Upcoming E-commerce trends

Even though we are all going through some troubling times where survival is the most important strategy to follow, It is not at all a bad idea to be aware of the latest trends within our wondrous world of E-commerce. Especially now that potential customers are not able to visit physical stores as easily as before. Even after the the Coronavirus starts to 

dissipate, webshops will likely continue to enjoy increased traffic. In this blog we will take a look at the latest, upcoming and unfolding trends within E-commerce that can give your webshops a competitive edge. The time for innovation is now!

AI and bots, automatisation on the rise!

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are big buzzwords nowadays and have been for the last years, but how can they be applied within E-commerce? AI assistants and chatbots can be utilised to help customers deal with their complaints and questions. these customer inquiries can easily be handled by chatbots that can learn from their interactions with customers. This way the automated assistants can continually improve their interactions with the customer so they can assist them better. One important question to ask in this case is if customers would be comfortable with being aided by a chatbot instead of a real person. A 2017 Statista study shows that 34% of respondents stated they would be open to receiving customer service from a chatbot.

Another use for AI might be to keep track of inventory. Not only ensuring that the business doesn’t run out of merchandise, but to also create projections of how the inventory should grow or shrink. Especially in these times an AI like this could be a great boon. Ensuring that the business does not overstock on items that might have a low priority for the customer.

Interactivity for the customer

With potential customers staying indoors and only going out for the essentials, It is more important than ever to ensure that they can interact with the product so they can make well informed decisions.

The way to do this is by adding interactivity in your webshop so that your customers can get as close to actually holding the item in their hands as they can. Currently there are a lot of different technologies to achieve this. With augmented reality, 3d imagery and virtual reality you can bring your products into the hands of the customer before they have even ordered the product.
All of this interactivity can alleviate some of the hesitation that swims around in your customers minds. This is especially true for the older generations who might not be used to and comfortable with ordering items online that they haven’t been able to interact with.
A great example of this trend is the ‘My second home’ tool by Quechua. This tool allows customers to build a custom tent to their personal specifications.

Growing amount of voice search functionality

With voice recognition technology becoming more and more accurate, voice search technology is a great way to allow customers to interact with your store while their hands are busy with something else. The increase in voice assistant devices like Google’s Google assistant or Amazon’s Alexa allows households to quickly issue commands wherever they are. The fact that more and more people have acces to this technology and grow more comfortable around it means that it’s a great trend to capitalise on.

Personalization, personalization, personalization

Due to the growing amount of customer data that is being saved, it becomes easier and easier to tailor the customer experience specifically to the customer in question. By adjusting the webshop to the needs and wants of the customer, it is much easier to build a lasting connection with that customer.
With the growing internet of things and big data, potential for personalisation is all but scarce. One thing to make sure of however, is that the personalisation does not interfere with a customers privacy. One way to ensure this is by always asking the user beforehand if they are willing to allow the webshop to use their data for the enhancement of their experience. This way we will likely see a group of users that opt for tailored customer experiences, and some that would rather use a standardised version of the webshop.