Page 4 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

eCommerce trends

worth considering

next year

A user-friendly navigation, good Just keep in mind that tablet users prefer to buy while
product descriptions, different pay- sitting on the couch during a commercial break. The
ment options and a smooth check- further development of mobile payment will only rein-
out process should form the basis of force that fact. At the same time, shopping is becoming
an online store that intends to suc- more interconnected and tablets find their way to the
ceed. How online retailers can stand point of sale and drive the so-called “touch commerce”
out from the competition is pointed out in the following, forward. QR code scanning or shopping via the display
highlighting the most important trends in eCommerce. in the store will in the future belong to a connected offer
in stores.
Fact is that online commerce will continue to grow in
the next year although the enormous development puts Payment
online retailers under constant competitive pressure.
Demanding clients and the steadily decreasing gap be- Whether digital wallet or fingerprint scan, the payment
tween the point of sale and online shop are in addition options are always becoming more innovative and hit
a huge task to master for online dealers. So, take a the nerve of the customer who can, for example, al-
look at the following trends that cater for greater effi- ready pay cashless via iPhone App or use PayPal's
ciency in today’s digital commerce: fingerprint scan for authentication. Fact is that the
smartphone quite often already replaces the conven-
Emotionalization tional wallet and will be a trend that continues in 2015.

A long-term customer relationship needs emotions, ser- Personalized touchpoints
vices and contents, therefore do not just dump products
and offers on your website visitors, but package infor- Online retailers evaluate amounts of data in a more and
mation into descriptive stories. The production of the more structured manner and will incorporate the cus-
brand and its range will more than ever take center tomer data in their strategy. This includes answering to
stage in 2015. Online shoppers not only look for the tweets and Facebook comments as well as adjusting
best and highest quality products, but expect that the the touch points to customer reactions. The online deal-
shop is entertaining as well besides providing additional er is becoming more personal and practical.
information around the brand.
Customer Experience
Consolidation
Stores are becoming showrooms and online stores are
Especially small online retailers struggle with the grow- becoming the catalogue since customers are looking at
ing competition. In fact, it is predicted that many start- the products in the store but most likely search for the
ups and smaller providers will not survive in 2015. best price on the Internet.
Hence, to thwart the pressure from the competition, Today’s central 360°video displays simply provide a
many online retailers are planning to optimize their core digital brand world with optimum product presentations
business. that bring many advantages.

Mobile Start to set yourself apart from your competitors in a
time when online retail and point of sale are merging.
As expected, mobile devices will propel the eCom- Mobile price comparisons in the store or product videos
merce tremendously in 2015. In particular, the tablet at the POS show that the sales strategy is being ex-
boom will continue unabated and influence the shop- tended to the online world. ◊
ping behavior of customers. Thus, especially for mobile
devices, an optimal shopping portal should be in place, By Daniela La Marca

since mobile commerce is continuing to boom.
4 Asian eMarketing November 2014 - Cross-, Multi-, Omni-Channel & Everywhere Commerce