5 eCommerce Trends That are Likely to Catch the Eye in 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a massive switch to online shopping. No doubt, eCommerce became a blessing in such trying times. In this digital-first economy, the eCommerce space has been evolving rapidly. We expect this evolution to speed up even further in 2023. As to always stay ahead of the competition, we need to know the top eCommerce trends that online retailers need to embrace.
Why eCommerce trends are so important?
Over the years, rising online demand and plummeting traditional shopping trends have been pushing most brands to adapt to digital techniques — thus, creating substantial competition in the eCommerce market. Hence, it becomes important for brands to stay ahead of market trends, identify room for opportunities, and outpace the competition.
Understanding the eCommerce trends, collecting data, and analyzing patterns can help businesses make informed decisions for their projections in 2023 and beyond. Most importantly, this can assist them in understanding the ever-evolving consumer behavior.
Here are the top 5 trends in eCommerce that business owners should be aware of as they strategize for 2023.
Top 5 eCommerce Trends for 2023
1. Virtual Reality Takes Over
From facilitating immersive shopping experiences to showcasing engaging product presentations, virtual reality’s (VR) applicability in the eCommerce space is immense. The good thing is that this technology has now become very accessible to consumers and businesses.
Essentially, it helps consumers understand the product’s properties more profoundly. As an emerging trend, VR is capable of improving the customer retention rate of online platforms – thanks to its ability to facilitate a fun, engaging virtual experience for consumers as they shop for products.
Another VR trend going viral is virtual stores. Virtual stores take the level of immersion up a notch with a 3D representation of a commerce store.
Surveys have revealed that 70% of the users visiting a virtual store commit to a purchase.
That’s an exceptionally high conversion rate by all standards.
VR’s ability to let users experience exactly what it will be like to use a product remains one of its strongest advantages. Business owners should promptly look up avenues where they can use this technology to stay ahead of the competition.
2. Stepping Towards Sustainability
Considering the growing climate crisis, sustainability is the need of the day. It becomes obvious just why businesses which have moved to sustainable products have flourished over the past couple of years.
Bringing eco-friendly products and making sustainable operating habits have become noteworthy eCommerce trends in recent years. The increasing sustainability awareness among consumers has had an influence on how they shop and why they focus on cleaner and greener products and brands.
Owing to these consumer trends, brands are focusing on eco-friendly materials and products.
As per a 2020 Garnier survey, 73% of consumers from the UK and 78% from the US wanted to shift to environmentally focused products.
Consumers are willing to pay more for recycled and biodegradable products. Hence, developing eco-friendly products with sustainable packaging can give brands a competitive edge on eCommerce platforms, increasing their sales and profits. In fact, Statista outlines that 42% of online shoppers in the US would prefer brands that offer sustainable packaging.
3. The Prominence of Personalized and Omnichannel Experience
AI-driven technologies help analyze consumer data and gather insights into customer shopping patterns and preferences. Business owners can use this information to provide a customized shopping experience online. This can be realized in the form of personalized product recommendations, personalized conversations with virtual assistants or chatbots, etc.
Personalisation and customer-oriented service can help your business retain customer loyalty. It builds a deeper connection with the customer and makes them feel like their individual needs are being catered to.
In addition to that, facilitating a personalized omnichannel experience is also essential. Going forward, this will be integral to the growth of any eCommerce or B2B business.
Google has previously reported how omnichannel initiatives can result in an “80% higher rate of incremental store visits.”
4. eCommerce Subscriptions
Back in 2018, McKinsey’s analysis revealed that 15% of online shoppers were leveraging eCommerce subscriptions. That number would be way higher at present. Having a subscription strategy can help online players to enhance their profits and increase customer loyalty.
Add-on subscriptions and monthly subscriptions were particularly useful during the pandemic for online shoppers. These subscription models have wide applicability, from online groceries to medicines and stationery. They streamline the online purchasing process by eliminating manual ordering of monthly or weekly necessities. Hence, the trend of offering eCommerce subscriptions will never be out of sight of online vendors and businesses.
5. Headless Commerce
Headless commerce is now being widely adopted by various online platforms. It is an approach towards eCommerce which separates the front end and the back end of any eCommerce architecture. As such, eCommerce websites are independent of the back-end servers and cycles.
This decoupled version allows greater flexibility and provides room to integrate customized solutions and features. This way, any business can scale up its online services effortlessly without having to re-platform from the back end.
Headless commerce allows brands to compete in the eCommerce market with the ability to develop and design unique shopping experiences for consumers without any restrictions from the back-end processes. Needless to say, headless commerce can help brands ace the eCommerce market in the future.
Summing Up
The highly comfortable, convenient, and contactless nature of online shopping will keep advancing over the years. As AI and VR-driven technologies become better, consumers will continue to experience a more immersive and personalized shopping experience.
Besides, with headless commerce architecture in place, online players will be able to provide a more customized, secure, and seamless shopping experience to consumers. All of this will help eCommerce businesses to forge stronger relationships with consumers and increase their profitability.
Looking to take your eCommerce strategy for 2023 a notch higher? Contact us.
