The 2022 year was a year of challenges for everybody, including eCommerce business. Difficult ones.
At the same time, it has indicated new eCommerce trends and provided people with some valuable lessons on how one should run his/her eCommerce business including managing eCommerce website and choosing the best eCommerce platforms. It does not mean that people should put efforts in their digital business only, but should also remember about classical brick-and-mortar stores and offices.
Like all good and bad things, 2023 is coming to end end, and just in a couple of weeks, we will enter a new 2021 year and try to do e-commerce business smarter.
The following is the comparison of what people expected of eCommerce in 2023 and what actually took place and set the major trends in ecommerce:
INCREASED AR USAGE
EXPEXTATION:
Despite not having the possibility to feel the product, Augmented Reality (AR) is a very handy technology since it allows customers to visualize the products that they’re interested in.
Although at first this technology required using special AR glasses, the times changed. Contemporary eCommerce businesses have many ways of utilizing this technology. For example, developing AR games, AR apps, etc.
In 2019 Gartner predicted that AR will stimulate 100 million customers to buy goods by the end of 2023.
REALITY:
In terms of AR apps popularization, this years’ pandemic proved to be extremely useful. In particular, according to IBM’s 2022 report, the pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital shopping by roughly five years. Moreover, the companies that have utilized this technology before COVID-19, gained the advantage in their respective markets.
INCREASED AI USAGE
EXPEXTATION:
To personalize guidance and offer product recommendations for each customer, the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was also expected to grow. Moreover, apart from business, this technology was also expected to play a huge role in our everyday lives.
The same thing goes about AI companies, in some cases not necessary directly. However, these companies are expected to influence the way eCommerce business is developing nowadays.
REALITY:
Again, much like in AR`s case, COVID-19 also stimulated eCommerce business to use AI robots. For example, Amazon’s sales during the second quarter of 2022 were up 40% in the same period last year.
Furthermore, because people started shopping online more, companies were forced to maintain and update their digital channels to stay competitive during the pandemic.
SUSTAINABILITY
EXPEXTATION:
Sustainability is something more than just a cool-sounding word. Many companies that can be described as a sustainable business has a competitive advantage in their market. Many customers tend to follow the modern sustainability trends, especially millennials.
And since this generation is following this course and is one of the largest groups of customers nowadays, e-commerce businesses must be as sustainable as they possibly can. Finally, according to Accenture’s report, Millennials were expected to spend up to $1.4 trillion by 2022 in retail sales, including e-commerce.
REALITY:
Another example of a pandemic being beneficial for eCommerce business. According to Statista, there has been an extensive growth of eCommerce in the first quarter of 2023. For example, in March 2022 there have been 1.53 billion views more than in January 2023.
This, in turn, made companies’ authorities take a closer look at their available software and fix whatever issues it had.
SECOND-HAND MARKET AKA “RE-COMMERCE” HAS RISEN
EXPEXTATION:
According to Thredup, in 2020 the total secondhand market was expected to hit $32B comparing to $28B in 2019. By the way, among other factors influencing the rise of “re-commerce” sustainability plays also a huge role.
REALITY:
Once again COVID-19 teaches people a lesson. The same report states that 88% of people surveyed during the pandemic admitted they had adopted a new thrifting hobby, 79% confirmed plans to cut their apparel budget in the next 12 months, etc. In other words, clients started to spend their money in a much smarter way.
DRONE DELIVERY
EXPEXTATION:
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there were supposed to be 7 million drones in the air by 2022. Although such delivery was on everybody’s mind for the last decade (if not longer), 2022 was supposed to make people start realizing this dream.
REALITY:
The delivery of food, clothing, or anything else will have to wait. In fact, to receive such packages, companies will need to possess relevant permits and certificates. Nevertheless, we have some positive news here too. For example, in August Amazon received a certificate to use drones to fly packages to its customers’ doorsteps, while in September Walmart announced three deals with drone operators to test their products.
IMPROVED CONVERSATIONS’ EXPERIENCE
EXPECTATION …AND REALITY:
According to Ubisend`s 2022 report, 35% of consumers wanted to see more companies using chatbots in eCommerce. Moreover, the overall chatbot marketing channel was supposed to grow at a compound rate of 35.2% during the last 5 years. Due to pandemic, the use of such bots has increased.
