Biggest eCommerce Trends for the Year 2023
Quick Checklist
- Omnichannel eCommerce
- Social Commerce
- Personalized Customer Experience
- Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing
- Rise of AI-backed Tools
- Subscription-based eCommerce
- mCommerce
- Decentralized eCommerce
- Augmented & Virtual Reality
Due to many countries around the world rolling back the COVID-19 related social distancing restrictions, people returned to physical stores, which added friction to the growth of E-commerce in 2022.
In 2021, retail eCommerce sales were an estimated USD 5.2 trillion worldwide, while the 2022 e-tail revenue worldwide was USD 3.5 trillion.
Despite the drop in revenue, eCommerce markets grew alike in Asia and Europe. China was the largest retail eCommerce market globally, with the United Kingdom, South Korea, Denmark, the Philippines, and India on the heels.
Moreover, the arrival of tech-dependent digital native Gen Zs into the market is also predicted to fuel the growth of eCommerce and push online selling into an era where entire industries will rise and fall depending on their adaptability to the new realities of e-commerce.
Omnichannel eCommerce
Gone are the days when eCommerce was limited to a website or multiple channels, where products were the focus and not the customer.
With shifting interest towards purchasing an experience and not just products, more brands are looking to create a seamless customer experience across channels, always leveraging the knowledge gained from one channel to improve the conversion rate on other channels the same shopper visits, whether it is social media, shop, mobile, or web.
While omnichannel eCommerce may require a significant amount of effort and resources, it pays well by helping brands develop customers with higher average lifetime value resulting in repeat purchases and more brand loyalty.
Find out more about the Best Digital Channel for Small Businesses>
Social Commerce
With Millennials and Gen Zs being the driving force of the retail markets, it is inevitable for buying online to shift towards social networks. Preference for digital communication to avoid face-to-face interaction, reducing attention span, and the focus on authenticity among consumers, has paved the way to the ‘see it, click it, buy it’ culture popularized by social commerce platforms like Facebook and Instagram shops, in video shopping on YouTube and TikTok Shops, where one-click online purchasing is taken for granted.
The perfect stop for visual storytelling Instagram is a dominant social commerce platform with a user population of 2 billion users. Influencer marketing on Instagram has never been so effective for brands to reach a much wider audience. The in-app shopping feature lets the customer buy products without leaving the app.
TikTok
The new yet rapidly expanding social media platform TikTok is the powerhouse for short-form content. The demand for short vertical videos has transformed TikTok into a money-printing machine allowing businesses to grow with top-notch content.
Youtube
A platform which allows businesses to explain their products and services through videos on Youtube makes it much easier to rank on Google. Youtube is powerful marketing to generate leads for your E-Commerce store.
A base of 2.96 billion people using Facebook enables an in-app shopping feature, with buying and selling at their fingertips.
Find out more about Social Commerce >
Personalised Customer Experience
Stereotypes and generalisations are norms of the past. Today’s online consumers refuse to fit into neat little boxes whether it comes to gender, ethnicity or online buying. Personalisation is the call of the hour and consumers expect brands to recognise them.Over 80% of customers are more likely to purchase when brands offer personalised experiences; on average, personalised email campaigns ensure six times higher conversions.Treating customers like VIPs by using AI and machine learning-driven algorithms to track onsite behaviour and customer data points in real-time can have many benefits for brands;
Increase Sales
Personalization makes the customer bond with the brand. This satisfies their needs because it resonates with their preferences. This makes customers buy products repeatedly
Better Customer Retention & Conversion
Personalised emails, messages and follow-ups make a better relationship between buyers and sellers. Customers will rely more on the same business if communication is done right.
Order Expansion
Personalised cross-selling, upselling and product recommendations increase impulsive purchases and order expansions.
Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing
While Brand loyalty was once built on human interactions, consumers today compensate for the lack of human contact by identifying with brands based on their ethics, practices and social impact.
The new generation of consumers no longer forms opinions of a company solely based on the quality of their products or services but also their ethics and practices. To win the hearts of today’s consumers, brands will need to highlight their efforts to be good global citizens. While focusing on the quality of the goods and services you provide is still important, a company’s ethics are more important than ever.
Using recyclable packaging materials, reducing carbon footprint, and using renewable energy in production warehouses will Increase the reputation of e-commerce businesses. This will not only build a better relationship but also create a better voice in social media channels. Word of mouth is still a powerful marketing strategy and loyal customers will continue to create more sets of customers for Ethical eCommerce businesses.
Rise of Artificial Intelligence Backed Tools
Technology and automation have eliminated most of the repetitive tasks through automation, which has proven to be a godsend for the eCommerce industry. Many AI drive features and apps allow brands to provide efficient, personalised, around-the-clock services for customers.
Chatbots
AI-enabled chatbots help businesses to deliver 24x7 customer support without the need for any manpower while customers receive fast and accurate responses to their questions and inquiries.
Smart Search
With the aid of AI and Machine learning Customers can search for products using images or voice without the dilemma of typing words or sentences.
Visual Merchandiser
Merchandising is important to a business for reminding customers of the products and services they have to offer. Visual merchandising is the process of digitization of analogue practices of merchandising. Adapting from windows display to the website homepage, shop layout to site layout, and physical products to images and videos.
Inventory Management
Dealing with a lot of data can be overwhelming and lead to mistakes. With the help of AI, businesses and brands can analyse and predict purchase patterns to efficiently manage product inventories.
AI-powered Tools for Businesses
With the help of tools like ChatGpt, Grammarly, JasperAi, and CopyAi E-Commerce owners can create more quality written content like blogs, emails, newsletters, and social media captions.
With Visual content Graphic designing AI tools like Adobe Sensei, Designs.ai and Removal Ai will save editing time and cost for designers. Voice Commerce aka Voice-enabled shopping assistants adds value to the shopping experience and purchasing process making it simpler and faster by eliminating unwanted information for the user.
Subscription-based eCommerce
Subscription-based eCommerce models help customers to pay for services or products on a monthly or annual basis. Subscription-based business models help businesses drive conversions and retain more customers.
An extension of the subscription-based eCommerce model, Buy Now and Pay Later (BNPL) services or instant financing services like Mintpay, Affirm, Sezzle, and Afterpay are convenient for users on a tight budget.
Subscription-based services help businesses and individuals to make their tasks easier. Adapting to better technologies is worth the price.
The world is relying more on online education, and the development of subscription-based educational companies like Coursera, SkillShare, Udemy, Udacity and edX are popular due to their subscription purchase model.
Mobile Commerce or MCommerce
In simple words, MCommerce is buying and selling products and services with the use of smartphones and tablets. With the world being more mobile and 4 in 5 people having smartphones, the world is estimated to house 6.9 billion mobile users by 2023. With the increasing use of smartphones for online shopping, mobile optimisation and app development are becoming crucial for e-commerce businesses.
Digital Banking
Banks around the world are adapting to the digital landscape of shopping and encouraging online financial transactions. Financial institutes around the world are focused only on creating better user experiences on their platforms which helps E-commerce brands to expand their online payment options.
Digital Wallets
Digital wallets and e-wallets such as Paypal, Venmo, Alipay, Google Pay and Apple Pay are leading the way to a secure cashless future.
Decentralised Commerce (DeCo)
The future is Decentralised. Web 3 technologies on the rise will create a decentralised economy which will help create a more trustless environment. Metaverse development will create space for users to shop for products through a virtual avatar from anywhere with any device which can access the internet.
Decentralised Commerce (DeCo) allows users to process transactions without any centralised control, which charges high fees and can also block transactions. Made possible through blockchain technology and smart contracts DeCo provides better control over supply chains, customer data and customer experience.
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
Augmented reality and virtual reality technologies are being used by e-commerce businesses to enhance the online shopping experience and allow customers to visualise products in their own space. eCommerce marketers can now drive influencer marketing with the assistance of virtual influencers without waiting to find the ideal influencer for your brand.
With big changes happening on the data collection front and search engines tightening the noose around low-quality content, 2023 is going to be a challenging year for eCommerce marketers and online sellers. However, customer-centric brands that continue to provide superior shopping experiences by building their own audience and relying on first-party data to provide a personalised shopping experience will laugh last.
