There was a time when shopping meant dragging yourself to the mall to pick out furniture or to look for decent clothes. But despite the inability to truly replicated that physical material feel, the e-commerce industry has been gathering its band of loyalists. Market research analysis shows, however, that even the recent boom in e-commerce is likely to slow down – this isn’t essentially a bad thing, though. With the exciting, incredibly volatile, and changing scenes in the e-retail industry, there’s very little wriggle room for mistakes: which means companies will have to pull out all the stops in order to survive. Here are some predictions for what the future of e-commerce looks like:
1. Shift from Traditional Retailing
There are places located in the interiors of the country that simply do not make it worthwhile to open a store. The electricity bill, maintenance staff, and salesmen alone all involve a significant financial commitment. In comparison, a dedicated group of online assistants are enough to run an online website for several places at once. And even where it’s convenient, it’s likely that e-commerce will change how people buy, transforming shops to places reserved for product demos.
2. Growth of Mobile E-Commerce
We’ve already begun to see the seeds of mobile e-commerce being sown by giants like Amazon, but we can predict a big bang in the growth of mobile commerce structures. With apps becoming friendlier to use, and smartphones becoming a norm, this segment is set to grow by leaps and bounds.
At present, mobile e-commerce is rather limited to businesses that have well-established websites and power-packed smartphones with good web connectivity features. From being secondary, we will see mobile devices as becoming the primary resource for the smart, urban, mobile shopper.
3. Better Software Implementation
The present online shopping experience leaves a lot to be desired. Most online retailers have a similar structure and pattern, with a series of marketplace-based price listings, five or six photographs, and a short product description. With technological advancements allowing for a better look and feel, we can expect e-commerce to create a more immersive online experience for the end-user.
4. Utilization of Near Field Communication (NFC)
The latest fascination with near field communication could turn out to be a boon for the future of e-retailing markets. With NFC-enabled Google wallets, for example, one may simply tap and pay for an object of their choice. This innovative technology would promote the online shopping experience to the urban consumer, changing the way we shop forever.
5. Increased Customer Care
According to a survey conducted by Global Response, the one issue that all e-commerce setups face is fear of lack of control among users; all centers and customer support desks are the perfect solution for this. Budding e-commerce businesses would do well to setup dedicated customer support desks to ensure that their end-users always have a point of contact to reach out to. Customer lifetime value is integral to web commerce success and customer support centers are pre-requisites to that.
