Next Generation Of E-commerce

Like every other field, e-commerce is undergoing rapid transformation. It will be not the same as we are experiencing it today. Brands like Amazon are constantly striving to improve the customer experience. They are setting up new landmarks for other brands to follow.

Customer experience is in the main focus today. It comprises product selection, pricing, check out, delivery and all other processes. Products which have high utility and simple to use are driving more sales. Customers are preferring services that are hilariously easy!

To provide what customers actually want, marketers need to stay upfront in data analysis. Their business model has to be flexible enough to take in new changes.

For example, Amazon has introduced Sunday delivery in US with the help of drones! Let us see some more innovations we will witness in future.

High Resolution

In the upcoming years, the representation of a site would play a major role. Audience would like the sites with good graphics. Especially, the product images would require more detailing. This is only possible by using high resolution images in place of pixelated images. The audience will be able to observe the product features very closely.

Mobile friendly site

In future, a majority of the buyers will be shopping through their smartphones.  They should not get a bad experience. So, the brands have to make their sites mobile compatible. The navigating experience should be no less than desktop. Images, buttons should be clear without any need for zooming in and out.

Personalisation

Another aspect that will get advanced in future is personalisation. In the fashion niche, it will be extensively used to give accurate product suggestions according to the needs of the customer. The brands having more advanced personalisation, will be more successful.

In this article, we have some genuine data in store for you. They will make it simple to understand how e-commerce has evolved. You can also predict what will be the challenges in future.

So, let us get started…

Facts about the market shares of e-commerce

You will be astonished that in US, e-commerce is already covering 8% of total retail sales. Predictions say it will take over the physical stores in next 5 years.

E-commerce will have a faster growth in Western Europe. It has grown from €112 billion in 2012 to grossing €191 billion in 2017. Here the compound annual growth is 11% compared to 9% in US.

A different scenario is in Italy and Spain. Here e-commerce holds a mere share in market- only 2% of country’s revenue. This number will be too increasing in the upcoming years by 1 or 2%.

UK economy includes 15% shares of online retailing as per 2017. You can expect it to boom in the upcoming years.

The value of all the online retail sales skyrocketed to $370 billion in 2017. If we talk about US alone, it contributes a huge $220 billion to online marketing. And that is only to grow by 17% every year!

Facts on number of mobile shoppers

In UK, 35% of online shopping is carried out through mobile devices. Tablet shopping is going to surge in future from 10.4% at present times. And if you look at US, you will find 26% mobile using shoppers, excluding ticket booking and travel. Here, 71.1 million people buy goods using tablet while 52.3 million purchase through smartphones.

Internet connectivity is also going to have an influence. Because, internet users in US will cross the 100 million mark.

Data emphasising importance of search in ecommerce

Out of all the internet users, 61% research about online products. About 44% shoppers start their customer journey with a simple search of their desirable product. That is why any average online store gains 30% traffic only from Google. Even Outbrain has ranked search traffic as no. 1, exceeding the social media traffic.

If we talk about effective SEO tactics, then quality content production wins the top position. As per research, you will get a 14.5% close rate through SEO which is far better than emails and printed ads!

Which social media platform is best for e-commerce?

Facebook drives the richest traffic to your site compared to all other social media. Facebook -60% traffic

Polyvore- 20% traffic

Pinterest- 16% traffic

Facebook also drives 43% conversions on your site. Pinterest ranks second which facilitates 26% in store purchases.

Next interesting platform is Twitter. Tweets start buzzing about holiday shopping right from the start of October. Social media campaigns drive 50% purchases just within one week!

71% audience are influenced by your brand image on social media. This can make and break your deal.

Data on conversion rates

At the beginning phase of e-commerce, brands could only generate 1 to 2% conversions. But it is growing day by day. US has a better conversion rate than the international statistics. It also enjoys higher add to cart rates.

Returning visitors are more converted than the first time visitors.

Amongst the digital marketing channels, emails fuel the most conversions. Then come, search and social media respectively. In US, tablets and iPad users are converting more.

Some facts on customer retention

You can increase your overall profit by 30% if you boost the customer retention by 10%. Here are the reasons –

Conversion rates of an existing customer is 60-70%, but for a new visitor it is only 5-20%. Additionally repeat customers tend to invest 3 times more.

The key to retain your customers is satisfactory customer support. Because a satisfied customer will recommend your brand to 9 more persons. On the other hand, a dissatisfied customer will badmouth about your brand to 22 other people.

Coupons and discounts

These are the best tool to encourage buying. But do you know most of the coupon users use mobile and tablet devices. So, you have to update the mobile versions so that coupon redeeming is facilitated.

Here comes a fact on drop shipping. It decreases the expenditure on keeping stocks and inventory. 2 out of 3 marketers have adopted drop shipping as their primary mode. But it also comes with a very low profit margin. So, choose as per your marketing goals.

This marks the end of an exhaustive fact list. We hope you could sense the subtle changes in e-commerce industry. It is your duty to keep an eye on data and recent improvements. So, that you can stay at par with your competitors.