Five Ways Ecommerce Is Being Revolutionized Right Now By Manish Dudharejia
Recommendation
The advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s has given rise to the online marketplace, which has since grown to become a major part of the world economy. But as technology has evolved, so have consumer expectations. Econsultancy contributor Manish Dudharejia has singled out five trends he believes will shape e-commerce in the years to come. getAbstract recommends his blogpost to online retailers and marketing professionals.
Take-Aways
- E-commerce platforms need to adapt to the rapidly evolving digital landscape by focusing on five key trends.
- Online providers can respond to evolving consumer preferences by incorporating chatbots and voice recognition technology in their websites and sales apps.
- Retailers can adapt to growing consumer demand in emerging markets by installing multi-language platforms, offering better shipping terms and ensuring secure online payment.
- Improving their search engines will help online retailers attract buyers.
- Successful third-party vendors have started using promising alternatives to Amazon to sell their wares.
Summary
To realize their growth potential, e-commerce platforms will need to adapt to the rapidly evolving digital landscape by paying attention to five specific trends:
- “Chatbots” – More than a third of today’s consumers favor the use of chatbots to contact companies and receive instant answers to their basic questions. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is enabling chatbots to become ever more nuanced when responding to basic consumer concerns. IBM Watson, which powers 61% of chatbot platforms today, has even developed the ability to detect intent when interacting with humans. An advantage of chatbots is that users don’t have to download an app or software to communicate with them. Also, companies can easily embed chatbots in their websites or Facebook pages.
- “Growing international markets” – Euromonitor International expects e-commerce to grow 73% by 2022, noting that consumer demand for e-commerce is growing fastest in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, Turkey and Singapore. Chinese consumers named product “quality and authenticity” as main reasons for ordering from overseas retailers. Online retailers can make themselves even more attractive to overseas consumers by installing multi-language platforms, offering better shipping terms and ensuring secure online payment.
- “Sellers moving beyond Amazon” – Amazon currently dominates Internet shopping receiving almost half of all US online sales. Yet other e-commerce platforms are becoming attractive to third-party sellers and product designers. ChannelApe, for example, allows retailers to sell their products and synchronize their information across multiple platforms. Similarly, Walmart now allows third-party vendors to sell on its online platform and 43% of today’s fastest-growing online sellers circumvent Amazon.
- “Evolution of e-commerce search engines” – Part of Amazon’s success is due to the website’s powerful product search capability. To compete in the big league, other e-commerce sites must ramp up their search engines. Consumers today expect search engines to understand natural language, detect spelling errors, offer search term suggestions and allow for advanced filtering options.
- “Voice commerce” – Smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are gaining popularity among American consumers. Adapting apps and marketing practices to voice-powered devices will be crucial for successful online selling in the future.
About the Author
Manish Dudharejia is co-founder of E2M Solutions, which specializes in website design and development and e-commerce SEO.