4 Ecommerce Trends that Will Prevail Through Next 5 Years

The worldwide market share of ecommerce has gone up by 45% in 2016 and with the onset of mobile commerce; mobile share of ecommerce is expected to touch 70% by 2017. Mobile strategy is central to online selling, but it cannot replace the important role of desktops and for the next few years to come this fact will prevail. In 2015, digital interaction influenced retail sales of $2.2 trillion worldwide and the year 2017 is expected to witness peak in internet traffic.

Some Vital eCommerce Stats

• 71% shoppers prefer online shopping because they get better deals
• 40% global internet users have shopped online
• 40% web users will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load
• By 2020, mobile commerce will occupy 45% of ecommerce and generate revenues of $284 billion
• eCommerce giants gigantic push for same day delivery will set new delivery standards

4 ecommerce trends that will prevail through next 5 years

1. IoT Influence

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies first made their mainstream foray with retail businesses integrating technologies such as RFID, Beacons and maps as an integral part of the shopping experience. By the end of 2018, it is predicted that more than 3.5 billion beacons will be installed and $44 billion sales will be driven by beacons, influencing 82% customer purchase decision in aisle. Location-based target marketing will also be central as products and services can be offered at a global scale to users. USA has a “Cyber Monday” when the biggest online shopping happens throughout the year while China celebrated the “Single Day”. Flash sales and loyalty programs that leverage technology to personalise shopping experience is gaining traction amongst ecommerce retailers. In fact, Google Analytics feeds a lot of data that plays a major role in target marketing across the digital platform to attract shopper attention and keep their interests up.

2. Personalised Experience

Mobile applications can be leveraged to deliver highly targeted and personalised deals to the prospective customer, but most mobile users prefer responsive websites to downloading an application. So, mobile web must be a primary focus for etailers worldwide. Many ecommerce companies have launched applications with much success, but to expect customers to remain loyal to the brand and keep the application, or even use it for every purchase will be a tough proposition. On the other hand, mobile optimised checkout will also be priority as hard-to-find credit card form fields and secure gateway issues will leave a lot of customers flustered and make them give up. Location and analytics continue to play a central role in analysing consumer behaviour and with new technologies, what data is mined and how it is used will earn a greater degree of sophistication.

3. Multi-platform Marketing Influence

eCommerce website products and services are advertised on social media and other websites on the internet platform, besides the regular email and SMS marketing channels. The offline marketing strategies persist, however, ecommerce sales from social media alone have grown by 202% in 2014 and have experienced incremental growth since then. Further, though there are more mobile internet users than desktop users, mobile advertising spend is lower at 49% than desktop advertising spend at 51% in overall digital advertising spend. The overall digital advertising spend is expected to grow by 72.2% by 2019, and mobile advertising spend will be 60.4% of all digital advertising spend.

4. Multi-device shopping

Mobile internet is a predominant factor, but etailers cannot ditch tablet or desktop websites in it favour for some time to come. It is estimated that 8.52% desktop users add to cart and approximately 2.78% convert to sale. Compared to smartphones add to cart rate of 4.7% and conversion rate of .80%, this is a much bigger figure. Looked at objectively, desktop remains the prevailing platform for sales conversions. Many companies who ditched websites in favour of mobile applications are now reverting back to retaining the website while maintaining the mobile application too. Half of all ecommerce transactions are being done on multiple devices currently and retailers will have to design the online buying experience around this factor so that shoppers have a seamless experience. Although mobile shopping is not bigger than desktop shopping just now, smartphones account for over 40% ecommerce transactions in many countries and is steadily catching up with tablets in many other countries. Though the website experience remains uniform across desktop and tablet, mobile applications are imperative for smartphones. Responsive websites can also go a long way to address this issue as many users will be reluctant to let mobile applications eat up limited storage space in favour of a shopping experience in a competitive market.

In-store shopping experience will witness a massive influence from online shopping experience. Web Development Services India will be contextual as the consumer will make instantaneous purchase whether they are at work, in the car or at home. These are exciting times for ecommerce and with right technological backing the web and mobile solutions can be designed to change the landscape of the retail industry.