E commerce trends 2014

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E-commerce trends –2014


Future of e-commerce – personalized shopping

1. Custom Everything – Clothes, shoes, glasses and just about everything we thought would never move fully online will all be online. The reason is simple: why leave the comfort of your own home when you can get something custom made to your exact size for less?

2. Customized Outfit Planning – With websites such as DailyLook that mass-produce trendy outfits, it's only a matter of time before a company can produce individualized outfits. Combining user-submitted and digitally collected data with current trends would provide a service that could put together outfits to fit the consumer's style. The programming could be extended to hair care, skin care and cosmetics. All the consumer would have to do is click a button, and a whole look that's entirely her style would show up on her doorstep at a discount.

3. Virtual Sizing – The hassle of trying on various sizes will decrease as video quality improves and we're able to measure and size clothes from the comfort of home. Because brands vary widely in size charts, it will be even more important for profit margins to avoid returns and exchanges for color, style, design, and fit.

4. Custom Designs – More companies these days are allowing customers to represent themselves through custom designs. NikeiD lets customers design their own shoes. And customers can buy an interchangeable face and strap at Modify Watches. This trend of custom designs and interchangeability lets customers truly express themselves through their clothing.

5. Personalized Brands – There's so much data available about customers, and the e-commerce companies that personalize customer communication will win. Every element of the messaging will be personalized, from the on-site experience to social targeting and email. In five years, the communication you receive around shopping, will be rooted in your behavior, demographic and psychographic data. It will feel like every store has a personal shopper just for you. Those who stick to the "batch-and-blast" style of communication will lose out.

Source: Forrester Research and various retail blogs

Personalized shopping is changing the way we find, buy and recommend products to our friends. And from a business perspective, what's going to capture shoppers' attention next? What does the future of personalized shopping hold in terms of e-commerce?


Future of e-commerce – personalized shopping


6. 3D Printing for Clothing – Eventually we will be able to print our own clothes. We're seeing 3D printing start to take off, and we're in the very early stages of this revolution. Who would have imagined the factories we have today 100 years ago? Today, we can't even begin to comprehend the ways we'll produce products years from now.

7. Human Online Shopping Concierges – Technology will enable companies to provide a concierge-style service that will use underlying personalization algorithms to allow a real person to make recommendations to you. The added personalization of human reps will be justified by far more meaningful and long-lasting relationships with the consumer. Trust will be built, and consumers will grow accustomed to outsourcing much of the online shopping experience to a personal assistant.

8. Shopping Experience Convergence – As Internet shopping became prominent in the '90s, there was a distinct line drawn between brick-and-mortar and Internet retailers. As brick-and-mortar stores started seeing sales slip, they plunged headfirst into the Internet, thus creating click-and-mortar operations. This blurred the lines between physical and virtual retailers. Now the line is drawn between mobile and computer. Until a few years ago, mobile shopping was nearly unheard of. People are expecting to look, touch and research across multiple devices, in person and virtually. The medium or device ultimately becomes irrelevant.

9. 360-Degree Customer Engagement – It takes six to ten "touches" before consumers buy from a brand. Today's customers are experiencing a product or service across platforms – mobile, Web, physical, media and referral sources. It will be expected to engage consumers where they are and carry that experience across platforms. A customer may first experience your brand from a personal referral, but then may explore on mobile or a tablet before doing a deep dive on the Web. After those experiences, they may review on a third-party site before going in-store to purchase. That cross-platform, pre-purchase experience requires a 360-degree view of the customer to ultimately complete the sale. Think holistically about how a consumer experiences across platforms.


Future of e-commerce – market characterization• What characterizes a market that's primed for e-commerce growth? It's

not population, income, or even the amount its residents are spending on retail goods every year — though those all play a role. Rather, a variety of factors signal immediate to near-term ecommerce opportunity in a given region, a new study from Forrester Research shows.

• South Korea for example, which ranked fourth on Forrester's list of countries positioned for ecommerce expansion. Compared to others on the list, it has a fairly average income per capita of $22,000. But its consumers are ready to spend: It ranked third on the number of debit/credit cards per capita, fourth in market activity and intensity (stock values relative to GDP), and has a tech-savvy population.

• Other surprising candidates to make the top 10 list were the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and Sweden — surprising because they all have mature economies (versus, say, Brazil or China) and, compared to India and Russia, relatively small populations. As Forrester explains, no single factor — like Internet penetration or population size — equates to a large online retail market. Other variables, including consumer attitudes, a willingness to use credit and debit cards in lieu of cash, and a solid courier infrastructure all play a role.

• Here are the 10 markets (out of 55) that present the biggest immediate to near-term e-commerce opportunity, according to Forrester:

1. US 6. Germany2. China 7. Netherlands3. Japan 8. Norway4. South Korea 9. Singapore5. UK 10. Sweden



Future of e-commerce – technologiesTechnologies in social commerce, mobile and customer experience have transformed the retail industry. The mission is to stay ahead of the curve and spot trends that boost sales and provide customers with a great shopping experience. Below are key insights on the future of e-commerce. Technology will drive change and create new ways for consumers to shop online. Retailers must respond to emerging trends and continue to keep pace within the e-commerce space.

1. By 2022, brick and mortar retail spaces will be little more than showrooms – BigCommerce is a provider of e-commerce software for small and independent retailers and has achieved tremendous success since launching in 2009. It has received $75m in funding and boasts a client roster that includes Gibson Guitar and Zaggora.

2. Curation and personalization will be a big part of e-commerce moving forward – Index Ventures has their eyes set on fashion and have a heavy focus in that space. They estimate that fashion will end up accounting for about one third of all e-commerce. Experts also stress the importance of curation and personalization and say these things “point to a direct relationship with the customer.”

3. Mobile commerce is critical to success – Experts agree that a focus on mobile commerce and a global perspective are core elements to e-commerce. Brands that figure out mobile commerce are the ones that will ultimately succeed.

4. Don’t neglect these more modern forms of content marketing – These future opportunities for content marketing in e-commerce includes video, social profiles, social updates, curated content, qRated content, reverse guest blogging, mobile apps, free digital downloads, user-generated content, co-creation, newsletter/email, Google+ hangouts, and info graphics.

5. We’re seeing a trend in the direction of NFC – Near Field Communication (NFC) could be the future of e-commerce and a link between mobile and an improved brand experience for consumers. NFC technologies like Google Wallet enable consumers to do things like tap a phone with their credit card and not only provide payment information but also receive and exchange coupons, offers and loyalty program perks.

Source: Yahoo business, Aug 13, 2013


Future of e-commerce – skill sets

Requisite skills for e-commerce are divided below into hard and soft skills. It is predicted that the major technical skills in demand for e-commerce would be linked to occupations such as: IT programmers, database administrators, and infrastructure architects, (historically outsourced by retailers). The continued evolution of internet technologies makes it important for retailers to update the technical skill sets of their workforce.

Domains of knowledgeSkill sets

Source: Business and Technology e-skills 2013