What will determine the future of e-commerce? - ITechnical World

 

Changing user demands, when combined with technology, brought along extraordinary e-commerce trends. According to a study; There are many trends that will change the e-commerce ecosystem and offer new experiences to the user. The new favorites of e-commerce, which gained momentum with the pandemic, are audio, visual and social e-commerce modules integrated with artificial intelligence. Facial recognition system, smart screen application and chatbots are in demand…

E-commerce is rapidly renewing itself in line with the developing Technology and the needs of the users. While offline retail experiences are transforming to 'online' to a large extent; consumers are also discovering new ways to buy. Deloitte Digital, which has prepared a special study for ECHO Summit, states that artificial intelligence and chatbots, smart screens, social media and voice command systems that have started to make themselves visible will take the shopping experience to a very different dimension. According to the study citing many researches in the world, 3 different e-commerce modules will develop. These are audio, visual and social trading modules. 

    E-commerce or “social commerce”? 

Facebook's shopping pages and marketplace, Instagram's "buy now" button and Pinterest's buyable pins are examples of social commerce channels used by companies. The future of social commerce will see a cultural shift, driven by a change in the behavior of companies that present themselves as individuals, not robots. While 23 percent of consumers are influenced by social media recommendations, 84 percent of shoppers review at least one social media site before making a purchase. 60 percent of its users say they can find new products on social media platforms. 51 percent of millennials say they are more likely to make purchases on social media. 

Micro-influencers, user opinions and video usage come to the fore in the social commerce module. For example, many consumers are influenced by micro-influencers that have few followers but trust. Because these influencers reach around 5 percent more interaction than those with high followers. Interaction with consumers through social media accounts is also an extremely important factor in e-commerce.  According to the American market research firm Forrester, 88 percent of online consumers do not shop from companies that leave their social media complaints unanswered. 51% of mobile users switch to the brand that provides information when they need it.

It is predicted that video will play a huge role in the future of e-commerce. According to the American market research firm Forrester, a video is worth 1.8 million words. 60 percent of consumers prefer to watch a product video rather than read product and feature descriptions while shopping. 64 percent of them make a purchase after watching a social media video of the brand. Adding video elements to the product listing and integrating the video option into the marketing strategy is becoming a must for success in e-commerce. 

“Voice commerce” will get smarter 

Consumers demand faster ordering with modern audio devices, accessing their accounts without entering a password, reordering with smart devices, and doing all of these with minimal effort. 'Voice commerce', which comes into play at this point, appears with the use of voice recognition technologies as a type of commerce with online chat. In voice commerce; Examples include Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa, and Alphabet's Google Now. Smart displays such as Amazon Echo Show and Google Home Hub will be the next step for smarter voice technologies. These devices make it possible for consumers to give commands, make inquiries, and even search and check out products without using their hands. 

Facial recognition and the rise of "visual commerce" 

Visual commerce; A business model that enables consumers to interact with the brand with inspiring and persuasive visual content and transforms this communication into sales. In visual commerce, there are already examples such as Pinterest Lens, Google Lens, Amazon Stylesnap, Style AI, ViSenze. According to the research; consumers are willing to pay 16 percent more for a great shopping experience. 67 percent of consumers say high-quality visual content is more important than product promotions or customer ratings. The reason for the importance of visual commerce is the increase in the use of social media, the strengthening of artificial intelligence, the increase in demand for A / B tests. 

We spend an average of 2 hours a day on social media platforms. Edited images organically increase up-to-date meta-data SEO. According to Google, 1 billion image searches are performed each month, and only 8 percent of retail companies integrate image search into their E-Commerce Sites. According to global research and consulting firm Gartner, 62 percent of millennials prefer an increase in competency in visual search technologies to an increase in other technologies. The area where visual content works best is memory. Consumers remember 10 percent of what they hear, 20 percent of what they read, and 80 percent of what they see. It is estimated that leading brands redesigning their websites to support visual commerce in 2021 will increase their digital commerce revenues by 30 percent.