Future of Online Retailing

Yaali Inventory
ecommerce-yaali
Published in
3 min readOct 31, 2017

You’ve probably heard that brick and mortar retail is in trouble. Even industry giants are closing hundreds of stores.

As Online sales rise, Digital age demands unprecedented speed for consumers around the world, the brick-and-mortars facing slow store traffic are going by the wayside and businesses are instead taking to the internet to boost sales.

Traditional big-box retailers like Kmart and Target are consolidating brick-and-mortar stores to cut costs and started focusing on targeted audience with E-commerce retail.

Other big-box retailers with substantial chain closures in the past few years include Macy’s, Sears, Kohl’s, JCPenney, and Walgreens, while clothing retailers like American Apparel, Wet Seal, The Limited, and BCBG Max Azria have all recently announced closures as well.

Better Example

Even Walmart, one of the largest retailers in the world with over 11,000 locations, has embraced E-commerce.

In 2016 the company acquired E-commerce site Jet.com for $3.3 billion to increase its online presence and benefit from the site’s established shopping platform, bringing it one step closer to leading online retailer Amazon. This combined with store consolidations have proven beneficial for Walmart, who posted a third consecutive quarter of double digit online growth.

In 2017 the Walmart partnered with google to make shopping more easier for it’s customers which includes voice shopping too.

Futuristic Online Retailing –

Instant Delivery

Today, the norm is two-day delivery. But if you’ve been paying attention, you know that’s changing. In fact, a surprisingly high 25% of consumers said that they would abandon their orders if one-day delivery wasn’t available.

That’s just the beginning of E-commerce instant delivery. Two-hour drone delivery is coming in the foreseeable future, and Amazon is already talking about 30-minute drone delivery.

Know What’s in stock with Google Home

Have you ever gone to a store hoping to buy something, only to learn that they were out of stock? A new feature from Google Home allows people to ask Google Assistant to find in-stock products at the closest store.

For example: “Google, where can I find the Nintendo Switch console?” Assistant will tell you how many stores have it right then and how close they are.

Restock Kitchen item automatically

While Amazon has pioneered the “Dash Button,” in the not-so-distant future, your pantry will literally order your products for you. One stealth startup, WePlenish, is already launching a line of “IoT-powered” smart containers that promise to revolutionize the modern kitchen.

You won’t have to worry about running out of essentials like coffee, pet food or snacks because your containers will sense inventory levels and replenish those items without you having to lift a finger. No more waking up to find your coffee stash is empty or last-minute trips to the grocery store because you forgot to buy pet food.

Future of Marketing –

While most E-commerce companies focus their digital marketing strategy on the basics such as

  • Analytics,
  • Pay-per-click advertising,
  • Search engine optimization,
  • Social media marketing,
  • Email automation and
  • A/B testing,

Only few have begun experimenting with gaming. Brands ranging from restaurants such as Chipotle (with its Cado Crusher Game) have begun experimenting with gaming as a form of digital marketing to attract customers.

Competition for customers in online retail will increase significantly. Companies with the best online retail store presence and brand experiences will be strongly positioned to beat out their competitors.

Future of Online Retailing depends on both Marketing and Technological Features. By being part of Yaali Inventory Management Software , each and every upgrade we offer will let you improve your business at a predominant rate.In both Marketing and Technological feature terms. Learn more

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