Ecommerce Trends In 2017

Ecommerce grows in numbers, stats and revenue. Americans actually prefer online shopping, to traditional detail (51%) and the market is said to grow up to 523$ billion in 2020. Creating unique and personal interactions, that will accompany customers throughout the buyers journey, will have an additional level. Technology, web tracking and multi-platform engagement allow us to chase after the money — how it will be used in ecommerce?

Artificial Intelligence, Real Engagement

There is always a need for conversation about the product, when approaching shopping. Customers might want to know if till when the item is available with a special price, what kind of material is used to make it, will it be suitable for children. The need doesn’t have to be cut, when making online purchases — there are more and more AI bot solutions, Call pop-ups and Social Media abilities, that introduce e-commerce as a real-time experience. Even Facebook Messenger has a bot option for online stores. The AI sector grows in language & machine learning. Soon enough bots will gain the ability to automate nearly every request and master the language, immediately saving crucial data.

Data’s wisdom tooth

This brings us to big data and ways to inscript all the interactions, that customers have on their buyer’s journey. This means that retailers will not only gain knowledge on the searched items, or will track the potential customers that visited their websites, but, with great data analysis tools like Kissmetrics, Woopra or AgilOne, will be able to predict customers behaviour. The more the product is fitted to customers needs the better — we all know that, but with 2017 we can welcome an era of 99% matched recommendations and 99% suggestions. Annoying, unfitting ads are worthless — they don’t bring money and oppress the user. That’s why ecommerce market is focused heavily on big data collection and personal experience.

Cashless future

Another 2017 upcoming innovation will meet the in-store market as well. How to make payments easy? This is an ongoing question addressed by financial industry, marketers and bankers. Mobile payments will revolutionize the web — we already have banking authorization pushes, that enable easy payment validations, Google Wallet money transfers and a MasterCard promised “selfie pay” — photo taking to verify online purchases. Point-of-sale will be approaching closer and closer to the customer, whether it will be an online store or a regular one.

A no-time delivery

The doors for delivery innovations remain wide open, since Amazon came up with future drone-delivery “Prime Air”. Nothing sounds stupid or unrealistic now, and merchants are coming up with great delivery options. Some companies have connected with Uber to offer same day delivery, some have introduced more pick-up networks for order’s pickup and return and some have invested in ship-from-store option, that allows clients to actually choose the product and have it carried home (within few days) for them. Retailers will be soon better than Santa Claus himself, when it comes to delivery on time.

Engaging is not yet passe

As social media grow, the question “who are you?” can be answered in many different ways, on many different platforms. Ecommerce era is the best time to build interactions based not only on the purchase but on the engagement as well. Each social media channel should have it’s content adjusted to the medium, and excite followers with great price values or photos. Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and Pinterest have their solutions on ecommerce (pinable price tags, sores & marketplaces, bots), and the trend in connecting users with sales at every possible point.