With growing competition between the fastest growing ecommerce companies to gain popularity, a few prominent trends have emerged over the past couple of years. Let’s check out what they are.
- Personalization
The hottest trend for e-commerce platforms over the last few years has definitely been personalization. Nobody likes reading generic content that could be for anyone. Personalization makes customers feel like the content is meant for them like the business or store is talking directly to them. And that makes all the difference. Personalization involves using data such as recent purchase history, preferences, interesting content, and products to improve the shopping experience of people. Using buyer profile data to reach out to them to promote a product or offer information about the latest deal, is much more appealing than general information. Personalization on the platform leads to more conversions, creates brand loyalty, and attracts more visitors on the platform.
- Automated emails and messages
As businesses started showing their digital presence, the race for catching customer attention became intense. One way to tackle this issue was to send out automated emails and messages. Surveys have shown that they have a positive impact on conversions and improve sales growth. A simple message such as an order received with details, on the customers’ mobile number, gives it a personal touch and makes a whole lot of difference.
- Mobile apps
Websites are being speedily taken over by mobile apps. Almost all of the e-commerce platforms now have their apps. In this fast-paced life, people want everything easily accessible to them on their smartphones and there isn’t anything better than mobile apps to make that possible. This lets people shop on the go. They can access the app anywhere: in the office, while traveling, and even in the bathroom, where most people tend to take their phones to pass time. A well-designed app gives customers easy access with the same options as the website to order, pay, track orders, and skim through products. Statistics have proved that platforms that have apps have made more sales than those that only have a website.
- Multiple payment options
Most e-commerce platforms now have multiple payment options. When you order something from a site or an app, the payment page will give you a long list of options like credit and debit cards, online wallets, UPI payments, COD, etc. Another popular trend has been to let customers pay in installments. In this option, they can plan their payment up to a couple of weeks and a certain rate is decided according to which the payment can be made. This reduced the pressure of paying the entire amount at once and works best for expensive products.
- Subscriptions (discounts, pay later, etc.)
Another hot trend is to offer subscriptions. Any e-commerce platforms now offer various subscriptions. For instance, Amazon Prime offers benefits that you wouldn’t get with the regular Amazon account. These benefits are in the form of regular discounts, early deliveries, and even EMI options. Furthermore, some apps like Amazon also offer extended subscriptions to OTT platforms. These added benefits are appealing to the customer and beneficial for the growth of the business as well.
- Order tracking
Order tracking is a very important feature for any e-commerce platform. And rightfully so. If you order something today, you would definitely want to know where your order is and if it is arriving on time. Tracking your package assures customers that the platform is reliable and that they can be trusted with the customer’s money. It also makes the wait easier as they know when and where the parcel is. Most platforms now have an easy order tracking button on their page, which makes it easy for customers to stay informed about the whereabouts of their package.
- User-friendly interface
Over the past few years, there have been a lot of surveys and reviews from customers using e-commerce platforms. All the reviews unanimously pointed a single thing out: the interface needs to be user-friendly. Having a complicated UI that requires visitors to navigate around too much will make them lose interest. Also, having too many bright colors or overuse of graphics is painful to look at and doesn’t let you focus on any one aspect. E-commerce platforms have now made a point to keep their interface as simple and user-friendly as possible.
2022 is going to see a lot more trends, so if you’re the customer, then make the most of them, and if you’re a business owner, then we suggest you get ready to make some unique changes to your platform for epic business growth.
