The Future of E-Commerce

E-commerce has experienced a huge boom lately, generating trillions in sales across the globe:

As many other sectors, e-commerce as well is facing new challenges: new trends such as social commerce are emerging and customers expect different and new ways to be approached. 

But let’s have a look at what the future of e-commerce looks like in detail: 

1. Digital Advertising is getting more and more expensive

The advancement of technology and its accessibility has decreased the entry barriers and increased exponentially the number of competitors on e-commerce platforms; it is estimated that there are 12–24 million e-commerce sites across the globe.

Since it has become quite easy to start a business online, sellers are facing more costly and less lucrative digital advertising for customer acquisition. But competition is not the only element mining returns: privacy laws limit targeted ads and consumers are better at blocking them. 

• The cost per click for paid search ads increased by 15% between the second and third quarters of 2021 alone
• For some brands, ad costs go five times higher than before to drive the same amount of traffic

2. Omnichannel is key

According to a recent survey conducted by Forrester Consulting, in-person experience is regaining popularity and consumers want an omnichannel experience: they want to be able to order online but return in-store, or look at a product in a showroom and buy it online.

3. New commercial opportunities emerge on the biggest social platforms

Today, a typical social media user spends about 15% of their waking life using social platforms.

49% of brands plan to increase their investment in social commerce in 2022 where sales through social media channels around the world are expected to nearly triple by 2025. 

WHAT BRANDS SHOULD INVEST IN:

1. Live chat 

Consumers say the ability to easily reach customer service in the channel of their choice influenced their decision to purchase:

2. Video

Video is becoming the primary way shoppers use to make decisions on purchases, indeed, 46% of consumers said they want to watch product videos before they buy it. 

3. Livestream shopping 

Many brands use livestream shopping to promote and sell products through livestreams on digital platforms, generally by collaborating with influencers. Livestream shopping aims at providing customers with a more interactive experience, allowing them to ask questions and even buy products during the livestream. 

• 81% of companies plan to either increase or maintain investment in livestream selling to drive sales over the next 12 months. And some brands are seeing conversion rates of up to 30% through livestream selling
• Brands are collaborating with influencers since they can engage a broader audience and have higher trust.

WHAT ASIAN CUSTOMERS ARE LIKE:

WHAT ARE THE MOST USED E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS IN ASIA?

Read this article to know more about e-commerce operating in Asia.

If you want to know more about expansion in Asia, contact us at info@texereadvisors.com