Electronic commerce, otherwise known as eCommerce (which is the term that everyone uses), quickly became one of the most sought after ways of trading of goods (of any kind), all around the World. It is expected that the global eCommerce trades are going to reach the value of 2.3 trillion dollars in the year 2018. In 2013, these sales totaled a whopping 1.2 trillion dollars.
You’ve to appreciate the immense volume of trading possible for such a “market”. The internet provides businesses, companies and individuals with endless opportunities, not just for profit, but also long lasting relationships on an international level. Ask yourself, how many times in the past five years – have you shopped online?
International Customers & Sales
First up, it’s the trend of international customers. Because businesses are taking the initiative to expand and grow outside their original countries of origin, more and more people are getting comfortable with online shopping from countries that are not their own. This is where you can begin to target different countries from across the globe, depending on the volume of interest shown.
You can skim through this report from eMarketer, to gain deeper insight in which countries are beginning to utilize eCommerce more, and in doing so, offer higher revenues for you, the business owner. China, India as well as Russia are the ones to look out for. Very populated countries, where people are beginning to open up to technology as a way of making life easier.
Mobile Shopping is Already the Future
Five years ago, mobile shopping was hardly the norm. It certainly existed, but it wasn’t as smooth and modern as we may find it today. For example, in the UK (short for United Kingdom) customers are already adapting to the needs of quick and efficient online shopping experience.
Your business should have gone mobile a very long time ago, but even so, it’s never too late to reconsider and have a proper mobile experience built for your customers. Mobile is an ultra hot trend right now, which very soon is going to become the absolute normality for the majority of eCommerce shoppers. And remember, you heard it here first.
Digital Advertising is Ever Growing
Why is this important to our sales and profits? I suppose it is the fact that as the digital advertising space is growing and expanding, it begins to cost a lot less to advertise and promote your business pages. And it’s true, every day we see new keywords and terms become available on major advertising networks like Facebook and Google.
Even professional networks like LinkedIn, are able to bring in staggering numbers when it comes to profits. In this recent report, we can see that during the Q2 of this fiscal year, LinkedIn was able to generate a revenue of $534 million dollars – which is 50% more than from previous year. It speaks for itself.
Payment Methods are Changing
It’s very possible that one thing that was holding people back from making online purchases, was the lack of secure payment options available. Since day one, PayPal has been known for being the most popular target when it comes to hackers, fraudsters and other criminals. However, in the recent years we’ve seen an advancement on both sides. Now, PayPal is more serious about their security, as is GMail (for example) about the emails they’re letting through their system.
On the other hand, there are new currencies available, such as Bitcoin, or Dogecoin. They might not sound very promising, but Bitcoin has already proved to be revolutionary – with thousands of stores starting to accept coins as a form of payment, every single week.
Variety of eCommerce Platforms for Selling Products
In case you haven’t started/built an eCommerce store before, it can be quite difficult to get a hang of it at first. It does require some knowledge of the inner workings of the web, and often it involves dealing with security precautions and setting up payment methods manually. All of this can be avoided, by utilizing any of the eCommerce platforms on our comparison chart.
All of these platforms are recommended and approved by our team, and they’ve been reputable eCommerce service providers for many years, with a lot of experience and positive reviews.
Business Want to Get Involved With Social Media
A really great initiative that I see business taking right now, is seeing companies and individual business advertising products, giveaways and special offers through social media. This will often require of you to follow the given business, but you can imagine in how big volumes this speaks as far as long-term benefits go.
Launching giveaways has never been easier, and you can easily try sites like ViralSweep to get started. Social interaction and activity is an indicator that the business is open for everyone and that the given business is not afraid of public feedback.
Automating the Majority of eCommerce Tasks
On top of all of those lovely trends that we learned about above, the last one I want to leave you with is all about automation. Thankfully, the web is somewhat connected (just like life is) and making things happen automatically can, and is being done.
I’m not talking about automated deliveries within five minutes of the order being placed, but things like autoresponders and automated thank you messages can prove to be very humbling and beneficial in the long-term. I can only recommend that you encourage people to leave feedback of your products and the business itself.
Conclusion
It’s a lot to take in at one go, but we’re not obliged to do everything at once, if anything – baby steps is what is needed, especially if we want to experience a smooth transition from the real world (physical) business to one that we can reside on an online platform. I’d love to hear your stories of these trends, and what is it that has worked out for you this year so far.
