The 2020 e-commerce trends are marked by the evolution of the consumer as an online buyer and his new desires and aspirations , a new era that is representing a change of model, at a time of high maturity of online commerce. The rapid advancement of technologies is also setting the standard. Thus, some trends referred to last year are still in force against a technological development that opens the range and possibilities or improves functionalities that must be used for online sales.
Innovations in the e-commerce sector are advancing rapidly, which means that online sellers are always up-to-date, to always be prepared and to take advantage of consumer trends and technological possibilities at all times . Only then will it be possible to get the most out of it. It is also necessary to work on differentiating components that allow to stand out above the big players, such as Amazon. That requires good ideas and exploiting the experience in physical establishment.
2020 e-commerce trends: a look into the future
In a short time, the way in which consumers shop online will have radically changed, and the turning point will occur in 2020. The 2020 e-commerce trends introduce us to the consumption of the future through modes of purchase and payment hardly imaginable just a few years ago.
The foundations are well laid: consumers have become accustomed to shopping on the Internet and have gained confidence. It is time to make the leap and introduce new features that facilitate the processes or make them more attractive. We are entering a time when enjoyment is also part of the online purchasing process.
Flagship stores, e-commerce trend on the rise
According to data from our latest study on the evolution and prospects of e-commerce, in its 2019 edition, in our country there are 17% of native e-commerce, which do not have a physical store and which, in light of e-commerce trends commerce 2020, they will have to rethink having offline representation. Once a good part of the traditional retailers have been launched for sale online, the competitive advantage is reduced. Now, to stand out is to have a flagship store , a store designed to be a showcase in itself, with the differentiating character of offering experiences associated with both the product and the brand . The tables are turning: now the battle begins at street level.
The flagship stores are stores located in central areas in large cities, far from the traditional idea of establishment. Pioneering brands in its launch have been Apple, Dior, Nokia, Zara or M & M’s, to name a few of the best known. Yes, the beginning is always for the greats, but it was also when the most recognized brands launched their online store. However, it does not take a large multinational to carry out a strategy refocusing more focused on the online channel and reserving the offline presence for the conception of a flagship store that supports the entire strategic approach.
With careful aesthetics and rich in details, a flagship store is the most representative store of a brand, offering its customers experiences that transcend the commercial purpose of sales . They are, in some way, a branding tool , since they reinforce the image and the brand reminder. These are design spaces in which the latest technologies have great weight, such as automated systems for the delivery of orders placed online or interactive testers.
The flagship stores have a product, but with a more focused concept so that the goods can be touched and observed so that the customer can finish the transaction online . Fashion and accessories or Electronics are two of the sectors that have benefited the most from this type of model establishment, to date. The flagship stores work because they are giving a more attractive and creative response to the demand for the physical experience derived from digital shopping.
Hyper segmented social commerce
Social networks have become in recent years a highly conducive channel for online sales, thanks not only to the sophistication of ad formats and segmentation tools, but also to the fact that users have been losing fear and gaining confidence on this channel. Social commerce has been around for a long time, but… are online sellers really exploiting all the possibilities offered by social ad management platforms ? Hyper segmentation allows reaching a highly defined, highly defined consumer segment , users who have already browsed our online store , to give just one example.
Advertising on social networks increases online sales and has a high ROI. Let us realize that, when a user browses social networks, he is in a moment of leisure and relaxation, which makes him more receptive to advertising (even more so if he is native) and more prone to purchase. In social networks, it only takes one click for a user impacted with an ad to reach e-commerce, just a couple of seconds in which the possibilities of distraction or forgetfulness over time vanish.
Facebook or Instagram offer different ad formats, from commercial calls and claims through offers or discounts, to the inclusion of product catalogs . The social ads are included in the feed of the user and integrate seamlessly with other content, so they are not intrusive. If a good segmentation is carried out, the magic will take place: the ads will not only not be annoying, but they will also become highly relevant when responding to the user’s needs or according to their tastes. Pinterest, for its part, is a good support for online sales , given its nature as a platform for inspiration and discovery. As for the appsMessaging, Facebook already offers various formats in Messenger and is preparing to launch the ads on WhatsApp in 2020 .
Cryptocurrencies, with pound on top
Without a doubt, this is one of the most striking 2020 e-commerce trends. Although it is true that cryptocurrencies or virtual currencies such as bitcoin have long been a possible payment method in e-commerce, there have not been many sellers who have launched to experiment with it, due to the risks involved in including them as a way. Payment : This is a highly volatile market, so cryptocurrencies need to be switched to fiat currency as soon as they are received. In addition, they need the involvement of third parties or the hiring of a technology that makes the process possible. With everything and with that, we already find several examples of e-commerce that accept payments with bitcoin, such as the comparator of flights and Destinia hotels. Amazon itself allows this through the Purse cryptocurrency platform .
Yes, if adhering to the cryptocurrency payment system is risky and somewhat complex so far, this may change quickly: if everything goes well, Facebook will launch pound next year , a cryptocurrency that works as a virtual currency in all its dimensions, based on blockchain, but that, if Facebook reaches the necessary agreements with financial entities, it will be backed by real assets, which would allow it to participate in the stock markets and eliminate volatility and uncertainty.
Libra is part of the Calibra Association , which proposes a global currency associated with a virtual wallet , in order to bring e-commerce closer to those less developed countries, where access to the financial system is very limited or non-existent. Among its partners, Calibra has brands from major companies such as Uber, Spotify or Vodafone. It is important not to lose sight of the development of the pound , in order to be able to include it as a payment method to attract and retain early adopter consumers . Meanwhile, payment in bitcoins is already possible, it is worth considering the advantages and disadvantages that its inclusion may entail for each specific e-commerce.
In the last year, payment services such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay have registered remarkable growth. Online shoppers are gradually becoming familiar with digital wallets , thanks to the fact that they allow transactions to be carried out faster, easier and safer. And what better currency to put in our digital portfolio than a virtual currency that has the necessary guarantees? A cryptocurrency is for universal use and is not subject to the additional costs of a currency exchange. Let’s stay tuned, if Pound comes true, there will be no impediment and payment by cryptocurrencies will become one of the most important e-commerce trends in 2020. And also for years to come.
Voice commerce: voice assistants, shopping assistants
The commerce voice repeats and is still considered a trend of e-commerce by 2020. And this does not seem to be longer in coming years. The reason is that the smart speaker market is not yet mature, but it is slowly moving towards excellence . Voice searches are becoming more common and the use of voice assistants is starting to normalize thanks to the fact that they are included in the operating systems of smartphones. At the head of voice commerce is Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, which gives us access to buy by voice in one of the largest marketplaces of the world. In addition, the affordable price of models such as Echo dot favors the Amazon assistant to sneak into the living rooms of all conditions. What prevents starting to make purchases through spoken orders? Also, they offer Amazon promo codes to make the purchase at affordable prices.
Today, the fastest and easiest way to get sales by voice is by having a presence on Amazon. Of course, it will be necessary for e-commerce to make an effort to work on positioning, since in voice searches there is a brake on what is known as a unique result. Amazon offers a second option for each search, after the user rejects the first one. On what do you base the results it offers? Alexa can customize those results based on each consumer’s purchase history. If it does not exist, it will choose the product marked with the «Amazon’s choice» logo. Hence the importance of sneaking onto the consumer’s shopping list.if you offer products of recurring purchase (consumables), or to work hard SEO positioning in Alexa in order to gain the prominent position.
In the case of Google Home, online shopping is not easy, since it does not directly pull its own e-commerce , despite the fact that the giant is already embarked on various projects that make it a marketplace capable of competing with Amazon. In your case, when asked to buy an item from a specific brand, you respond with a list of local stores. This fact can be successfully used in local marketing strategies,to bring traffic to the physical store. As for the assistant itself, Assistant, on those devices that have a screen, does offer a list of visual results when a voice request is made. Does not allow voice purchase, but does search. This is reason enough to work SEO positioning in Google Assistant .
The creation of skills (Alexa) or actions (Assistant) is a necessity to be able to directly sell our products through voice assistants, as it was once to develop a website to sell online. It is convenient to carry out an approach that contemplates some utility function while integrating the online store, so that it makes us draw the attention of consumers, become familiar with its use, and increase their degree of confidence in both the brand and their own skill and can lead to sales more easily.
Visual commerce: the image replaces the keyword
Image recognition technology has already reached a certain degree of improvement that allows product searches to be made from a pre-existing image or captured with the phone. Both Pinterest and Google, with their “lens” technology, have achieved high precision in finding products that are the same or similar to those required in visual searches. Amazon also has a functionality intended to search for products from images, although it is true that it is not yet capable of returning too satisfactory results.
What can online sellers do to take advantage of visual commerce ? The answer is simple: position yourself through images. But we are not talking about traditional SEO positioning, in which it is enough to include the keyword in «title» and «alt». No. In the field of image recognition, the technology is capable of identifying an image through a scan and locating matches between all the existing images in the search engine or platform.
How does this type of SEO work, then? Through the images themselves: it is more necessary than ever to include clear photos of the products, with clean backgrounds, in the different colors available and from different perspectives. The objective is that users can locate a product from a photo they upload, an image that is usually taken with their phone and, in some cases referred to fashion and accessories, discreetly when seen by an unknown person, for what the shooting angles can be very whimsical. This new search possibility to locate products on the Internet is what makes visual commerce one of the remarkable e-commerce 2020 trends.
Dynamic pricing and offer customization
Personalized offers is one of the most important e-commerce trends in 2020. Once again, technology will help us to increase sales in a notable way by offering each individual – or group of them – those products or services that are most adapted to your tastes and needs. Thanks to the tools of master data, the retailers achieve a very precise knowledge of the needs of their customers as they use the information obtained from each of the sales to the preferences of consumers and advertise the products more suitable and more odds of success.
The need for personalization goes further: the creation of a dynamic home can also greatly help an e-commerce once the user has been analyzed and their online behavior is known . A regular buyer usually arrives at the home of an online store , which we already have enough information to impact with personalized content on the home page , creating a better experience and offering products that we believe may be of interest to you based on from your purchase history.
Dynamic price automation should not be overlooked. Thanks to technology and data , online sellers have the possibility to set the most optimal price for a specific product at any given time . Dynamic prices give very good results to get a customer who is comparing prices on different websites . To achieve the lowest possible price, there are softwares that continuously analyze the prices of the competition, adjusting the offer to the sale price with the greatest possibility of selling with the greatest possible profit. Amazon updates its prices every 10 minutes , in accordance with its dynamic pricing policy.
Retail trading apps
It is interesting that online sellers value the insertion of advertisements in the purchase applications between individuals . In many cases, used products are sought that are not available in the second-hand market, or in a certain application, or whose price is not significantly lower than the cost of acquiring the new product. At that time, the user has started a purchase process, so impacting him with the same product he is looking for or similar, increases the chances of conversion.
Successful platforms and large numbers of users such as Wallapop, Facebook Marketplace, Vinted or Etsy (with a focus on artisan products) are examples of platforms on which to insert ads. Of course, it is important to adjust products, prices and offers to the type of platform and user that it has. Thus, on Etsy it would fit products related to crafts or the “handmade” label, while in applications dedicated to second-hand commerce, where users are highly motivated by the price factor, it is convenient to make aggressive offers through reduced prices, lots or similar . It is a good idea to get rid of stock products quickly and easily. or even get very good performance out of discontinued products, taking advantage of the “urgency of opportunity” that occurs so much in the used goods market.
Videos to show products
The online world is intangible and, beyond the impossibility of touching, a static image is not capable of showing a product in all its dimensions. To bring the product closer to the consumer so that they can properly appreciate it, video is the best tool. In addition, it allows detailing the advantages, proposing uses, teaching how to use it or offering all kinds of additional information that helps the consumer in decision-making. According to Google data, 80% of online shoppers combine Internet searches with the display of videos before buying, while 90% of consumers worldwide claim to have discovered a brand through YouTube.
On the other hand, the lack of time or the browsing habits of younger consumers make video a first-rate communication tool, which requires little effort to consume and is attractive. Including videos in the product sheets of our e-commerce is a good idea. However, its creation is usually quite expensive, so it is worth evaluating for what type of products it can compensate, as well as the type of production (by levels of sophistication and complexity) appropriate in each case. As for the utility, beyond the promotional videos that we want to include in the home, there are those dedicated to the presentation of the product or the tutorials to show operating dynamics.
What e-commerce trends 2020 does my brand need?
It depends. The sector to which you belong and the type of product or service that you offer will be two fundamental factors when defining your digital strategy for next year. Also the budget you have will make the choice easier. As we said at the beginning, the trends are imbued with a strong technological character. Launching advanced technologies or hiring tools or software that help increase sales is not cheap. However, if our strategic approach is appropriate, we will see amortized spending very soon thanks to a notable increase in sales.
What is certain is that those digital stores with an offline presence must invest in an appropriate omnichannel strategy and, from there, focus on those advertising formats or actions that put the user at the center and that go through personalization . The consumer experience throughout the entire purchasing process (from the first contact with the brand to the receipt of the package) is what will determine not only a sale, but customer loyalty and recurrence. It consists of the purchase process ceasing to be a mere transaction and being covered with the same attraction that “going to stores” implies . E-commerce trends 2020 are many, let’s choose the most suitable for our brand and combine them in the most appropriate way possible to generate customer satisfaction.
