ECommerce has revolutionised the way we make purchases. It is quicker and easier than ever to make a purchase but there is always room for improvement and in this post we look at the changes set to disrupt eCommerce and trends you should be paying attention to to grow your eCommerce business.
AR
When it comes to eCommerce vs brick and mortar retail one of the arguments you will hear in favour of the latter is the experience, the ability to see and feel that piece of furniture or try on the clothes before you buy them. On the other hand the convenience of eCommerce far outweighs the retail experience for many and the digital space may be about to strike another blow to brick and mortar with AR. Bringing the ability to “try on” an outfit from the comfort of your home combines the best of both worlds. And that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as AR is concerned the ability to see AR furniture in your home not only maintains the convenience of shopping without leaving your home but it allows you to experience the product in the context f your home not the retailer’s display. Flat images can be too far removed from “experiencing” a product but AR can bring us much closer to, if not exceed, the in-store experience.
Social
Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms are consuming more and more of our time and as they continually evolve to remain fresh and keep our attention eCommerce has arrived to social media in a big way. Instagram shop tags, for example, make it extremely easy to go from viewing a product to purchasing it online in just a few clicks. We can be sure that the current shop features from the Facebook family are far from the finished product and that they will continue to innovate, with consumers becoming used to making purchases through these platforms. There is natural synergy between these eCommerce features and the money sharing capabilities of Facebook’s messaging. In addition to this we can expect that Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra, will likely find itself integrated with Facebook’s shopping features at some point in the future.
Voice
According to a Neilsen’s report 24 percent of US households own a smart speaker. That’s a lot of people. Combine that with everyone that has Siri or Google assistant in their pocket and you have a huge and growing market of people with access to voice search.
With the likes of Google being a big player in this space with Google Home, SEO is going to be even more important though there is no telling how the voice search algorithm will differ to text search as it evolves. Other companies operating in this space such as Amazon offer their own challenges, whilst the mobile opens opportunities to leverage voice search through apps. For example, if you could order a product through voice and your phone knows to use your app that’s going to give you an edge over people competing for top voice search rankings via Google. Voice is going to create some interesting new dynamics and challenges to navigate but those who figure it out will be sure to reap rewards for doing so.
Subscription
It isn’t just the way people discover your business or even the pre-sale experience that affects your business’ growth, other eCommerce trends revolve around the business model itself, for example subscription models are a growing trend to pay attention to. If you read our Dollar Shave Club marketing case study you probably understand the enormous upside in a subscription model. Having a customer sign up to repeatedly purchase your product rather than relying on them to come back and repurchase can drastically increase revenues for some companies. There are a growing number of businesses using the subscription model and consumers seem to like it with the subscription ecommerce market growing more than 100% a year, from 2013 to 2018 (Mckinsey, 2018). From socks and razors to tech there is a subscription for everything. You can find gift boxes which offer a different themed gift each month, recipe boxes or more typical subscriptions whereby you receive the same products on a set schedule e.g Dollar Shave Club. Could you implement this model in your business?
Are you prepared for the future of eCommerce? Could your business fit a subscription model? ECommerce has revolutionised how we make purchases and it is going to continue to change, make sure your business is prepared to accommodate shifting consumer behaviour.
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