Anyone who has ever run an ecommerce website knows the challenge of driving sales. We’ve all experienced the pangs of sorrow when not as many people pressed on the “Buy Now” button as we hoped. The good news is that you can improve your chances with the top ecommerce trends to emerge in 2020, which we’ll tell you all about in this article.
Of course, there’s much more to driving sales than following trends, but in this very case, experts agree that ecommerce companies that don’t upgrade won’t experience growth. If you apply them properly, these trends will help you scale your ecommerce business in the year to come.
Augmented Reality (AR)
No matter how popular online shopping has become, many people still want to try a product out before buying it. The future of ecommerce will rely on AR as it will give a preview of how something you buy will actually look. For example, if you want to buy a new sofa, you will be able to see how it will look in your living room through AR.
Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots
The best way to sell customers the right product is being familiar with their requirements and needs. Surveys show customers tend to be loyal to companies that provide a good communication experience. Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular to this end, emerging as a key component in the future of ecommerce. It’s easy to have a live chatbot installed on your site – the providers are endless. It will greet every new visitor, interact with them directly, and show them what they’re looking for at the speed of light.
Voice Search Optimization
Ecommerce’s future is tending toward voice search with the invention of tools like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. It’s not that old-fashioned typing will disappear – at least it won’t as soon as 2020 – but its use will decline in the years to come. Your site will get clicks if your products are optimized with the right keywords because customers expect to find what they’re looking for using voice search.
Focus on long-tail keywords to optimize your product pages because most people who use voice search opt for long queries. If you’re selling a big-screen TV, use “big-screen TV for bedroom”, “XX-inch TV for office”, or “big-screen TV” in combination with key technical parameters as a keyword instead of just “big-screen TV.”
Voice search is evolving as a major ecommerce industry trend. It will be an important factor for success throughout 2020 and beyond.
Powerful Order Processing Systems
Powerful order processing systems are the future of ecommerce, and the trend will become pronounced as early as 2020. Small to medium online stores would benefit most from these, as would websites with a very large number of products with complex features and options. Examples of these are user-friendly, yet fully customizable shopping cart systems, a solid storefront with industry-leading shopping functionality, quoting capabilities or draft carts, advanced product catalog configuration and pricing, auto-login to manage and track purchases, and intuitive content management systems (CMS). Other desirable features to optimize your ecommerce store in 2020 include credit card processing and PCI compliance, analytics, reporting, catalog inventory management, seamless integration with common shippers, custom designs without templates, tax rule management, and integration with major tax providers. More information about the latest and best order processing systems is available here.
Product Customization
There’s no denying the fact that selling your customer the exact product they want is the quickest route to success. The problem is that all too often, customers need to spend a certain amount of time on their searches. Making someone search throughout your site is a no-no because people will have even less time for that next year than they do now. They will appreciate a feature letting them customize their products. This is a win-win situation because as a vendor, you also get data about what your clients are looking for through this feature. You can then use this data to target clients through ads of similar products.
To take advantage of this trend, add a feature to your site where visitors can tailor the pattern, size, and color of the product.
Direct to Customer Marketing
As the name suggests, this method involves cutting out the middleman between the end user and the manufacturer. When you exclude people like retailers, wholesalers, and distributors, you can offer products at lower prices, cut extra charges, and avoid product piracy among other advantages. Running your ecommerce business based on the direct to customer method will enable you to sell your products for less without damaging your bottom line. Even now, sites that sell products for less than their competitors (comparable quality assumed) get more sales. Opt for a direct to customer model excluding the middlemen between manufacturer and buyer. Your customers will get their products for less and stay loyal to you.
Communication with the Customer
Studies on brick-and-mortar establishments show consumers are more likely to purchase an item after a conversation with the seller. This principle applies to ecommerce with equal force. So far, sellers’ work remained offline, but in the future, they will get more work online as well. We’ll start observing this tendency in 2020. This trend serves to build trust in a given product and maintain positive interaction with customers. They will buy the product most of the time.
How can you drive sales for your ecommerce operation? We mentioned AI and chatbots as effective tools. Another option is listing contact numbers of specialists who are familiar with your products and can consult customers about the positive and negative aspects of each product depending on their interest. Ecommerce businesses selling products like car services, medicine, travel packages, and nutritional supplements will benefit the most from this. Of course, a chatbot would be a less costly option than a human expert.
These are some of the most important trends to emerge in 2020, which will have a profound effect on ecommerce. We hope you apply them to benefit your business!
Samantha Wallace is a veteran tech writer and editor who has worked in several eCommerce companies. She has been covering technology online for over five years. She is the Content Advocate for Greenwingtechnology.com.
