Ecommerce has no doubt played an influential part in the lives of millions of consumers during the last two years. As consumer behaviours continue to change, the impact of digital has been a key link in building relationships between consumer and brand.
We saw various sectors such as retail, hospitality increase their online presence during the pandemic in order to reach their audiences whilst expanding their digital capabilities. 54% of UK business leaders say the pandemic has inspired long-term digital transformation projects.
As digital transformation is at the centre of their strategy, it’s important they know which tech shifts that are set to serve the increasing pool of consumers.
Metaverse shop
Both the impact of virtual reality and Augmented Reality has presented a whole new and unique shopping experience for consumers, widening the possibilities for engagement in the process. As consumers can now try on clothes and makeup online before purchasing with ‘Try before you buy’. An example would be the global beauty retailer, Sephora Virtual Artist.
Their app allows you to tries on various forms of makeup in real time without being in the store.
The introduction of the Metaverse is essentially an extension of the virtual world, which includes a mixture of technology including virtual and augmented, which is in use today.
Quicker deliveries
One of the most convenient aspects of Ecommerce in recent time is the evolution of delivery. Consumers’ experienced are enhanced by the various delivery options available to them. The conveniency in delivery can also attract more business – we’ve seen food and beverage businesses see high growth in terms of purchases, especially during the pandemic. According to FedEX, In the UK, 86% of shoppers said they’d choose free delivery over faster delivery. 73% of consumers wanting to see free shipping at checkout. This is where online giants such as Amazon stand out.
As the access to online shop becomes easier, consumers expect brands to match their needs for delivery.
Sustainability can’t be ignored
Whilst the growth of Ecommerce has made the process more convenient for consumers, sustainability has emerged as a problem the world aims to fix. With the demand for same-day and next-day deliveries, this has led to higher carbon emissions.
As consumers begin to adapt to sustainability for the foreseeable future, they have thrown down the challenge to retailers to make packaging and delivering more sustainable. According to Euromonitor's Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, 46% of digital consumers said climate change will impact their lives more in the next five years than it does now.
As leading UK retailers plan to adapt and take sustainability more seriously in 2022, the issue of potential package returns is something to think about. Online sales do not show signs of slowing down; UK shoppers will do ever more of their shopping online in coming years, with the figure rising to 38% by 2026 – sustainable Ecommerce is closer than ever.
Personalisation = loyalty
With brands switching their main focus to digital in recent times, this has forced digital consumers to become more digitally savvy. Should consumers open the door, brands have large portions of data to work with – leading to higher expectations from them. Not only can this data be used to create more personalised content such as push notifications and emails; but companies can spot patterns and become more predictive. Netflix is a great example of
this.
Based on your viewing and rating of one show, they’re grouped with other users with similar tastes. Netflix then uses complex algorithms to recommend items by comparing the visitors’ tastes to others in a given group.
Building a sizeable legion of loyal customers leads to predictive personalisation. Creating a service or website which is designed specifically for them, will lead to a better chance of engagement and customers returning.
Trends, requirements and tastes change continuously, just like consumers. It’s important brands anticipate customer’s actions in 2022. The introduction of technology such as machine learning has allowed systems to learn from data, identify patterns and potentially predict results without human influence.