Pay attention to these five Ecommerce industry trends in 2018:
Voice Search is Gaining Steam
People using smart speakers such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are changing the way we shop. Media measurement and analytics company comScore predicts that 50 percent of search will be voice search by 2020. Already, 45 million voice-assisted devices are in use in the U.S. today. According to eMarketer, that number will rise to 67 million by 2019.
Email Shopping
Would you like to shop directly from your inbox? Interactive email startup, Rebel, developed RebelShop, for consumers to buy products right from an email. Right now their focus is on Shopify-powered Ecommerce platforms, but they have plans to expand to additional platforms. It is amazing if you think about what this technology could do for those abandoned cart emails!
ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline)
Customers love browsing the internet to research products. But when it comes to making an actual purchase, they still prefer doing it in person. Google Trends shows a dramatic increase in “near me” queries. But how do retailers discover which ads, listings and site visits led to in-store visits and purchases? They can achieve this by using mobile devices which combine payment, personalization, geolocation, and real-time inventory tracking with analytics tools, CRM and POS systems.
Product Search Starts on Amazon
A whopping 55% of people in the U.S. start their product searches on Amazon. Since Amazon’s sales represent nearly half (44%) of all eCommerce sales in the U.S. eBay comes in at a very distant second at 7%. This means that your product listing should always take into consideration the listing that is found on the Amazon product page.
Visual Search
Visual search is fast becoming the newest, hottest way to shop. For example, eBay‘s visual search tool enables consumers to upload photos to conduct an eBay search for similar products. By using ScreenShop fashionistas everywhere can easily shop for the looks they find on Instagram or on the street by taking a picture or screenshot. Using this picture the app shows comparable, shoppable items at a variety of retailers and price points.
2018 is expected to be an unprecedented year for ecommerce. So, as you’re working on creating your strategy for 2018, take these ecommerce industry trends into consideration and stay ahead of your competition.