7 E-commerce Trends for 2019

01/06/2019 | Share:

Staying ahead of the game is one of the ways to make sure your E-commerce website offers the best customer experience possible and that your website is the one that everyone’s talking about. In this blog post, we reveal some of the most popular and useful trends of 2019, that will improve your customer’s shopping experience.

Personalisation

As technology advances it becomes easier and easier to tailor online user experiences to the individual – something that’s not as effective in a brick and mortar store. People want to see products or services that are relevant to them.

For example, anyone with a Netflix account will know all about how useful it is being shown relevant TV shows and films based on their viewing history. It is one of the main reasons for its huge international success. If you can help customers find what they’re looking for based on previous searches and data (thanks to cookies!), you’ll be more likely to make that all-important sale.

Allowing flexible payment

We covered the issue of flexible payment in our blog post on International E-commerce. In this context, our advice was to ensure that you offer the most common forms of payment in a certain region. However, allowing every customer to pay in a way that suits them may require a little more effort. In the UK, most people prefer to pay by credit or debit card, but that doesn’t mean it’s everyone’s preferred payment method.

Services like Google Pay, for example, mean you don’t have to enter all of your details on the website. Because all of this information is already registered with the provider your customer has a seamless and effortless purchasing experience. E-commerce solutions like this are on the rise and are definitely worth investing in for the future to increase trust and prevent abandoned carts.  

Environmental Impact

Consumers like to see that businesses are taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment. Whether it’s CO2 emissions, sustainability or perhaps reducing the use of plastic, it is important that customers know about the steps you’re taking. Besides from the obvious benefit of saving the planet, innovative ways of being more environmentally friendly can impress customers. This makes them more likely to pick your brand over another that is not as committed to the cause.

Social media customer service

There’s a large probability that your business is on at least one social media channel in 2019. Whilst the main intention is likely to be for marketing and brand awareness, another use for this platform has recently emerged as a result.

The continually developing trend from last year and into 2019 is resolving customer service issues via social media at a very fast rate. For example, Facebook has already implemented an average response time feature for company pages, setting the standard for fast, “always-on” customer service. Business pages that consistently respond within a certain time frame are awarded a badge.

Whilst all this could be difficult to maintain without a dedicated individual, leaving people without a response can sometimes lead them to talk and post more publicly about their negative experience. This is definitely a trend worth mastering as quick as you can.

Chatbots and 24 hour customer service

One benefit of shopping at online retailers is the ability to shop at a time that suits you. However, depending on your business situation, you may not be able to offer customer service every minute of the day. Chatbots are a trend on the rise and are an effective way to give your customers interaction when they need it – in fact some customers will prefer it!

A convenient system that can answer simple FAQs about your goods and services or even check stock can save you and your customers valuable time. For more complex issues, a reassurance that someone will deal with their issue in the morning could help keep the customer from searching elsewhere.

(Chatbots are also available for social media channels if you’re struggling to keep to fast response times mentioned above.)

Voice search

Voice search capability with devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home are also on the rise. This 2019 trend means that more and more people are searching for products via voice search. Having your site optimised to appear in a voice search query will potentially boost visits to your online business and increase research of your products.  

Augmented reality

Purchasing certain items such as clothes, furniture or make-up can be difficult online as the value of the product is based on how they look within a certain context.

Let’s take the example of a sofa from IKEA. It may look great online against a white background but when it arrives at your home, you might realise it does not match any of the other furniture! If there was only a way to check this before you had it delivered and spent hours assembling it. This is where augmented reality comes in!

Using augmented reality technology means your customer can more easily determine whether the product they’re interested in will meet their desired outcomes. In the case of the sofa, whether the sofa matches the carpet and furnishings. It helps to prevent abandoned carts from people who might be unsure and avoids dissatisfied customers returning items that aren’t what they expected. Would it help your customers to make the decision to buy?