E-commerce is innovation’s gift to enterprise, and it’s a constantly evolving gift at that. It’s fast, flexible, and affordable, helping businesses amass a wider customer base and enjoy easy global expansion.
Of course, with every e-commerce evolution that occurs, business owners have to keep track. To ensure you are on top of the latest developments, here are five of the biggest e-commerce trends making waves in 2022:
1. Green Commerce
Going green has many benefits for businesses operating online. Your brand gets a facelift, and your company stays prepared for any future changes in environmental law.
Recyclable packaging, shipping from local stores, green 3pl fulfillment, and other eco-friendly solutions are becoming the norm. After all, customers want to feel that they’re supporting a brand that has the future of the environment at heart.
2. Try Before you Buy with AI
The one challenge with e-commerce is that it’s hard to tell if a product is suitable for you when all you have to go by is a few pictures. It’s unlike physical stores where you can touch, feel, and see with your own eyes.
Augmented reality helps bridge that gap by helping you see what a product would look like in your home or on your body. This is done by projecting an image of the product over whatever your phone camera is capturing at the time.
More and more, shoppers are finding augmented reality apps attached to online stores, and this is a great way to turn casual browsers into loyal customers. You’ll also enjoy fewer returns and happier customers who are thankful for the personal touch you’ve added to the shopping experience.
This technology is currently poised to be the next big thing in eCommerce. However, within a few years, virtual reality will likely make it obsolete!
3. The Chatbot Jackpot
We’re entering the golden age of artificial intelligence, and attending to customer queries is still as important as ever. However, employees are often too busy to deal with queries in a timely manner, and sometimes, customers don’t want to have to deal with salespeople.
Chatbots help everyone by automatically progressing customers through the correct funnels. They help potential clients pick between products, and they improve the overall customer experience.
4. A Customer-Based Approach
Technology serves as a tool to help brands reach customers, giving business owners greater insight into the true thoughts and feelings of their audience.
Advances in data analytics and automated market research will soon allow you to better connect with your patrons. You can find out what they like, what they want, and what their personality reveals about their spending habits, which will help you mark your targets with more accuracy.
From every click and input on your online store, you can learn something. The information you gather will be crucial in improving the user experience and increasing your revenue. In other words, everyone wins.
For this reason, we’re going to see data being mined in many ways. That data will help you approach shoppers in a personalized manner, helping you meet them at their point of need.
5. Easier Card Payments
Ever since the pandemic broke out, we’ve been discouraged from paying with cash, and the adoption of non-cash payments is expected to become increasingly popular. You can soon expect to see easier point-of-sale options for both online and brick-and-mortar stores, including the use of biometric technology.
Fortune Foretold
It doesn’t take a prophet to know that these five trends are heating up this year. The sooner you pick up on them, and the more of them you embrace, the better things will be for your business.
