It would be extremely exciting to know what is going to happen in the future, especially when talking eCommerce, as the industry is continuously growing and upgrading and advancement in technology can always be seen resulting into battle between companies to win a greater share of the pie.
Although the future of eCommerce industry is certain but, there are many things which remain constant such as delivery time will be reduced, customer experience will get better, product selection will get even more pronounced. If we see eCommerce by a customer perspective, then how might it look? Would there be any significant change and also if you are a seller what new strategies you should be implementing on your business to stay ahead an extra edge over others.
1. eCommerce Delivery Drones:
Drone Delivery is perhaps one of the most advanced and exciting technology for delivery purposes we have already started seeing today. These drones will allow companies to deliver packages effectively and much more quickly. Drones will be sent directly from warehouse and will travel directly to the delivery address provided by the customers. This will significantly reduce cost and inconvenience of delivery process. Marketplace like Amazon is very close to make this a reality and soon we will be seeing drones flying towards our homes with our much awaited products.
2. Artificial Intelligence:
Although eCommerce is already gaining a significant amount of profits but this technology is the most remarkable in the success of eCommerce industry. AI is basically the machine intelligence which boosts machines to think, respond and perform tasks like human beings. Machines can learn from experience and adjust to new input. The increase in precision accounts for more accuracy and fewer errors or bugs, which means greater work efficiency. It has the ability to analyse the valuable insights more deeply which can increase the capability of various devices with its smart and useful algorithms. It can even create content now.
Artificial intelligence will definitely contribute in the marketing world this year as AI has empowered customer segmentation, re-targeting, push notifications, click tracking and many more features. After successful implementation of these strategies, eCommerce will move into an even higher level of sophistication as this technology improves. The responsibility for the eCommerce businesses is to encourage these processes as soon as possible. Small retailers always follow the major players so the proliferation of AI-driven systems is rapid and this improves the capabilities of the eCommerce industry even further.
3. eCommerce tracking into retail stores:
As time passes, the difference between eCommerce and physical commerce, will become less as sellers are already hoping towards ways to tie both online tracking and customer information with the real world experience. This allow retailers to customise the shopping experience and can use the existing online data to enhance the relationship between them and consumers in both online and offline mode.
4. Measurement Across All Devices:
As an user, it’s impossible to stick with a single device Not everyone sticks to a single device when buying from you. In fact, many people are always changing either between devices, or from web to mobile apps, before turning into paying customers. The measurement of analytics across different devices is still in its early stages but gradually it has become more significant field of interest in eCommerce.
The tracking of usage across multiple devices become more complex like, the processes of testing, tweaking and optimising the user experience but still it can be set in motion. This will surely open more opportunities for eCommerce retailers, and their offering across platforms.
5. Showrooming vs Webrooming:
Customers are already hoping towards new alternative shopping ways to find the best items for themselves. “Show-rooming” and “web-rooming”, is a kind of process in which customers visit a local shop and then buy online for a cheaper price, or vice versa. This advancement is penetrating in the eCommerce industry with a high rate of success.
This is a new challenge faced by many retailers of bridging a gap between online and offline. As a seller, being only online is not sufficient as you would miss out the web-rooming aspect, because there are many sales made in a physical retail environment due to which your business could suffer from losses leading in less revenues.
6. Chatbots – New Virtual Support Service:
Chatbot, also known as conversational agent is a software technology which resemble the real human interaction either in written or spoken way. The advantage of using this technology is that you can handle your customer queries with 24*7 support. This directly saves your time and expenses plus generate some more leads than usual in odd timings too. Although there are high chances customers would likely suspect that they are communicating with robots. This leads to a considerable improvement of this technology otherwise, consumers would have to struggle with it.
7. Augmented Reality:
The idea of using this technology in eCommerce has immensely changed the shape of online retail business as it made convenient for customers to buy the products online with full satisfaction. Just imagine how satisfying it will be that you could virtually try on a dress, feel the fabric and could also know whether it suits you or not as it allows consumers to use their mobile cameras as dressing room mirrors.
Eg. Pepperfry, an Indian leading online home and lifestyle store, uses this feature as home shoppers can arrange virtual life size products in their own space so that they can visualise furniture and decor in the real home with a mobile device. This enable customers to purchase the product with full confidence that they will look great and fit in their home space.
Conclusion:
The future of eCommerce is already here. It has escorted a golden age for consumers by providing more products of better quality in less amount of time and efforts.
The eCommerce revolution is about to take over every country all over the world. It has become necessary for every seller out there to own an eCommerce website to expand their reach over millions of potential customers. This world is full of opportunity to evolve with success coming from all big and small steps alike. The future will exhibit itself it’s success in future. So, it’s time to be prepared and head towards some more new advancements of eCommerce.
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