Any activity or action that involves buying services or products over internet platforms is all about online shopping. The experience is often characterized by prospective consumers visiting websites, sampling offers, selecting the most convenient and appropriate deal suiting their needs.
Thereafter, an order can be placed for delivery after or before payment using credits or debits cards, e-commerce money transfer means among other alternatives. This will depend on existing seller-buyer agreements and terms of sale.
The experience is fitting to modern shoppers leaving room for a bargain and purchase of goods from the comfort of their offices or homes saving on time waiting on lines or physically searching products plus other possible, likely miscellaneous costs.
Online shopping market trends in 2018
Over the last two decades, online shopping has become a preferable choice with e-commerce innovations evolving to meet the changing consumer tastes and preferences.
2018 in particular, has had its share of the upgrade with major offline and online retail outlets making it standard policy for consumers to shop online. While others seem stuck with traditional selling points, this is likely to change soon.
Today, 63 percent of consumers check about six reviews or fewer before they can trust a brand and purchase a product or service. More than ever before, shoppers can now flip at the click of the button through online products pages like Amazon, brick-and-mortar and social media platforms.
These include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter among others where many spend their luxury time. About 68 percent shoppers in 2018 believe retailers should prioritize availing their products online to access them via mobile phones and browse through pages for products sampling, shopping and buying.
Shopping Online Experience in 2018
2018 saw new trends emerge challenging retailers to stay competitive to make the most out of the current and future wave of online shopping revolution. Here is a quick flip through on some of the trends.
Responsive mobile experience demand rising
Retailers woke up to the reality of having to go beyond a user-friendly mobile experience, to making it responsive. Shoppers preferred mobile e-commerce templates that are quicker and easy to adjust saving on time while accessing a variety of products for a better decision.
For instance, during this year’s Cyber Monday, over 400,000 people spent above $30 million on Shopify to pay, a trend three times faster than before.
Such high conversion rates were attributed to accelerated checkouts using consumer-inclined available technologies for seamless purchase. Shoppers favored the checkout pay system using PayPal, ApplePay or Amazon Pay.
However, as we look towards the end of 2018, advanced innovations are likely to define online shopping experience, with 2019 and beyond seemingly for the better.
The mobile e-commerce shopping is likely to grow tremendously, with 80 percent of businesses in favor of Chatbots by 2020.
Millennials now prefer messaging apps as opposed to email updates on open products. Integrated experiences for consumer touch points are now on high demand to embrace multi-channel natural selling points as much as possible.
Increased online shoppers
While online shopperX LLC, shopperxusa.com seem on the increase n major retail outlets like eBay, Best Buy among others, Jeff Bezos’s Amazon seems to enjoy a huge advantage in 2018.
The company recorded 49 percent of consumers kicking off their product searches on the platform. If such drift is anything to go by, Amazon is poised to generate 50 percent of all eCommerce sales by 2021.
Other 2018 trends
- Increased multi-channel marketing and selling revenues records
- A hike in eCommerce sales, expected to double by 2022 (a 246 % increase from $ 1.3 trillion in 2014).
- US share of global retail eCommerce sales reduced to 17.6 percent in 2018 from 18.3 percent in 2017 with the trend projected to go as low as 16.9 percent by 2020.