During 2020, e-commerce grew by 33.6% to a total of almost $800 million. By the end of 2021, it’s expected to grow another 13.7% to reach $908 billion, which is more than $147 billion more than what would have been expected had the pandemic never happened. E-commerce trends are emerging rapidly because the demand for more digital services and payment options skyrocketed when COVID-19 shutdowns and social distancing guidelines were put in place.
Two years ago, no one knew what lay ahead. But now, we can see dominant e-commerce trends emerging that will be prevalent in 2022 and beyond. Let’s explore these trends.
Push for Personalization & AI Solutions
Hyper-personalization in e-commerce is a growing trend that is set to continue its growth well past 2022. We’ve all heard people say things like, “My phone must be able to read my mind because I was just thinking about (insert product or service) and then the next day, I saw a social media ad for it, but I didn’t search for them!”
Many consumers are unaware of how much data they generate or how brands and smart devices use it to help them find things they don’t even know they need yet. Omnichannel information gathering means you can glean valuable insight from customer surveys, actionable insights (abandoned cart statistics and promotional performance data), and much more. Then, using AI and other dynamic data analysis, you can create better campaigns, products, and services that cater to individual customer needs.
According to WakeupData, you can integrate personalization into your e-commerce platform in a variety of ways, including “in online product catalogs, search, configurable products and promotions, cart, order management and all the places in omnichannel available, where the selections, options, pre-filled windows, will be adjusted to the customer’s profile.”
Growth in Subscription Models
Subscription models are proving to be extremely successful for online customers. They allow customers to stay loyal to a brand without having to devote lots of time to checking new product launches or trying to catch specific sales.
There’s also the “set it and forget it” mentality that we all love. We want to work smarter, with automatic payments and monthly renewals. The less work for the customer or payer, the easier it is for them to cross the threshold from interested prospect to true customer.
But in order to make the work easy for your business to accept and create recurring payments, you will need your own automatic payment system. Reliafund’s payment processing services allow you to set up automated billing and payments for any type of service or subscription.
Social Commerce
Social media-driven shopping continues to grow. According to a Sprout Social poll, 73% of businesses are already selling their products and services on social media and 79% expect to start or continue their social commerce efforts in the next three years.
The stigma around buying things on social media has all but disappeared. In fact, many younger consumers and B2B customers use social media to help determine a brand’s quality and to see if they align with their own business, political, and environmental beliefs and goals.
When it comes to taking payments via social media and other apps, ReliaFund can integrate your e-commerce with any apps, including the cloud, and utilize tokenization to securely store your customer account information.
Diverse Payment Methods
Years ago, the only payment methods that weren’t used in every business were specific credit cards (when you have American Express and they only took Visa) and, sometimes, personal checks. Now, there are mobile wallets and apps that connect directly to consumers’ bank accounts, payment platforms that integrate with certain smartphone apps but not others – the list of exceptions is endless. And nothing increases your business’s chances of getting paid like diversifying your accepted payment methods.
ReliaFund is payments simplified. We can help organize and protect all of your payment processing: ACH processing, credit cards, checks, recurring payments, and more. Streamlining business processes is another trend that will carry us through 2022 – and now is the time to hop on e-commerce trends to help optimize your business to save you time and create a hassle-free customer experience, too!
Contact us today to learn more.