5 Hot eCommerce Trends in 2019 - How Should You Adapt?

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If you don’t anticipate the future trends and act accordingly, you’ll sink in the water. The New Year is just a few days away, and if you don’t prep up yourself now, you’ll not be able to hold a grip in this competitive market.

According to Statista, the retail eCommerce sales worldwide will shoot up to 3.4 trillion dollars in 2019. In the past few years, we have witnessed how these trends make or break a business, and we’re still witnessing. Right from mobile-first indexing to the unfolding of virtual reality, we’re experiencing many facets of eCommerce.

No matter whether you’re a small business owner or own a giant-sized business, you can’t ignore these 5 eCommerce trends that will make waves in the industry in the upcoming year.

1. Embrace the power of AI

With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, the eCommerce spectrum has never been more dynamic. Many brands and retailers are leveraging the power of AI, to predict individual customer behavior and offering them a personalized experience.

Incorporate AI with human touch in the upcoming year to serve your customers better. You can also recommend products based on their responses and integrate payment gateway with chatbots.

In April this year, Starbucks launched voice recognition ordering in South Korea by integrating Samsung’s Bixby to let customers pay for their purchase before entering the store, hence ensuring an end to end ordering and payment. Customers can place their order by giving commands to Bixby–just like they are talking to a real-life barista.

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2. One-click Checkout Increases Conversions

Providing an easy checkout option these days is a necessity and will continue to be a prominent trend in 2019. Customer’s these days have a sprinting attention span. If you make them fill even the last detail of the universe, they’ll abandon your store anytime. Hence, make sure to simplify the process as much as you can.

Amazon has incorporated one-click ordering which allows their customers to skip the shopping cart and jump towards the payment method. Hence, their customers remain retained and would love to come back to them.

If you want to pump up sales in 2019, offer easy and secure checkout experience to the customers.

3. M-commerce Will Prosper Even More

Since the time Google has rolled out mobile first indexing, numerous eCommerce stores have adopted a mobile-first strategy. As people will continue to shop on the go in 2019 as well, it is imperative to have a mobile responsive design and push sales through it. Along with that, usage of mobile apps is also increasing. Statista shows mobile app industry will generate 188.9 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

Employing accelerated mobile pages (AMP), a framework that creates high performing websites and ads across different platforms and pushing sales through mobile apps could really help you root your business deep.

4. Multichannel Strategy Gets in Demand

In this digital age, people can shop from any device sitting anywhere in this world. They can also search for a product on the computer but pay for the purchase using a smartphone. Thus, to keep the sales funnel filled, you ought to be available on all the channels.

The multichannel strategy is becoming crucial than ever. Brands will continue to leverage social networking websites such as Facebook and Instagram to sell their products in 2019. If you’re also on the lookout to gain an edge in the upcoming year, make an online presence of your e-store on the social media and integrate shopping cart on it.

You can use both free and paid marketing automation tools to automate your daily marketing and branding activities.

5. Make Your Customers Go Wow with Brand Storytelling

Four out of five brands are inculcating storytelling to enhance their eCommerce store’s experience. Social media is transforming from message-based platforms to mobile-only networks that enable users to capture, share and relive moments in the form of stories. They are fun, immediate, personal and can provide a sneak peek into the values you hold as a brand.

In 2019, start experimenting with the stories if you haven’t started. Share content weekly at different times of the day to figure out what works for you the best. Take note that a story reflects your brand. So, it should be raw, unedited, spontaneous and perfectly aligned with your brand’s image. Integrate videos, text, pictures, GIFs and more to have a maximum impact.

Instagram and Facebook both have the options of sharing stories. Instagram also gives a choice of creating a business account for your eCommerce business. For brands reluctant to let their efforts shun off just after 24 hours, there are Story Highlights. You can give exclusive offers and deals, share information and keep high performing videos that need an extra stretch of attention in the highlights. Along with that, experiment with your stories. For example, someday you put a QnA on your story and the other day a tutorial on how to use your product or how to approach you.

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Take a leap of faith into the upcoming year

Excited about 2019? Not sure? The best strategy is to create products that people would love, create awesome stories that blow your customers away and continue to believe in yourself. Embrace the ever-changing dynamics of technology and align your brand with it. Invest efforts and time in building long-lasting relationships that make people come back to you. All the best for the New Year!

This article is written by Sharon Winget. She is the Staff Writer with GoodFirms, a review and rating platform of top IT companies & software. A tech geek at heart, she strongly believes technology can transform societies. She enjoys blogging about web design, email marketing, and content marketing.