By David Gutierrez.
Ecommerce just keeps growing bigger and bigger. What began with a few companies in the 1990s has exploded into a worldwide phenomenon. And yet, even after massive growth in online shopping, it still accounts for a bit less than 10 percent of total retail sales in the U.S.
Despite Amazon, the future is exceptionally bright for brands capable of harnessing the power of ecommerce. But in this rapidly changing industry, it can be challenging to stay ahead of the game. Innovations are continually expanding the envelope of what’s possible. In other words, there’s a high-tech (or perhaps an even higher-tech) future for ecommerce on the horizon. Here’s how to make sure your company is in the driver’s seat rather than just along for the ride.
Expedited Checkout
Amazon was the first company to pioneer the idea of one-click checkout. For a long time, they’ve had a monopoly on this technology. Now, other ecommerce providers are developing this for themselves. Why is one-click checkout so important? Because it breaks down barriers to conversion.
Consider this: the total cart abandonment rate across all kinds of online retail was over 75 percent in the second quarter of 2017. People either reconsider or get distracted and never complete their purchases. This represents a huge number of lost sales. Streamlining the checkout process will lower this for a lot of e-stores.
Artificial Intelligence
There’s been a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years. People are excited about how this burgeoning technology will affect the future of ecommerce. One of the most prominent ways AI will transform the industry is by helping brands target their advertising more effectively. AI will identify specific types of people who will be most likely to buy certain goods. Companies can more effectively manage their marketing budges with this information and targeting capabilities.
Better Site Design
In the early days of dial-up modem Internet access, people were happy to have a web page load—period. But today’s consumer expects near-instant load times with intuitive design and usability across a number of different end-user devices. People tend to abandon any web page that has a load time longer than three seconds. This makes it very important to perform a cloud ecommerce platform comparison. Make sure your platform choice values speed and design as much as you do.
Even More Data
Data is exploding. Companies are now finding ways to capture and use it to improve operations in more ways than ever before. For example, real-time statistics can show what times of the day are seeing the most conversions. Harnessing this technology allows ecommerce store owners to precisely plan for time-sensitive sales and other tactics.
More Social Integration
Social media is ingrained into modern habits. This cultural phenomenon offers abundant opportunities for ecommerce. As time progresses, social media channels continue providing better and more in-depth integration. Some ecommerce platform providers are now intertwined with social media platforms.
Instagram is particularly useful for ecommerce, due to its visual nature. Brands can carefully curate their messages and images to their audiences. Then, when people are ready to buy, they can be directly brought to a checkout screen.
The future will only bring more exciting developments to the world of ecommerce. The companies that do the best job adapting to these changes will create massive opportunities for themselves.
David Gutierrez started his career as a web designer in 2005. In 2012 he founded a creative design agency. Now it serves clients all over the world across multiple industries with a specific focus on FMCG and Fin-Tech.