eCommerce stores are rampant in every niche, and the competition is fierce. Without standing apart from your competitors, it will be difficult to keep growing exponentially. Consumer behavior keeps changing, especially in the world of eCommerce. There are too many factors that change the purchasing behavior and motivations of your customers. You must be aware of the changes happening, both in terms of technology and people’s buying habits.
In this article, we will discuss the changes that you will see in eCommerce in 2023.
Automation makes everyone’s lives easier. For eCommerce businesses, automation extends beyond marketing automation. It includes eCommerce tasks and processes like order fulfillment, inventory management, customer communication, etc. It frees up your employees’ time. eCommerce automation use cases are endless.
In a live shopping scenario, retailers showcase their products via a popular social media channel. The onus is on the retailer to make it as interesting as possible. Customers can ask questions, receive responses from retailers, and buy products in real time. Increased brand awareness, novelty factors, greater engagement, and more sales make live shopping attractive.
With climate change becoming a pressing issue, more and more companies will work on sustainable processes. eCommerce companies will strive to take this route as well. eCommerce stores that worked on reducing their carbon footprint saw a 5.8x faster growth. Finding local suppliers, creating products using organic ingredients, using eco-friendly shipping methods and recyclable packaging materials, and adopting environmentally friendly policies will become mainstream.
Can you wrap your head around having an end-to-end shopping experience just by using your voice? It is one more change in the future that will surely become a reality. Our homes are inundated with voice technology like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. Since users have become accustomed to voice-assisted technology, shifting to voice-enabled shopping wouldn’t be difficult.
Since most eCommerce websites understand your quality and brand preferences (if you are an existing customer), your shopping experience will become even easier.
The easiest way to capture your customers’ attention is to make them interact with you. Quizzes, forms, recommendations, calculators, surveys, assessments, etc., are good examples of interactive content that eCommerce companies must leverage. Not only does it help with increasing engagement, but interactive content can also help you know more about your audience.
The only complaint about online shopping is that it doesn’t let you touch, feel, or try a product before you buy. That will be a problem of the past with the advent of interactive products. Augmented reality technology can create immersive shopping experiences where brands can show customers their products in natural environments. It helps with the decision-making process. Augmented reality customers can visualize the products in 3D.
Having customers who pay you monthly is a segment that every eCommerce company would love to crack. Being constantly on the lookout for new customers is difficult. Subscription models have become popular with customers, especially in the beauty and wellness niche. When you have the right product, making customers buy subscriptions from your store isn’t all too difficult. eCommerce businesses need to make the process of payment, product discovery, and delivery easy.
Metaverse is when the physical, augmented, and virtual reality meet. It creates a computer-generated environment where users interact, buy products and games, or have similar experiences in the real world. Even though cases of retail metaverse are being done on an experimental basis, several brands understand its power and are vying to grab a piece of the pie.
Shopping cart abandonment is the last thing that an eCommerce wants. Imagine losing a customer who was about to pay but stopped the action for some reason or another. What if you were at fault? Most people drop off from a shopping cart because the payment option they want isn’t available. A complicated shopping cart doesn’t really persuade your customers to buy from you.
Several digital payments are available, and you want to make them available for your customers. For example, online banking, BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), digital wallets (Amazon Pay, Google Pay,PayPal,Mobilepay) gift card, and vouchers. When providing payment options, you must use the area’s popular payment options.
The project began in 2017 and is popular across several countries now. What exactly does LIA do? When a person searches for a product on Google, products available in nearby stores will be displayed in the search results. The buyer can visit the store or inspect the product before opening their purse strings. It gives an opportunity for buyers to check out the product in its physical form. Google cites that it increases the chances of conversion.
BOPIS became a thing during Covid-19 lockdowns and has caught the fancy of customers who used it. It allows customers to buy online and schedule the pickup at a physical location nearby. It makes fulfillment convenient for customers.
There are tonnes of data that are collected internally in eCommerce stores. They can be your biggest source of help in making ground-breaking business decisions. You leave money on the floor if you are not using customer and internal data.
Data gives you an idea of what is going on. Here are a few examples of conclusions that you can make:
If there is one constant in the business world, that’s change. There was a time when Facebook was fashionable, but not anymore. Social media sites become obsolete, and people start raving about a new site that has them hooked. People can buy directly on Instagram and TikTok based on their shopping features. Even in the US, 20% of customers say they have tried live shopping. These numbers will only keep increasing.
The major growth of eCommerce can be attributed to how easy it is to discover products and purchase them, especially on mobile phones. This has affected how consumers want their shopping experience to be. When customers order from their mobile phones, they would hate to input their details every time.
One-click ordering makes all the difference here. It enables mCommerce apps to store customer data without them having to input the details manually every time. Most eCommerce giants offer one-click ordering. It is expected to be more popular among small businesses too, since it provides a much better shopping experience.
Wrapping up:
The future of eCommerce looks bright. With Covid-19 not a threat anymore, sales have increased, and people have started living their everyday lives. eCommerce stores must keep themselves updated on the latest trends in their industry. Embrace technologies that would help their operations and service delivery. If there are social changes that will help their brand, it would be wise to see if your target audience will like something new.
If you want to incorporate gift cards or loyalty programs for your customers, get in touch with the 99minds team. We will happily show you how our plug-and-play software can supercharge your business.
