Big Changes Coming to Your Online Shopping
Technology today is helping customers keep track of their purchases, and altering the ways in which those consumers interact with online retailers.
These trends, in turn, are affecting the big picture: As technology changes business-to-consumer transactions, new opportunities for both sides of the sphere are emerging. Consumers now have access to a range of tools that help them gauge prices, find alternatives, locate stores and receive coupons. So check out the recent changes that are going to dominate online shopping in next few years. Augmented Reality One of the biggest hurdles online merchants face is reassuring customers that the product they are considering to purchase is actually what they are looking for. Shoppers always want to get a better look and feel for a product before they make a purchase. The key for stores is removing the doubt that creeps in when customers feel like they are gambling by buying something online which they haven’t fully seen or experienced. By significantly enhancing the shopping experience through immersive browsing using AR/VR, or a combination of the two, a retailer can do just that. Reports even show that over 70 percent of buyers would be more loyal to brands who incorporate AR as part of their shopping experience. Virtual Reality Two of the key reasons why eCommerce retailers are so interested in these emerging technologies is the significant potential they offer stores to increase sales and overall customer shopping experience. Virtual Reality combines technology and design to create immersive environments which, if done successfully, make users believe they are actually in the simulated environment. In a nutshell, the real world is blocked out and everything you see is virtual, how this is achieved is almost exclusively through a VR headset. Automation in e-commerce means automate the processes involved in an eCommerce firm. When you automate an eCommerce process, you tend to save a lot of time, improve the accuracy of the process and make sure you run them the same way every time. Automation is the most effective way for online merchants to scale their eCommerce business. Inventory Management, Order Management and Shipping, Payment and Invoicing, Refunds and Returns, Customer Service are basic examples of Automation that are implemented in eCommerce. One of the biggest trends that are conquering today’s eCommerce is Machine Learning. It is the most effective way of converting Customers and retain them. Product Recommendation, Dynamic Pricing, customer support are some of the useful examples of machine learning application used in eCommerce. Machine learning checks the activity of the customers and shows similar types of products to the customer for his/her better buying experience. Innovations in this area are based on methods from machine learning, which is the subfield of AI that develops autonomous learning algorithms. Jason Stokes, CEO of Eastside Co, says ”Customers are turning to virtual assistants and visual search to find products and services.” Much as the internet changed the way we interact with the world and communicate, mobile did the same, and now so is the voice. This includes voice search and voice-enabled technologies outside the traditional telecommunication sector. The best-known are virtual assistants offered through a mobile or smart home device, such as Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa. Best examples are amazon echo devices where you can do online shopping by voice process "Twenty percent of Google searches on mobile are the voice. Over the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in the adoption of voice-activated devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home.” Despite the positive impact that the industry has had on the global economy, things have not been very bright for the e-commerce domain as it has been ridden with challenges since its inception. All these years, it has been looking for a secured technological backbone, which the Blockchain technology is ready to give it today. Blockchain manages transactions and currencies without the interference of central authorities such as banks, has the potential to revolutionize the entire eCommerce industry and will be used for tasks such as order fulfillment, security, and instant order tracking in the future. "In the future, we will not enter any details, we will just click ‘buy’ and the rest will be automated based on your preferences. This will also lead to more impulse purchasing at a higher value.” remarks Mark Kelso, director of Glaze Digital. Thanks to all the payment options that are gaining traction — Shopify Pay, Android Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and others — the traditional checkout form is going to be less seen and less used in 2018. Materialistic Web Designs over complex design are more appealing than of the complex design made by designs. More brands investing in quality content over flashy tech this year, as retailers finally understand that their website is all about serving the customer, not themselves. 8. Animation Motion makes an experience feel more alive, and it's much more possible now thanks to tools. Subtle animation will be a prerequisite. Using some form of movement to enhance the customer experience but overdoing it makes much of a hindrance rather than improving it. Motion in emails is used to express the brand and share the delight. Animated iconography to notify people when an item is almost sold out.
"For example, parallax should tell a story, slideshows aren't always a proper design solution for all homepages, and motion and animation should help with spatial perception.”
Shopper Now a day make many important decisions based on technological advances listed above. Other than this, better photography videos, social shopping, community-led brands are some different process that will make big change in the future of online shopping.
