Business is a dog eat dog world, and not keeping ahead of the curve can spell disaster. When it comes to staying ahead of said curve, there is one pie that you should have your fingers in. This pie is that of eCommerce. E-commerce is seeing a year on year growth of around 15% and in 2018 was responsible for approximately $3 trillion in sales.

Today we are going to look at some eCommerce trends that can be implemented now for 2020. These trends will hopefully see you and your business take a bigger slice of that pie.

Get Personal

When the world was in the height of the retail revolution, there was one thing that set a successful business to stand out above its competitors. That one thing was a different level of customer engagement. Just because the company is online does not mean a relationship cannot be built with a customer.

Having access to or having your own CRM system can be one of the most beneficial customer management tools available to you. Having access to and making use of personal data and customer history data will enable you to offer every returning customer a more personal service.

It’s also crucial to make it easy to get in touch with you or leave feedback. You might use an online form builder to create a contact form which you might embed on your website and product pages.

Be Flexible

Another huge thing for the consumer moving forward is the payment option. When sitting in the world of ecommerce, the more payment methods you accept, the more successful you will be.

Payments should not be strictly limited to credit or debit card. The offering of PayPal on top of this may not be sufficient enough to keep everything moving forward. One sure-fire way to get yourself ready for 2020 and beyond is to offer flexible payment methods over a space of time. This doesn’t necessarily have to be credit agreements. This could be a term of service account agreement between yourself and the customer.

Get Interactive

Offering a customer the chance to view a product from the comfort of their own home should be a step you are already implementing. One of the biggest issues when it comes to basket abandonment online is the doubt of purchase. This doubt comes from only being able to view a standard image of the product.

Having an option to view the entire product, however, will reduce the number of abandoned baskets exponentially. The process involves a 3D image of the product or a 360 video which is a slider control system that enables the customer to view almost every nook and cranny.

Business to Business

When we think of eCommerce its always on the level of business to customer basis. What if you were told that you could possibly make even more should you look at business to business? Business to Business e-commerce is, in fact, starting to grow at an even faster rate than that of business to customer.

Get AI

For some, there is a fear of a Bladerunner type world where AI is going to take over. When it comes to ecommerce, though, there are some aspects that AI should take over.

With the progression in technology and the increasingly fantastic opportunities that artificial intelligence has presented, not using it as a part of your ecommerce strategy would be a mistake. The primary function of the AI should be to automate the menial tasks for your company so your efforts can be concentrated elsewhere. AI can also provide your customers with a chat option in order to register specific details before reaching a member of the team. AI will even from time to time, solve fundamental customer issues automatically.

Get AI for your ecommerce business

One of the most important trends you should be jumping on is enhancing your ecommerce fulfilment process. When it comes to your fulfilment process, this is obviously at the very heart of your business.

The ecommerce fulfilment process can be enhanced ten-fold with the introduction of an order management system. The OMS itself can help future proof your business and when used properly, can make life a whole lot easier. The joy behind an OMS system is its ability to unify all of your business tasks and to also communicate fluently with your other business systems.

Go Video

We now live in a world of influencers, and at the heart of the influencer is video. Introducing video, even at its most basic level to your ecommerce business could be just the boost it needs.

The video could have many purposes. A video could introduce a product, or even offer instructions on how best to use the item. All in all, a video is a far more personal way of presenting a product to the customer. When a product is presented in such a personal way, it offers a sense of engagement that is rarely found in a digital retail environment.

Augmented reality

Introducing AR to your ecommerce business gives your customers the ability to see how something looks without even being next to it. Augmented reality now offers the customer an opportunity to place a piece of furniture in their living room to make sure it fits with aesthetics. A customer can now even try on glasses from the comfort of their own sofa. Augmented reality really is a fantastic way of stepping ahead of the curve.

So there we have it, trends you can implement right now to get a step ahead for 2020. Whether you decide to take on one or even all ten of the steps, you can be sure that your slice of the pie is going to be a big one.