As we move into 2019, the biggest fads of 2018 would be left behind, some were effective and will be carried forward, the remaining will be buried. Be equipped with all the resources to combat the aggressive growth in this dynamic battleground; your peers are running a litmus test on literally everything. You deserve the same and thus try and hit every corner to see which one catalyzes your company’s agenda and puts the glorious edge on your e-campaign. So, what novel ideas will stand the test of the demanding and ever-evolving ecommerce space, is something we will try and comprehend in this write-up.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
If 2018 was the initiation year for these ultra-modern techs, then 2019 will see them escalate, get cemented and further captivate the consumers. A good part of this becoming a reality is the e-stores willing to incorporate them in optimum capacity and to move ahead with them in full force by the first half of 2019. They bring the added value to your shopping environment, and anyone viewing the commodity gets a stronger connection to it. The surge in Augmented Reality will give retailers new avenues to impress buyers, by giving a deeper insight into the product.
The ability of AR to project items into your personal space via the camera on your Mobile Device give customers an actual sense of ownership due to the more tangible properties that bring the object into a real environment. Leading to AR becoming a more viable option to examine products.
Virtual and AR, therefore, become a staunch ally to assist consumers in realizing their shopping with utmost ease. A more detailed sensation helps to get a better understanding; thus, the decisions become more streamlined, and the likelihood of getting sales go up. Hence both VR and AR could prove beneficial in clothing, furniture, and even footwear and act as a safety net, in scenarios where viewing the image as well as the video alongside wasn’t satisfactory. AR is becoming prevalent to the extent that any retailer who ignores AR will be left behind in 2019.
Automation
Most online vendors are planning to invest in machine learning to sense the browsing pattern and in general just about every individual session of the incoming traffic, this allows for more efficiency and effectiveness in obtaining leads and improving conversions. An analysis of this kind helps to get to know where the customer lags, trigger points on the site, sensitive regions that serve as hot spots, retentive pages, and pretty much any analytics to delve into your visitor’s mind. Technology has thus helped us to move to a period, where creating uber-targeted messages that are personalized to a certain degree is pretty easy to do with the right tools and budget. With this data in hand, any major corporate could easily refine their site to reflect their user's browsing habits, something that will see this becoming a preferable entity in their sector. The more a site page approximates your preferences, more the likelihood of it succeeding in the long run.
Voice Search
Already own an Amazon Echo or a Google Home, then you’d have by now figured the significance of shopping on the same, and that’s precisely what’s in store for 2019, more audible shopping. These home assistants will contribute a significant share to the ecommerce pie. Just activate, command, authorize and have it delivered to your residence. As this contributes, in small chunks to the overall orders placed from the various communities around the world, a possibility of ecommerce adjusting to this could become a reality. Don’t be surprised if E-bay or Walmart were to introduce new functionalities that’d make use of your homely Alexa, sharper and more accurate when it comes to obtaining the desired product. Smart home devices are set to see a massive boost in popularity when it comes to buying stuff from the first quarter of 2019 itself.
Social Media
With half the world living on it 24/7, why wouldn’t you want to stimulate this space to boost sales? Plug a product with all the extensive details, see the sales go through from these channels itself — no need for any messy redirection that takes you on a lengthy tour before you reach the intended product. Even, payment processors integrated into the social platform to securely connect and complete the order makes it easier to buy directly through any of the social channels. The brands that manage to achieve a strong presence on this could potentially influence and then persuade the registered users to complete the purchase their itself. Thus, with the dawning of a new year, the amount of time between spotting something on social media and placing an order could shrink considerably.
Chatbots
Ever hesitated in buying a product and required an expert opinion to get you through, hold your hand and guide you through. Well, a chatbot in the virtual sense will be that loyal partner. Heavily programmed to sense moments of uncertainty and read visitor patterns. Just the partner you want to simplify your shopping experience.
A chatbot will create an interactive environment where quick feedback and appropriate suggestions will serve as the backbone of customer support. Let’s admit it, browsing around, despite setting an adequate number of filters would still result in an abundance of results, but this virtual buddy could work around all that and give you the best results. Time saved considerably alongside all the effort to scroll through endless pages.
Chatbot is built to serve without any bias, had it been a human there’d be judgments, a few scorns thrown on either side, lack of efficiency, inability to comprehend the exact requirement, getting worked up every second, lack of precision, delays and worst is the back and forth banter that could develop any second. The machine learning technology would do no such thing and yield the best most fluid conversations. An exciting-productive way to deliver results and Ecommerce is set to benefit from it in a major-major way. Artificial intelligence is projected to reach $37 billion by 2025 and ecommerce will the most vital element in this growth. The next time you see “Need Help. Chat with us” or any other Virtual Assistant pop-up, go ahead, click on it and get going.
Retail
The skyrocketing ecommerce has called into question the future of brick and mortar, which seems to be deteriorating every day: highly customized services, effortless laid-back browsing, convenient shopping that integrates entertainment with consumption on the web. If this was to persist, retail could soon disappear, unless they managed to reinvent in a major way. They may hold the edge when it comes to touch and decide before buying which gives shoppers an in-depth all-round view of what they are about to buy, but this security with the turn of AR and AI could extinguish very soon.
Such an imminent danger calls for an immediate intervention to innovate and draw consumers with added benefits. In the absence of any such policies and unique ideas; the collapse is imminent for these big outlets, that could see every supplier chain being wiped out from the market. With Ecommerce trading in anything from medicines to grocery in the fastest time and drones being brought in to drop packages, the unavailability of anything is not an issue; which again furthers the problem for all physical stores as they find themselves redundant with the meteoric rise of e-businesses.
Payment Options
Online payments used to be a fearful activity about 10 years ago, but now that fear has slowly dissipated. A vast number of payment methods are already in existence; PayPal, G Pay, Samsung Pay, Visa, Mastercard; they are driving the payment market fine. Cryptocurrencies which have been around for some time, have been revived time and again but is yet to be invested in fully. This year might see the e-retailers finally leaping into bit-coins to strengthen their sales and offer another option to complete payment. Reliability of this mode of payment has always been a concern for most customers, besides the fact that very few have even purchased these bit-coins in the first place, resulting in a micro sample size. However, with some governments backing this currency and more e-retailers opting for the same, this may strengthen the faith of every customer around this form of payment and the future from 2019 onwards could very well see a dramatic shift in perceptions towards Cryptocurrencies.
Subscription Services
The most personalized thing you can do for your consumers right now is offer Subscription packages, which sees services ship their subscribers’ products or exclusive content at specified intervals in exchange for a recurring payment. Besides the amenities that customers need from time to time, this package would also hold exclusive goodies, to keep them surprised and enthusiastic for the next delivery. Draw your very own subscription model with its own timely renewals and select which items you’d like in each term.
Even sign-up for a contracted period before making the plunge before extending for any longer commitment. eCommerce is using this method to differentiate their offering, also dropping samples in the mix to lure customers into trying out new stuff. Subscription services offer convenience and peace of mind for consumers. They know that their product will be there when they need it and it makes budgeting more manageable for them as a result. Customization is the key to customer retention in this plan. The liberty to select from a plethora of options to create a box independent to your taste, instead of getting locked into a pre-decided subscription; generates greater interest. Personalize to your customer's liking, while keeping selections surprising and fresh and you’ll be more than halfway to building a profitable subscription box service.
Mobile First
Mobile First Indexing will take more effect in 2019. The mobile version of your site will become what Google looks at first to determine their rankings, and therefore a poor mobile UI could see your site drop rankings and a considerable amount of traffic. In the absence of a mobile-friendly version, the desktop site becomes the alternative, which would then impact negatively on the rankings and page hits for that site. On the contrary, a site with a better mobile experience would potentially receive a ranking boost even for the organic searches on desktop. The key is to start thinking about your site from a mobile perspective. Place your focus on prioritizing mobile page speeds and load times, optimizing images and dynamic elements and making sure your design is more mobile responsive. And this can only be a good thing for retailers, with mobile playing an increasingly popular role in the overall ecommerce picture.
Personalization
Customers nowadays expect personal experiences when shopping. Personalization for eCommerce broadly refers to all the ways online businesses personally target and appeal to customers; from product recommendations, suggestions or even grouped products. Major brands are now allowing customers to take the wheel with the assistance of latest virtual tech that helps to modify goods as per their liking. Responding to customer intent is slowing becoming the theme, which could lead to a dramatic increase in profits.
Your customers also want a role in creating products that are more individualistic. This could mean allowing them to create a product from scratch on an applet, which would consist of setting the colors, text, design, print and even a logo; something that would characterize the commodity has strictly yours. You want to deliver personal experiences as such in 2019. We will see an increase in machine learning algorithms working to show customers tailored landing pages, content and ads. Serve your user base relevant products, based on their product searches, purchase history, location, and other demographics and even social media behavior for that matter.
Amazon does a hell of a job when it comes to product recommendations that are suited to you. With the complications withering away in recent years, all e-retailers will soon have this under their hat. A fallout of which may even be a community of loyal customers, who could potentially even drop the next revolutionary idea. Unify people from world over and create a platform to express their viewpoints exclusive to your brand. Utilize every channel to drive people to a single-minded goal of enriching content, improving traffic, generating leads and multiplying profits.
Virtina can help you to increase your revenue, improve profit and enhance customer experience.
