It’s been a hectic and productive 2018 for the ecommerce industry. Moving into 2019, the ecommerce industry continues to grow as new technologies and trends are being embraced by ecommerce entrepreneurs around the world.
The eCommerce business continues to change as online sellers constantly engage in various ways to effectively drive new innovative change for the online shopping business they own. According to information provided by statista.com, the worldwide ecommerce sales are estimated to reach up to $4.8 trillion by 2021. While sales continue to grow more businesses are putting more effort into reaching their digital audiences through new marketing tactics and tools to make online shopping easier.
We’ve compiled a list of the fastest emerging trends in the ecommerce industry to give you insights into the future. Here are the four trends we feel every online retailer should be made of aware of in 2019.
Internet of Things
One of the biggest trends that we’re noticing in the ecommerce industry is the IoT space.
Internet of Things (IoT) is one of quickest growing technologies, which in the most general sense is making everything “smart”. Whether it’s working equipment, toys for toddlers or even clothing, everything is capable of being made intelligent by infusing sensor technology with machine learning.
Companies are using IoT to gain a competitive advantage in the ever changing landscape of ecommerce. An example of this is WalMart using their own IoT technology to track sentiment on products using social media to identify new product opportunities.
IoT is also being used in warehousing and production processes themselves with sensors now being able to identify when forklifts are most likely to breakdown, thus causing major production delays or to communicate with robots in order to pull and load up packages efficiently.
With RFID tags supply chain managers can now track up to the minute production insights allowing them to precisely identify where their products are and when they’ll be arriving. This helps reduced overstocked inventory, sales delays and allows for accurate predictions for the next production runs.
IoT is giving many larger ecommerce companies a major edge in the industry, but as the technology matures smaller businesses will gain access to improve their own internal processes.
Augmented Reality
For customers, one of the largest downsides for online shopping is not being able to touch, test, or try out the products. Augmented reality (AR) will be undertaking some massive steps towards bridging that problematic gap.
AR will take 3D product images and display them in front of the customer as if the product was right there in the room with them. Through the use of the customer’s phone, or specific tools such as AR goggles customers will be able to see what a product looks like without actually going to a store. WayFair has been using similar AR ecommerce technology to allow users to see what a piece of furniture will look like in their room before making a purchase.