Are you into the e-commerce business? How was the last year for your industry?
Extremely challenging!!
Economic shocks due to the Ukraine War and the closure of the pandemic-induced boom in sales all have kept traders on their toes. Despite such hardships, in 2022, Asia expected growth of above 2 trillion US dollars, and America followed it with around 1.1 trillion. Africa has the lowest revenue worldwide and that was also around 44 billion US dollars.
The numbers are only expected to increase with a bang. It’s good news, but competition will also be at its peak.
The e-commerce industry is constantly evolving; as said before, competition is extremely high!!
The only key to excelling in the competition is to keep yourself updated with the latest trends. Only then can you meet the customer’s demands.
Here are the emerging trends you need to look at in 2023 to remain competitive in the e-commerce industry. Take a look.
Top E-commerce Trends 2023
Incorporating e-commerce trends into your business would help you presume customer needs and explore new opportunities to stay ahead in the competitive environment.
1) Omnichannel Shopping Experience
Consumers browse things online before actually making a purchase. But your customer’s shopping journey does not always begin and ends at your website only.
They expect a consistent experience on multiple channels – online, social media, and in-store. Sometimes, customers check the prices of the respective product offline or on social media and then return to your website to purchase it.
So, merchants must focus on delivering a steady and tailored shopping experience to their users. It is because of this that companies are increasingly prioritizing omnichannel.
Moreover, it also provides better customer insights and helps businesses better understand customer behaviour. You will use this data to provide an enhanced shopping experience.
Depending on their previous searches, likings, or interests, you can offer personalized recommendations to your buyers. It will increase your chances of converting more sales.
If you are successful in delivering the best omnichannel experience, your chance of being successful in the ecommerce industry increases.
Also Read : Is Ecommerce Financing Correct for Your Business?
2) Buy Now Pay Later
It is one of the many trends in high demand in the ecommerce industry. If you shop offline, you usually get the facility of purchasing the products on easy installments. When customers prefer buying this way, thus giving the same facility in online shopping is the need of the hour.
Incorporating it into your online store will help you boost sales by reducing the card abandonment ratio. Some popular platforms like PayPal, Sezzle, Affirm, Afterpay, etc., already facilitate BNPL transactions. Mastercard is also going to join other payment options soon this year.
When the user finds their preferred payment mode in the list, it will result in a quick checkout process. Here we would like to add that if your ecommerce platform is Shopify, it eliminates the need of integrating with any other BNPL provider. You will get the same facility in its Shop Pay Installments plugin.
3) Engage clients with Personalization
Whether it is B2B or B2C industry, providing a personalized shopping experience to your users is vital in e-commerce. Do you think personalized emails and notifications will serve the purpose? No, it is not enough now; you need to give a more personalized experience to make your customers spend more on your services.
You have many options, from product recommendations to chatbots, customized deals, and sending customers valuable information about the already purchased product on their email. The more effective personalization you provide, the higher the chances they will return to your website again.
Understanding your consumers’ needs and preferences helps you build better relations with your customers.
Also Read : 6 Best Ecommerce Platforms To Create Your Online Store
4) Seamless experience with Voice Search
Everyone likes comfort and looks for quick options. Today we all are in such a hurry that we usually prefer voice search over typing the query and then searching for our respected product.
It is new in the e-commerce industry but is in trend. Though some consumers are still hesitant in this shopping mode, time is not far behind when everyone will prefer it. Whether it is website content, product title or description, optimize your voice searches in natural language with proper long-tail keywords to let it rank higher in the search engine.
Amazon’s Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, etc., are some of the online voice assistants. Use these voice search features wisely to make your product found easily by the voice assistants.
5) Interactive Websites
Gamification is the new trend on the rise in the e-commerce industry. To catch the user’s attention, especially GEN Z people, the ecommerce development Toronto team adds interactive games to the shopping sites. It helps to make the website more interactive and keeps them there for a longer time.
It goes like this – a user plays the game and gets a discount coupon for shopping on the website. Today you can see different gamification features on websites to deliver a more interactive experience to the audience.
6) Quick and free delivery
Once the order is placed, people want their product to be delivered at the earliest. So, to meet customer expectations, you must make your product delivery process fast. Because of this trend, companies have started including features like – same day, next day, 2 to 14 deliveries, etc.
Moreover, ecommerce stores have also begun conveying the exact date when the customer will receive the purchase order. The tracking facility is also a plus point here.
Not only the speed, but free shipping is also in trend. Compared to the product price, people are more convinced with the low or no shipping costs.
Both the shipping speed and price are greatly influencing the eCommerce industry. All these efforts help in building trust among the shoppers towards your website.
7) Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in e-commerce
After COVID, people have developed the habit of buying online rather than in-store shopping. This increases the need to provide a more engaging and intuitive visual shopping experience for more sales. It lets your consumer interact with your brand more immersively.
For this reason, you can see a rise in AR and VR services and products, especially in the home décor and lifestyle sections. It enables users to understand the product better and make the right purchase decision without seeing it in person.
VR and AR offer virtual rooms for consumers to try things. You can virtually try glasses and frames on Lenskart’s online store. IKEA’s Studio App and Amazon’s AR view also allow you to see a virtual 3D picture of the product in your space.
Consumers are positively reacting to AR and VR technology. So, if your business has yet to adopt it, it’s the right time to include it now to make it stay ahead in the competition.
8) Multiple Payment Methods
Technological advancements have made it possible to give more payment options to shoppers shopping online. As more people shop online, faster and more secure transactions are in demand now.
Usually, customer’s abandon the cart after finding their payment option is not on the list. Here, the more payment options you offer to your customers, the more the chances of conversion. Along with the staple payment methods – debit and credit cards- e-digital wallets are also in trend.
Moreover, if your customers use cryptocurrency, you can also add them to your payment methods. Moreover, if you allow them to save the payment options, it will provide them with a more streamlined payment journey by making their checkout process quicker and easier.
The more you cater to your customer’s requirements, the higher your chances of success in the e-commerce business.
9) Better Customer Support with Interactive Chatbots
When a customer visits in-store, he or she can easily approach a sales representative. But the same cannot happen in online e-commerce stores. Chatbots came into existence to overcome this gap and are in trend now.
Consumers are usually in a hurry and need a response instantly. Chatbots are used to give quick answers to typical customer queries. The stronger your customer support is, the happier your customers will be and, thus, higher conversion rates.
Provide better customer support by using chatbots in your e-commerce store
10) Social Commerce
Gone is the time when social media was just for marketing or promoting the products. Today, you can even buy or sell on these platforms with built-in technology. Like Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram Shops help users buy things directly.
The industry is in trend now and is expected to grow at a faster pace. So, it’s time to use social commerce to influence your customers and get more conversions.
Closing Words
When you plan to set up your e-commerce store, it seems challenging to you. But more difficult is to sustain and keep it ahead in the competitive space. Your every step in the e-commerce industry should be to enhance the customer experience.
Our above-listed trends will help you beat the competition and make your business stand out. Follow these trends to make your business reach new heights of success in 2023.
