E-commerce is currently a very fast-growing industry. Thus, it is evident that people are interested in knowing about the Future of E-commerce. Global e-commerce sales equalled to almost about $3.5 trillion worldwide in 2019, thus proving that e-commerce is growing rapidly and is one of the best options for business. This is very large, and the good thing about it is that it is not even a new trend.In fact, from 2014 to 2017 there has been agrowth rate of 25.6% on an average in the e-commerce sales.This is the truth that e-commerce is flourishing, and it is growing from quite some time.
E-commerce is also an industry that is changing constantly. The human mentality is changing continuously around the globe and thus the trends are also changing in an attempt to meet the needs. This makes the future of e-commerce more thrilling.In the coming years a lot of changes are awaited to change in the e-commerce industry. Thus, we would like to give you a glimpse of how the e-commerce industry will transform into in the future.
Here we will be stating a few top trends of e-commerce going on in the current year, state what we think would be the most drastic changes in the coming couple of years and then explain why the changes would be in trend in the future.
The topic is drastically huge so let’s begin with it.
Future of E-commerce for Retailers
- The new markets will be very important
For the development of e-commerce industry, the new growing markets like India, South Africa, Brazil, Russia will play a very important part.Watching the reports of the sales and revenue of the listed countries it will be very much shocking to see them in the future list but let’s just analyse the situation here.The population of these countries is very high thus by the next couple of years all the population will have the internet access and would contribute a very large amount in the e-commerce sales. That’s a huge number looking at the growing population. Thus, it can also be inferred that a huge amount of revenue will be generated in the coming years from the population who are living in these countries.
The funny thing is that a lot of this audience is not even a customer of the existing business at this point in time. Thus, the existing business can flourish to greater heights once they get hold of this audience. This also proves that a lot of new businesses can get into the market and target these untouched customers and grab the trust of the local buyers.
- The offline stores Vs Online stores
The future of e-commerce cannot be decided without the discussion about the offline stores Vs the online stores. The e-commerce brands and stores usually get divided into these 2 categories during the analysis. There is a large group of audience who think that within a couple of years into future all the offline stores will be eventually taken over by the online stores since digitization is at its peak and everything is going virtual.
Our view?
It is quite evident that the online shopping is coming into trend nowadays as it is easy to buy anything from home and also you get a variety of options to chose from. However, we cannot ignore the fact that there are many people who prefer the offline mode of shopping. Online shopping does have a few drawbacks thus we cannot ignore the offline stores totally. They both go hand in hand. No matter how much we like the online shopping, but the experience in the physical stores is altogether different.
Take a look at the clothing stores. You will get an easier way to buy the products but some people prefer to try the item and check the material before buying it. Yes, you can exchange the items bought online but it again takes time to deliver the exchanged new product to the customers. Thus it becomes a length process.
Bottom line, online and offline stores both have their pros and cons thus we cannot ignore either of them. Both play a very significant role in their own place.
- Business-to-business service
What is Business-to-business service?
Earlier e-commerce relied mostly on the business-to-consumer types of sales. However, off lately it is not the case. Business-to-business popularly known as B2B has emerged significantly into the picture. The sales of B2B have increased at a very high rate and has been increasing even now. The companies also need to buy services and products for their own businesses. AI has been playing a very important role in these services businesses thus the companies are constantly in need of software’s and other equipment’s for the smooth functioning of their businesses.
B2B is not just a product selling to the retailer’s kind of sales. It is far ahead than that. In the competitive world it plays a major role to uplift the businesses from the competitors. It makes the supply chain smooth and thus more and more investment is done on the B2B services so that the revenue also increases.
- User Experience
The best user experience provides the best sales. Having the best services with the best user experience is important both in the offline sales as well as online sales. Having good sales person can lead to an increase in the sales as the customer would connect well with the person. On the other hand, a smooth e-commerce website will do the similar thing by providing a good interface and customisations for the customers with attractive offers and discounts. There are various websites which sell the same products and services thus, what matters the most is the user experience.
Things which can give the best experience:
- Call to action.
- Easy and simple checkout process
- Customisations
- Chatbot to handle queries
- The product listing
This can significantly prove to give better experience to the user and turn the potential customers into conversions.
Conclusion on The Future of E-commerce
Both the businesses and the buyers are going to rely heavily on the e-commerce in the future.Whether you have your own business or you are working in the e-commerce company it is very important to adapt to the e-commerce trends upcoming in the future and take full advantage of it.
Our best advice is to understand the changes and try to take maximum benefit from it otherwise you’ll be lagged behind.Try to gain more knowledge about the e-commerce industry and the human behaviour to get an upper hand on your competitors.
Author Bio:
A creative and passionate mobile application enthusiast with over 7 years of experience in providing IT solution across various industries. Nitesh Behani is the Co-Founder of Magneto IT Solutions, a full service of Mobile App Development in USA, India, and Bahrain. He has experience of delivering more than 100+ project ranging from web technologies to mobile application technology.