It should not come as a surprise to see more and more businesses looking to push their efforts into an online presence. Establishing an ecommerce store and selling goods or services online has become the go-to method even for brick-and-mortar stores that are doing quite well.
However, the problem with ecommerce is that the benefits come with some drawbacks. Most notably—the competition.
Even if you are operating in a relatively small market, you are still to run into other brands that might have more resources at their disposal that they use to gain an advantage.
Should competitors be enough to dissuade you from pursuing success in ecommerce? No, if anything, the competition should motivate you to work even harder.
One of the best ways to overtake or keep up with other ecommerce stores is to not fall behind on current and upcoming trends. Let’s take a look at what trends have been shaping up the ecommerce industry.
Customer Experience
Some say that selling online is about customer service. If a visitor is unhappy about what they see on a website, they will not hesitate and leave to do their shopping elsewhere.
What causes visitors to leave? There are multiple reasons, such as slow loading speed, lack of customer support, poor product description pages, no international shipping, or poor customization.
In fact, hefty credit card processing fees are also one of the major reasons that affect customer experience. Thanks to cash discount programs people can now limit their processing fees and enhance their overall experience- for more information click here and learn how cash discount programs can help in limiting credit card processing fees.
Missing customer reviews is also a common reason. Online shoppers seek prior customer feedback to decide whether goods or services are worth the money. It is recommended to use services like Opinew and import reviews so that your customers have more information about products you sell.
Lastly, make sure that your store is flexible when it comes to payment gateways. Do not offer just credit cards or direct bank transfers.
Voice Search
Voice search and voice shopping is becoming more and more prominent, particularly after the introduction of digital voice assistants, such as Alexa and Siri.
The convenience of shopping with your voice is one worth investing in for the future because the trend will likely grow even more.
It is also worth noting that there is a demographic of online shoppers who have no choice but to use their voice. People with disabilities would appreciate it if more online shops were to implement voice shopping.
Advanced Customization
The freedom to choose what product you want is not possible for every niche. However, if you are selling custom merchandise, such as t-shirts or sneakers, you should enable advanced customization and let customers pick color variations, fonts, and other elements.
The modern shopper is keen on flexibility in their shopping, including customization. Do not miss out on this trend if you can add it to your store.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is still a relatively new concept with a lot of potential. It is seeing implementation in the automatic car driving, healthcare, and other industries.
Right now, ecommerce is also benefiting from artificial intelligence, and there are two areas worth noting.
The first is vast data processing. By implementing machine learning algorithms, it becomes easier to process data about customer behavior, competition, sales and expenses projections, and so on.
Handing such data manually is a possible option, but it takes too many resources that could be put to better uses.
Chatbots are the second example of how AI can contribute to your ecommerce store improvements. Having a chatbot that can respond to customer queries instantly means not needing to hire customer support reps.
AI chatbots also adapt and learn as they operate. In other words, the more experience working in customer support a chatbot gets, the better it will become at solving problems.
Virtual Reality
Not having the option to browse products in person is perhaps the biggest ecommerce drawback. Sometimes, you risk ordering a product and hope that it will fit you.
Thanks to virtual reality, the problem of not trying a product before ordering it could be a thing of the past. Some of the biggest ecommerce stores are already adopting VR and letting their customers enter a virtual store to look through products.
It is true that virtual reality implementation would be a huge investment, but the price for it should drop down in the next few years.
Live Shopping
Live shopping has been around for many years. You must have seen those infomercials on TV where promoters are non-stop talking about how this or that product is good and why you should get it.
Well, even if traditional TV is dying, the live shopping trend is making a comeback in a different format.
Right now, influencers are using social media and platforms like YouTube to advertise products live while streaming. Since influencers have many followers, brands are willing to pay them a hefty sum even if a live promotion lasts only for a few minutes.
