How Technology is Redefining Ecommerce for Online Brands
Ecommerce brands are taking notice of how technology is redefining and shaping the world of online sales, find out how technology is redefining ecommerce.
So, How is Technology is Redefining Ecommerce?
The mountain must come to Mohammad.
With the rapid and progressive evolution of the technological landscape, ecommerce is becoming not just buyer friendly but also enabling brands to sell better and higher through their ecommerce web stores.
A publication by eshopworld suggests that the United State of America has a population of 323.13 million people, of whom, 203.96 million people are ecommerce users currently and another 26.09 million users are expected to be added by the year 2021. The fact is that technology is augmenting the growth of ecommerce like never before, both for the buyer as well as brands.
What are the technologies that are redefining ecommerce?
The question begs an answer.
Let’s take a look at the top technologies behind the exponential growth of ecommerce.
1. Ecommerce Website Design and Development
First, driving the growth of ecommerce is the availability of great ecommerce website design and development services that by implicit business logic is the most crucial determinant of customer experience.
A KPMG report titled “Global Retail Trends 2018” cites the case study of UltaButy that achieved a 14.3 % increase in the year 2017 owing to its technology strategy to simplify ecommerce website design from the perspective of the end user.
While there are many ecommerce website development companies that offer services at reasonable prices, there are some truly stand out ecommerce software development companies that are embracing a value based model.
The software development company Code Inspiration for example, offers value based custom software development services incorporating latest features like the hamburger menu, responsive web design, grid and ecommerce messenger apps that allows ecommerce start up firms, new market entrants and small businesses to get a truly user friendly ecommerce website.
2. Mobile Applications Development
Second, you wouldn’t think of technology and personalization necessarily going hand in hand, but you’d be wrong.
Retail giant Target saw a 200% increase in sales via mobile app last Black Friday. Amazon and Walmart amassed a huge amount of revenue by starting their Black Friday deals early via their mobile apps.
Technology is enabling ecommerce businesses to deliver a much more personalized shopping experience. Ecommerce mobile app development allows businesses to collate insights on diverse parameters of their users. Ecommerce mobile apps development also allows users to experience a more intuitive and seamless process through one-click search, shopping and payment.
An Adobe publication titled “2018 Digital Trends in Retail” asserts the rise of the “phygital” concept- an integration of physical and digital environments, while citing the example of Lowe’s in the United States that allows users to explore physical inventories of merchandise at their nearest retail outlets.
Driving this change are some ecommerce mobile applications development companies that offer state of the art technology services to some of the fastest growing ecommerce brands across the world.
3. Ecommerce SEO
Third, with the flurry of ecommerce brands all around, competition for ranking websites on diverse keywords has increased for sure. Given the vast plethora of close substitute products that are available across almost every category, ecommerce brands leaning on the latest ecommerce SEO techniques to rank their offerings on top of the ecommerce search page results.
We’ve grown so accustom to SEO terminology or even ‘hands on effort’ with SEO implementation that we forget it’s technology driven. With that comes great tech to help you perfect your Ecommerce SEO.
Software such as MOZ and SEMRush will help you diagnose technical on-page issues as well as provide you with;
• backlink ideas
• user experience ideas
• technical SEO recommendations
• Content ideas
• Isolate keyword searches
There are some highly customer centric ecommerce SEO services companies enabling ecommerce brands to stay ahead of the pack in their respective product groups and industry verticals. Thanks to magneto E-commerce development Mageworx, digital marketing agency Pixel Productions, ecommerce SEO, social media optimization and PPC services are now affordable and value based.
4. Voice Shopping
Fourth in our list of technologies that are driving the ecommerce boom across geographies and industry verticals is the advent of voice assistants.
Voice shopping enables ecommerce brands to take online buying to the next level and makes it completely seamless. Voice shopping also makes ecommerce more socially inclusive and diverse by allowing visually disabled people to enjoy the benefits of technology. Beyond the obvious benefit of making ecommerce even more user friendly, it also allows ecommerce brands to get searched more easily.
Voice shopping technology has taken the ecommerce domain by a storm ever since Google Home and Google Assistant disrupted conventional search technology. Closing the gap is Alexa, the voice assistant from Amazon.
As ecommerce brands race to make online shopping even less time consuming, effortless and hassle free, voice shopping technology is here to stay and bid its time in creating the future of ecommerce.
5. Chatbots
Fifth, adding to the ease of doing business for ecommerce brands and making online shopping even more fun, conversational and guided is the advent of chatbots for commerce.
Chatbots are replacing the old and traditional customer care department at ecommerce companies, allowing them to make the process of buying online even more automated, picture perfect and personalized for buyers.
What Can Chatbots help you do?
1. Help shoppers find the perfect product
2. Answer customer questions
3. Boost store sales
4. Collect customer feedback
5. Send personalized emails
6. Schedule appointments
Take these examples for instance:
Staples offers Facebook chatbots to ecommerce brands that allow users to receive product suggestions on the basis of their buying history, tastes and preferences.
In other words, the chatbot actually helps users make guided choices and navigates them towards products that are more likely to cater to their requirements. Driven by powerful technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, chatbots are probably reshaping the contours of ecommerce like never before.
If reports from A Better Lemon Stand are to be believed,
1 in 5 customers like purchasing products using chatbots, 40% of the buyers prefer to be informed about offers and best deals by chatbots and are willing to spend more than USD 400 through chatbots.
6. Augmented Reality
The market for augmented reality is expected to touch USD 120 billion by the year 2020.
Ever since Pokemon Go took users by a storm, augmented reality has witnessed a greater interest from some of the biggest tech companies in the world and it is sure to transform ecommerce in the coming years.
Magic Leap has received an investment of USD 800 million from Google already.
The acquisitions of Metaio by Apple and Oculus by Facebook also indicate market consolidation. Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce giant has also announced its foray into augmented reality for ecommerce.
What makes augmented reality such a lucrative proposition for ecommerce brands and blue chip tech corporations?
A publication by Ecomdash reports that;
63%customers believe that augmented reality can make their shopping experience better
another 35% opine that they shall shop more frequently if driven by augmented reality
and finally 22% say that they shall lean lesser on conventional brick and mortar stores if ecommerce is enabled by augmented reality.
Given the rapid pace at which the world of digital technology is moving ahead, ecommerce is getting smarter. In the years to come technology shall be seen not just as an enabler of user friendliness, but also a ‘cost reducer’ by providing shorter turnaround times, making supply chains more efficient and improving margins for ecommerce brands.
