11 Best eCommerce Trends to Look for in 2019
Published On - January 2, 2019
Well, this is an undeniable fact that the eCommerce landscape is constantly changing and progressing with the latest technological trends and innovations. According to a recently made eCommerce market analysis by Statista, the global retail eCommerce sales is about to reach almost $6.6 trillion (AUD) by the year 2021.
Now, if you are thinking beyond just surviving and being one of the leaders in this eCommerce landscape, here is a list of a few hot trends to follow in 2019 and beyond. (Click to Tweet)
B2B
The sales of eCommerce B2B overshadowed B2C almost by more than $5 trillion (USD) in 2017. By 2020, the global revenue of B2B eCommerce is expected to reach almost $6.7 trillion (USD).
You should not ignore the fact that nearly half of the B2B buyers are millennials. Hence, it is time to think about the channels on which the business customers are on along with the ways to reach them.
If you are a B2B business owner, in 2019 and beyond, you need to consider your customers as individuals. You can take inspiration from Alibaba. Why they are expert in B2B eCommerce business. Well,
- They offer scalability
- Majorly focus on the needs of customers
- Never try to compete with the customers
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
With the latest advancements in the VR and AR technology, the lines between the digital and physical are almost blurring. Customers can now get product experience digitally in a whole new way.
AR is about superimposing a computer-generated image and creating a composite product view. A study made in 2016 reflected the fact that almost 71% of customers love to make a purchase from a retailer, who offers customer experience with AR. For instance, the app IKEA Place lets the users virtually “place” a piece of furniture in their space!
With VR, customers can experience activities or products in realistic settings. Already many travel and tourism companies are using VR 360-degree tour.
So, think of ways you can incorporate all these booming technologies in your area of business.
Helpful Resources:
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User-generated Content
Recently, you might have noticed the rise of UGC, which refers to any content created by the users. It either can be images or videos related to your brand that a follower/fan/customer has created. Take a tour around YouTube or Instagram and you’ll find plenty of examples.
You can take inspiration from what Mecca is doing. This brand encourages their customers or followers to share the looks using their makeup products and then Mecca “regram” those posts on Instagram. According to the research report made on the impact of UGC in the eCommerce industry, almost 20% to 30% conversion rate gets increased using UGC.
Still not involving the customers to increase your sales? Well, it is time to start doing so.
Social Shopping
The reach of social shopping is beyond advertising. Recently, Instagram added a new feature of tagging up to 5 different products in a single post. Well, not only Instagram, there is another platform Pinterest that allows the brands to share their respective products in a number of ways. You can use the following pins.
- Promoted pins
If the target audience of your product is a younger demographic, Snapchat is another great social platform to promote your products. Thus, in 2019, you need to think of creative ways to reach your target audience using various social platforms.
Personalisation
While shopping, customers love to get personalised experience! This personalisation mainly refers to the effective ways eCommerce businesses personally appeal and target to customers.
Well, with the increasing demand for personalisation, customers also love the idea of creating their own personalised products! For instance, with NIKEiD, Nike offers its customers to design their own products. Now, how cool is that!
Chatbots
It is nothing but a computerised program that has been designed so that it can talk to the users. Use of such chatbots does not imply the human interaction is being depersonalised. These chatbots are actually streamlining the journey of the customers by offering them the right information along with connecting the customers to the best people.
In 2016, according to the Oracle report, almost 80% of respondents reported either they were already using chatbots or planning to do so by 2020.
If you are looking for some great instances, take a look at the chatbot designed by H&M. This chatbot operates as a personal shopping assistant to the users and gives style recommendations.
Automation
Probably, the online eCommerce businesses have gained the most from the power of automation. In this particular automation majorly refers to the application and creation of such technology that helps in streamlining various processes such as marketing, sales, production, inventory management along with delivery services.
Starting from establishing the first interaction to the very last – if you implement automation, you can undoubtedly enhance the customer experience along with increasing the conversion rate. Also, you won’t have to worry much about the manually done tasks.
Shopify Plus offers a powerful automation product, using which you can do wonders in your eCommerce store.
Not a Shopify Plus user? Well, don’t worry! You will find a handful of platform agnostic automation solutions for eCommerce like Klaviyo and Drip. For larger enterprises, dotmailer is a great choice.
Using all these eCommerce automation tools, you can effectively track your customers’ lifecycle journeys along with sending them the right personalised message at the right time!
Payment Options
In today’s market, plenty of payment options like digital wallets (Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay), instant layby (ZipPay or AfterPay), Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) etc. are available. According to a report made by The Washington Post, almost 70% of people think that mobile payments are about to overtake cards and cash by 2030.
Well, with the increasing demand of such diverse types of payment options, the checkout experience for the consumers is going to become more frictionless. Many market research reports have reflected the fact that these digital wallets can mean “3X mobile cart conversion”.
Hence, to stay ahead of most of your competitors and to give your online business a fine touch, you should consider incorporating multiple payment options.
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Easier Checkouts
In 2017, the cart abandonment rate was around almost 79%. If you dig into the details, you will find that 28% mentioned the complicated and long checkout process was the main reason behind abandoning cart the. According to 37%, the main reason was the need of creating an accounting before checking out. Here’s a list of suggestions for you to make the checkout process smoother and easier.
- You should not force a customer to register
- One page checkout
- Appropriate input fields
- If possible, with the image recognition software, you can allow the users to scan their credit cards
- Autofill fields
If you are already doing everything mentioned above and still not getting a satisfactory sales figure, maybe it is time to invest a bit in the UX specialist team.
Video Content
In recent times, you might have noticed that the demand and use of video content are on a rise in today’s eCommerce market. By 2019, it has been predicted that almost 80% of all the web traffic will be through video content only!
Are you wondering how can you create sales-oriented video content? Well, click here to know how brands can create effective video contents! Animation videos, brand films, FAQ videos, testimonials, product videos, educational videos – there are a lot of ways to present videos in favour of your business.
According to a recently made report on the eCommerce market analysis, such video contents are more capable of grabbing customers’ attention and keeping them engaged. Also, with such videos, your customers will be more receptive to the conveyed message.
In 2019, you need to think out of the box to showcase your services and products and using video content definitely sounds like a great idea!
Digitising experiences of real world
Well, in this tech-savvy era, it is time to merge the physical world with the digital world! Create a sense of wonder for your customers by including various interactive digital experiences in your store. Check out the concept Amazon adopted through Amazon Go. It is wonderful!
You can find another great example of such digitising real-world experiences at Testa Motors’ Toronto Store, where customers can configure their own Tesla car on a giant touchscreen! Additionally, the configured car can be previewed on a video wall of 85-inch.
According to a market analysis report made in 2018, on an average 51% of the millennials and 38% of people like such a store that has integrated the latest technologies. Hence, time to upgrade your online store with the blessings of cutting-edge technologies.
So, these were some of the trends that can change the digital presence of your store or business in a remarkable way. You will find some more bonus tips and trends mentioned below!
- Advanced Product Filtering
- Voice Commerce
- Subscription Services
- Mobile-first Commerce
- Delivery Options
- Multi-channel Attribution
- Omni-channel eCommerce
- Multi-channel Messaging
Well, did you like the checklist? Are you planning to start with implementing these trends? If you are trying to find an expert programmer, who can help you out with your online store setup implementing all these trends successfully, GetAProgrammer!
You will find the best Shopify, Kentico, Opencart and Magento developer in Australia at GetAProgrammer. Starting from consultation to planning, implementing ideas to store development, deployment to maintenance and support – for every requirement, you will find a complete business solution at GetAProgrammer.
So, ready to get started? Let’s talk about your eCommerce business strategies in 2019!
