Top 9 eCommerce Trends for 2023

The eCommerce sales are expected to skyrocket in the coming years, reaching $7.3 trillion by 2025.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed a lot for eCommerce companies, and the shift in consumer behavior is here to stay in 2023 and beyond. In the US alone, the retail eCommerce sales for the second quarter of 2022 reached around $257 billion. This suggests a 2.7% surge from the last quarter. A similar shift in consumer behavior has been observed all across the world.

All this buzz around eCommerce has inspired many established as well as new entrepreneurs to enter the eCommerce by going for eCommerce mobile app development. The increased competition in the eCommerce space has spun off some innovative eCommerce trends. If you want to compete in the eCommerce arena, then you will have to integrate some of these trends into your eCommerce business. We have identified some of the most important eCommerce trends for 2022 that promise to bring a tectonic shift in the way we do business.

Ride these 9 eCommerce trends to make 2022 your year

How to develop an eCommerce website, this is an important question in your ecommerce journey. Apart from this question, another important question is which ecommerce website to develop and what features should you include in the ecommerce website. Knowledge about the latest ecommerce trends will help you answer these questions. Let’s have a look at the top 9 ecommerce trends that can have a huge impact on ecommerce website development.

1. Green consumerism

Humans have finally started taking climate change seriously as wildfires and failed polar vortexes wreak havoc across the globe. The changed mindset towards the environment is evident in consumer choices. Around 7 out of 10 consumers surveyed by the Harvard Business Review said that they would purchase from brands that aim for sustainability.

eCommerce brands like Amazon have faced flak in the past for their lax environment policies. Amazon has now taken the climate pledge wherein the company aims to power 100% of its operations through renewable energy by 2025.

Sustainability is no longer reserved for a few eCommerce brands. The renewed interest in the environment has shifted the consumer focus towards brands that make a positive impact on the environment. Consumers are even ready to pay more for environmentally friendly products. According to a survey, 60% of internet users said that they would be ready to pay more if an eCommerce business follows sustainability practices.

The shift of the consumers towards environmentally sustainable businesses will make green consumerism one of the most important new trends in eCommerce for 2022 and beyond.

2. Video commerce

With the rise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, videos have proven to be a great way to engage customers in 2021. According to research, users that arrive on an eCommerce site through videos are twice as likely to buy the product as opposed to other sources. One of the major reasons why video marketing has taken off is that we humans are hardwired to process images 60,000 times faster as compared to textual data.

A video captures the attention of the users better than text, and static images as movement attract attention. eCommerce brands can extract more from video content than the already existing assets like text and static images.

eCommerce brands realize that videos are a great way to instantly grab the attention of the customers. Amazon has taken the lead in this arena also as it allows sellers on its platform to run sponsored video ads.

According to Amazon’s internal research, the marketing campaigns that combine both videos and display ad formats record a 3 fold increase in detail page views. Video marketing increases conversion rates by 150%. Video marketing is an important eCommerce and mCommerce trend that eCommerce businesses cannot ignore.

3. Drone delivery

The global drone market will be $43 billion by 2024. The use of drones for commercial deliveries will be one of the major contributors to this explosive growth in the drone market. Experts expect drone deliveries to increase retail sales by 22% by 2030.

eCommerce brands are experimenting with drone delivery as they deliver small things like books, documents, food items and medicine through UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).

Logistics companies like DHL, UPS and FedEx have started drone delivery and are getting a good response from customers. The logistics companies are currently using drones to deliver packages within a small radius as it proves to be a more cost-effective option than delivery vehicles.

Looking at the rising popularity of drones, it’s clear that drones will be a big part of the eCommerce fulfillment process in the future. Apart from eCommerce, drones are also being used to deliver medicines in remote health centers in countries like Ghana.

Amazon is working on a human-free drone delivery system where the machines will be programmed to pick up packages and fly to predefined destinations.

Benefits of a drone delivery service

• Speedy delivery due to no road traffic
• Environmentally friendly delivery choice
• Cheaper than conventional delivery methods

Due to the wide-ranging benefits that it provides, drone delivery can prove to be one of the most vital 2022 eCommerce trends.

4. Live streaming

The Alibaba group is widely considered to be the pioneer of live streaming. In May 2016, live streaming announced its arrival on the eCommerce scene. In eCommerce live streaming, brands connect with their viewers through an online live stream broadcast allowing the users to watch and shop at the same time.

In 2020 during the first 30 minutes of Single’s Day, a major shopping event in China, Alibaba registered $7.5 billion in a presales campaign on Taobao through live streaming.

In live streaming, eCommerce companies often collaborate with influencers and celebrities to boost sales.

Live streaming helps eCommerce companies establish a connection with their users. For many, it is the digital equivalent of shopping with friends. The growth of video-based marketing, the need to connect with the users on a personal level and the penetration of smartphones across the world are the factors that will make live commerce one of the most crucial eCommerce industry trends in 2022 and beyond.

5. Voice search

The sales of smart speakers will reach 291 million units by 2025.

The skyrocketing sales of smart speakers speak volumes about our inclination towards voice search. According to loop ventures, 3 out of 4 US households will own a smart speaker by 2025. As more people buy smart speakers, more consumers will use voice search to shop online. This changing consumer habit can prove to be an excellent opportunity for eCommerce businesses.

The world’s most successful coffee chain Starbucks has already integrated voice shopping into its business. Starbucks coffee Korea was the first retailer to use Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant for voice ordering and payment in South Korea.

Starbucks has also tied up with Ford and Amazon Alexa, allowing customers to order while driving to their local Starbucks. In China, Starbucks has started delivering coffee through Tmall’s Genie smart speaker. Voice commerce will emerge in 2022 as one of the important eCommerce retail trends as it makes shopping easier for users.

6. mCommerce

Mobile commerce is taking the lead amongst all the eCommerce shopping channels available to the customers. Mobile commerce will have the biggest retail sales growth in 2021, beating eCommerce and in-store shopping. Shopify estimates that some 187.5 million people will shop through their smartphones by 2024. The global mobile spending is expected to reach $270 billion by 2025.

All leading eCommerce brands like Alibaba, Amazon, Walmart and ebay understand the importance of mCommerce and they have a well planned mCommerce strategy in place. In case you already have an eCommerce store, it’s high time you think about the shift from eCommerce to mCommerce.

One of the early adopters of mCommerce was 1-800-flowers. The flower delivery leader has invested big in its mobile app efforts and has launched one-tap buying in its “Trending Gifts” section. The idea is to allow the shoppers to have a speedy checkout. The flower retailer offers a wide range of options to its customers when it comes to mCommerce.

The customers can track their orders using TrackMyOrder or interact through Apple Business Chat on iMessage. The company also supports a wide range of mobile payments, making the mCommerce experience a seamless one for its customers.

Exciting new mCommerce trends like one-click checkout, AR and VR, proximity marketing, geolocation and voice shopping will make mCommerce more enticing for customers in 2022.

7. Chatbots

Humans today have an attention span less than that of a goldfish. Customers expect eCommerce stores to answer their queries quickly. The lack of a prompt response from the customers causes the customers to become frustrated, leading to lost business for an eCommerce company. Chatbots can prove to be a solution here as chatbots provide real-time help to the customers whenever they need it.

Experts predict that by 2022, 8 out of 10 eCommerce businesses will use chatbots for one service or the other.

Snaptravel is a brand that effectively uses a chatbot to engage its customers. With hundreds of hotel and travel offers available on a plethora of websites and apps, it becomes difficult for travelers to choose the best offer according to their preferences.

To make life easy for their users, Snaptravel has created a consulting chatbot that would search hundreds of offers based on the preferences of the users like budget, city, time of travel and hotel preferences. The chatbot would provide the best offers that match the user’s preferences and make life easier for everybody.

Chatbots will emerge as one of the most important trends in the eCommerce industry in 2022 as more eCommerce businesses will adopt chatbots to simplify user interaction.

8. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are some of the latest trends in eCommerce. AR and VR can help boost the shopping experience in specific industries like fashion and home decor because the customers can get a better feel of the product without seeing it in person.

According to a poll, 35% of customers said that their online shopping frequency would increase if they could virtually try on a product before buying it. With AR and VR, the customers would be able to see how a particular product looks on them.

The automotive industry is one of the early adopters of VR. Using virtual reality, the engineers and designers can experiment easily with the look and build of a vehicle before they commission expensive prototypes. Automobile majors like Jaguar Land Rover and BMW use VR to review the design and engineering aspects of a car before spending money on physically manufacturing the parts.

IKEA has started using AR to showcase its products to its customers. Using the IKEA app, the users can place a furniture piece virtually and see how it would look.

AR and VR can prove to be game-changing trends and if you go for eCommerce mobile app development, then see whether you can use AR and VR to your advantage.

How Much Does it Cost to Develop an eCommerce Mobile App?

9. Big data

According to a report by IDC, the total amount of data that we humans will collectively produce by 2025 will be 175 zettabytes. eCommerce will represent a large chunk of this rise in data. eCommerce firms accumulate data related to the customer’s search activity, geolocation data and data of abandoned online shopping carts. eCommerce firms analyze the data that they collect to understand the purchasing behavior of their customers.

Amazon is the most famous eCommerce company that utilizes big data analytics. Amazon stores information to figure out how its customers spend money on an individual product.

Amazon uses data to cater personalized advertisements to its customers on various social media platforms and also on its own platform. Many customers have experienced that whenever they wish to list a product on Amazon, the algorithm of Amazon recommends items related to that product or shows items that are frequently bought together with that product.

Amazon uses big data to facilitate immediate purchases from a customer and also enhance the entire shopping experience. Amazon has shown the way, and more eCommerce firms will follow suit and leverage big data analytics in 2022. Avail big data consulting services to leverage the power of big data for your business.

Also Read: How to Start Online Boutique Business

Trend is your friend for eCommerce

eCommerce was already popular, and the Covid-19 induced lockdowns made it an even more popular option. A lot of new eCommerce stores have sprung up, making the eCommerce space a highly competitive one. eCommerce businesses will need to utilize the upcoming trends in the eCommerce industry to become successful.

To leverage the latest trends, you will have to take help from an expert mobile app development company. At Prismetric, we have a team of top mobile app developers who have executed countless eCommerce projects for our clients.

We believe in consistent learning and are always updated according to the latest developments in the eCommerce industry. Contact us to take your business forward and ride the latest eCommerce mobile app trends.