It won't be a surprise to brick-and-mortar stores if e-commerce one day drives a nail into the grave. E-commerce is the only future for business and individuals are getting used to using it. Every year, feeling the enormous pull that e-commerce has on the mental state of individuals, entrepreneurs strive to distinguish their e-commerce platforms by embracing technology and marketing trends. In previous years, we saw a significant increase in modern payment methods, which were aimed at offering consumers the ease of checking "on tap".
The trend is perpetually oriented towards digitization in the strict sense. And yet there is a large base of entrepreneurs, who still operate offline and hope to increase their sales prospects.
Now, working offline is not a problem, the real problem is getting lucrative sales opportunities. Therefore, e-commerce is not just any other source of income; e-commerce, in the current time, is the source of income for any business. Due to the growing preference for online shopping, it is imperative for entrepreneurs to seek e-commerce application development to keep their business running, even in autopilot mode.
8 Trends that will influence
The question in recent times is not how to go from an online business to an offline one, the question is, how to adhere to the online model and progress from there. While e-commerce is considered a dairy cow of business, players are also successfully driving cross-border sales.
If there is one thing that is clear from the trends observed in 2019, it is that e-commerce is definitely not a hype or a fad. You are here to stay and influence the businesses of tomorrow, which is why you need to develop an e-commerce application as soon as possible to get the first part of the success. If you're still on the fence regarding the future course that e-commerce would be charting, here are the trends you need to embrace "now" for a seamless candle and sales in 2020.
Delivery will become fast, faster, faster. In recent times, consumers are more aware of the time it takes to receive their products. Add to that, their lack of patience, and e-commerce entrepreneurs will surely feel the pressure to make "instant" deliveries.
Although the time it takes for instant delivery is subject to numerous variables, such as time of order placement, warehouse location, consumer location, stock in inventory, and last-mile delivery, men Business will take advantage of the prowess of technology and upgrade their delivery software in the last mile to achieve delivery as fast as they can.
Mobile shopping
In recent times, all consumers are looking for is convenience. Therefore, there is a marked change in the way consumers choose to display their shopping behaviors. While the last decade has seen the growing importance of an e-commerce website, it is mobile applications that determine future purchasing behaviors of consumers.
Mobile apps are getting easier and easier, which is attracting large audiences to interact with them and creating huge sales prospects for entrepreneurs. In addition to this, websites have the limitation that is gradually being overcome by mobile applications with maximum convenience.
So if you are looking for a website to start your digital journey and achieve e-commerce success, you need to jump higher towards the mobile app to get your desired business results.
Voice command purchases
Call it Alexa, Ok Google, or Siri, the advent of voice command technology is gradually making inroads into the e-commerce landscape to highlight the convenience feature for consumers.
Last year there was an increase in the use of voice commands for purchases; however, 2020 will see a significant adoption of voice command technology, which will require entrepreneurs to incorporate this technology into their mobile e-commerce applications.
This is just a small scenario of the growing popularity of voice command. In the future, with the increasing rate of adoption of voice assistant devices, forget about mobiles, these voice assistants will be the real rulers, who will determine the sales of your e-commerce business.
Social trading will be the way to go
As data is the true asset of the ecommerce website, data gleaned from people's social media usage will continue to play an important role. Currently, Instagram is gaining traction as a key e-commerce mobile app. Facebook's contribution to e-commerce sales cannot be neglected either.
In addition to e-commerce, social media also serves to influence buying behavior, or rather impulsive buying behavior of consumers. In the future, social commerce or the evolution of social media as a key e-commerce platform will remain integral to entrepreneurs.
Connecting with friends and suggesting cool things to buy and try will be the key feature that entrepreneurs should consider incorporating into their ecommerce application.
Crypto on the horizon
From cash on delivery, to network banking, credit cards, debit cards, and wallets, the way consumers pay for their purchases has become really easy, or as they say, has become a one-touch checkout system.
Today, a large number of people depend on the electronic wallet and PayPal accounts to make payments, which shows a change from the paper-based cash payment model to the digital payment model. In 2020, the trend to use the electronic wallet will gain significant momentum; However, some e-commerce giants will also make a shift to embrace the future of payment models: crypto division.
Although the cryptocurrency would not be a deep trend yet in 2020, it is sure to make a prominent mark and make itself felt as an emerging payment model.
Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to take the customer experience to another level
At the end of the day, e-commerce platforms are developed to take the customer experience to a new level. If there is one thing that distinguishes physical stores from online commerce portals, it is the touch and feel that customers can experience.
However, mobile e-commerce applications have not achieved this experience, which has been gaining ground from brick and mortar stores. In 2020, e-commerce mobile applications will undergo a transformation with a touch of artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
Customers will be able to upload their photos to the e-commerce mobile app and get an idea of what their clothing, makeup or accessories would look like on their body. Such an experience is sure to increase customer interest in e-commerce mobile applications. "
Personalization as a standardized strategy
While the e-commerce websites and mobile apps of the last five years would offer nothing more than a shopping experience to customers, there has been a huge uproar in the e-commerce arena, with business entrepreneurs electronics are getting to know their customers better.
So instead of consumers coming to the mobile app or website with their requirements, smart entrepreneurs are making deals and offers, based on information gleaned from consumers in the form of demographic data like their age, gender, location, weight, height, choices, search results, previous purchases, etc.
Ecommerce personalization, in turn, serves as a crucial marketing strategy for entrepreneurs, looking to boost their sales and improve customer retention. Personalization offers two more benefits for the e-commerce portal in terms of increasing sales and boosting the attention of consumers with the help of push notifications to ensure better sales prospects in the future.
Subscription e-commerce is the new addition
Have you ever wondered what makes ecommerce mobile apps so different from conventional brick and mortar stores? It is the attraction of the offers and discounts that these online channels have to offer.
The low cost of operation, which significantly reduces the overhead of running a business, gives an e-commerce entrepreneur an edge to make a profit, even without squeezing out some of the operating costs. On the other hand, brick and mortar warehouses already suffer from high overheads ranging from land, energy, workers, etc.
Although deals and discounts will continue to be the routine feature of e-commerce mobile applications, 2020 will also see an increase in subscription purchases for consumers who purchase the same products frequently. The trend will play a major role in the sales of baby food, pharmaceuticals, etc.
A word of caution
While the e-commerce trend continues to increase and improve sales opportunities for entrepreneurs, it is important that entrepreneurs understand the underlying asterisks that could affect or be a factor in depression.
If there is one thing that could be eliminated from e-commerce, the whole concept of e-commerce would be redundant. That thing is data. If businessmen use the data legitimately, their business expansion is assured. But if data is used as a greedy means to invade consumer space and take their privacy for granted, the same data can wreak havoc on e-commerce businesses. The term you are looking for is - GDPR.
The importance of GDPR is high in developed regions like Europe, North America, however it is also making rapid progress in developing regions like Asia Pacific and Latin America. This means that entrepreneurs must go to great lengths to achieve this.
Having analyzed the trends that are powerful enough to change the very face of e-commerce portals, it is crucial that entrepreneurs understand the first and next steps they must take to make their mark going forward.
If you are already an ecommerce gamer, you don't need to go to great lengths to embrace this trend. All you have to do is hire a dedicated team of mobile and web developers and explain what trends you want to see on your ecommerce portal.
However, it is essential that you do so as soon as possible because the year 2020 is not that far off and the sales opportunities are underway. Assign a separate budget for your media, which you will do for 2020.
However, the real adventure begins if you don't have an online presence. Although developing an e-commerce website is relatively outdated, you can switch straight to developing an e-commerce mobile app to take your business to the next level.
The first step in developing an e-commerce mobile application is to meet the requirement with the essential features that you would like to have on your e-commerce portal. It is entirely up to you whether you need an advanced or a basic mobile app to experiment with and gradually switch to the higher version when you feel the need for a feature.
Alternatively, you can also try starting with a basic version of the application and integrating some very specific features so that you can take advantage of the sales generated by the success of e-commerce in 2020.
For example, you can go to wallets or incorporate network banking to offer your customers the possibility of choosing the payment model. In addition, you can also rely on the social media login process to extract crucial data from your customers to offer them a personalized experience.
In the future, as you see your business reach a crucial position, you can focus on advanced features. However, creating a basic app with a couple of advanced features will help you experiment with your demographics, especially when starting an online business.
It is vital that you connect your sales to your social media account. If your potential customers find your products through their social networks but have to leave that page to buy them, you have created friction: the more steps they take, the less chance of conversion. It's the same reason that poorly designed websites see high bounce rates and low conversion rates.
By reducing friction and allowing customers to pass or click to buy your product, you have reduced the friction of the buying process. Impulse purchases shouldn't take more than three clicks.
If you are not properly marketing your products on social media, using Influencer Marketing or making use of all current and emerging tools and trends to help retailers succeed. It would be helpful if you got down to it ASAP. Social media platforms like Instagram are the way most people access the bigger picture of the internet, and it's up to you to make sure those windows align with your sales channels.
Know what they want before they do
Predictive analytics has been around for more than a decade, but its acceptance (particularly among small retailers) has typically been low, perhaps due to complexity and cost. However, with the combination of Big Data with the current increase in online shopping, as well as the more affordable solutions currently available on various platforms, it is becoming a more affordable solution.
Predictive analytics enables retailers to:
Predict what customers are most likely to buy
Determine the highest price a customer will pay for a product
Improve supply chain management
Improve business intelligence
Make accurate recommendations on follow-up purchases and promotions
Employ better price management
Minimize fraud
The demand of the new decade and the reliance on reliable and now anticipated data cannot be overstated. It may not be the case that every use of predictive analytics is relevant to your business.