Online selling, in today’s market of digitalization, has become synonymous with success for any product or service provider. No matter how or what you deal with, an eCommerce website should be a prime consideration for you if you want to reach the top and taste the glory. While the goal stays the same as every business owner wants to earn a profit, the other aspects of the online selling do change. Ecommerce trends are such aspects that keep on changing every now and then. In this article, we will discuss the top trends in eCommerce business that will help you flourish in 2018 and the coming years.
Have you recently developed an eCommerce website and thinking how to make it bigger and successful? Well, every year, we get to hear about a new trend that revolutionizes the eCommerce websites. In the last year, eCommerce website was all about business risks, overcoming market competition, and analyzing future technologies. And this year, the trends have changed, for good! So, if you are still unaware of the best trends that you need to follow, make sure you are going through the article with all your attention on board. These trends will be extremely beneficial in the evolution of the business functions according to the needs of the market.
Ecommerce Trends in 2018 – Trends to Watch Out For
The evolvement of the eCommerce industry has led it to an era where machine learning and artificial intelligence are creating a buzz. Along with the rise and use of voice searches and cryptocurrencies, eCommerce website owners need to keep up with the state-of-the-art trends. Alright, without much further ado, let’s jump straight to the main topic and explore the top trends in eCommerce business.
Artificial Intelligence
With each and every day passing by, AI or Artificial Intelligence is becoming one of the most important aspects of today’s success. AI has come to the mainstream and is being automated and operationalized. Products in the eCommerce websites are now managed by the machine learning which has made the process of making the product management better by a great margin. This machine learning helps us teach the machine to perform better than the human beings. The machine learning, on top of all, can provide us with better mathematical advancements along with captivating designs, making AI one of the most adored eCommerce trends of 2018.
Multiple technologies such as machine learning, cognitive computing, and natural language processing data analytics are being highly influencing and fueling the Artificial Intelligence. However, businesses have to cautiously perform the Information Augmentation (IA). You will be able to organize the data through IA in a way that it becomes refined, related, and usable.
Chatbots
How many times have you landed on an eCommerce website and fall short of the answers to your queries? Most of the time it happens when a non-tech savvy person lands on your website and the person does not know what to do and how! So, if you have a chatbot embedded on your website, they can easily be guided and they will certainly not leave the site as interaction plays one of the most pivotal roles in stimulating the users to stay on a website. The better communication is always the better way of satisfying users. Basically, the adore for Chatbot is the reason for its capability of becoming the personal assistant of all the users.
Chatbots are the latest trend in eCommerce industry and its market is going to reach $1.2 Billion by the end of this decade and an anticipation is being made for the annual growth rate of 24%.
Currently, Bots are able to help you with a surprising excellence for the matters like processing, marketing, and payments. Moreover, Bots are being seriously considered for coaxing the users to take the desired action on the website which will increase the traffic and revenue of a website. Though Bots are creating a great impact on the business of the eCommerce websites, we still need to consider improving the bots for behaving and communicating more like humans.
Mobile Commerce
If you are the least acquainted with the internet industry and online shopping, Mobile Commerce must not be any difficult term to relate. Smartphones have become the daily commodities in today’s world and a preferred device or medium for the individuals to search and make purchases online – thanks to the wireless technology. Consequently, more than 80% of the internet users prefer using their smartphones for visiting the online stores, comparing price, searching products or services, and making a purchase eventually. Thus, the revolution of mobile commerce has made it one of the most reckoned eCommerce trends in 2018 and the coming years.
The top wallet players like Google, Apple, and Amazon are providing their users with the single-click payment which aims to take care of the cart abandonment. Omnichannel and personalization experience for the m-commerce users are on the hype as sellers are integrating the tools and responsive design to their respective websites.
Application developers around the globe are mixing the buying experience online and offline in order to offer a smooth shopping experience to the users. We can expect more automation tools like particular platforms to collect product reviews, cart re-engagement engines, and much more. Shoppable Tags and On-Demand Apps are creating a great user experience that is taking the user experience to a whole new level of excellence.
Augmented Reality
Along with the release of Google ARCore and Apple ARKit, Augmented Reality (AR) is the latest technology that is taking the eCommerce market by storm and the automation and transformation to a new height. You need to provide your online clients with an in-store experience while they are browsing your online store with their smart devices. IKEA Place can be a viable example of such experience as IKEA introduces its latest AR Technology. Not only IKEA, but the other major brands are also considering the Augmented Reality as the next big thing in the world of eCommerce industry. Thus, if we sit down to make a list of the eCommerce trends, it would be incomplete without the Augmented Reality mentioned.
A plethora of AR powered apps can be found which are actually providing the users with a genuinely great user experience that never let any user leave your online store. Various industries are now aiming at utilizing the AR by integrating it into their frameworks for communication and training among the other things.
The most captivating part of the AR is that the technology offers you the online shopping experience just like a realistic store. With AR by your side, you will be equipped to help the potential buyers realize how a product would actually look and feel. Just think about the scenario when the buyers would find that you are letting them actually try an expensive pair of sunglasses or a wristwatch before buying it! And the most interesting part is they can try them online which will create the experience just like the shopping malls. The year 2018 is certainly a breakthrough for AR and it seems to worth $108 Billion by 2021!
Big Data
As the Big Data has grown to a whole new level, businesses are also trying to obtain more usable insights and they are also attempting to focus on understanding the consumers in a better way. Now, a greater number of companies are offering the cloud services in order to comprehend the big data resources and access it. The self-service software’s are now expected to be distributed along with the data visualization models. Keeping the success in the past in mind, Big Data will join hands with the other forthcoming technologies and enhance the overall effectiveness for both the offline and online services.
Latest Developments
While the above are the major eCommerce trends in 2018, there are some other tools and technologies which will also be a significant help for the eCommerce industry this year and in the coming years as well. When you become a differentiator while offering the consumer experience, it will be an extraordinary help for the sellers to convert the website visitors to buyers.
As a result of the individual’s inclination towards, the in-store and online browsing, the brick and mortar stores are on a rise in today’s date. The days are not far when we will see the IoT (Internet of Things) and Drones based deliveries. Voice search will also play a pivotal role in expanding the space of eCommerce business along with the eCommerce apps for the small businesses.
In a nutshell, we can promise that these eCommerce trends will be ruling in the year 2018 and the forthcoming years. Yes, it cannot be said that these trends will be revolutionary but surely, they will be the cornerstones of the eCommerce industry for the coming days. You always have to remember that holding the buyers is the only way to succeed in the eCommerce industry and that’s why we have shared such trends which may help you in future by retaining the consumers on your eCommerce site.
