Online Retail: Latest Digital Trends You Need to Know

Latest Digital Trends You Need to Know
The pandemic has made a large part of the global population reliant on e-commerce. People will be continuing to depend on it even after the pandemic, as its speed and convenience have made it a difficult habit to shed. This has also made the e-commerce landscape highly competitive, though. To be able to compete, businesses must learn the latest technological advancements in e-commerce and e-commerce marketing and apply these elements effectively.

The Global State Of The Digital Market and E-commerce Today

The Digital Global Statshot Report of DataReportal shows that out of a global population of 7.87 billion, almost 61 percent or 4.8 billion people used the internet as of July 2021. More than a quarter of a billion have been added since the same time last year, representing an annual growth of nearly six percent. Users are spending almost seven hours online, more than twice the time they spend watching television.

Almost 67 percent of the global population or 5.27 billion people are mobile users. Among them, 117 million were added over the past year, representing nearly 10 million new users every month and annual growth of 2.3 percent. Nearly 57 percent of the global population or about 4.48 billion people are now social media users. Among them, more than half a million were added over the past year, representing an annual growth of 13 percent. Almost all of them or 99 percent access social media through their mobile phones, and they spend an average of two hours and 24 minutes daily on social media. Among working-age internet users around the world, more than 95 percent use social media networks and messaging services every month, making these the dominant online activities.

The top social media platform is still Facebook, followed by YouTube and Whatsapp. Instagram, Messenger, and WeChat take fourth to sixth place, respectively. Still trailing behind in descending order are Tiktok, QQ, Douyin, Telegram, Sina Weibo, Snapchat, Kuaishou, Pinterest, Reddit, Twitter, and Quora. Among users of social media, 26.1 percent use various platforms to find products to purchase, and 22.9 percent use them to find content from their favorite brands.

Regarding the global internet users' e-commerce activity, about 60 percent visited an online shopping platform in the past month, while more than 50 percent shopped or browsed for products online every week.

The Global E-commerce Forecast 2021 by eMarketer shows that retail e-commerce sales worldwide increased by 25.7 percent in 2020 to reach $4.213 trillion. The forecasted annual growth for 2021 is 16.8 percent, which is expected to reach $4.921 trillion. The leaders in global regional rankings will be Asia-Pacific and North America. Asia-Pacific's 60.8 percent share of retail e-commerce sales worldwide will be largely from China. North America's share will be 20.3 percent, while Western Europe's share will be 12.6 percent.

What You Need To Compete

E-retail businesses must adopt the latest technological tools and stay updated on the latest digital trends to use the data on global digital behavior and e-commerce behavior most efficiently and effectively and to gather even more targeted data. It is still imperative to hire a professional e-commerce marketing service to navigate the field expertly.

According to BigCommerce, augmented reality (AR) enables consumers to digitally try on a product such as clothes, makeup, or hair color. It also enables them to digitally place products, such as furniture or decor in their homes in proper proportion to see if these complement their interiors. If they can virtually try on a product before buying it, 35 percent of consumers state that they will shop online more. If AR is available in their favorite e-commerce store, 22 percent of consumers state that they will be less likely to visit a brick-and-mortar store.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning create automated, personalized shopping experiences for consumers. AI collects data continuously on a consumer's online search and purchasing behaviors and uses data analytics to predict preferences. It then personalizes product recommendations and gives appropriate customer service through AI chatbots. According to a study, retailers who scale advanced personalization capabilities experience an increase in revenue of up to 25 percent.

Having a wide range of payment options for consumers is necessary. Consumers today do not use only credit cards but also many other digital payment services. This enables consumers to save their payment information on the site for easier and faster checkout every time they buy.

Make your site easier to find by putting it on top of voice searches and image searches in addition to traditional searches. Consumers now use voice search a lot, and the use of image search is growing.

Stay On Top Of The Pile

With the high level of competition, an e-commerce business cannot afford to be complacent. Technological tools continue to improve, and new ones are constantly appearing. It is crucial to always be informed of developments to be able to acquire and implement whatever works best for your business swiftly.
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