eCommerce has come a long way since its humble beginnings when eBay and Amazon first became popular. According to TechCrunch, more than 79% of American consumers shop online. As online shopping continues to outpace in-store shopping, eCommerce store owners need to pay close attention to how their store operates. 2019 is sure to be another action-packed year for online retailers.

1. Keeping An Eye on Brand Values

Online shopping is popular for people of all ages– even older folks who might not consider themselves tech savvy. But, millennials who lead busy lives are true eCommerce advocates. Between the massive convenience, the opportunity to explore options, and personalized recommendations, eCommerce streamlines shopping for millennials.

In 2019, it’ll be even more important for your eCommerce store to pay close attention to brand values. Showing off your attention to contemporary issues– like the environment, equality, and animals– is critical. Your eCommerce brand can demonstrate attention to these issues in several ways. Offering to donate a portion of your profits to a cause during a particular month of the year is a simple way to do this.

By paying close attention to how you demonstrate your brand’s values, you can ensure that your audience is confident in shopping on your eCommerce store.

2. Optimizing the Mobile Shopping Experience

It’s no secret that having a mobile-friendly website is key– especially for eCommerce stores. Consumers are spending more time than ever on their mobile devices. So, ensuring that mobile users have a clean, user-friendly website is a must.

For example, the navigation interface on the mobile version of your website should make just as much sense as the one on the desktop version. Without a clean menu, customers may not be able to find your awesome products.

Another important piece of this puzzle is the checkout process. On mobile devices, customers must be able to add a product to the cart, put in their payment information, and checkout without any hiccups.

An experienced eCommerce development company can help your store to keep mobile customers happy.

 

3. The Increasing Popularity of Dropshipping

For some eCommerce companies, it’s possible to earn significant profits without ever touching a product. This practice is called dropshipping. Rather than shipping orders as they come in, eCommerce stores that dropship function as middlemen. When an order comes in, the dropshipper routes the order to a supplier, keeping a significant percentage of the profit. Using this business model, dropshippers can profit off of internet reach through digital marketing, with lower operations costs.

Many eCommerce stores are beginning to realize the advantages of this process. First, the seller only purchases the product from the manufacturer once an order is placed. There are also no inventory issues. In 2019, we expect many eCommerce stores to adopt this model– either partially or completely.

4. The Rise of PIM

As the online marketplace grows, eCommerce store owners are taking advantage of more opportunities to sell their products. In addition to their main website, it’s common for eCommerce store owners to sell products on other channels, like Amazon, eBay and dropshipping websites. Product information management (PIM) software has filled a huge void in making this process simple, convenient, and effective. As time goes by, PIM software will only become more central to eCommerce success.

This intuitive software has gone a long way in making product management more convenient than ever. PIM software enables eCommerce stores that sell on multiple channels to edit product information from one central place. Instead of manually editing price and product descriptions on each individual channel, PIM software dynamically changes all of this data. For example, if you want to lower the price of a sweatshirt you’re selling on all three channels, you simply need to log into your PIM software, and the price will be adjusted throughout the internet. With one click, you can upload new products to multiple marketplaces– like eBay, Amazon, and dropshipping websites.

5. Artificial Intelligence Sales

In 2018, we’ve seen a rise in artificial intelligence (AI) virtual assistants helping customers. These bots can play a pivotal role in helping customers to feel heard. But, the current technology is somewhat of a limitation. Over the next year, many experts expect these digital assistants to become more helpful for customers.

Rather than simply entertaining customer queries, artificial intelligence bots will soon begin selling to customers. This might mean answering customer questions about product specs or availability. Either way, artificial intelligence will soon play a larger role in the eCommerce process.

6. Smooth Checkout Process

Getting customers to your eCommerce store is only half of the battle. Your product copy needs to convince them that you have the best items on the market. Then, once they commit to your store and products, they need to follow through with the sale.

According to Annex Cloud, 27% of customers who abandon their carts do so because the checkout process was complicated. There are a few ways that you can streamline this important process for users.

Having a centralized payment platform is a critical aspect of a clean checkout process. High-quality payment platforms accept multiple currencies, which is a must for eCommerce stores that sell internationally. Additionally, payment gateways should cut down the time spent during this process as much as possible. Lengthy registration processes are a major deterrent. For time-pressed customers who don’t intend to buy from your store again, guest checkout is essential.

 

Website speed should also be a key focus. If users spend a long time going from page to page, they might go to a competitor’s website instead.

Another creative way to keep customers on the buying track is eliminating shipping costs. If customers find out about additional shipping costs, they might decide not to follow through. This is already an eCommerce industry standard.

With the eCommerce world expanding, having a smooth checkout process is important for websites who want to beat the competition.

7. Social Media Sales

For most eCommerce stores, a strong social media presence can have a significant impact on sales. This is especially true on Instagram. In fact, Instagram allows eCommerce stores with a healthy following to sell through the app, without forcing customers to leave the app.

Selling directly through social media platforms like Instagram carries a few advantages for your eCommerce store. First, it streamlines the customer’s buying process. Without ever leaving Instagram, customers can make a purchase. Second, you can utilize the rest of your Instagram content to act as an advertisement for products– especially with high-quality product images at your disposal. Finally, selling on Instagram is free, meaning you don’t have to spend valuable advertising dollars.

With Instagram continuing to be a favorite platform among millennials, selling on social media will continue to be more important than ever.

Long Island eCommerce Development

At Logic eCommerce Solutions, we’re always keeping our eyes and ears open about new developments in the eCommerce world. If you need a fast eCommerce store that makes buying simple, quick, and accessible for users, then we can help. Our team of designers and developers has a thorough understanding of how we can build the perfect selling tool for your brand.