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Technological developments have had an impact on the e-commerce world by transforming the way consumers connect with brands and empowering them to identify the lowest prices. The Internet is mostly used for online shopping these days. Many customers are ordering online from e-commerce websites as they can get anything at their doorsteps.
Strategic plans, competitive marketing, and a skilled workforce aside, e-commerce organizations are expected to current on the latest technologies. Advancement in technology has open the way for people to meet their purchase needs easily and as a result, E-commerce business will lead towards success.
Customers can get anything in no time with the help of latest technology. The impact of technology on e-commerce is faster than ever. Technology is helping customers to track their orders, to find the product in the best deal etc. With the advancement of the latest e-commerce technology, new opportunities for business- consumers are emerging.
Some such revolutionizing technologies and their implications are driving e-commerce success, are discussed here.
1. Omni-Channel Presence/Support
Modern shopping habits involve cross-channel research, consideration, and purchase. Statistics say that 90% of customers expect unhindered interactions across multiple channels and devices. That confirms the importance of omnichannel readiness for today’s businesses.
Boosting your actions with the right technology means providing customers with not only what they want when they want it, but also where they want it.
Video Chat: Allows businesses to interact face-to-face with customers and heightens the personalized, cross-channel, visual demonstration and consultation experience.
Co-browsing: A visual engagement system putting the agents and customers on the same page, at the same time to seamlessly guide the customer through complex procedures.
Screen Sharing: An interaction method where customers share their screen with agents to effortlessly sort out any difficulties with filling out forms, completing transactions, etc.
Document Interaction: Interacts with customers’ documents safely and includes e-signature technologies for enhanced security.
The above communication systems propel an interconnected journey all the way through the purchase.
2. Extensive Personalization
Personalization is the biggest e-commerce technology trend. Consumers expect a personally-relevant shopping experience based on their preferences.
Statistics say more than 78% of customers ignore offers that aren’t personalized or based on their previous brand engagement. This means that personalized attention in marketing and customer support is more important than ever.
Personalization comes from understanding the customers’ tendencies and affiliations. Fortunately, technology has evolved to allow for that. Impact of e-commerce technology is noteworthy. Nearly every consumer action performed on the internet is captured and turned into a volume of records, referred to as big data.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning analytics drive customer behavior patterns, trends, and affinities, while interpreting this data, which is why businesses are provided with their customer's desires and expectations, driving possibilities for extensive personalization.
Therefore, Big Data, Machine Learning, and AI have made personalization normative and used by businesses to cater their support and services to reflect their customers’ interests.
3. The Mobile Shift
E-commerce has recently shifted to mobile platforms to increase its prominence; as a result, m-commerce has emerged.
Failing to provide a mobile-oriented shopping experience may lead to avoiding state; therefore, businesses should concentrate on equipping technologies with mobile-friendly virtues.
E-commerce Mobile Apps - Apps that offer the ability to continually engage with customers and familiarize themselves with new and relevant purchase options.
Location-based Marketing - Businesses can know the geographical whereabouts of a customer to market products to them that are oriented to a specific location.
VR/AR Guidance - Integrating VR and AR technologies provides an immersive and guided shopping experience to mobile users which allow customers to emotionally connect with the brand.
Internet of Things (IoT) - IoT stems from the need to better understand consumer trends with a range of connectivity-enabled devices. The scope for delivering customized mobile shopping experiences is augmented.
4. Conversational Marketing
The traditional marketing channels flow as a one-way directive, while a new concept of conversational marketing has arisen. Opening two-way communication mediums have brought many advantages to achieving e-commerce success.
Hearing directly from customers makes more sense than predicting behaviors and issues they face because businesses can establish a personalized, real-time, one-on-one conversation with customers to understand their needs and problems.
Below are some of the most-efficient technologies:
Chatbots - Chatbots are excellent conversational marketing tools. They provide customers with answers using conversations taken from multiple channels, matching the brand’s tenor, and capable of handling multiple conversations at a time.
Live Chat - A prominent conversational feature where the support team can communicate with customers through chats. It also allows for businesses to initiate a preemptive chat invitation to particular customers having certain issues.
Mobile Messaging - Smartphones are another way for businesses to reach out to their customers. While people are fatigued from the swarming promotional emails, businesses can talk with them through mobile messaging apps.
5. Automation and Chatbots for customer communications
Artificial Intelligence plays an important role in our life, having a major impact on how we live, work etc. There are several examples of AI and automation tools we use from customer service application to voice-powered assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google’s home & Amazon Echo. As per research, 40% of millennials are already using voice search for online shopping.
Businesses are integrating Chatbots in their system to delight their customers and to improve brand image. Chatbots and virtual assistants are the future of any business. With the help of Chatbots you can order food, checking luggage at the airport, booking a hotel room, schedule flight and can get many recommendations regarding anything you can think of.
Starbucks makes it easy for their customers to place an order for your favorite drink or snack. The Chatbot will give you details regarding the status of your order, payment details etc. Install Starbucks app and to find Starbucks Chatbot.
6. Image search
Today e-commerce businesses are using various technologies to offer best services to their customers. E-commerce businesses are integrating Image Search Technology on their websites so customers can easily take the photo of products around them and can find similar products on a different website in best deal.
Imagine that you are in a store and you see a beautiful couch but you found it costly, so in this case, you take a picture and use image search to find similar products at a reasonable rate. Integrating image search on your website will boost your revenue.
7. Fast & Easy Checkout Processes
Cart abandonment is the most painful reason for losing a sale because it means that despite all the marketing endeavors, the customer was considering buying the product, but then changed their mind. Data-wise, the first quarter of this year has marked a 75.6% global cart abandonment rate.
One of the primary factors affecting cart abandonment is the checkout procedure. Despite the accuracy the lead generation and nurturing metrics are excellent, the efficiency of the checkout process can delineate the cart abandonment privation.
Therefore, an e-commerce venture must embrace technology with fast and easy checkout solutions, like:
- Speedy mobile payment solutions, including Apple Pay and Android Pay.
- Offering to save card details, to hasten iterative purchases.
- Providing one-page, hassle-free checkouts.
- Designating a range of payment options.
Adorned with technology, alleviating the difficulties that customers can potentially go through during checkouts has become possible.
Conclusion
The technological revitalizations discussed throughout this article sum up the capabilities that they can realize. Many successful e-commerce ventures invest in these technologies because it helps them to strategically heighten their businesses’ success.
