E-commerce refers to the purchasing and selling of materials, products, services, or any other type of goods and services by consumers, retailers, and businesses through the internet.
Business to Business or B2B, Business to Consumer or B2C,
and Consumer to Consumer or C2C are examples of e-commerce models. With the significant adoption of e-commerce on a global scale, new trends and emerging technologies lead to drastic changes and developments in the E-Commerce Industry:
1. Voice Assistance Technology
People are relying more and more on voice-controlled personal assistance. Based on individual references, Voice Assistance Technology offers personalized suggestions that match personal needs based on the search history of a device.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence collects data on how customers shop, when they make purchases, and what they’re seeking in a product or service on a regular basis.
This allows for a potential prediction of future orders that would be placed based on order history and patterns, and not present in-store.
3. Augmented Reality
Before making a purchase, e-commerce buyers may preview products or experience services in their own surroundings and on their own time using augmented reality.
4. Chatbots
Consumers are able to have a better shopping experience and better communication to satisfy their needs because of chatbots. The overall market size for chatbots will be around $1.3B by the end of 2024, noting that chatbots will eliminate the cost of having customer service 24/7.
5. Personalized online experience using insights
Nowadays, consumers are looking for personalized and custom shopping experiences online. The information gathered by AI provide consumers with individualized product suggestions and extensive customer assistance and help the company leading the process.
6. E-commerce video
Videos are still proving that they are a great way to communicate and engage with customers; platforms like Tiktok are a living proof with its revenues. It’s an easy to grasp format that gives our eyes a rest from the overabundance of textual information online, and this is why the world reportedly watches a billion hours of YouTube social video per day.
7. Subscriptions
Instead of buying only one product, businesses can indirectly force consumers to try other products through subscriptions, developing a long-term loyalty from the customer towards the company.
Also, subscriptions bring new marketing opportunities by giving more chances to collect customer data and customer retention.
8. Headless and Application Programming Interface (API)
The disconnection of a website’s front-end display layer from its back-end ecommerce functions is known as headless commerce.
Developers may offer high-quality content experiences using the front-end technology and then plug in an ecommerce system on the backend to handle all commerce operations.
The E-commerce industry is constantly evolving due to the development in technology and changes in customers’ behaviors. For now, consumers are drivers of innovation in the industry, but we’ll constantly be looking into the future!