What Is the Future of Online Shopping Trends?
Online shopping lies under the e-commerce genre, where consumers acquire goods or services directly from the seller through online platforms. It hosts various data, tools, and systems for online sellers and buyers, like mobile apps.
Over the years, people have shifted from traditional to online shopping for its many advantages. Online shopping has continued to grow its popularity and has currently become one of the most embraced forms of trading.
The growth of online shopping has not only improved living standards but also changed people’s anticipations for the future. The future of online shopping depends on various factors such as technology, economic factors, and consumer response towards e-commerce and related fields. So far, all three aspects appear to be going positively, raising the bar even higher. You can never go wrong with online shopping.
Let’s explore the possible future of online shopping, which so far seems bright from the statistics.
Online shopping trends
Thanks to technology, artificial intelligence allows for more personalized consumer shopping experiences. Customers can get their selected products based on their purchase history and trends and even receive suggestions that make them feel understood and loved through improved algorithms.
Chatbots have enabled customers to engage directly with sellers for effective service production. These marketing methods keep on improving from good to better, with more advancements expected in the future. Maybe more improved chatbots or actual calls within the players- the end has it all.
Online shopping has also improved these personalized experiences:
- Uses electronic websites.
- Involves shipping as the primary method of delivery.
- Majorly uses quality photos for advertising.
- Offers detailed product description.
- Provides room for customer reviews on different products on the website.
- Offers multiple payment options.
- Has easy check-in and out features.
- Has special promotions or offers at specific times of the year.
Live shopping
Live shopping is a mode of shopping that happens entirely online, through different platforms, and for all types of products. The trend started years back, although the impact of livestream shopping and the outbreak of COVID-19 significantly contributed to its growth.
China has gone a step ahead in adopting live shopping, which has proven beneficial to buyers and sellers since the adoption. A live shopping app offers plenty of advantages, from better customer-buyer engagement to great quick sales and more conveniences for the players.
With the rate at which technology is unfolding, live shopping holds a soft spot for online shopping in the future. Many online platforms and organizations will adopt the new mode due to its time-saving features. Although not now, the day will come when live shopping will be everything consumers want.
Online shopping and digital payments
Credit cards remain the most common form of online goods and service payment. Still, thanks to technology, other digitalized forms of payment like cryptocurrencies, bitcoins, and e-wallets are under development.
These new upcoming payment modes will be more secure, with top-notch security and verification features like voice, iris, or fingerprint verification. As years proceed, the digitalized payment means will allow instant money refunds if the buyer experiences issues with their order or the product sell out during purchasing.
Many online shopping platforms or organizations have already started embracing bitcoins as a payment form, especially for digital goods. Who knows, maybe other never-witnessed-before means will be invented thanks to technology- the future has it.
Online shopping and fresh goods
While shopping for fresh and highly perishable goods online is challenging, new and upcoming online shopping trends seem to control the problem. Maybe we could say the Coronavirus was a saviour to online shopping since it was the first time many people embraced online shopping for perishable goods.
After witnessing the intensity and mark left on the consumers’ hearts, experts have designed more efficient means of shopping for such goods through cooled shipping. Although slightly more costly than the standard shipping trends, be assured of getting your bunch of tulip flowers as fresh as you saw them from the retailer. In the future, cargo planes could also adopt cooled shipping techniques for quicker and more convenient deliveries.
Drone delivery
Drone delivery is and must be part of future online shopping trends. Some businesses, such as food and fruit vendors, have already started using it to deliver their products to different consumers, although with a narrower geographical coverage.
After several tests, drone delivery appears perfectly suitable for online shopping, especially at the moment when people are highly occupied in the corporate world. Walmart is one of the enterprises under plans to use drone delivery across six more US states to supplement the first 31 states.
The company has been developing and testing drones’ efficiency in online shopping, aiming to out-doing its core competitors like Amazon. Several advantages of adopting drone delivery include;
- To minimize the chances of accidents.
- To save time.
- To reduce the occurrences of physical delivery problems.
- To save on shipping costs.
- To embrace and pay respect to technology.