6 Significant Trends Influencing the Ecommerce Industry

The ecommerce industry is a constantly evolving space that has been seeing technological innovations and shifting consumer behaviors over the course of the past decade.

Ecommerce businesses often have to adapt to these changing trends of the industry—and find new ways to exploit them to gain an edge over their competition.

If you’re an ecommerce business looking to leverage the latest ecommerce trends to boost your online store sales and revenue, here are 6 significant ecommerce trends that are influencing the industry currently.

Trend #1: User-generated content to build customer trust

Leverage user-generated content and social proof in order to make your ecommerce store stand out. Customers want to hear more from people like them—and can be put off by an aggressive marketing strategy that pushes them to make a purchase. Provide social proof to your customers as they browse through your ecommerce website, and provide other user-generated content like reviews and ratings at strategic touchpoints. 

It builds trust with the customer, as they can see that people like them have bought products on an online store and have had a positive experience. It also communicates to buyers that you care about meeting their expectations and place due emphasis on ensuring customer delight. 

Plenty of tools in the market allow ecommerce websites to utilize user-generated content like reviews to build customer trust on different platforms. If you have done your research and can’t decide between Opinew and Loox, we suggest you go with Opinew - more advanced app compared to Loox. 

Trend #2: Digital marketing strategies

In the age of SEO and social media, you need to ace your digital marketing strategy as an ecommerce business. Building visibility on search engines like Google and Bing, as well as engagement on social platforms, can be vital towards driving more digital traffic to your ecommerce store. 

For doing this, you need to tackle different aspects of your digital marketing strategy. An emerging trend that we see these days is the use of influencer marketing through sponsored advertising and guest blogging. Find different influencers and bloggers who have a stronghold in your industry and leverage the voice that they have to boost your brand’s positioning with their followers. 

Trend #3: Personalized ecommerce website experiences

Customers want more personalization today. They want better recommendations and product suggestions as they browse through your ecommerce store. A bespoke ecommerce experience can translate to a huge uptick in sales and revenue for your business. 

This is a well-studied trend that we have seen over the past few years, supported by the expanding role that customer data and AI have played in ecommerce. Ensuring on-site ecommerce personalization and catering tailor-made marketing to buyers are ways that you can boost ecommerce growth. 

Trend #4: AR will play a big role in ecommerce

Augmented reality technology is advancing to more realistic forms, and customers are receptive to the technology as well. Online consumers prefer to have virtual try-ons and see how a product will look within a certain environment. Given the direction in which ecommerce is headed, this is also going to drive more consumers away from offline brick-and-mortar shopping experiences and increase the adoption of online shopping methods even more. 

Currently, the technology is not ready for mainstream usage across different platforms yet—but we can expect rapid advancements in the technology in the coming years.

Trend #5: Ecommerce is heading towards the mobile device

With smartphone penetration increasing each year exponentially, more and more consumers are going to have mobile devices they will use for online shopping. Against such a background, ecommerce platforms are orienting themselves toward an increasingly mobile-based business strategy.

This would mean that ecommerce stores will be optimized for a mobile-friendly experience, given that a large chunk of online transactions will happen through smartphones in the future. Ensuring that online shopping experiences are tailored towards a mobile-first approach is going to give your ecommerce store a strong competitive edge. 

Trend #6: Multiple and easier ways to pay 

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People who come to your ecommerce store belong to different financial backgrounds, and in accordance, they will begin to demand payment methods that are aligned with their needs. For instance, ecommerce giants like Amazon and eBay have already begun to offer alternative payment methods, in addition to different payment schemes as well. These include EMI options, buy now pay later schemes and more. 

This is primarily done to cater to different customer segments that are shifting to online from more traditional in-store methods of shopping. With this transition taking place, ecommerce stores also have to provide payment options that appeal to different needs like debit cards, cash-on-delivery, credit cards, and even newer forms of payment like cryptocurrency.

So that’s it with the latest ecommerce trends that are changing the industry—we hope you found this guide helpful.