Changes in Innovation technology have brought significant changes in the retail industry. A considerable number of people who were used to the traditional retail outlets are now changing their buying behavior and are considering ecommerce platforms as the best retail websites to buy various products.
Over the last few years, the retail industry is making a significant shift, with many brick and motor retail outlets starting their ecommerce sites to keep up with the changing industry. Some retail companies have actually been forced out of the market, after failing to adjust and embrace the new methods of selling consumer goods.
Ecommerce platforms are providing people with a breathtaking experience as one does not have to walk or drive long distances and across congested streets to buy some groceries. You just have to order, and you will be receiving them on the doorstep. The prices of commodities have also changed, and it appears like online shops are selling products and services at lower prices as compared to the traditional brick and motor retail stores.
There is no direct explanation as to why there is a significant decline in prices of products on the online space but competition, and efficiency operations could be playing a vital role in driving the costs down.
Ecommerce Dominating the Industry
Recent trends show that ecommerce platforms are dominating the retail industry, and, within a short period, the brick and motor stores will be closing their doors. In the United States, more than 19% of the retail products were purchased on the online stores. That accounted for more than 2290 Billion USD of all the money used in buying products through the retail outlets.
On the other hand, more than 23% of all the retail products sold in China were sold through the online sector. This accounted for more than 4479 billion USD of all the money spent on buying retail products.
It is clear that these numbers speak for themselves and they demonstrate that there is a significant shift in the growth of the ecommerce industry. Further changes are expected to manifest when the European market incorporates online sector on a large scale.
It is expected that the online retail sector will account for more than 30% of all retail specialty products.
This can be highly attributed to the development of scalable and flexible infrastructure brought about by Shopify Plus, which has replaced Magento Enterprise as a scalable eCommerce enterprise. The rise in the number of individuals using mobile devices is also increasing, which could be having a significant impact on the real estate sector.
Trends in Ecommerce Industry
There are all indications that the ecommerce sector will continue to grow and expand owing to some of the trends that dominated the industry in 2018 and which are expected to take another acceleration gear in 2019. One of the trends that have had significant impacts on the ecommerce sector is marketing automation. A significant number of ecommerce platforms are automating most of their services, which is making their business very scalable.
Some of the automated aspects include customer services and marketing activities.
Influencer marketing is a digital strategy of promoting products and services that involve the use of an influential individual. Ecommerce organizations are turning to influencer marketing after realizing that it is a profitable marketing strategy that can be used in promoting organization products and services. Most of the influencers are individuals who have excelled in a particular industry such as music, athletics, and film industry among others.
A significant number of individuals have these influencers as their role model, which means that they have unquestionable trust and loyalty. Hiring influencers to promote various products have proved to be a strategic marketing masterpiece that helped companies to attract a huge number of customers.
One-Click Purchasing is another trend that will be dominating the ecommerce sector in 2019. Previously, ecommerce platforms have experienced challenges in their selling process after customers find it challenging to buy products through their mobile phones and check-out with ease.
This has led to the loss of customers as some leave the website without completing the buying process. E-commerce websites have now optimized their websites and have made them mobile in a friendly way. This means that individuals can easily use their phones to buy their products and leave the sites without challenges.
This strategy is expected to increase the number of customers hence increasing sales.
Lastly, next-day delivery is emerging as a top trend that will dominate the real estate sector in the next few years. Online companies are trying to compete with Amazon Prime’s two-day delivery system. The only way to outperform the online retail giant is through the next-day delivery strategy.
However, most of the companies are facing the challenges of delivering to the last mile. To overcome these challenges, it is expected that most of the ecommerce companies will be outsourcing their shipping services from a logistical company that can deliver goods immediately.