As we are approaching to a new era of digital transformation e-commerce has gone beyond buying something on a website to a series of interactions that heavily rely on technology. Although e-commerce is growing at an exponential rate, in-store shopping still counts for 90% of retail shopping. According to a research today at least 56% of in-store purchases are one way or another influenced by digital media while almost 10% of all retail sales are directly associated with e-commerce. It means the presence of businesses on customer`s preferred channels is decisive for their success. With growing number of customers turning to the internet to search for different products and brands, it has become essential for retailers to fully integrate e-commerce solutions with their physical business in order to thrive.
Here are emerging e-commerce trends for 2018.
1- The Rebirth of Brick & Mortar.
Many people believed that due to increase in online shopping, in-store shopping will start declining but research shows otherwise at least 50% of millennials prefer going physical stores at some point of their buying journey. That means shop retail is not dying but will need a transformation in order to cater the change needs and expectations of the customers. Even for online retailers brick and mortar experience, physical onsite interactions are more important than ever before. In coming years we will see online retailers will be growing their physical footprints as the customers expect flexibility and convenience of buying, picking up and returning the items locally. On the other hand, physical stores will bring much digitalization to their stores to enhance and personalize the shopping experience.
2- The Digitalization of B2B as B2C.
With growing digitalization of all sales related processes, B2B customers will experience their first frictionless B2C like ordering and purchasing in next few months. Everything from product catalogs to sales calls are being replaced by digital first discovery process, personalized and streamlined order process. This simplified ordering system with easy to do business process will result in increased transactions while vendors will be working hard to make buyers experience better through technology. As a result, B2B companies will spend more on e-commerce then online traders.
At Whitehats, We provide e-commerce solutions in Dubai, that are designed according to latest technological trends.
3–AR from “What WOULD it look like” to “What DOES it looks like”.
As we are approaching a new era of technology, Augmented Reality that has potential to improve the customer experience will be center of attention among retailers during 2018. Different brands will roll out features that will enable customers to use their mobile devices to visualize items placed in their home or office before making a purchase. The integration of AI into shopping experience and e-commerce solutions will make possible to see exactly how objects like couches, blenders, tables chairs, TVs etc. will look in their environment before ordering. It may also resolve one of the $260b problems of e-commerce that is items returns.
4- Retailers will know ROPO “Research Online, Purchase Offline” ratio.
Up till now, it has been increasingly difficult to understand the ROI of digital marketing and the way it affects in-store sales. According to a research, 82% of mobile users search the local business and 18% of them leads to sales within 24 hours. With advanced tools, it will become more accessible and easier to predict sales patterns. The combination of mobile devices, payments, social media, real-time analytics. CRM and POS system retailers will be able to track sales generating through specific channels and digital marketing campaigns.
5- Mobile Checkout will Overtake Desktop Checkouts.
The mobile payments have become more simplified than ever before. The availability of fingerprint and facial recognition system in mobile will result in increased number of people using mobile to process their financial transactions. All of the major companies will be deploying advance payment technology that will start becoming major payment method ultimately surpassing the desktop payments.
6- Photo Shopping.
With image analysis integrated into e-commerce platforms, mobile users will be able to take a picture through mobile phone and search for an exact product or a similar one. Therefore this strategy and capability will be highly rewarding for retailers. That means language will not be a barrier in the discovery of the product nor incorrect attributes or unknown attributes and product name will create any trouble. eBay has already introduced visual search that facilitates the picture search that will match to other similar products online.
Looking for reliable e-commerce solutions in Dubai? Whitehats provides complete solutions for all your e-commerce needs.
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