When it comes to trends, most people wonder how to keep up with the latest of them in such a fast-moving world. Wearing a suit from last year’s collection is unlikely to damage your e-business growth, but ignoring eCommerce trends may cost you a lot—like losing a competitive edge.
Dramatic changes due to the pandemic have resulted in a rapid shift in the perception of online shopping and customers’ preferences. According to Margo Hays, Principal of Digital Strategy at TSG, “We see this rapid shift, and it’s not just eCommerce.
It’s everything. Our consumers are demanding speed and efficiency, no matter what you’re doing.”
Customers have become more discerning and tech-savvy. They crave a highly personalized approach even while shopping from home. Still, it has become a challenge for retailers as many of them were not ready for such a turnaround.
Abraham Lincoln once said that the most reliable way to predict the future is to create it. Indeed, current times show how essential future-oriented analytics is for ongoing growth.
Whether you are only getting into eCommerce development or already run an established online store, it is advisable to be aware of the tendencies shaping the industry and stay proactive to future-proof your business.
Table of Contents
Ecommerce Trends to Сonsider in the Coming Years
Automation Continues to Drive Progress
Automation is benefiting the industry immensely right now. Thanks to the shifting of day-to-day work to automation solutions, employees are able to focus on more complex tasks requiring their involvement.
Adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for more narrowly focused business processes and continuous improvement contributes to more effective supply chain management with people involved in creative tasks and careful strategizing.
In addition, ML is successfully leveraged within SMBs as it is a great way to create a personalized customer approach, for example, by analyzing customers’ previous purchases and making suggestions on the existing data.
If referring to robotization, we can claim that it is already actively applied in commerce: autonomous vehicles are able to organize the delivery of goods within a warehouse and to a customer.
Thus, autonomous freight vehicles and delivery drones are no longer a fantasy but rather a reality.
Hands-Free Ecommerce Comes to the Fore
Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Apple’s Siri are some examples of voice assistants that allow you to streamline operations at every business stage. For your customers, it is a way to simplify their shopping experience.
The total value of eCommerce transactions performed via voice assistants will grow from $4.6 billion in 2021 to $19.4 billion in 2023. This spike is driven by the widespread adoption of voice commerce, which leads to increased sales via mobile phones and smart home devices.
Thus, it is advisable to create a voice-first shopping interface. Click here to learn more mobile eCommerce statistics
Headless Commerce Is Gaining Momentum
Headless commerce can be described as a de-coupled architecture—the separation of the backend and the front end. Multiple interfaces tied to the backend via APIs replace a single frontend, ensuring the system’s agility.
Such solutions allow companies to interact with customers through many touchpoints and develop a tailor-made approach. Over the past two years, more than $1.65 billion in funding has been leveraged for headless technology.
Such omnichannel experience and simplified system updating enable companies to remain nimble in times of economic volatility.
Progressive Web Apps Are a Profitable Alternative to Mobile Apps
Progressive web apps, or PWAs, are a universal solution for companies that run a product website but are not ready to create separate Android and iPhone apps. With the evolution of the mobile-first approach in recent years, designing a website closer to a native app is one of the ways to follow.
PWAs development is closely related to headless solutions deployment. As a result, your customers can have a responsive, app-like experience with PWA on the front. At the same time, your company can benefit from conversion rate growth due to such an omnichannel approach.
What other advantages do companies get by rolling out PWAs?
- Pushnotificationsoption
- Cost-effectiveness of deployment and maintenance
- Directdownloadsfromyourwebsite
- Internet-free access
- Blazing speed
- App icon on the home screen
Offline Shopping Is Gradually Modifying
COVID-19 has become the main reason for the growth of touchless shopping development. The emergence of the “buy online and pick up in-store” option at brick-and-mortar stores provides customers with the opportunity to stay safe while benefitting from online shopping at the same time.
Touchless shopping with the “Just Walk Out” technology allows customers to proceed with self-service checkouts at brick-and-mortar stores. This approach ensures full automation during a purchase journey where customers only need mobile phones to enter the store and complete their purchase successfully. As a result, grab-and-go shopping is gaining momentum.
Payment Methods Are Diversifying
The more options customers are provided, the more likely they are to grow loyal. Today’s demanding customers are unlikely to use your company’s services or make a purchase without alternative payment methods.
PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, buy-now-pay-later, and cryptocurrency are widespread payment methods. And there are only a few alternative payment models (APM) out there.
APM development in line with your target audience preferences can significantly reduce cart abandonment.
What’s the Bottom Line?
To stay in your leadership position in the face of tough competition, try to implement more trends into your business workflows. This will help you follow a customer-centric approach where your brand and customer experience are on par.
