Retail e-commerce is ever-changing and improving due to technology’s rapid pace of innovation. E-commerce businesses must be able to keep up with the evolving landscape of technological upgrades and compete favorably against competitors to increase their market share.
No one knows what the future of retail e-commerce will be like with any certainty. But a look back at e-commerce global sales from 2014 to 2021 gives an idea of what retail e-commerce businesses can expect going forward.
Retail e-commerce businesses stats from 2014 to 2021 (in Billions US Dollar)
In 2017 retail e-commerce global sales added up to 2.3 trillion USD. From this figure financial analysts project e-commerce sales will increase to 4.88 trillion USD by 2021. In 2017 sales of the three dominant online stores added up to nearly 100 billion USD.
However uncertain the future of retail e-commerce, some of its elements are fixed. For example, delivery times will get faster; customer service continue to improve; and product choices multiply. In view of all this, e-commerce businesses should ask themselves: what does our company need to do to anticipate the future trends of customer spending online?
High-Quality Merchandise and Monthly Payments to Encourage Buying
Premium products inventory and monthly payment methods will almost certainly make up a growing part of retail e-commerce’s future. Consumers are not interested in purchasing non-brand products. They are interested in purchasing brand labels and lifestyle merchandise. They want the personalized buying experience that only a retail e-commerce businesses’ product familiarity and know-how can impart.
What in Queue?
E-commerce Drones to Lower Costs and Delivery Times
New on the horizon of improving customer service are drone deliveries. Order fulfillment centers will send out drones to consumers’ delivery addresses. And the time is soon arriving when drone package delivery times will occur as quickly as sixty minutes or less from the time the order is placed.
The use of drones will cut costs and avoid the challenges of ground delivery (weather) and time (indirect routes). Retail behemoth Amazon has already started using drones in a kind of pilot program. This will motivate other businesses to adopt drone delivery as part of their retail e-commerce business model.
Pop-up Stores Personalize Customer Experience with Online Data
The borders of online shopping and retail shopping in time will blur. Being proactive, retail e-commerce businesses are looking at how to mesh the online and offline consumer purchasing experience. They want as much as possible to offer a personalized and tailored experience, using and integrating customer personalization across-the-board (e-commerce and physical commerce).
E-Commerce and physical commerce get intertwined in consumer’s minds through webrooming and showrooming. These are two shopping methods consumers use to get the best bargains. With showrooming consumers visit a brick-and-mortar store and price items. Then they go online to an e-commerce store to purchase the item for a more affordable price.
Webrooming works in reverse. Consumers research products online, then buy at physical retailers for a better price. The problem for the e-commerce business, who only has an online presence, is research done on their site, resulting in the purchase being made at a physical retailer, will lower the e-commerce business’s profits.
Pop-up retail stores are an ad hoc solution for e-commerce businesses to market their products offline. Pop-ups can engage a whole new audience of buyers, who normally prefer to see the product at a physical retailer. Converting these kinds of shoppers into becoming fans of a product will encourage them to visit the e-commerce store.
Pop-up Stores Personalize Customer Experience with Online Data
The borders of online shopping and retail shopping in time will blur. Being proactive, retail e-commerce businesses are looking at how to mesh the online and offline consumer purchasing experience. They want as much as possible to offer a personalized and tailored experience, using and integrating customer personalization across-the-board (e-commerce and physical commerce).
E-Commerce and physical commerce get intertwined in consumer’s minds through webrooming and showrooming. These are two shopping methods consumers use to get the best bargains. With showrooming consumers visit a brick-and-mortar store and price items. Then they go online to an e-commerce store to purchase the item for a more affordable price.
Webrooming works in reverse. Consumers research products online, then buy at physical retailers for a better price. The problem for the e-commerce business, who only has an online presence, is research done on their site, resulting in the purchase being made at a physical retailer, will lower the e-commerce business’s profits.
Pop-up retail stores are an ad hoc solution for e-commerce businesses to market their products offline. Pop-ups can engage a whole new audience of buyers, who normally prefer to see the product at a physical retailer. Converting these kinds of shoppers into becoming fans of a product will encourage them to visit the e-commerce store.
AI Systems to Improve E-Commerce Business Profits
E-commerce in one way has an edge over physical retailers, that of being able to automate their business processes completely. Apps abound to help even the small e-commerce business compete in the marketplace. And technology given its nature constantly changes and evolves, forcing e-commerce businesses to adapt quickly in order to stay competitive.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next stage for e-commerce businesses. For example, AI’s developing algorithms can maximize the sales process and increase conversion rates on websites. AI’s evolution will bring e-commerce businesses to new heights of complexity.
E-commerce businesses need to adopt AI algorithm systems as soon as it is feasible. When smaller e-commerce businesses see the positive impact AI is making on larger businesses, they will begin using AI algorithms also. As AI systems explode in popularity they will enhance e-commerce businesses’ abilities to become ever more competitive.
Analytics to Measure Consumer Behavior on All Devices
There are consumers who use multiple devices for their online shopping before they decide to buy. Analytics measuring of all these devices is still in the nascent stage. But retail e-commerce businesses are starting to take a hard look at using analytics to track usage between devices. As analytics evolve around device usage, the differences in consumer behavior happening across different devices such as PCs, smartphones, and tablets will become clearer.
Attribution Modeling for Retail E-Commerce
Attribution modeling is about touch points along the marketing channel. Instead of ad click-throughs or ads viewed, the sales funnel provides the information for estimating the return on investment (ROI). In attribution modeling, a value is assigned to touch points considered the most important relative to ROI. Discovering these touchpoints will inform retail e-commerce businesses where their marketing budget will be best spent consequent with a potent ROI.
Author Bio: Patricia attended San Francisco State University and earned a degree in Technical and Professional Writing in 2008. She took a professional development course, B2B High-Performance Copy-writing from American Writers and Artists Inc., in which she learned among other things lead generation, white papers, and landing pages. She has experience in blogging and expert in writing different topics.