Emerging eCommerce Trends for 2020
When it comes to emerging eCommerce trends what should your business be paying attention to as we roll into 2020? Find out here.
E-commerce was first introduced in 1991 and has been on a major growth trajectory ever since. According to Statista, worldwide retail e-commerce sales have significantly increased every year since 2014, and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. In order for businesses to keep up with the rapid growth of e-commerce, they need to get ahead of the curve.
You must be able to identify emerging eCommerce trends for the future or run the risk of going out of business.
This is easier said than done – it’s obviously challenging to predict the future.
If you are in an e-commerce business and are struggling to identify trends for the future, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll discuss three significant emerging e-commerce trends for 2020 and beyond.
#1 Emerging eCommerce Trend: The Amazon Effect
It’s important to understand Amazon’s role in all of this. Amazon is the most popular and profitable e-commerce business in the world. Amazon’s success means every other e-commerce business should be paying close attention to what they do. There is a good chance that if Amazon does something, you should too. There is even a term for the phenomenon – The Amazon Effect.
The Amazon effect refers to the challenges that e-commerce businesses face when competing with Amazon.
For example, Amazon offers low prices and fast shipping on all of their products. Most e-commerce businesses can’t offer both of those things at once.This presents a challenge to e-commerce businesses because most consumers will choose to shop at stores that offer low prices and fast shipping over ones that don’t.
Because of this, e-commerce businesses must find a way to offer low prices and fast shipping while still making a profit or risk losing business to Amazon.
Not only has Amazon made it nearly impossible for e-commerce businesses to compete with them – they’ve also helped other industries. By helping these other industries, Amazon has successfully weakened their competition even more. For example, by offering customers fast shipping, Amazon has forced pressure onto other business to provide fast, free shipping to their customers as well. Now,businesses must offer expanded shipping options to customers, in hopes to provide the same kind of fast, affordable shipping experience that Amazon can afford to deliver.
#2 The Use of Mobile Devices Will Increase
The first trend that we can safely predict about the future of e-commerce is the increase in the use of mobile devices. In other words, more and more people in the future will use their mobile devices to buy things online rather than a desktop or laptop. According to Statista, e-commerce sales through mobile platforms have been increasing worldwide every year since 2016. It’s estimated that in 2020, more than 70% of all e-commerce sales will be from mobile devices. If these stats are any indication,it’s clear that mobile commerce is the way of the future.
In order for businesses to adapt to this change in consumer behavior, they should be doing two things.
- Optimizing websites for mobile use
- Developing an app
To make sure your website is optimized for mobile, you should make sure that it is easy to navigate, and that it has fast load times per page. By doing these two things, businesses will be well equipped to handle the impending explosion of mobile commerce.
#3 Written Product Descriptions Will Become Obsolete
Another prediction about the future of e-commerce is that written product descriptions will become obsolete. According to studies conducted by SocialMediaToday, 60% of shoppers would rather watch a product video than read a product description when they’re shopping. This number is projected to increase over time. With this in mind, retail companies should focus on providing video product descriptions, as opposed to written ones.
In product videos, make sure that you explain everything possible about the product. This includes how to use it, why a consumer needs it, and anything else that may be of relevance.
In summary
The Amazon Effect is one of the biggest indicators of future e-commerce trends. In addition to The Amazon Effect, we see other indicators of future e-commerce trends through data and statistics. In the future, mobile commerce will surpass traditional e-commerce, and that written product descriptions will become obsolete. If you are in the e-commerce business, all you need to do is pay attention to what Amazon does, and do a little research of your own. As long as you fulfill these goals, you have a much better chance of keeping pace in the e-commerce game.
