Ecommerce Trends 2018
Global ecommerce is ever-growing at a very fast rate. In 2017, the statistics show that ecommerce reached around $2.3 trillion/£1.7 trillion and is expected to reach a whopping $4.5 trillion by the year 2021 (source: according to a Statista report) Over the pond in the United States, 10% of all retail sales were represented by ecommerce. This figure is showing by about 15% per annum.
Smart Phones
Many people have expressed that they prefer to do their online shopping on their smart phones over their desktops. Phones can be taken anywhere, and since they have access to the internet – online shopping via a mobile phone is far more convenient that shopping on your computer.
Since this rise in popularity of online shopping on your smart phone, many ecommerce sites have brought out apps to encourage more sales. Since a lot of websites are not designed for the purposes of mobile phone browsing, an app is a far more convenient way to shop on your phone.
Online fashion stores such as ASOS, Misguided and Zara all have mobile phone apps which are designed to perfection for the ultimate online shopping experience. Supermarkets, such as Tesco, and other online-based stores such as Amazon and EBay have all followed suit. It could become a marketing nightmare if you do not have an app out there for the purposes of browsing and purchasing – ecommerce is moving so rapidly that falling behind could have serious consequences for your business.
Better Photography and Videos
It is common to see poor stock photos on an ecommerce website, but now original photography is in much higher demand. Stock photos often cheapen the look of your site and may put people off using them.
Something which is becoming more common as a way to add more high quality content to an ecommerce site is to add a 360 degree image of a model wearing a product. In a similar way, using a catwalk video of a model has shown mass success in driving the rates of purchase up. These both allow a potential customer to see what they are getting more clearly, which will ease the anxieties some people have about buying clothing or accessories online.
Social Shopping
Social shopping is predicted to continue to boom and have a massive impact on ecommerce in 2018.
Things like Pinterest and Instagram which are both highly visual platforms, are having a huge influence on what people are buying and from wear. Some fashion companies even partner with “Instagram models” in order to sell their clothes or beauty products. They will send the Instagram stars clothing in exchange for a post on their account, usually for a heavy fee. The fee depends on how many followers the person has. For example, an Instagram account with 300,000 followers can easily charge £1,000 minimum per post.
A recent app which has taken the ecommerce world by storm is called 21 buttons. The app lets people upload pictures of their outfits and tag where each item is from. You can click on a piece of clothing on the person and it will take you directly to the website and product. If you purchase the product through the link provided the person who posted the outfit picture earns commission!
Voice Search
With the recent development of the Amazon Echo and Google Home, voice search is set to be more popular than ever in 2018. Siri and Cortana for IPhone and Android have been around for a while, but Alexa (Amazon Echo) and the Google Home have truly taken the number of people voice searching to a new level. On a phone, you can search via voice or via text. On the Alexa or Google, the only way to interact with them is to use voice recognition technology.
It has recently been announced that the American store Walmart, who own Asda here in the UK, and Google have struck up a partnership to allow shopping to run smoothly through the Google Home. This is mainly intended for reorders as it is far quicker, but can also be used for one time purchases – however, they are less likely to occur on a voice assistant.
According to recent studies, around 40% of millennials have used voice search before they go through with making a purchase online, even if it is just to ask the price or availability. Moreover, around 20% of Google searches on mobile are via voice. Thus, ecommerce sites must adapt their sites to be compatible with voice recognition and voice search if they want to optimise their online stores in 2018.
Easier Check Out
Checking out could not be easier now and there are plenty of ways to do so – PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Shopify Pay and others. Due to the rise of these, the ways of the traditional checkout are fast fading out and will be seen less and less in 2018.
Many people prefer one-click purchasing as it is far quicker and far more convenient when online shopping. You do not have to re-enter any details at all, so it is an extremely popular option.
For ecommerce sites, it is of huge value in 2018 that they offer these types of one-click payments. Some people get all the way to check out and decide against it when they see they have to enter all their card details rather than simply going through something like PayPal, for example.
More Delivery Options
In 2017, ecommerce saw a demand for same day delivery. We believe that we could see a rise in the development and launching of this on bigger sites in 2018. ASOS recently announced that they would be offering a same-day service for Londoners who ordered before 10am – it is expected that the locations in which it will be offered will widen if the demand is high enough.
As we move into 2018, some experts believe that same-day delivery is going to become expected. Therefore, online retailers are looking for ways in which they can match the speed of the demand efficiently.