Figures speak for themselves. As per a report by Morgan Stanley, India will have almost 320 million online shoppers by 2020 as compared to the 50 million in 2015. We have witnessed exponential growth in eCommerce, which is perpetually improving in every way possible. As claimed by KPMG, 85% SMEs in India who have experienced online selling saw a growth in their sales. Companies that adopted the digital commerce route saw a 51% increase in their revenues and a 49% increase in profits.
We have reached a standpoint where retailers without online visibility are destined to disappear. Online shopping spends in India have surpassed the $20 billion mark in 2016 and are projected to touch about $100 billion by 2020. This surge in eCommerce attributes to various factors like – the government initiative to create a digital India, entrepreneurs who are focused on creating value and making a societal impact, the growing penetration of smartphones in the country, rising income of the consumers and much more. As the statistics suggest, retailers need to accept digital commerce to thrive wholeheartedly.
Although the following trends have already stepped into the market, they are fated to improve substantially to drive the eCommerce industry in 2017.
SMARTPHONES WILL TAKE OVER: Per Gartner, mobile shopping will increase across the country (as well as the globe), and the companies will witness their revenues to rise by at least 50% by the end of 2017. Mobile traffic is known to have already outdistanced desktop on the web. With smartphones, consumers can shop from anywhere at any time. Over $2 Billion of the total online shopping happened via the mobile phone, and the rural India is not an exception to this mobile-led shopping trend.
Conversion rates through mobiles are likely to escalate remarkably. With the current demonetization drive introduced by the Modi-led government, combined with the booming growth of digital wallets for fast payment, the shopping experience is just going to get more and more convenient.
GROWTH OF REAL-TIME, SIGNAL-DRIVEN ANALYTICS, AND BIG DATA: The capture and careful analysis of the available data sets have increasingly allowed products, advertisements of relevant products and content to be shown to the appropriate audience at the right time through the perfect medium. Real-time big data processing and analytics based on actions and behaviour of customers will provide better actionable insights, which will play an instrumental role in driving sales. Chronicled shopping information helps create a tailor-made shopping experience, with targeted prices and precise online advertising based on consumer demographics.
Signal-driven data analytics will provide retailers with a bigger scope to drive their business conversions by engineered reactions in response to customer actions, in real-time. Customer behavior will be observed carefully, and speculative analysis will help engage more and more consumers. Big data patterns are bound to revamp the whole shopping experience.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL EMERGE STRONGLY: Content marketers have started to experiment with machine-related content and learning tools. Product descriptions are being created using analytical tools. Machine-generated content will rise in forms like – image and object recognition led product tags and descriptions, personalized content and offers, predicting shopping and browsing trends before they occur, etc. AI has reached a level where many people use it in their daily lives. Thanks to AI, there is a rise in digital assistants, which brings us to another trend - Chat Bots for customer engagement.
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WILL REIGN SUPREME:Shopping integrated chat bots are already here. Real-time customer support with live chats and other forms of customer engagement features will rule the eCommerce space over the coming years. In the era of conversational commerce, this will aid consumers with solving general queries and escalating issues smoothly.
Now such shopping integrated bots are being programmed to recommend products to customers according to the captured data, which increases customer engagement and will improve shopping experience significantly. There are out-of-the-box things that eCommerce companies are doing to engage their customers, like – quoting a customer’s name in a blog, replying to queries through videos, seeking feedback, sending regular newsletters, etc., which all in all, keeps the customers updated with absolute transparency. This will help in better customer service.
CUSTOMER SERVICE WILL GO MORE ROBUST: Customer service is imperative for every business, but for online stores, it is just as important as the quality of their products and services. To make customer service stand out, it is important to build an emotional connect with the customer, and engage with them. This is achievable through user-generated content. By encouraging a customer to upload a review, or talk about the product, you are engaging with them on a deeper level, while creating relevant content.
This works hand in hand with AI-led Chat bots since AI is bridging the gap between the physical and digital world, where consumers can conveniently ask and answer questions in real-time about the product they are looking at, instantly review their experience, and contribute to another trend – namely, Social Selling.
SOCIAL COMMERCE – A TREND WHICH WILL SHAPE THE ECOMMERCE SPACE:Social media is already changing the way online marketing is done. 3 out of 4 people are believed to depend on social media to make their online shopping decisions. The internet is a social commerce platform, powered by the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc. With the growth and evolution of eCommerce, many social business trends are emerging and will continue to dominate as a valuable marketing tool.
SHOPPING EXPERIENCES ARE BECOMING DYNAMIC: E-commerce will not be limited to just selling products. E-commerce stores will offer brilliant experiences to online shoppers that would make their customers their brand ambassadors. Smart, intuitive interface backed by technology, faster discovery of products, secure transactions and more, will define the eCommerce space in the years to come.
Although most of these trends have already arrived, they will get stronger over the coming years. E-commerce platforms will get more user-friendly and accessible, easy to browse and pay, and real-time customer redressal will become a general norm. Service, technology, and product innovation will become the deciding factors to success, rather than mere competitiveness. What a time to be alive!
