It is really mind-blowing how fast the growth of global e-commerce has been for the past years. According to a Statista report, in 2017 it reached around $2.3 trillion and is anticipated to hit $4.5 trillion in 2021. E-commerce will continue to progress at a fast pace, 11 percent of online shoppers today like to do virtual shopping experience using their smartphone on a weekly basis, and 35 percent consider that it will become their main purchasing tool. Around 39 percent of online shoppers are turning to the use of social networks to get inspiration for purchases.
E-commerce will make its way for years to come and you may want to keep up with the latest online shopping trends to continue to promote your client’s sales and remain ahead of the competition. Do you want to know which top e-commerce trends are set to dominate 2019 and the years to come? Then, you better keep on reading!
Excellent Web Performance
Phygital user experience will also be a focal point of e-commerce sites today. Whatever the latest design trends are, it will always be the performance that ultimately matters the most. Websites should run fast and seamless, it means everything. You can either lose a customer or gain a customer, so you need to keep your site’s performance a top priority in order to remain ahead of other competitors.
Faster and Convenient Checkout
Traditional checkout forms will be less used and seen in a few years and more alternative payment options such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and the like. More online businesses will implement a ‘one-click purchasing’ to make online shopping faster and more convenient.
With the help of technology, our future will let us to not enter any details anymore. All we have to do is click ‘buy’ and the rest will be automated based on your preferences, leading to more urge in purchasing at a higher value.
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Online retailers are becoming more open with Cryptocurrencies. They will be a game changer in the future for an advanced transactional security and virtually zero risks of payment frauds. Meanwhile, blockchain which manages transactions and currencies without the interference of central authorities such as banks. Blockchain has the potential to change the entire e-commerce industry for a more fulfilled, secured, and fast order tracking in the future with e-commerce shipping services.
Animation
It is expected that motion is going to be big in the future and that e-commerce can take inspiration from game design. In the gaming world, motion allures players and give them useful feedback. Players are told what to pay attention to, signal them when they’re doing great, and suggest how they could improve. Motion in e-commerce can be an indication of pleasure and joy, personality, or urgency.
You can use motion in emails to deliver joy with the brand or to notify people when an item will soon be sold out, and many more. It makes the whole experience more engaging and alive and many more businesses will use it for improving customer experience.
Automation
For online merchants to effectively scale up their e-commerce business, instead of using most of their time on manual tasks that deliver no tangible ROI, you can maximize well all of your time by using an automation tool to take care of it for you. Almost online shoppers today prefer using messenger apps to keep in touch with businesses rather using traditional ways such as email, phone, or contact forms. So, chatbots are greatly recommended for your online store.
High-Quality and Original Photography and Videos
Although having original photos remains an actual challenge, you may want to stay away from poor stock images that will instantly lower the credibility of your brand. If you want your site to look high-end, you can experiment with 360-degree images or animated GIFs which will show off more the features of your product, the same goes with high-quality videos in showcasing your products.
Pinterest and Instagram
Social shopping will grow bigger in the next years, such as Pinterest and Instagram as two highly visual platforms. Social media will be heavily used by retailers in creating a buying scenario by advertising their products on apps that customers spend most of their time with.
It will become common to buy items through Instagram and Pinterest, which we can evidently see today, particularly in clothing brands.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
Since AR and VR are getting cheaper, the two will be incorporated with online shopping. According to Ross Beyeler, founder of e-commerce consultancy Growth Spark, believes that retailers will start experimenting with disposable AR/VR marketing strategies.
AR and VR will make it possible for customers to have that ‘try before you buy’ viewing products in-home. Imagine that you’ll be able to try out what furniture may look best in your home. Many companies will invest their time and money into their AR kits and pave the future of getting the chance to test out a store’s product directly in your home before purchasing. Isn’t that something to look forward to?
Whatever action plan you’ll want to do in 2019, always make sure that you try to test your shopping experience at all times. You can have someone to go through the site and ask how his/her experience for the first time, from that, you may want to find something to improve or fix what you had never seen or experienced before.
