15 Latest eCommerce Trends to Improve Sales Performance

eCommerce platforms around the world generated around 3 trillion dollars in sales in 2018, and by 2021 that number is expected to touch $5 trillion.

To excel over the competition, eCommerce platforms are often trying to establish new trends and technologies to stay unique.

In this article, we will be taking a look at some of the latest eCommerce trends that can help improve sales in 2021.

1. Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are advanced processing concepts which are seeping into almost every business sector out there.

eCommerce platforms can implement machine learning techniques to predict the buying pattern of customers more accurately, which will help in suggesting customers with products that they might be interested in purchasing.

Chatbots powered by AI is also going to be featured in almost all major eCommerce platforms in 2019. Chatbots will help eCommerce platforms in reducing workforce, especially in customer support.

Moreover, even though computers power chatbots, they are so advanced that in almost all common scenarios, customers won’t even realize the difference between a Chatbot and a human representative.

Each year, our business sees artificial intelligence playing a bigger part in digital marketing. AI continues to become smarter, even though we don’t necessarily want it at HAL 9000 level – Mike Khorev Follow @MikeKhorev

2. One-click Checkout

Frequent online shoppers would love an instant buying experience where they do not have to go through a multi-step checkout process.

Until now, Amazon had the patent on the technology related to one-click checkout. However, the patent expired this year, and by the end of 2019, more eCommerce platforms will offer a one-click checkout process.

Most popular eCommerce sites such as Shopify, Volusion, BigCommerce, and Magento Commerce are already developing their own respective one-click checkout tools currently.

3. Augmented Reality

A report by ThinkMobiles state that 54 percent of buyers prefer purchasing goods from offline retail stores than eCommerce sites just because they cannot fully see the product online.

With the implementation of Augmented Reality (AR) in eCommerce platforms, buyers will be able to visualize the product that they are about to buy.

Using AR will not only help in getting new customers but will also make buyers want to come back for more and will also motivate them to spend more time and make purchases within the platform.

4. Marketing Through Social Media Influencer

Even though marketing through social media influencers isn’t a new trend, it has been gaining a lot more popular in recent years.

Social media influencing is now the most popular form of advertising as people trust and follows social media celebrities closely. A study by Twitter found out that 40 percent of Twitter users make purchases based on promotions done by influencers within the platform.

Moreover, In 2019, we will see a lot more collaborations between eCommerce platforms and influencers from popular social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and even YouTube. Another article by Newswire stated that 92% of customers across the globe prefer personal recommendations over any other form of advertisements.

5. Subscription-based Model

The subscription-based model has worked well for media consumption for years now, and now the same model is gaining popularity in the eCommerce space as well.

Consumers are more interested in the subscription-based model for goods that they regularly use as with just one subscription, and they will get their products delivered automatically periodically without having to place a separate order each time.

Everything you purchase — from transportation to entertainment to groceries — will soon come with a monthly plan. – Zuora CEO Tien TzuoFollow @tientzuo

Moreover, as a subscription-based model usually feature large orders, customers can also get huge discounts by availing the service rather than making separate purchases each time.

6. Payment Options

Most eCommerce platforms lose a big part of customers mainly because of lack of support for a variety of payment options.

As there are a variety of local and international payment methods available around the world, eCommerce platforms will surely extend their payment options by allowing customers to pay in the form that is popular in their part of the world.

The new payment options that we will see shortly will include cryptocurrencies and digital payment options.

7. Customization Options

People often search eCommerce websites with something peculiar in mind, and most of the times they do not get to buy whatever is in their mind.

By providing customization options for products, people will be able to bring their ideas into reality, which will encourage buyers to make more purchases within the platform.

As implementing customization options will let customers buy precisely the product that they need, it will also reduce return and cancellation rates as well.

8. Video Content About Products

Almost all eCommerce platforms out there display their products in the form of images. With images, people are often confused about whether the product shown in the picture will be what they receive in real life.

By displaying video content about products within the platform, buyers can be fully confident about what they buy. This will not only increase conversions but will also make customers feel more connected to the eCommerce platform.

9. Voice Search

Nowadays, over 20 percent of all search queries done on the internet are made using voice commands, and that rate is expected to reach 50 percent by 2020.

With services like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant making people more confident about performing voice-based searches, it is high-time that eCommerce platforms also implement a similar solution.

Voice-based searches will help buyers to search for a particular kind of product without having to click through different categories and apply a ton of filters to their search.

10. eCommerce Financing

Even though most eCommerce platforms offer financing options through credit/debit cards, a majority of people are not able to get these financing benefits as they often do not meet the eligibility criteria.

93% of first-time consumer credit users said they would use consumer credit again – (Source:BigCommerce

As an alternative, eCommerce platforms are nowadays partnering with financing companies and banks to offer direct financing to customers from within the eCommerce website. This makes it easier for people to make purchases and make payments for their orders as installments.

11. Physical Product Experience

Even though the eCommerce industry is killing brick and mortar stores, buyers still value the experience that they get while checking out a product in retail stores.

To offer a retail-like experience to buyers while shopping, many eCommerce platforms will provide customers with the option to get products delivered to their doorstep and check out the product before actually confirming the purchase

The physical experience of checking out a product before purchasing it will increase the confidence amongst online shoppers and hence will boost sales.

12. Death of Middlemen/Wholesale Dealers

Another growing trend in the eCommerce market is for manufacturers to advertise and sell their product to the customers directly.

Both global and local brands are trying to directly sell their products through eCommerce platforms by cutting out the middlemen or wholesale dealers in the process.

When manufacturers directly sell the products to the customers, the buyers can be assured of product quality and moreover, as the middlemen are cut out, the products can also be sold at a cheaper rate than usual.

13. Sales Through Social Media

There are over 2.7 billion users on various social media platforms all around the world. eCommerce platforms are now trying out different ways to get these users to purchase items without actually visiting the eCommerce website.

One of the best ways is to promote advertisements for products on such social media platforms. We can already see products from popular brands and eCommerce platforms being advertised on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

One prime reason why eCommerce platforms love promoting products through social media websites is that they can easily target their advertisements to relevant people.

14. Better Analytics Tools For eCommerce Platforms

Analytics tools are an integral part of the eCommerce business.

Moving ahead, eCommerce analytics tools will include real-time sales and activity information along with predictive information on user trends and sales patterns.

This will help eCommerce websites to plan stock inventory according to the sales patterns and will also assist in targeting relevant buyers with a product that they might be interested in through email marketing. Check out advanced SEO tools for enhancing your website performance.

15. Users Will Be Encouraged To Be More Involved With Reviews

Reviews are critical for buyers to decide on whether to purchase a product or not.

However, most buyers do not share reviews about their online purchase, and certain brands also try to influence the popularity of their products with fake reviews.

In recent times, eCommerce platforms are encouraging buyers to share reviews of their online purchases in the form of text, pictures, and even video content.

eCommerce platforms will feature influential customer reviews on their websites and also promote the reviews on social media websites to build confidence in buyers about the product.

Existing customers will also be able to answer questions asked by people who are interested in purchasing the product to give personalized advice and recommendations to buyers.

Final Words

The central concept of an eCommerce platform is to provide users with a smooth and quick shopping experience.

All the trends listed above are different ways that improve the user experience and interaction within an eCommerce platform to make them feel more connected to the shopping experience.