The major issue with the online shopping has been the ease that it offers. With the emergence of newer technologies like (NFC) Near Field Communications, advantage for traditional retailing has taken a back seat.
NFC is a mobile technology enabling easy communication and data transfer within a short distance. Paying for products or services has been quicker by connecting NFC-enabled devices to a debit or credit card. It is just about waving your phone over a product for online purchase.
This technology can be the real game changer in the e-commerce landscape. As per estimation, by 2022 physical retails will be just like showrooms. Consumers would be more interested to sample out the products in store and then quickly purchase the products of their choice and get them delivered to their home within a day or two.
Is it going to abolish the brick and mortar stores? Of course not! There would always be a separate segment of consumers who would like to sample out the products in physical store for its durability and quality before actually purchasing it. So, abolition of brick and mortar stores is almost zero in future. The greatest challenge for small businesses is adapting to the change in consumer behavior and paradigm shift as future trends.
Considering these changes how small businesses should prepare themselves to keep pace with the e-commerce future trends and what should be their focus area?
Invest in Mobile
Mobility has offered the customers a flexibility to shop from anywhere at any time, from their PC, tab or smartphone. It has been surveyed and found that online shopping on Black Friday and Thanksgiving did immensely well compared to last year and out of which a considerable amount of purchases have been made through mobile, visiting a retailer’s site. This trend will continue to grow in coming years as more consumers will be equipped with phones and tablets. This is a wakeup call for small businesses to ensure that their stores are optimized so that prospects can access them from any type of handheld mobile device. Easy browsing, navigating, and shopping across platforms is crucial for any business that wants to grow and stay competitive in present scenario of e-commerce. It has been predicted that by 2015 mobile internet usage will in fact supersede desktop web use. With the ubiquitousness of smartphone and tablet, it is imperative to have an app or mobile website to stay competitive in the online retail space.
Video Content
The influence of social media in business is indispensable these days. For consumer-based companies an active social media presence is necessary to retain a considerable clientele and effortlessly market your store. It’s quite unprofessional to avoid this major aspect of marketing. Small retailers should take a step further and start utilizing the power of online videos content for more conversions. Text updates and photos were already there to drive traffic to online store, but video content offers new and exclusive opportunities. Developing video content, which costs less time and effort, is too big an opportunity to ignore.
Social Advertising
Several small enterprises are still in their nascent phase and are yet to ascertain how best to deliver content to the target market using social media platforms while also reaching out new customers. Advertisements on Facebook and Twitter can prove to be a bridge to an altogether new frontier. Although there is a debate about the actual value of social advertising, it is not easy to ignore that it offers some of the best targeting to business owners; especially when the time spent on social media sites by people on a regular basis is growing gradually.
Digital Couponing
It has been discovered that digital coupons have been witnessed as one of the ideal methods of saving for consumers. It could be a great way of cross and upselling for small enterprises. This can encourage the consumers to purchase more as they would prefer to purchase products having coupons online instead of any other shopping format.
Borderless Business
Small businesses should accept the fact that it’s time to look beyond their borders. Last year has been a year of exponential growth in e-commerce market. Reports suggest that successful retailers are seemingly turning global by expanding their online shopping functioning operations in offshore countries. Growing global sale has been witnessed as a wake-up call for many small businesses to take up this trend as their next step for further growth as to date they haven’t looked beyond their borders.
Consumer-driven Demand and Personalization
Consumers nowadays intend to buy unique, original products and it’s for the businesses to understand this need, and be able to deliver that in creative and profitable ways. In 2015 more businesses will empower customers to buy personalized and modified products that they are looking to purchase. Using 3D printing technology for fast customization will be used. Small enterprises can ask consumers to specify before time what they want to buy and when - often before those products are manufactured.
All these customer behavior and growing technology-based e-commerce trend increases efficiency drastically and benefits for both consumers and businesses. So we can say that the future of e-commerce for small enterprise looks like appealing and promising! It is expected to grow smarter, faster and more promising!