Nothing made such an impact when it comes to our everyday lives than the emergence of the internet, computers, and mobile phones—smartphones especially. 

While the latter first and foremost served as a means of communication, it gradually became a virtual shopping cart thanks to the development of technology. Smartphones made daily life easier for millions of people around the world. 

Online stores mean unlimited choices, as shoppers have access to thousands of websites. Naturally, that also means ruthless competition among retailers, so they use all available marketing techniques that not only attract new customers but retain old ones. 

Multichanneling is a popular strategy to attract new customers, and 95% of retailers are well aware of the importance of this strategy for targeting their customers. Hence 73% have a multichanneling strategy in place and 67% are somewhat confident they have the right multichanneling strategy devised.

Additional perks that drive loyalty include excellent customer support (56%), availability of the membership loyalty program (50%), responses to feedback (44%), customized promotions (28%), and the ease of making a repeated sale (23%). Naturally, sending coupons also increases the probability of closing a sale as 58% of shoppers use this benefit to purchase a product.   

Another crucial factor driving e-commerce is how mobile-friendly content is, considering that sales in 2017 made on smartphones in the US reached over $156 billion. 

Around 45% of online shoppers are likely to buy something they have not used before if they find positive reviews and feedback from other shoppers. That means that online reviews are another major factor. 

Word-of-mouth was always a powerful tool used in marketing, but online reviews have taken this to the next level. Such is the power of online reviews that 91% of people regularly read them, and 84% have as much faith in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations. 68% of customers will form an opinion about the product after reading between one and six reviews.

Since online stores keep growing in number, new innovations are being introduced to attract potential shoppers, so the prediction is that 80% of businesses will be using chatbots by 2020. 

By combining the best elements, e-commerce is not only taking over brick-and-mortar stores, but it is also doing so with ruthless efficiency.