E-commerce companies need to stay restructured with the latest tools, technologies, software, and world-class e-commerce business trends to set new goals. The e-commerce industry is always changing with new trends. Particularly, e-commerce store owners are developing new strategies to meet customers where they are.

While every factor in e-commerce is evolving, we have given in this article some of the biggest trends that will impact the industry in the coming years.  Explore the leading e-commerce trends and keep abreast of the trends that are important for you to remain competitive and discover new opportunities.

1. Augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) has become a prominent game changer for e-commerce stores since it may help customers make a buying decision. In e-commerce, augmented reality permits consumers to have a real-time interface with products while they are in their location. It connects the gap between customers and physical stores as well as online shopping.  With the features of AR, the digital shopping experience in specific industries – fashion and home décor, can make customers feel better without seeing it in person. AR grants users the ability to not only watch 3D models of products but also lets users see how it looks if they use them. If you are an e-commerce company based in the fashion or design industry, follow this trend to be ahead of your competitors.

2. Artificial Intelligence

Technology built on artificial intelligence has developed to an extent that it has become a vital element of the biggest online stores. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning support e-commerce companies to collect data for automated and personalized shopping experiences. They can continuously collect data on how customer shops when they purchase, and what features they are looking for in a product or a service. Generally, customers want to know whether brands care about them. AI is programmed accordingly to attract customers.

3. Big data

As we have seen above, AI can collect automated data from your website at large. So customer feedback leads to data sets complexity and larger data volumes. Such high velocity and different types of data are too complex to get valuable insights from it. The data from larger data volumes are the mixed-up volume of data so that companies cannot easily refer to use for recognizing the customer’s preferences, patterns, and business processes. So using big data is one of the latest trends among e-commerce companies.

4. Chatbots

Chatbots play a major role in communicating with customers since they perform like in-store sales associates. It has been becoming more and more popular across all industries, but they stand out more in e-commerce. Today’s shoppers want to be able to identify and purchase products in just a few clicks. This is where chatbots have become one of the effective customer experience tools to bring leads and sales. Installing various chatbots on e-commerce websites can bring the best customer feedback. Nowadays, speaking with an e-commerce chatbot is like talking to a human being because it can tell jokes, they have personalities but on top of that, they are very efficient heightening its usefulness the online customer service.

5. Mobile shopping

People always have their mobile phones anytime and anywhere and browse them about 150 times a day on average. This is where mobile shopping comes in handy. Mobile shopping presents customers with the ability to make purchases from anywhere and the comfort it provides to customers has increased rapidly.  In today’s world, the rising number of smartphone users turns normal shopping into mobile shopping as it helps customers to have more product understanding and more convenience to pay. Moreover, if you are an e-commerce company publishing videos and podcasts on your website, your e-commerce site should be responsive on mobile or through web apps. Otherwise, you’ll lose mobile shoppers from all over the world.

6. Payment methods

Offering a wide variety of payment methods is a good way to increase conversion rates on mobile devices. Gone are those days when the only payment option you have was only cash. Moreover, since mobile shoppers want the convenience to pay digitally, various digital payment methods such as credit or debit cards, prepaid, bank transfers, and E-wallets are suitable for mobile shoppers and are to be added to your e-commerce website. If you introduce a payment method based on blockchain technology, it will become a suitable payment gateway for your e-commerce company. 

7. Headless e-commerce platform

Headless commerce is an e-commerce architecture. The headless model has been offering businesses a high level of flexibility and functionality which is relevant in today’s market. In this architecture, the front end is decoupled from the back end commerce features and functions. Hence, it is easy to update or edit features without interfering with the back end. Several e-commerce companies are implementing headless because of its flexibility on the backend. With the added SEO, content marketing, and digital experience capabilities, headless e-commerce platforms have become a great boon for e-commerce companies.

8. Publishing videos

Publishing videos on your e-commerce website is an optical approach to suddenly grab and engage a customer and inform them about your product or service visually.  According to the statistics, 73% of online consumers have become interested to buy products after watching product videos that describe how it works. Since some products are innovative, showing people how to use them can users understand the benefits of the products. If you want to level up your e-commerce business and top your competitors, you would not want to take for granted the power of incorporating videos into your mix.

9. Subscriptions

Subscription platforms help businesses to grow more especially if they have the right tools. This model revolves around the concept of recurring payments for recurring services which makes impressive profits. There are various subscription methods available on e-commerce websites nowadays and their convenience attracts consumers widely. For e-commerce companies, subscription services generate a method to plan for sales and inventory that are previously locked in. E-commerce companies that want to follow the latest trends can introduce innovative methods that can bring more leads and sales.

10. Contextual and programmatic advertising

Context and programmatic ads are on the rise this year. It is a way of expediting marketing campaigns, sales, and brand visibility to a whole new level.  Social media sites are already redesigning their designs based on today’s trends. Simply saying, it can attract the right audience to the right ad at the right time. Compared to basic advertisements, e-commerce stores can get a better chance of reaching out to a larger audience by placing programmatic advertising. And also contextual and programmatic advertising helps you develop digital marketing campaigns based on consumer behaviours.

Conclusion

Since the digital world is ever-changing, e-commerce will only get bigger and better in the coming decade. New technologies will advance the trends. Hence, as e-commerce store owners, you must embrace the trends that best suit your requirements. The business trends given above are vital to take your business to new heights. Apart from the above trends, you may also set new trends after performing market research.