWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, Social Media Today and Social Media Examiner to name a few. You can follow her on Twitter @IamHiralRana.
