2015 eCommerce Trends and Predictions for 2016
With the platform of eCommerce constantly changing in this new era of technology, 2016 is going to bring further changes. In fact, online buying has increased in 2015, and likely will in the next year as well. Let’s take a look at what 2015 has brought online business, and what can be expected for 2016.
2015 eCommerce Trends
It has become easier for products and brands to enter new locations, because consumers are actually bringing the new product into their market. With crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, a product can become known around the globe before even being built. This trend means broader market diversity, and will therefore help locations with growing economies.
This also means that a flexible and globally-integrated supply chain needs to be in place for any of this to work. Thankfully, another trend in recent years is for an establishment to constantly be open via the internet. Pickup and delivery times are being changed to match the times that items are ordered online. Since 2013, USPS has even introduced Sunday deliveries as part of a partnership with Amazon, but this is only just gaining traction.
Customers were not formerly ready for same-day, in-store pickup, but this trend has become much bigger this year. Retailers are making this experience more convenient, and consumers are able to order online and use the store as their pickup center, to avoid paying shipping. Because of this, many retail locations are keeping their warehouses much closer to them than ever before, including Amazon, who avoided using warehouses for many years.
Customers who choose their buying and pickup times are more empowered, and thusly more likely to tell the retailers how they felt about the experience. Therefore, truly “wow”-ing the customer is more important than ever. Delivery has to be fast, in-store pickup has to be a good experience, and purchasing and checking out while ordering needs to be convenient. If any steps to the customer getting their item are found to be subpar, the customer will leave some sort of recommendation. To keep customers, retailers need to make sure that every piece of the supply chain is reliable.
Thankfully, companies like Rainmaker Labs from Singapore create mobile apps specifically designed for businesses to keep track of these things and make sure that they have the marketing solutions that they need to keep up with the newest trends in eCommerce.
eCommerce Predictions for 2016
The prediction for 2016 is that online shopping will be up 45% from what it has been in 2015, meaning that it will reach $327 billion. According to Forester, online retail will make up 9% of total retail sales. This may seem like a small number in the grand scheme of things, but that is because some aspects of eCommerce, such as in-store pickup, are just starting to catch on, and most people with an immediate need for an item will still visit brick-and-mortar stores.
192 million people will primarily be online shoppers by 2016, which is quite a jump from the 2012 statistics, which showed this number to be 167 million. The average amount that each shopper spends online will also increase, jumping to $1,738 per shopper. This is up 44% from the 2012 numbers, showing $1,207 spent on average per online shopper.
The numbers are increasing mostly due to online retailers improving their websites, taking advantage of content marketing, and utilizing mailing lists. The number of online shoppers, and amount spent online, are steadily increasing, even from year to year. It can therefore be expected that 2016 will see the most online shoppers and most online sales of any year so far.
Originally published at rainmaker-labs.com on September 30, 2015.
