Tag: eCommerce

How to Grow Your eCommerce Company With Localization?

Posted on by Erica Sunarjo

The eCommerce market has become highly competitive. The idea of an online store has inspired many to become entrepreneurs.

However, this means that if you want to grow your company you need to stand out from the crowd. Besides uniqueness, devotion to marketing, and product quality, there is something else that can help you out – localization.

As the eCommerce market is growing, you can use the assistance of international customers to improve your company’s success.

This is your opportunity to reach a wider audience and spread awareness about your company. Not to mention that you’ll evoke trust in potential customers by providing them product descriptions in their own language.

So, if you are ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level, this is what you need to know.

What is Localization?

If this term seems somewhat familiar to you but you aren’t sure what it is really about, let’s clarify it.

First, you need to understand that localization is not the same as translation.

The translation is converting the text from one language to another.

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While localization does include translation in its process, it also demands that you use cultural context to convey the message. Meaning, that with localization you adapt the content to the culture it is intended for.

So, when you localize your website, you will translate the landing page, product description, image descriptions, and every other aspect of your website but you’ll also adapt it to the targeted culture.

The reason why localization is more valuable for sales growth is that you appeal to the new customers’ habits, traditions, and beliefs rather than just translating content word by word.

Common Sense Advisory did a study on 2,430 online consumers that spread across eight countries and the results showed that 72.4% of potential customers are more likely to buy a product if they can find the information in their native language.

Start by looking at your website’s analytics with the help of Google Analytics and find out where is your traffic coming from. This will help you define which languages and countries you should aim for.

Google AnalyticsImage Source: Google Analytics

Machine Translation or Human Translation?

While using machine translation can be faster and therefore, more tempting, you should be aware that it can never provide you with the quality that human translation can.

Localization is an especially tricky task because you need more than just transforming the content from source to target language. You also need to adapt the translation to the targeted culture. 

Instead of hiring a translator, you should think about working with a localization expert who has experience in this field. He or she can give you pointers on what you need to pay attention to on your website if you want to appeal to the target audience. 

If you feature some holiday discounts/sales on your website, keep in mind that countries celebrate different holidays. Talk with your localization expert about this aspect of localization and make sure to adapt it to the targeted country. 

Improve Customer Service

Responding to customers’ inquiries is a highly impact aspect of the eCommerce business. If you don’t deal with questions that your potential customers have about your products, you won’t be able to earn their trust.

For that reason, as a part of your localization process, you should provide customer service in multiple languages. 

There are several options depending on your plans and your budget:

  • Hire a customer service team that can address customers’ inquiries in their native language.
  • Hire a professional translator to translate FAQ to cover the most important questions.
  • Use machine translation just for the FAQ to cover the most important questions.

Adapt the Website’s Look 

Depending on target audience differences, you might need to think about adapting your website as well. 

There is more to localization than just translating the content based on the target culture. You should also think about the visuals that will be most effective.

Take Amazon as an example. While Amazon’s websites for the UK and Germany don’t differ, there is a clear difference between the European Amazon website and the Chinese Amazon website.

Adapt the Website's Look Image Source: Amazon UK

Amazon GermanyImage Source: Amazon Germany

Amazon ChinaImage Source: Amazon China

This global company is aware of differences between its target audiences so they adapted the visuals.

While the European audience has a similar taste, the Chinese audience prefers a more vivid, bright, and colorful visual effect which is evident in Amazon’s choice of design. 

Choose an Appropriate Platform

Before you start with localizing, you need to make sure that your current eCommerce platform is adequate for localization.

For example, it should offer order management integration, international shipping, multi-currency options, and be tailored for translation to different languages. 

To ensure the security is on point, check with your provider if the platform supports the rule of the global Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI).

Localized SEO

Optimizing an eCommerce website is very important for a company that aims at growth. If you don’t optimize the website, the customers won’t be able to find your products, and therefore you’ll fall short in organic traffic.

The thing with localization is that you need to adapt to the website’s SEO as well. 

Why?

Well, different countries have different preferences when it comes to online searches. For example, even though Google is the most popular search engine in the world, other search engines are used as well.

Users in China use Baidu (68.78%), users in Russia prefer Yandex (51.6%), and some Japanese users prefer Yahoo (23.09%). 

Depending on the search engine, you need to adapt the SEO efforts accordingly. 

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Also, pay close attention to keywords. They shouldn’t just be translated word for word. There might be some variations that will influence the keywords.

If you run a US website and you want to adapt it for the UK market, keeping the word “sweater” as a keyword will hurt your SEO because the UK audience will rather use the word “jumper” in their search. 

Even such simple changes can make a huge difference. 

Some Final Thoughts

Localization can be one of the key moves you need to expand your global reach.

Unless you explore international markets, you’ll never know how the global audience will respond to your products or services.

With localization, you can affect the purchase decisions, build trust, and personalize the shopping experience. 

The above-mentioned guidelines will give you all the information you need to execute the localization perfectly. Through the whole process, just keep in mind that user-friendliness is what you need to aim for.

Localization can provide the customers with a positive shopping experience and get them to fall in love with your eCommerce store.

How Technology is Empowering eCommerce Business?

Posted on by os_admin

eCommerce has been developing at the speed of light in the recent decade. Thousands of researchers, analysts, and marketers have been studying the holy grail of information – that’s a customer with a smartphone – and defining the strategies for more targeted and personalized marketing and products.

Today, many eCommerce businesses have tons of customer data needed to advance in the online marketplace. With data, as well as data analysis and intelligence tools and platforms, being readily available

They know exactly what their target customers need and want. For example, Amazon’s product recommendation engine generates 35 percent of the company’s net income of $10.07 billion.

In fact, those who have mastered customer research not only know your needs and preferences but also what you’ll need in the future.

This incredible opportunity, along with many other ones, was, of course, enabled by state-of-the-art eCommerce solutions that companies only dreamed about 10 years ago.

So what exactly drives eCommerce businesses’ obsession with data? What are the technologies that give them the competitive advantage they need to stand out in a multi-billion online marketplace?

  • Machine Learning Algorithms to Generate Personalized Product or Service Recommendations

The vast majority of online shoppers – 87 percent – start product searches online. Chances are you’re a part of this, too, if you rely on your smartphone to find new products. It makes perfect sense, as the experience of others can help to make a good choice.

Function of Beauty, an American fashion brand offering personalized hair-care, wants to take product research one step further. A customer looking for hair products such as shampoos and conditioners for their specific hair type doesn’t need to browse numerous websites and menu categories.

Instead, they can take a quiz on a brand’s website and receive a personalized recommendation.

Function of BeautySource: Screenshot, Functionofbeauty(.)com

This was made possible by a machine learning algorithm. A customer can choose their hair type, scent, size of a bottle, and provide other preferences.

The results provided by a quiz taker are fed into the algorithm that pulls from hundreds of ingredients to generate a truly unique set of hair care products. In fact, it’s able to offer up to 12 million custom combinations.

Inc. reports that the quiz has been already taken by more than 1.5 million times. This is truly a great example of how machine learning can help to increase the personalization and relevance of products as well as advanced customer relationships.

Algorithms like these can be used to generate custom products, services, and recommendations, and therefore, will continue to drive eCommerce businesses’ effort to maximize relevancy for customers.

  • Chatbots to Improve the Overall Online Shopping Experience

Chatbots are one of the hottest topics in eCommerce right now.

These apps can mimic human online behavior such as conversations with pre-written questions and answers, so they have a lot of applications in the area.

In fact, here’s what eCommerce businesses expect from using them, as described in the 2018 State of Chatbots report.

ChatBot ReportSource: The 2018 State of Chatbots report

Already, a countless number of businesses have developed their own chatbots to help customers.

The range of their applications, as you can see, is pretty impressive, so it’s safe to claim that any eCommerce business can benefit from using one.

Let’s consider an example of a chatbot making a difference. A well-known U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy, for example, has an impressive Messenger chatbot that helps customers with:

    • Finding products based on such criteria as price range, manufacturer, OS type, laptop type, and common applications (gaming, studying, etc.)
    • Connecting to a customer support operator from an appropriate service department (this is determined by the answers given by the customer to the chatbot)
    • Locating stores across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
    • Getting support like in-home consultations and other service-related inquiries.

Impressive, right? And all of this is available in one place. But the best thing that a lot of customers really appreciate is that they can get almost instant replies to their requests thanks to the chatbot technology.

ChatBot

Chatbots like Best Buy’s can really improve the overall customer experience by increasing personalization and relevance of communication with brands.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more and more people feel comfortable using them; in fact, one U.S. study found that 62 percent of online shoppers said they liked using a chatbot to communicate with a brand.

  • Hybrid eCommerce App Development

Apps continue to be a significant sales channel for eCommerce businesses around the world. In recent years, many companies have chosen to build hybrid apps, which combine the elements of web applications and native apps.

This means they’re built on CSS, HTML, or JavaScript, but use a device’s browser engine to render the HTML or JavaScript code locally.

This allows for more functions that aren’t accessible in native apps, such as local storage and accelerometer. Moreover, making an app hybrid also means that it:

    • Gets downloaded to a device
    • Functions regardless if the device is connected to the Internet
    • Integrates with the devices’ file system to allow local storage
    • Provides better access to dynamic online content
    • Integrates with web services.

The first obvious advantage of hybrid apps that many customers appreciate is offline availability. If made possible by the developers, all of their features can work without an Internet connection.

For businesses looking to build an app, these advantages of hybrid mobile app development should be considered:

    • Your app will work both online and offline
    • Launching updates and patches will be easier for your web development team
    • You’ll build the app faster, so if time to market is a priority, hybrid apps are a great choice
    • You’ll reduce the costs because there’s no need to build multiple versions of a native app for different platforms (Android and iOS, etc.)

  • Innovative Experiences with 3D Imaging, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR)

Attracting customers to product pages is one of the biggest goals in eCommerce. Product imagery and video play a deciding role in conversions; in fact, the State of Video Marketing 2019 report found that up to 96 percent of online shoppers say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. 

No surprise a lot of eCommerce brands have been learning how to improve product imagery and product pages as a whole.

Technology is the answer here, too, as it can help to advance customer experience with product pages with innovative imagery and video delivered by AR and VR.

Yes, we as customers were once quite happy with conventional product images. We’re not anymore, so businesses have to use technology to win over us. 

Using the above-mentioned technologies is indeed a great way to create an immersive, 360-degree shopping experience for online shoppers.

For example, a U.S.-based travel bags and accessories seller Samsonite is one of the companies leading the revolution of product imagery with 3D visualizations to improve customer experience.

3D ProductSource: Samsonite 3D Product Viewer, Samsonite(.)com

“It is important for our customers to have the opportunity to examine the goods in detail, and 3D visualization allows us to bridge the gap between online shopping and brick-and-mortar stores,” Business Wire quoted Jay Nigreli, VP of eCommerce at Samsonite, as saying. 

Indeed, customers visiting eCommerce websites that offer this experience have a great chance to get a better sense of a product’s materials, shape, and dimensions.

The technologies could be especially relevant for companies selling small products like jewelry, so we expect them to adopt 3D, AR, and VR in the future. 

Exciting Times Ahead

Without a doubt, the next several years will be transformational for eCommerce technology. As technology continues to redefine the rules of customer engagement, many new approaches, as well as exciting possibilities, emerge to help businesses stand out from the ever-increasing competition.

The points you’ve just read are among the biggest technology trends impacting eCommerce at the moment, and it’s clear that they will become more widely adopted, as more and more businesses are looking for opportunities to gain competitive advantage.

How You Can Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment?

Posted on by Peter Page

While setting up an e-commerce website, one of the most predictable fears is the shopping cart abandonment.

The event where the customers move products into their cart and then leave it there is quite a possibility.

Most of the e-commerce sellers face this challenge.

According to research, the average shopping cart abandonment in 2018, was up to 69.2%.

Even though it may seem like a dead end, there are many ways you can overcome and reduce this phenomenon.

Below mentioned are some proven and practical techniques to help you out and beat all your cart abandonment blues.

What is cart abandonment all about?

It is extremely essential to understand what we are dealing with before we begin discussing the various techniques.

When a potential customer browses your e-commerce website, and keeps on adding products in the cart, but eventually leaves without making a purchase, this entire phenomenon is known as cart abandonment.

Now imagine when you go shopping in a brick and mortar store and select an item of particular clothing, then try it on, but eventually decide to come and buy it later or not at all.

Cart abandonment rate shows, that how many of the items that are finally added in a shopping cart are abandoned.

Cart abandonment determines the overall success of your purchase and, gives you an idea of the possible revenue that you can generate, by implementing the required optimization.

A study found out that, more than 65% of e-commerce stores have cart abandonment rates higher than 50%.

This is a revelatory phenomenon, wherein you have a chance to maximize the profits, but instead, you are left with depleting revenues and unachieved business goals.

By evaluating the final cart abandonment rate, you can implement the required changes in your website and can access your sales accordingly.

Reasons for cart abandonment

A recent study pointed out that almost 58.6% shopping cart abandonment is done by customers who are merely browsing and comparing the prices.

Below mentioned are the abandonment you have no control over, but the rest of them are due to some specific reason, which can be tackled.   

  • Delayed delivery
  • Confusing check-out process
  • Additional costs
  • Necessary account creation
  • Limited payment option

Techniques to reduce cart abandonment

  • Upfront display of all the cost

Including all the taxes and shipping fees in the displayed product cost on your website is a smart technique, and try to provide a discount on the same displayed cost during the check-out process.

Following this practice leaves a positive impact on the customer’s mind when compared to a greater value of the product during the check-out.

  • Simple check-out process

Once the user has added products to his cart, ensure that the road after that is free from any hurdles.

Asking the customers to fill in their shipping details and directly proceed to the payment gateway, without demanding any unnecessary detail, is another effective technique to avoid cart abandonment.

Demanding more information than required, kills the enthusiasm of the customers and forces them to leave the online shopping process midway. 

  • Including product image throughout the process

Ensuring that the image of the product, that the customer has finalized, is always visible throughout the check-out process.

The reason behind this technique is that an image stays in mind longer than text, and hence registers well with the customers.    

  • Provide them quick delivery

Customers are always attracted to an e-commerce portal that provides them quick delivery options.

One of the best e-commerce portals like WAKI, even provide the customers with 30 to 90 mins delivery facility, to generate a potential customer base and avoid cart abandonment by the users.

Following this technique to curb the cart abandonment rates is recommended.       

  • Focus on product images and descriptions

One of the most important technique to avoid cart abandonment is to keep the product description crisp and proper and try to stick with the most realistic product images.

Including all the critical details about handing and usage and any other essential product information, in the product description help you to overcome cart abandonment.

Such practices instill trust in potential customers and give them the required satisfaction about the product they are purchasing.

  • Intent pop-ups

Using a creative and attractive pop-up to connect with the user, right before he exits the page, captures his attention right then and there.

Cart abandonment pop-ups increase the chances of the sale of that product by up to 10%. You need to ensure that you keep the content of that pop-up, direct and concise.

The pop-up needs to stand out and must not look too compelling.   

Conclusion

Implementation of these methods can help you to minimize the cart abandonment rate of your e-commerce portal.

Features Available With New Magento 2.3

Posted on by Jay

Finally, the latest Magento 2.3.0 is now officially released! It combines with many new tools that improve both merchant, developer experience, as well as enhance its performance.

So, what exactly does this latest platform version have in store?

In a nutshell: Performance, security, and innovation. The features of Magento 2.3.0 have been elevated to a whole new level, building upon their already robust capabilities.

According to the official release notes of Magento 2.3, this update introduces a multitude of functional fixes, supercharges performance, and bolsters security through numerous updates.

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The enhancements in Magento 2.3.0 are set to transform the way we approach e-commerce, opening up exciting possibilities for merchants and developers alike.

Let’s dive into the key features and benefits that await, and witness the future of online business unfold!

Core Features Based On:

  • Tools to personalize content and add local preferences.
  • Build and manage all channels and experiences via a single code base, one deployment and app.
  • Intuitive user experience with innovative commerce and CMS theme.
  • Module component architecture to help drive opportunities for extension providers.
  • Purpose-built developer tools for fast prototyping, helpful debugging, rich feedback, and increased productivity

(Source: magento.com)

New Magento 2.3

Improved Experience

The new release has features to increase the performance level be delivering the resources faster by lessening the burden on the server.

  • Magento 2.3 now supports the newest version of PHP 7.2. In result, you will get higher security, better performance, and a lot of many new development features at your Magento resource.
  • The all-new encryption and decryption will now be handled by the sodium library in it which will remove the PHP encryption module ‘mcrypt’ and migrate to Libsodium for password hashing.
  • The GraphQL API is now available on Magento 2.3.  This API makes available an alternative to REST and SOAP web APIs for custom frontend development, as well as headless storefronts and PWAs. You can take this advantage in getting more refined data with fewer API requests.
  • Asynchronous Web APIs feature will allow any previous Magento REST APIs to be called asynchronously. This community-contributed element includes separate status APIs that have been formed to check the position of each request. Developers can now use the asynchronous APIs in combination with queues that have also been migrating to Magento App Development.
  • Both Magento commerce, Message Queue are now available in Magento 2.3.0. It’s available as “limited only” before . It allows asynchronous communication between systems. In short, it simplifies the strain on the application band enhances the performance of your Magento store.
  • Another features have been included to the New Release is Declarative Database Schema. It would simplify the installation and upgrading procedure for Magento and the extensions. The Declarative schema reduces the need for many database scripts, eliminating the need to retain these scripts. This feature also supports split and shared database structures and database structure confirmation.

Substantial Security Enhancement

The new release brought over 30 securities fixes to core Magento code including the two-factor authentication features.

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In addition, it also has the Google Authenticator, Duo Security, U2F Devices features now support this service.

Magento 2 Factor AuthenticationImage Source: CloudWays.com

  • The Two Factor Authentication or CAPTCHA protects the Admin panel against stolen passwords and affects stores against bots.

Magento CaptchaImage Source: Dropified.com

  • The security features also include Cache flush ACL, which grant granular access to cache management settings to avoid accidental modification that may potentially affect system performance. This ACL also lets merchants control which administrative users can clear site caches.

Bundled Extension Enhancement

The Core extension like Amazon Payments, Dotmailer, Klarna Payments, Magento Shipping, Vertex is now supporting on Magento 2.3.0.

Other Helpful Improvements

  • Inventory management/ MSI is available on Magento 2.3.0. This feature would help to control over order and shipment options and will give the full control over the stock store directly from the admin panel.
  • The New Updated version has the PWA Studio feature. It is a set of tools that support the development, deployment, and maintenance of progressive web applications.
  • Through Page Builder features, a merchant can easily customize the look and fill their store by drag and drop visual content editing tool. You can also integrate third party contents such as YouTube, Vimeo videos, and Google Maps.

Conclusion

Unlock the full potential of e-commerce with Andolasoft‘s specialized Magento app development company. Our team of skilled developers possesses in-depth expertise in harnessing the capabilities of Magento to create extraordinary online shopping experiences.

Whether you need tailor-made theme customization, powerful extensions, or seamless third-party integrations, we have you covered.

With our reliable and cost-effective solutions, your business will soar to new heights, captivating customers and driving exceptional growth. Hire our magento developer to transform your e-commerce venture and stay ahead in the dynamic digital landscape.

Top Areas and Features to Know for Successful E-Commerce Entrepreneur

Posted on by Jay

The flexibility of E-commerce development is growing fast. So today’s entrepreneurs are looking to establish a good online presence through eCommerce business because of the massive consumer base.

eCommerce industry is also expanding and providing opportunities for success and sustainability of the business.

Now, eCommerce has become the dominant feature for all business over the world. Industries like jewelry & accessories, household goods, consumer gadgets, phone accessories, and sports & outdoors gear are generating huge profit through eCommerce.

According to the statistics, the eCommerce business is expecting to grow double like 45% compared to the present 18% in rural and semi-urban areas.

Let’s have a quick look at the statistics of the eCommerce market,

  • There are expected to be 600,000 commercial drones in use by 2018, and almost half of Americans would be willing to receive deliveries by drone.
  • A 2015 survey showed customers spending almost 60% of their online shopping time on their mobile devices. That translated to only 15% of purchases made on mobile.
  • By 2021, it is predicted that early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%.
  • By 2019, B2B firms will spend more on e-commerce technology than online retailers do.

(Source: https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/ppc/ecommerce/2018-ecommerce-statistics/)

E-Commerce

According to the statistics, in 2017, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 2.3 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2021.

e-commerce

“By 2022, brick and mortar retail spaces will be little more than showrooms.”

 – Eddie Machaalani & Mitchell Harper, CO-CEOs of BigCommerce

“M-commerce sales worldwide reached an estimated $1.357 trillion in 2017 or 58.9% of eCommerce spending overall. By 2021, m-commerce will account for 72.9% of the eCommerce market.”

If you’re looking to become a successful online entrepreneur, you may be tempted to get into e-commerce.

With the advanced technology, it’s become pretty simple to develop eCommerce website/store for your first sale.

But you need to consider some crucial planning for your success, here you go:

1. Do Market Research and Understand tout Target customer:

Market research and reaching to the target audience are the most important things to get established in the eCommerce market.

Every buyer has different choices and marketing style. You need to understand what the target audience is looking into.

With a good strategy and analysis, the buyer’s persona can help you to reach your target audience and solve their problems. This also helps you to align your messages with motivations to purchase.

2. Maximize Visibility and presence on Social Media:

Social media is putting a high impact on the eCommerce market and this has become a crucial ingredient for reaching out to your target audience.

People are embracing social media with the help of their Smartphones and getting real-life information about product and service.

So it’s time to maximize the social presence of your brand and engage with your audience.

The recent report says that more than 70% of consumers are from social media referral source and consumers are also searching the vendor information in Social Media.

It’s very necessary to maximize your potentials in various social media channels through engaging contents and collect positive customer reviews, feedback, and testimonials to boost e-commerce conversion

3. Focus on Customer Experience

Customer experience is the most vital thing in eCommerce segments and you need to represent your business in such a way for the consumers so that they can feel the value and influence to purchase.

Customer experience is a great challenge for any entrepreneur. You have to make it more user-friendly with great design, easy navigation, appropriate pricing, provide free shipping, and simplify the shopping cart.

For the sustainable eCommerce business, you need to invest in your consumers and understand their touch points before they come into your buying cycle.

For smooth and enhanced customer experience you need to integrate live chat on the website and support assistance is much required.

4. Secure and Seamless Checkout Process

Normally people are very much hesitating to provide their personal information at the time of purchase or in the checkout process.

Consumers are always looking for some secure source from where they can do the transaction securely and they have the fear to fall in unauthorized hands.

You have to make the checkout process much secure so that consumer will understand and happy to share their financial details.

The checkout process must be in few steps with quick guides for the hassle-free and seamless transaction. Effective CTA (Call to action) buttons can also take the users confidence for secure transaction.

5. Adopt SEO

Well planned SEO strategies can maximize any organization profit to 10X more. Search Engine Optimization helps to maximize the visibility of your business and customers can found that quickly.

Adoption of SEO in eCommerce business helps you bring more traffic to the website and that eventually leads to conversion.

The SEO process is very much cost effective to bring your products and services in front of the consumer.

Conclusion:

To establish yourself as a successful entrepreneur in the eCommerce market, you need to do proper research on your target market as well as the audience and their buying persona.

The demand for eCommerce is growing and you need to make your website or eCommerce store secure and implement a seamless checkout process to get users trust.

We at Andolasoft do develop eCommerce applications and stores for various brands and online business organizations.  Thanks to the service of the experienced eCommerce developers, our customers are pretty happy with the services we offer.

Are you looking to develop a secure and user-friendly eCommerce application to be a successful entrepreneur in the eCommerce market?

We are here to help you. Let’s discuss.

Ecommerce Trends To Watch In The Mid Of 2018

Posted on by Jay

With the hasty growth in eCommerce, online shopping has also changed a lot. The growth of global eCommerce is mind-boggling. There are lots of changes and development has come out in the eCommerce sector in the last couple of years.

The year 2017 had great for eCommerce and in 2018 it is also proceeding with a great level. In 2017 it reached around $2.3 trillion and is expected to hit $4.5 trillion in 2021. In the USA it’s growing 15% more each year compared to retail sales.

Worldwide Ecommerce Sales

(Source: shopify.in)

Now a day’s shoppers are no longer wants to go to the nearest store; they grab the nearest digital device. The online retail ecosystem is fast evolving. It’s not the purchasing habit they are doing digitally but the retail experience has changed a lot.

Before buying any product buyers are reviewing these products online at their home and eCommerce store are plying as a personal assistant for them.

If you will do some research on global eCommerce markets, China is coming on the top with the highest billion USD. Let’s have a look at the top global eCommerce market

Largest Ecommerce Market

(Source: shopify.in)

The global eCommerce sales are expected to increase 246.15% by 2021, from 1.3 trillion in 2014 to 4.5 trillion in 2021. The industry is booming and there is no sign of any fall in the near future. E-commerce stores with excellent digital eCommerce facility can reach your target customers.

According to the market demand you need to reach your target customer to generate more revenue. To make these things easier here I am going to share the top eCommerce trends which are dominating the market in the mid of 2018.

1. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

With AR and VR, buyers are able to visually testing out products before purchase. AR and VR are also helping companies to keep their buyers in website and apps more than the longer time.

Consumers are also going to buy from companies that allow them the option of visually testing out products before purchase.

According to Ross Beyeler, founder of eCommerce consultancy Growth Spark,

“We’ll see AR and VR become not just part of the in-store experience for customers, but part of the packaging experience with QR codes triggering ‘enhanced experiences’ of products, and even packaging itself being repurposed as a throw-away AR ‘device’,” he argues. “These sorts of experiences could particularly expand on the ‘try before you buy’ viewing of products in-home.”

2. Automation

Automation has become the most effective way to catch online consumers to sell product and maximize revenue. According to Rachel Jacobs “Why to spend precious time on manual tasks that deliver no tangible ROI, when you could use an automation tool to take care of it for you?” She says “As more and more eCommerce merchants turn to social media to drive traffic and sales, it makes sense to automate the process as much as possible.”

3. Voice Search

Now a day’s voice search has become the best-preferred alternative of search. More than 40% of millennials are already using voice search before any online purchase. Voice search has become 3X time more local for users. So it’s very necessary to list your business on Google to come in the local search.

“Voice will gain more prominence in 2018 as voice assistants such as Google Assistant and Alexa become commonplace,” predicts Mari Corella- a fashion and beauty eCommerce specialist.

4. Mobile First

The percentages of mobile users are growing day by day and the mobile purchase is also growing. So it’s important to create your eCommerce website and app 100% mobile friendly to grab more visitors.

Statistics show that 40% of users will go to the competitor after a bad mobile experience, yet an alarming 84% have experienced difficulty completing a mobile transaction. That is an incredibly high number, and it shows just how great the opportunity is for companies to capitalize on consumer conversion just by creating mobile responsive and user-friendly websites.

Let’s have a quick look on the eCommerce Mobile Stats,

  • 125 Million U.S. consumers own smartphones
  • 50 million U.S. Consumers own tablets
  • 62% of Smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months
  • One-third of all eCommerce purchases during the 2015 holiday season was made on a Smartphone.
  • ECommerce dollars now comprise 10% of ALL retail revenue
  • 80% of shoppers used a mobile phone inside a physical store to look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations
  • An estimated 10 Billion Mobile Connected Devices are currently in use

Ignoring these trends in mobile eCommerce evolution means potentially missing out on more and more profit as these trends continue.

(Source: outerboxdesign.com)

5. High-Quality Product Images and Videos:

Your eCommerce website can be more user-friendly with high-quality content, images, and videos. 360-degree images of product models can give clear information to visitors and helps to keep visitors more time on your website.

High-quality videos showcase your products real context, features and motivate users to buy. More than 80% of online users are converting to consumers through videos.

6. Machine Learning

Machine learning another big trend in eCommerce and it is similar to automation. With machine learning, you will not only save your time in automation but also you can take better decision to convert more visitors to the customer.

According to Jason Stokes, CEO of Eastside Co, “E-commerce traffic is still dictated by search, but that the ways we can search are changing — another opportunity for automation and machine learning.

7. SaaS eCommerce Platforms

SaaS eCommerce platforms are continuously updating their products and adding new features to keep their consumers or subscribers much productive in the competitive market. SaaS maintain speed and stable cloud on-premise system. So be hurry to make a move if you are not using any SaaS eCommerce platform for your business because the benefit of SaaS is more productive for the business.

8. Easier Checkout

Now the current payment options like Android Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and others are providing quality and quick transactional checkout comparing to the traditional payment options. So make your website more compatible with web and mobile user-friendly and make sure to minimize the checkout process for the quick transaction.

9. Web Performance

E-commerce website performance or user experience is the most important factor to stay ahead of the competition. The performance of the website always matter for users because a website with high performance can bring more customers but few milliseconds issues can lose customers for your competitors.

Various performance checking and improvement tools for websites are available in the market you can take the help of these to know and maximize the web performance.

10. Social Shopping

All we know that social media plays a great role to reach your target market and social shopping has a massive impact on eCommerce business in this present time.

Social media platform like Pinterest and Instagram are two highly visual platforms where merchants can bring their products in front of the huge number of the customer. In 2018, social media has become the perfect landscape in which retailers can create a buying scenario by showcasing their products on apps that customers spend most of their time with.

11. B2B E-commerce

B2B eCommerce is the fast-growing e-commerce trend and firms are spending more on technology comparing to online retails. According to the source, by 2019, B2B firms will spend more on eCommerce technology than online retailers do. The US B2B e-commerce market could reach $1.1T and account for 12.1% of all B2B sales by 2020, and over $6 Trillion worldwide. The average age of a B2B buyer/researcher is now under 35 years old. 89% of buyers search online in a B2B purchase process, with 74% doing so for more than 50% of their purchases.

(Source: datorama.com)

Over To You

Over the years eCommerce trends are continuously gearing up for better user engagement and retention. As an eCommerce business owner, you need to update your business according to the new market trends to stay ahead of the competition. Hope these trends will help you in the development of your business in the mid of 2018. Appreciate if you share your thoughts with comments.

From the last ten years, Andolasoft is consistently providing eCommerce solutions and we have a good name and reputation in the eCommerce world. Let’s discuss more of our service according to your requirements.

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