The development of the Internet, including the World Wide Web has entirely changed the business field. One of the biggest changes was the rise of e-commerce. In the last decade, a lot of events have changed the way we function, and COVID-19 inevitably caused the rate of digital adoption to double. People switched to remote working.
However, this isn’t the only reason that e-commerce has been incredibly popular in the last decade. There have been numerous developments that contributed to this phenomenon, including artificial intelligence, voice assistants, augmented reality, and a lot more.
Due to this, we decided to come up with this detailed guide and prepare you for the latest e-commerce trends that will indeed change your way of working sooner or later. So, let’s not waste more time and get down to business!
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence may have sounded like an unreal story a few years back, but since ChatGPT started dominating the market, things have drastically changed. As part of the fourth Web revolution, AI has an immersive impact on different business fields. People now use it for personalization, automation of repetitive workflow, research, and a lot more.
AI algorithms are able to analyze huge amounts of data, which reveals the consumers’ purchasing behavior, browsing history, shopping experiences, and demographic information. Due to this, it’s now very easy to come up with a personalized service for your customers.
This approach makes shopping more pleasant to consumers, as they feel more valued. Everyone likes to be greeted warmly, so why not use this method in email campaigns, checkout processes, or while they’re browsing the product page? You can also utilize an AI-powered engine that will enhance search relevance and help users with easy product discovery.
But aside from assisting your website visitors, AI comes in handy directly for you, too. By carefully tracking various trends, your AI-based system will be able to adjust prices in real-time. This is because it can access reliable insights, such as demand for a particular product or the pricing of competitors.
We also mentioned the chatbots, like ChatGPT, but are you aware of how many online tools are now running on AI? You can find an AI platform for different needs, such as custom signature generators, virtual assistants, grammar tools, etc. Overall, AI plays a huge role in helping you establish strong relationships with your customers.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
Businesses are constantly trying to improve the online experience of their customers and add spice to traditional shopping channels. Therefore, they have started to implement augmented and virtual reality practices more often.
This practice is of great importance for traditional shopping for furniture, for example. In other words, if you’re not sure how a new table, chair, sofa, or any other element will fit your room, AR and VR will enhance your product visualization.
In fact, IKEA is one of the few firms that adopted this approach of e-commerce and allowed its consumers to see how the furniture goes in their home space. All you have to do is point to where you would like to put the furniture, and you’ll get a detailed 3D view.
But, you can also find AR in the makeup or shopping industry. Suppose, you’re not able to visit your favorite store and you’re desperate to find a piece of clothing or makeup that is right for you. With the help of AR apps, you can now use the camera of your smartphone to virtually try a product. One of the most popular makeup brands, Sephora has a virtual artist, emphasizing your try-on experience.
Live Commerce
Another relatively new e-commerce trend is live commerce. As the name implies, live commerce events allow consumers to interact with a host over a live stream and use digital wallets. So far, this method is most common in China, where it contributes to over $640 billion in the country. However, companies like TikTok and Amazon acquired live commerce and started to boost its popularity in the US.
The ones that use live commerce as an e-commerce trend are influencers and celebrities. They have a lot of impact on the audience, which allows them to encourage people to discuss the product or the service and even buy it. As a result, businesses improve their promotions and establish more valuable relationships with consumers.
Social Commerce
Social commerce is a type of mobile shopping experience that significantly boosts annual revenues. To understand it clearer, this e-commerce model serves as a shopping destination, as well as a marketing channel.
Thanks to social commerce, companies take advantage of social media in order to improve product discovery, attract loyal customers, and encourage purchasing decisions over social media. How many times have you seen an ad and when you open the official site, you can’t find the product? Well, social commerce prevents this.
Due to the rapid expansion of this trend, many firms started using it. Therefore, you can try out buying via social media on Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram. You can now access everything from a single platform.
A real-life example of a great social commerce success is the skincare brand Clinique. They’ve chosen TikTok as their shopping platform, which helped the firm attract younger consumers.
Voice Assistants
There is not a single person that doesn’t know Siri or Alexa. As both names ring a bell, it proves that voice assistants have been around for a while. But how important are voice assistants for businesses? Much more than you may think.
They are based on AI and help companies streamline interactions with their customers and simplify their shopping experiences. An interesting fact is that a huge part of US consumers don’t want to engage with a company that doesn’t offer such functionality.
People are always in a rush and they are multitasking very often, so this e-commerce trend is more than useful. That’s why one of the biggest pizza companies, Domino’s decided to launch a voice-search-based app in 2017.
Conclusion
E-commerce is everywhere around us. So, consider utilizing some of the latest trends if you want to succeed easily. You can go for AI-based tools, voice assistants, AR or VR apps, live commerce, or social commerce.
As each trend brings different benefits, one thing is for sure. People prefer online shopping a lot more, especially because they save a lot of time. Go ahead and choose your e-commerce approach!
