Things that will shape online retail

We can see massive growth in online retail,  influencer marketing, and even advancements in augmented reality shopping experiences. With every passing year, it not only continues to grow, but also continues to amaze us with the developments in technology and customer centricity that it embraces.

Here we’ll discuss some things that will shape your online retail store.

Why are online trends so important?

The ecommerce world is becoming increasingly competitive. To stay ahead of the competition, ecommerce trends need to be constantly monitored. No matter how mature your ecommerce store is right now, if you don’t keep up with ecommerce trends, you’ll risk falling drastically behind. 

You need to keep looking ahead to ensure future success. As we move, you need to know these trends in order to take advantage of them. That’s why it’s so important that ecommerce trends are analyzed and adopted in a timely manner. By doing this you can drive your ecommerce brand forward, and stay ahead of your competition.

Things that will shape online retail

1. Virtual Reality For ecommerce industry

AR and VR will not only be a part of in-store experiences, but part of other allied things like packaging and ‘try before you buy’ aspects. We are talking about the emergence of testing the product directly in your home before buying them.

Virtual reality is an immersive experience in a completely simulated environment, excluding everything in the physical “real” world. Virtual reality refers to an immersive visual environment. It can refer to 360-degree videos, photos or product demos; or the more complex “headset” VR enabled by devices like the HTC Vive or Oculus Quest. 

Augmented reality, on the other hand, doesn’t completely shut out real life — instead, it adds digital elements to a live view of the world, typically via a smartphone. AR technology is a bit more advanced than VR at this time.

2. Mobile commerce

Creating a top-notch mobile experience for your shoppers will continue to be the focus of online retailers. 2018 is likely to see 40% of eCommerce revenue coming from mobile devices. 

Mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce or m-commerce, involves using wireless handheld devices like cellphones and tablets to conduct commercial transactions online, including the purchase and sale of products, online banking, and paying bills. The use of m-commerce activity is on the rise. 

The rapid growth of mobile commerce has been driven by several factors, including increased wireless handheld device computing power, a proliferation of m-commerce applications, and the broad resolution of security issues.

3. Seamless Omnichannel

Omni-channel retail (or omnichannel commerce) is a multichannel approach to sales that focuses on providing a seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping online from a mobile device, a laptop or in a brick-and-mortar store. 

Customers now expect their online experiences with a particular retailer to seamlessly fuse with their offline experience. The physical stores will now redirect their customers to their online store – encouraging them to make online purchases, and indulge in a more specific marketing campaign by gathering their information – for instance, their email ids.

Omnichannel operations focus on the entire customer experience—not the customer’s individual experiences on different channels.

4. Faster Delivery

Retailers are now targeting delivery of the products within moments of their sale. Same-day delivery is soon going to be a minimum expectation of the shoppers. Amazon is already considering drone delivery services for the Prime customers. Blending speed with convenience is the key.

5. Voice Search

Voice search, also called voice-enabled, allows the user to use a voice command to search the Internet, a website, or an app. In a broader definition, voice search includes open-domain keyword query on any information on the Internet.

Walmart and Google just collaborated to allow shopping with the help of AI powered Google Assistant for re-orders. Voice activated devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home have gained much prominence in recent times; and it was only a matter of time before they were to be used for online shopping as well.

6. Smooth Check-out

By creating a positive, seamless checkout experience you can increase sales. Ecommerce stores that design a site with the user experience (UX) in mind can easily increase conversion rates and boost their ROI.

With ambitious payment gateways replacing the traditional check-out process, closing a purchase is just a matter of a click or two. We are looking at a time when shoppers will no longer be required to enter any detail; they will just hit ‘buy’, and the rest will be automated.

7. Automation

From social selling to automated email marketing and personalized recommendations and targeted ad campaigns, ecommerce has come a long way in terms of automation. We are now headed towards chatbots and more automation to make shopping experiences more enhanced.

Email automation is a way to create emails that reach the right people with the right message at the right moment without doing the work every time, sending automated messages leveraging a marketing automation tool.

When you link your website analytics with your email marketing platform, you can target people based on behavior, preferences, and previous sales. Then you can personalize each customer’s experience and increase the relevance of your automated campaigns.

8. Richer Photography and Videos

With the growth of multi-device usage for people across the planet and those devices having their own screens for even more widespread availability and consumption of storytelling aids like images, video, and other visuals it’s no surprise visual content has become so vital to success.

Images (and videos) are the most essential part of an ecommerce business. From stock photos to original photography and then to videos, this journey has been rather interesting. And now online retailers have moved on to 360 degree videos showcasing real time products and animated GIFs.

Visuals don’t just stand out at first sight; they’re also easier to remember. Add visuals to well-researched and useful content and that content is much more likely to resonate with its audience over time.

9. User Generated Content

Customers are increasingly sharing their product experiences on social media platforms nowadays. Brands interact with their customers and make an attempt to address their concerns and acknowledge their feedback. Customer testimonials and reviews are gaining importance in terms of SEO, website ranking etc. In such a scenario, it is only expected that marketers will continue to celebrate customers who are putting their products out there for the world to see.

10. Website Performance

Website performance measures how quickly the pages of a website load and display in the web browser. Web performance optimization is the practice of improving website performance by various methods faster websites are said to be higher-performing.

Amidst all the design elements, functionalities and features and improved customer experiences what matters in the end is the difference of those 200 milliseconds that can make an online store gain or lose a customer. That is the exact reason your website performance and loading speed needs to be at the top of the game. This will continue to be a focus for all online stores.

Conclusion

When a shopper enters a brick-and-mortar store, they react to the environment, the layout of the store and the product display to make her buying decision. 

But If they lands on a website, they’ll look for a list of functions and qualities that are not unlike those we’ve already talked about they’re built into the ecommerce platform to help the shoppers understand the type of product they’re going to get at this site, find what they are looking for (and a whole lot more).

An appealing retail website isn’t about looks, it’s about shoppability. Above are some of the qualities that make an ecommerce site shoppable.