Just having an online presence is no more enough, you have to sell your products and services online rather than just representing your business. This is not only important to increase sales figures and revenues but also to keep up with the trends of the world as well as your competitors.  The eCommerce business is growing at 20% annually and if you have not got started with it, you should immediately hire freelancers to add the required eCommerce section to your existing website. The eCommerce business is constantly changing and you need to follow the latest trends to survive and flourish because, in most of the developed countries, people prefer online shopping over in-store shopping. There have been monumental changes in technologies, strategies, and algorithms for brand development, promotion, marketing, interaction, personalized recommendations, and what not. Here are the latest eCommerce trends for 2018 that you should be completely aware of to be a winner.

Voice Search Facility – All the big companies are bringing out gadgets with voice assistants starting from Amazon Echo, Google Home, Lenovo Smart Home and likewise. Furthermore, there is voice assistant on the smartphones and since most of the online shoppers are mobile-users, searching products by voice is the next trend. Currently, the voice assistant can answer simple questions but for e-commerce, some complicated questions need to be answered with appropriate recommendations. Therefore, you have to include the voice search facility and optimize your web content to match with the queries and get a better visibility.

Mobile-First and Integrated Platform – Already the mobile users are greater in number than computer users in the online world and especially in the eCommerce websites. Therefore, your website has to have a mobile-first design. Furthermore, you must have mobile apps for all platforms and they must be interconnected and completely integrated so that the users do not feel pissed off due to lack of synchronization and completely different designs.As per Google, as much as 80% online users start a purchase in one device and finish it in another.

The Internet of Things is at its prime and the integration of platforms on all the devices must be seamless. You should strategize to provide app based exclusive offers because when a user is inside your app, he has no way to use extensions to compare price and take an exit based on that. You can build exclusive user-base through your apps only. A user should not feel alienated due to the designs when using the app for the first time to claim offers. Omni-platform and Omni-device will help to show better ads on all different apps of different companies and get better conversion.

Personalization and Augmented Reality – If you can develop an automated personal assistant on your platform, your sales figure will increase exponentially. 90% of users need assistance to decide the products to buy. In such scenario, an AI-based personal assistant on the platform can do wonders and accurately recommend products based on the user’s query, behavior and past records. Moreover, people love customized products and it could well be the trend this year where the sellers will offer customized products at a nominal rate.

Furthermore, you have to increase your spending for customer support and post freelance jobs to hire people to do part-time customer care executive jobs to provide better recommendations and solve issues tremendously fast. Moreover, augmented reality may become the only reality for online shoppers as Amazon is bringing Echo Look which will project items on you or to your defined space and you will get to see how exactly the product will look in reality. This is the next breakout trend and all the smartphone companies are investing in AR technologies.

PhotoShopping – Due to social media, people show off their new products online among their friends. Due to the current system, if a person gets interested in buying such a product he/she sees in a photo, he/she has to search it manually. But 2018 could be the year where photoshopping can become a reality whereby a person can upload a photo of a product from real life and the platform will show such products for buying. The technology is already there and it is a matter of time before all leading eCommerce platforms implement it.

Advanced Delivery Options – The reason why eCommerce will grow even better in 2018 is due to its delivery service. Logistics and eCommerce companies are strategizing to provide same or next day delivery options for most of the customer at a nominal rate. Furthermore, customers will be able to schedule the time to deliver while ordering the products which will be very convenient. One more futuristic development is the use of drones to supply products to nearby locations.

Apart from these, the spending on analytics will increase and companies will hire freelancers to research on data and user behavior to provide an edge for better user engagement and conversion. Messenger apps integration and use of chatbots will increase tremendously. Video content instead of static images will be the next trend and people will be able to try out the products in a virtual space or model for better understanding. Companies will invest to build better exit intents so that most of the users do not leave without making the purchase. Keep all these trends in your mind to optimize your eCommerce platform and overcome competition like a pro.

 

Kitty Gupta
Latest posts by Kitty Gupta (see all)