E Commerce trends that will be powerful in 2017

Last year, lots of things happened in the e-commerce industry--mobile continued to control traffic and sales, Instagram turns up for product discovery, Amazon continues to set the bar for rapid shipping regularly, to name a few. Even with the declining cost of setting up an online enterprise, scaling a business continues to be a challenge for most entrepreneurs. Brands and corporates are investing heavily in technology to stay on top of their game.The youngsters from the middle class in emerging markets like China will grow substantially and be richer than their previous generation. E-commerce companies in India that want to be on top in the coming year need to pay close attention to upcoming trends and work on riding the wave.This year is going to be just as interesting and exciting as technology, devices and platforms continued to grow more sophisticated and integrated.Certain e-commerce shipping solution and logistic provider in 2017 will follow a pattern of predictable growth, while a few will take surprising paths.

A few e-commerce trends likely to surface in 2017 are as follows:

E-commerce Trend #1: Rise of Personalized Content(Shop from Images and Video)

In most general terms, personalization in retail means providing a customized shopping experience to buyers based on their interests, buying behavior, demographics and psychographics. This strategic advancement has been used by most brands to great extent. However, even with several product differentiations, most products are unsuccessful in the market.

In 2017, customers can expect companies to reflect shopping experience every time they visit the (virtual) store. Each shopper will be able to access unique content, including product recommendations that will make shopping more interesting. Shoppable images and videos have been around for years, but I believe it will become common place in 2017, and all because of Instagram’s shoppable photo tags.The social network is already a major driver of product sales--it has the second highest AOV of any social network, according to Shopify. Shoppable Photo Tags will make easier for consumers to purchase directly from photos.

E-commerce Trend #2: Increase in Buying Frequency

In e-Commerce, gaining customers is only one piece of a big pie. Besides getting new customers, it’s integral that you understand and track how interested customers are to your store, and find new ways to grow the profitability of your store.Increasing number of consumers in the country are embracing online buying and their frequency of hitting the e-commerce platforms is growing.In a recent survey, it was concluded that consumers are now buying more items online than in stores. Increase buying frequency to improve conversion rate optimization and to become a top of mind brand for customers. In terms of growing profitability, you can focus on getting people to buy more during each visit (average order value) or by getting them to shop with you more often

E-commerce Trend #3: Increase in Collaborative Economy

The use of collaborative business models in different sectors will become more famous in 2017, with the use of collaborative and the emerging shared economy. Collaborative commerce is probably to replace e-commerce and lead to the future development of electronic business solutions.This trend will see more retailers using technology to facilitate borrowing, sharing, lending, renting and exchanging of goods and services.Collaborative economies follow the objective of building a community, which makes great effort to achieve mutual goals for all its partners. With the help of Real-time data, eCommerce solutions participating in this process will achieve from their ability to adjust to market changes, achieve better sales and productivity goals by increasing production and distribution situations.As part of collaborative measures, more brands will be seen focusing more on customer-driven revolution and working on advocacy marketing.

E-commerce Trend #4: Effective Use of Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots to own customer communication

In the year 2016, we observed that consumers have no problems talking to a machine. The rise of chatbots has allowed consumers to achieve what they need immediately and allowed businesses to increase cost effectiveness. Powered by artificial intelligence, a chatbot is a perfectly designed computer program that mimics human conversations.In 2017, a majority of e-commerce buyers will notice increased interactions with chatbots, fully-automated chat agents that will answer their questions and act as the first point of contact with the brand. Brands will use artificial intelligence (AI) to make shopping experiences interactive and customize. The reason for investing in chatbots is clear: they allow a greater real-time, personalized approach to customer engagement.Major brands will try to include several personalized features on their digital platforms to interact with customers to build brand loyalty and drive sales organically.In 2017, we’ll see even more companies using chatbots in more experienced ways to drive purchases and improve customer support and communication.

E-commerce Trend #5: Brands to Adopt Mobile-Only Strategy

The biggest advantage of online shopping is, it gives us a lots of options.Purchasers are now looking for simplified choices, personalization and a unnecessary spending. Shopping apps can be a great means for brands to drive allegiance. This is because apps are the perfect platform to engage with customers. The higher the customer engagement, the greater the chances of repeat purchase.The ability to select what you like after looking at multiple brands and multiple e-commerce sites and searching for the best prices that each one of these offer. Having a mobile app will take away this ability to search simultaneously on multiple sites or to search for something through search engines and getting multiple results of where the product  can  be found and at what price. Shopping app makes your work easier,better and cheaper. This might play a pivotal role in a price sensitive market like India.Lastly, mobile and smartphone technology is undergoing huge changes on a daily basis. It will be interesting to see what technological changes is going to happen this year  and how does it end up affecting the traffic for individual apps.

E-commerce Trend #6: Redefining Offers and Discounts

The most preferred shopping techniques for gaining a customer is to shop include products price, shipping cost and speed, and discount offers. Often, buyers compare deals on competing websites and go for the cheapest one. Using third-party data can be great for brands to serve customized deals and offers to the right people in the right place at the right time.Terms like Discount, Offer, and Coupons are easiest and most powerful way to attract and gain a customer.Brands need to offer purchasers different types of offers in real time, based on various factors. Offers can be added either on the basis of the website/app through which potential purchasers entered it or on the frequency of visiting the website.For example, a regular buyer who entered your website/app directly can be presented with an offer to increase loyalty. Similarly, potential customers visiting the website through a paid channel can be given a customized coupon for their first purchase.

E-commerce Trend #7: Brand to Go the Direct-To-Consumers Way

Direct interaction with brands will be a new trend in 2017. Retailers across industries will be seen actively developing Direct-to-Customer (DTC) models to directly engage with customers using social Media, mobile, and digital channels and devices.With the help of Direct-to-consumer channels, innovative ways to expand the customer base will be explored. This feature will be predominant in a wide range of industries including packaged goods, apparel, building products, travel services, consumer electronics, and financial services.Analytics will be one of the most delegate e-commerce trends that will guide the market in 2017. As technology develop, a higher number of smaller brands will have access to real-time data from multiple locations. Most shopping platforms in e-commerce will be able to access real-time analytics and be prepare with relevant behavioral insights about their customers to anticipate their preferences.

E-commerce Trend #8: More Buyers Looking for Same Day Delivery

The scale of business will work at the large extent and customer expectations from brands will be more and more. Brands will have to find new ways to increase their offers and discount on products in order to provide faster shopping solutions and differentiate themselves from their competitors.Same-day delivery has become popular over the past few years mainly because of the ability ensured by the logistics and eCommerce industry. With improvements in delivery systems, shoppers will prefer for same-day delivery.For this, companies have to tie hands with transport providers like Uber, Ola to reduce delivery time. This can be a major improvement to both the sectors.This trend has the potential to eliminate one of the key differences between online purchase and buying from a physical store.However, on the overturn side, it will be a complex task for inventory managers to manage processing and fulfill every order within a range of a few hours. This trend can have a direct impact on the efficiency of e-commerce logistics planning and execution. Brands will have to invest in advanced software solutions that can execute this process and can help businesses live up to customer expectations.

In Conclusion

The e-commerce game is rapidly growing into a tremendous space. Sellers active in this  game will have to respond quickly to the latest trends and be innovative enough to break regular business models.Entering this sector requires accepting the fact that consumers can change providers in no time. This means that those who don’t offer the latest features and experiences will become outdated. Big changes in this sector are unavoidable and retailers ought to act now to win in the long term.