The e-commerce industry is in constant flux. This introduces a certain fear and uncertainty, but at the same time makes you understand and be interested in the field even more.
Every year: unexpected changes, turns, challenges that can take your business to a new level or, conversely, become a critical point of your e-commerce project.
Regardless of the ups and downs, you face this year, remember that the e-commerce market is booming now. It is getting bigger and more diverse than ever before. This is why we want to present an exclusive overview of e-commerce growth trends in 2020.
I’ve compiled a list of the ten hottest e-commerce trends that will probably push you to new ideas, answer pressing questions, and help make your business even more successful over time.
1. By 2022, Global E-commerce Retail Sales Will be Total $4.9 Trillion.
According to a recent study, global e-commerce retail sales will hit a new high by 2022. From $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.9 trillion in 2022, e-commerce businesses may expand by 265 percent. This indicates a future trend of steady growth with no visible signs of a downturn.
However, what’s more intriguing is that e-commerce sales are gradually devouring the worldwide retail industry. E-commerce will account for 17.5 percent of worldwide retail revenues by 2022.
Of course, this share is still a small fraction of global retail sales, but it also opens up more opportunities for growth in the future. To capitalise on this trend, physical stores should start building the infrastructure to move their business from offline to online. And online companies should look for new ways to further develop their brands.
2. Shopping Through Many Channels Will Become More Common.
The usage of many channels will become increasingly prevalent as the borders between the real and digital environments blur. This is evidenced by 73% of shoppers using many channels to shop.
The use of multi-channel promotion by e-commerce companies is an opportunity to determine what, where, when, how, and why people buy.
There are many examples of how multichannel shopping works. For example, people can find all the product information online and then buy in a physical store, or buy items online and pick them up in an offline store. The more channels your customers use, the higher the chance that their average order value will rise. Shoppers who used more than four shopping channels spend an average of 9% more in-store than those who only use one.
Every client interaction point is critical because it compiles all the data into a complete customer story. Keeping track of all your consumers’ interactions with a product or service before they buy will help you better target your marketing efforts and divide your advertising budget.
Make sure you integrate your offline and online venues into a single marketing channel. Create convenient offline outlets for customers who get to know the product online and make offline purchases. You need to develop a convenient mechanism for customers to shop online and pick it up at a point near them. This also means that your offline and online data must always be in sync to make business decisions faster and more efficiently.
3. The Growing Popularity of Shopping on Social Networks
More and more people are shopping through social media thanks to its rapid development. Now social networks have become more than advertising channels. And now people can conveniently and quickly purchase goods on the most popular platforms they use every day.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest have already introduced the ability to use product catalogues, which has increased online sales. For example, Instagram has launched a “shoppable post” feature that allows companies to tag products with shopping tags in posts or stickers in stories.
When people click on a product tag on a post or sticker in a story, they see:
- An image of the item
- Short description
- Price
- A button that, when clicked, takes the person to the site to purchase the item
This tool reduces the time customers make purchases on social networks. There are many other tools with which you can promote products and services on social networks, so take note of this trend in 2021/2022 and start expanding your audience.
4. The Core of E-commerce is Shifting Away From The Western Hemisphere
In 2020, the US behemoth’s share of the overall global e-commerce retail industry is expected to drop by as much as 16.9%. One major factor in the decline is the rise of globalisation and improvements in technology and infrastructure in other regions.
As a result of this shift in focus, businesses must adopt a global approach to provide worldwide accessibility and ease for clients all over the world. Adapting to a global business model, of course, does not need actual presence outside of your nation.
The surest way is to look for reliable partners in countries or regions where there is high demand for your products. Mondelez International, the manufacturer of Oreos and Cadbury, teamed up with ChannelSight to sell its products in 25 additional regions, connecting more than 130 merchant websites.
5. The Development of International Shopping
A fascinating truth is that customers are searching for products on the internet outside of their native nation. In fact, 57% of online consumers said they had bought at foreign online businesses in the previous six months.
By region, 63.4 percent of customers have bought online outside of their own country, 57.9% in Asia-Pacific, 55.5 percent in Africa, 54.6 percent in Latin America, and 45.5 percent in North America. This pattern is linked to the globalisation of e-commerce. Don’t forget to invest in infrastructure and technology to assist you to adapt to international buyers when selling to foreign nations.
6. Growth of Online Commerce in The B2B Segment
B2B eCommerce refers to business-to-business internet transactions. When comparing B2B and B2C eCommerce, the B2B market is anticipated to be twice as large in 2020.
By 2022, B2B e-commerce sales in the United States will total $1,184 trillion. The prevalence of B2B means that businesses in the business-to-business segment must strive to simplify transactions, bringing the process closer to the B2C model. B2B transactions are much more complex because customers must go through several different steps of the transaction before making a purchase, including interacting with a sales representative, negotiating terms, and closing a contract.
In other words, B2B businesses must adapt to easier ways to close deals by creating simplified opportunities to interact with customers, manage orders, etc.
7. Personalisation in E-commerce Will Become The Standard
Personalisation in e-commerce has been a booming trend among companies around the world over the past few years. But in 2020 and beyond, personalisation will become an unwavering standard. According to statistics, 33% of customers have terminated their relationships with companies where they noted a lack of or inadequate personalisation.
In addition, personalisation is already an entire marketing strategy. Personalisation in e-commerce is based on a comprehensive analysis of the customer’s personal information, demographics, online behaviour, purchase history, and any other data relevant to online shopping.
There are many ways to incorporate personalisation into your business. For example, you can recommend certain products in your online store based on what they’ve already added to their cart.
8. The Revolution in Mobile Shopping
The mobile market has matured quite a bit over the past few years, and by the end of 2018, mobile traffic reached 70% of total e-commerce traffic.
The desire of customers to conduct transactions without the need for a computer is driving the growth of mobile use in e-commerce. They want to be able to buy anything right away. Shoppers may now explore, evaluate, and purchase items from their mobile devices at any time and from any location.
Mobile shopping will become essential in the next years, with $175.4 billion in sales expected by 2022. This means that your e-commerce company should join the mobile shopping revolution by optimising your website for mobile devices and developing your own app.
9. Voice Commerce at The Peak of Popularity
It wasn’t long ago that new voice control technology was introduced to the world of e-commerce. People are already interacting with companies in new ways because of the arrival of speech technologies like Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Customers have embraced the function, and voice commerce is becoming more popular. Any commercial transaction that takes place by voice is referred to as voice commerce.
This technology has given e-commerce enterprises a new way to sell and expand their businesses. In fact, voice commerce is expected to generate $40 billion in revenue by 2022, and that’s just in the United States. In 2016, Amazon launched voice shopping, allowing customers to purchase Christmas goods via Alexa.