eCommerce Innovations in 2020
What is the next new wave of eCommerce innovations ?
I read a few reports from Adobe, McKinsey and Forester recently.
There are a few innovations that can be real break through. Please find below some details.
While many people say we’re still in the early days of voice, almost 75% of people would rather use their voice as an input via Alexa, Google Assistant or Bixby to search and 76 percent of companies have already realized quantifiable benefits from voice and chat.
In fact, recent research found that roughly 20 percent of consumers with intelligent speakers use them to shop and that’s expected to rise to 50 percent in the next 12 months. It will be a very popular eCommerce innovation implemented on companies websites.
Merchants should keep in mind that:
- Consumers want to search with their own words, not the keywords a merchant has specified
- Customers expect to see voice input as an option for searching on mobile
Progressive web applications (PWAs) will become the standard for mobile commerce in 2020 and next years. It is a very useful and user-friendly eCommerce innovation.
As a result of their popularity, the cost of PWAs will decrease making them more accessible for more merchants. PWAs solve a mobile customer experience challenge as they cross the lines between store, web, and mobile experiences better than any existing technology.
PWA in Action: Charming Chick ( source: Magento.com)
Charming Chick is a Magento PWA Studio-powered site that migrated from Magento 1 to Magento 2 in November 2019. It has shown performance enhancements leading to increased sales and a 5X tablet conversion rate compared to their original responsive design.
Today’s consumers — especially those between the ages of 18-34 — have shown a growing interest in using visual search and image recognition technology, in order to discover new brands and products. (source: Forbes)
By 2021, early adopter brands will have restructured their apps and websites to support visual search and image recognition, resulting in up to a 30% increase
in digital commerce revenue.
Large fashion retailers such as Target and ASOS have already implemented visual search and image recognition into their shopping experiences, allowing their shoppers to snap a photo of products they discover in a physical store and find the items through the app or website.
Animations like gifs have been around since the early days of the internet but today their use is expanding from entertainment to eCommerce.
The application of animated icons or micro-animations, to the Customer Experience (CX) can emphasize the brand, improve user experience, and boost conversions.
Tips for Using Animation in the eCommerce Buyer Journey
- Make the icon design consistent with the brand.
- Add the icons to your corporate style guide so you can leverage them wherever appropriate.
- Make sure the icon code base is fast-loading and compatible with your page code.
- When animating your purchase path, make sure that each step is displayed consistently and visually rewards users for completing the process.
- Don’t use animations for the sake of using animations. Strategically plan out the customer paths and identify the best positions to insert icons to accomplish business goals.
- Use A/B testing to ensure you’re maximizing conversions.
It is an interesting eCommerce innovation. Now Ajax technology enables to create a smooth animation on category pages and product pages.
B2B digital transformation will shift from a product-centric to a customer-centric focus. We’ll see B2B organizations explore new opportunities and channels to enhance the customer experience and expand their target audience.
Currently, many B2B brands rely on retailers and dealers to reach new clients and build brand awareness.
However, according to Forrester, 43% of buyers prefer to buy a product directly from the brand rather than the retailer. By building a direct to consumer channel, B2B
organizations can gain ownership over customer data to optimize the customer experience across all channels and steps of the journey.
The report is based on responses from 225 B2B company buyers to the Q1 2017 Global B2B Buy-Side Online survey conducted jointly by Forrester and B2BecNews sister publication Internet Retailer from December 2016 to February 2017. Buyers now expect B2B brand sites to be “the authoritative source of product information across the broader ecosystem of B2B buying,” the report says. The survey shows 54% of buyers say a manufacturer has the best information about its product on its own website.
Digideo
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