In the past decade, eCommerce has simplified life by making buying and selling from the comfort of your home or office possible. 2013 saw eCommerce grow big with the US alone handling sales of over $260 billion. However, despite these major strides, eCommerce is still evolving; here are some trends that are going to influence its growth this year:
- Enabling mobile payment options:
Mobile devices are already becoming the preferred device for browsing eCommerce stores, but they are not the primary device for making purchases; this title still belongs to the PC. 2014 could see this change with eCommerce vendors enabling multiple secure mobile payment options, whether through independent apps and in-built features, or through a partnership with payment gateways like PayPal and Google Wallet. - Multi-device or Omni-channel selling:
eCommerce vendors need to reach their customer in any which way possible, so maintaining a PC only approach to marketing the site and the products is an unsound strategy. eCommerce firms are realizing this and have earmarked a mobile marketing approach to be developed. - Content becomes even more powerful:
With the many updates in search engine approaches and algorithms, many traditional SEO techniques went out of the window. eCommerce vendors have understood that and we believe that 2014 will see a lot of original content being generated in the form of product reviews, tips, instructional videos and much more. - Big Data to power eCommerce:
Experts say that 2014 is the ‘Year of Big Data’, whether or not this will hold true for other organizations, it most likely will hold true for eCommerce vendors. Big Data helps eCommerce organizations collect and analyze relevant data to optimize various operational aspects of the organization. - Social Networks and their impact:
Social Media has united the world like never before, and this gives eCommerce businesses an inter-connected base of customers and potential customers that can be leveraged to get some great results. A successful social media strategy can change the fate of a business, so eCommerce vendors are going to have to take to the networks this year if they want to grow. - Delivery schedules to get more demanding:
Delivery times have been continuously shortened and Amazon’s one-day delivery move has forced eCommerce vendors to offer something similar. Of course it might not be practical or feasible for all eCommerce vendors to have one-day delivery times, but we think that in general delivery times are going to decrease across the sector. - Global products, local experience:
It’s great to have a global eCommerce vendor with an established brand offering millions of products, but personalization still has its value. So while the local eCommerce stores are growing, the global giants are going to have to start personalizing services, starting with offering their sites in local languages.
Many eCommerce vendors enjoyed great success in 2013, but this year requires them to make changes to stay in the game.
We’ve talked more about the benefits of having Big Data Analytics in your B2B eCommerce business in our previous blog: link.