As the famous saying goes, “Change is the only constant in the universe,” and changes in e-Commerce is no exception. E-commerce makes up over 10% of all retail sales in the world with predictions that it will reach over 20% in the coming years. The conversion with mobile technology is steadily on the rise – Forrester reported an over 50% increase in mobile e-commerce sales. As online sales are steadily increasing, the expectations of customers are growing as well.
For an ecommerce development company to reach its target consumers, and convert sales, they have to have creative and effective development strategies set in place. We’ll discuss the various e-commerce development trends you can’t do without in 2019 in this article. Most of these trends are not necessarily new to the scene as they’ve been around for a while now. Let’s take a look at these development trends.
Personalized Shopping Experience
Dynamic Yield research showed that most shoppers believe there can be an improvement in the mobile shopping experience. Different customers have unique needs so a personalized approach is in strong demand, and is the key to improving the shopping experience of customers. Over 40% of current consumers prefer companies that customize their shopping experience according to research from Accenture.
Because personalization is not a new trend, a lot of customers expect it whenever they’re shopping online. Over 60% of customers expect companies to present personalized discounts and offers to them. According to Amazon, over 30% of their total sales revenue is attributed to personalized product recommendations sent to customers.
You have to hire a Magento certified developer if you’re running a Magento store. This developer should be able to create personalized discounts and coupons while using the preferences of customers to provide product recommendations. No e-commerce development company should avoid this trend of personalization as it saves customers time and effort.
Subscription Models
The trend of using subscription models has been on a steady rise with no indication of stopping. According to McKinsey over $2billion was generated from subscription e-commerce in 2016 for large retailers. Subscription models allow different brands to make business partnerships with big companies that give out free products.
There’s no need for continuous advertisement with a subscription model, and that makes this trend very cost effective. According to Ben Froedge of Underwaterpistol, the use of subscription models is set to be a big trend for 2019. This is one of the development trends that a website development company in the USA cannot avoid.
Artificial Intelligence
Just as Artificial intelligence is becoming a huge part of different industries, the same goes for the e-commerce industry. When you hire a Magento certified developer that can incorporate AI into e-commerce, this will change the shopping experience for users.
There are different applications of AI to the e-commerce industry. With AI you can perform a context-based search when there are no matching keywords to show relevant results. With AI a visual search can be applied that enables a customer who’s looking for a product to take a picture and use that for the search, instead of words.
Machine learning and AI are behind recommendation engines and chatbots. The personalized shopping experience is easier and more effective with this technology. With machine learning technology, an e-commerce development company can detect anomalies and fraud easily.
Faster Mobile Checkouts
Checking out via mobile has become a big trend. This makes it essential to optimize the mobile checkout process. During the holiday season in 2018 over 35% of all e-commerce purchases were made using a smartphone.
A website development company in the USA should hire Magento certified developer to ensure the checkout process is straightforward and convenient. Nowadays brands are developing their checkouts based on mobile hand positioning, which will help checkout go seamlessly.
Customer Service with Chatbots
The use of chatbots is not new to the e-commerce industry, and they’re on the way to becoming fundamental in e-commerce development. Gartner predicts that over 20% of customer services and support will be combined with virtual assistants by 2020. Chatbots offer 24/7 customer support, and they don’t cost as much as a sales team.
With chatbots customers don’t have to waste time on customer support phone calls as it helps resolve issues in record time. Chatbots are helping to streamline and simplify customer service. They help to seamlessly answer questions and concerns faced by customers with the use of Artificial Intelligence. A website development company in the USA should find a way to implement it into their e-commerce store.
Augmented Reality (AR)
The use of AR is a sure way to increase the engagement and experience of customers during shopping. AR use is enabling potential customers to explore products in a unique way that’s different than the norm – this way they can get to experience the product in real life.
Walmart, Amazon, and IKEA are already making use of this technology. However, the use of AR is still progressing. As time goes by this technology is expected to be more accessible for small and medium e-commerce brands.
Video Content
In 2018 the use of video content was a part of the top e-commerce trends, and it continues to make waves even in 2019. Video content is predicted to get over 70% of total web traffic in 2019. A report showed that most users spend over 30 minutes watching video content on their mobile devices with over 70% of marketers stating that video content has increased their sales.
Nowadays customers interact more with video content especially live streaming videos. The brand message is strengthened with video content used for product videos, testimonials, FAQs, and animations. An e-commerce development company should explore the use of video in e-commerce development as it cannot be avoided.
To Wrap It Up
With the increase in mobile device users, the e-commerce industry has grown tremendously. A number of the 2019 e-commerce development trends are technology and customer based. This goes to show that the e-commerce industry is advancing as technology is advancing.
These days online shoppers don’t want to waste time while shopping and these trends help improve their shopping experience immensely. For your e-commerce business to grow, you have to stay in tune with the trends and implement them well.
