The past year has been overwhelming for eCommerce, especially with the widespread adoption of AI and the talks around hyper-personalized experiences. That, combined with the continued dynamicity of the eCommerce landscape and technologies shaping the market requires merchants to stay on their toes. From increased adoption of GenAI in eCommerce to hybrid commerce and community engagement, B2C and B2B eCommerce trends 2024 cover both the consumer and technology side of the market.
Learn what 2024 eCommerce trends are being predicted by experts.
Trend #1: Generative AI in eCommerce
2023 was the year for Generative AI and the eCommerce industry did not shy away from reflecting and exploring on the benefits of GenAI for it. In fact, we have an entire resource based on the ways merchants can use generative AI in eCommerce here. It is also why this trend sits on the top of the list owing to its ever-growing use cases. From providing product recommendations exactly how your customers desire and running targeted marketing campaigns based on a user’s preferences, interests, and behavior to optimizing product prices to close more sales and improving inventory and supply chain management, generative AI in eCommerce boasts several ways in which it results in increased profits and sales.
The use of generative AI in eCommerce is a significant B2C and B2B eCommerce trend 2024 and will have a strong impact on shaping the eCommerce experiences today and beyond.
Trend #2: MACH (Microservices, API-led, Composable & Headless) commerce
Acing the list of the 2024 eCommerce trends is MACH commerce. MACH architecture supports building specific business functionalities that can be managed independently. The frontend and backend utilities are connected through various APIs, enabling them to run as decoupled units. Such a headless commerce architecture allows the freedom to modify the frontend store as per customer expectations, prevailing trends, and market dynamics for the ever-increasing number of touchpoints without being influenced by the backend system. This mutual exclusion between the frontend and the backend lets the customers access the eCommerce store via various channels like desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other digital devices.
The advantages of MACH commerce are seamless frontend and backend development, flexibility to scale, easy customization for enriched customer experience, improved security and enhanced speed during peak traffic, all of which make a perfect fit for competitive brands.
Several eCommerce platforms like Adobe Commerce, commercetools and Salesforce Commerce Cloud have been revolutionizing the eCommerce ecosystem via their MACH commerce solutions.
Trend #3: Balancing personalization with privacy
Marketers need to strike a balance between personalizing customer experiences to the core while understanding the right to privacy of their customers as well. As eCommerce evolves, customers are quite concerned with how their personal data is being utilized and would continue to share less of it in the coming year. Therefore, when we talk of eCommerce trend 2024, it is imperative to understand the changing face of retail in the wake of increasing prominence of privacy concerns and regulations.
With the demise of third-party tracking cookies, merchants need to rely more on direct information provided by customers and leverage those to deliver hyper-personalized experiences across channels and devices.
Technologies that can be employed to achieve this goal include customer data platforms (CDPs) to obtain consent-driven first-party data. Adobe’s CDP and Salesforce Data Cloud are two platforms that can be utilized by retailers to collect customer’s permission on the data being collected, strategize segmented marketing campaigns based on it, and drive customer trust to guarantee long-term loyalty and high-value purchases.
Trend #4: Driving a unified and omnichannel commerce experience
Unified commerce has been an important consideration for retailers and will be a larger part of customer experiences and eCommerce trends in 2024. It involves integrating all sales channels – online, in-store, social store, mobile apps, marketplaces, etc.) to deliver seamless shopping experiences across channels. This use of diverse channels for buying products and services necessitates retailers to be omnipresent and deliver an omnichannel customer experience.
Unified commerce involves using CDPs to collect first-party data for personalized interactions, loyalty programs, and reward points, making them accessible across channels. Sometimes retailers provide additional discounts on the products if customers buy them from a mobile app instead of a website. In a different scenario, customers might add a few products to the shopping cart via a social store after being presented with a sponsored ad or an irresistible offer. Therefore, retailers must offer an omnichannel customer experience across the evolving number of intersection points and devices.
For a seamless shopping experience, it should be easy for customers to continue shopping on the new device, right from where they had left in a different channel. The shopping cart must be updated to reflect changes made in one device onto the other device. Also, the resolution, image clarity, quantity, color, size, payment options, and discounts offered on the products should be consistent across different breakpoints. And this is exactly what omnichannel commerce offers!
Oasis, a leading clothing brand, based out of the UK, offers its customers an exquisite way to shop from their websites, mobile app, social store, and more. On top of it, customers can view the same product at their convenience across several devices and platforms, thus offering them an omnichannel customer experience.
Trend #5: Augmented Reality (AR) commerce for real-time product visualization
Augmented Reality or AR has changed customer product interactions. Getting a virtual tour of the product gallery and interacting with the 3D product model is a novel experience. With AR, businesses can create interactive and life-size 3D models for different products and therefore, will be a significant eCommerce trends for 2024. With these realistic models, customers can visualize how the products will look and fit in their homes and offices. A shopping experience like this will certainly be engaging and endearing for customers.
Augmented Reality (AR) commerce is emerging as one of the major trends in eCommerce that can boost product sales, provide an enriching customer experience, increase repeat customer rates, reinforce customer satisfaction, and hike the average revenue per online shopper. The farfetched augmented reality is now an actual reality. It gives customers the pleasure of shopping for a product using a digital medium that is equally good as shopping in a retail outlet.
The above example displays a sofa as shown with the IKEA Place app via Augmented Reality. For a long time, IKEA has been employing bleeding-edge technologies like AR to help shoppers choose products with utmost accuracy like they would do while shopping at a physical store.
The IKEA Place App allows consumers to view their furniture preferences in their homes at different placements and color variations. The best part about this app: it scans the room to identify its dimensions and then shows options that would fit with 98% accuracy. Not only does this app increase online sales and conversions but it also reduces returns by a whopping margin.
Trend #6: Prompt and multi-channel customer support to boost customer satisfaction and retention
Positive customer service can make or break a brand. And with the growing number of channels, it becomes paramount to interact with your customers across each and every one of them. If shoppers interact with you on social media via DMs, then you have to entertain them across. In fact, a study by Intercom discovered that 60% of customers prefer communicating with business via texts or DMs. Moreover, HubSpot’s consumer trends report states that there is a 45% YoY increase in social media users sending DMs to avail customer service and WebEx states that 72% of customers are more likely to buy online if their questions are answered in real-time.
This is enough reason to understand the growing importance of direct customer service and how it will be in demand as one of the 2024 eCommerce trends. The importance of real-time communication with human agents cannot be overstated in today’s evolving digital commerce ecosystem. Customers want prompt and easy access to satisfactory customer service via a channel that’s most convenient for them. And to boost customer retention numbers, merchants will have to adopt technologies, tools, and processes that provide direct customer service in 2024 and beyond.
It stands to reason that this trend will only grow as social shopping becomes more accepted, so in 2024, customers will likely demand more of this real-time communication with brands — and they want it to happen wherever it’s most convenient for them.
Trend #7: Sustainable and safe eCommerce solutions
In eCommerce, sustainability is related to the justified use of resources while facilitating the customers with desired products and services. When it comes to shopping, whether in physical stores or on eCommerce websites, a lot of trash is produced in the form of unsold products, damaged goods, returned orders, actual physical space that runs on electricity, undelivered packages, and more. Not using the available resources fruitfully contributes to severe issues like global warming, piling up of non-degradable waste material, and climate change.
It is projected that by 2025, the global eCommerce plastic packaging waste might rise to 4533 million pounds. In fact, McKinsey states that sustainable and recyclable/reusable packaging is one of the four packaging eCommerce trends 2024 predicted to grow.
Sustainable and safe eCommerce solutions offer eco-friendly and reusable packaging, sell environment-friendly products, educate their customers about the benefits of a sustainable future, and follow the principle of 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle. Building a sustainable eCommerce platform for restoring the ecological balance will be one of the eCommerce trends for 2024.
For example, H&M has been giving out shopping boxes that can be turned into clothes hangers. Moreover, these shopping bags are made from paper that is 80% recycled, unlike the traditional bags available. Considering the audience group of the brand, it includes shoppers between 18-35 of age, concerned about the environment, and eager to indulge with brands offering sustainable packaging solutions.
Boox, aims to make shipping eco-friendly and sustainable with its reusable packaging solutions for brands. Single-use packaging has been a global concern for the eCommerce industry and such brands are working to make shipping green and reduce its environmental impact.
Across B2C and B2B eCommerce trends 2024, a sustainable approach will motivate customers to indulge in more of such solutions and cause a ripple effect throughout the industry. Brands can even incentivize customers that opt for such services, further driving this eco-friendly initiative forward.
Trend #8: Voice commerce and conversational commerce
A part of customization and personalization is offering customers to browse the products listed on an eCommerce website via voice commands. Another aspect of elevating customer experience is when customers can chat with bots or other automated messaging apps to easily resolve their queries. Voice commerce has also enabled customers to search for products in different languages and dialects also playing a pivotal role in serving differently-abled customers.
Amazon India now facilitates customers to search for a localized product in their local language by using voice commands on their website as well as their app. This type of technology is more than just innovation; it touches the heart of customers to the core and leaves a profound impact.
The above example is from Nestle that launched the GoodNes Alexa skill to offer a visual voice-led browsing experience to its customers. This feature helps coffee lovers in enhancing their coffee-making skills via voice and visual guidance. GoodNes Alexa functions as a visual guide for customers and can be easily accessed on Safari or Chrome (both web and mobile).
Trend #9: Prioritizing mobile commerce
Over 75% of customers prefer to shop with their mobile devices, then desktop and the last, via tablets. With the growing prominence around mobile commerce, it is imperative to build an eCommerce site that prioritizes responsive and optimized m-shopping experiences.
Packed with facial and/or fingerprint technology, one-click checkout, high image resolution, and easy payment options, investing in m-shopping will result in increased orders placed and revenue numbers.
For example, Starbucks created a Mobile Order and Pay app, and by 2021, 26% of its orders were paid via mobile.
Trend #10: BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick up In-Store) solutions
BOPIS retail is one of the best retail strategies in the digital commerce ecosystem. It is one of the latest ecommerce trends 2024 that focuses on building a customer-centric shopping experience. It gives customers the benefit of browsing and selecting a product from the comfort of their homes and getting the product as per their convenience without waiting for the traditional delivery system.
This eCommerce scheme is favorable for customers and retailers. Customers can shop anything from anywhere and anytime. They do not have to wait for the delivery person to receive their desired product. They also save on the shipping cost and get the option of paying for the product only after picking it up. Customers can check the product while picking it up and return it if the piece is damaged or unsuitable. Also, the risk of the product getting stolen after delivery becomes zero and cart abandonment rates become negligible.
With BOPIS, retailers have also seen incredible business growth, new upselling and cross-selling opportunities, increased sales, reduced shipping costs, and trouble-free inventory management.
The above example is from Petco, a pet food retailer, which, thanks to BOPIS solutions, saw an increase in their overall online sales by 48% in 2018. The best part about BOPIS: customers are more likely to purchase additional products when picking up their orders in-store.
Trend #11: Renewed focus towards subscription models
Reports suggest that the subscription eCommerce model is projected to grow beyond $450 billion by 2025, previously at $15 billion in 2019. When associated with a heavy value exchange, subscription models are a great way to keep your customers coming back again and make the most of their money. However, only having a monetary attribute attached to an eCommerce subscription model will not do; it has to offer more perks and offers to keep your customers hooked.
An example to consider here is Amazon Prime that provides benefits like free shipping, one-day delivery, video streaming, exclusive and early access to deals, etc. in exchange for a monthly/annual subscription.
Trend #12: BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) solutions
BNPL has changed the way B2B and B2C eCommerce functioned a couple of years ago. This payment option enables the customers to make a purchase and facilitate the payment via a third party that pays on their behalf. Of course, customers need to register their details with a third party that takes care of the payment. Once the payment is processed, the customers get their product, and they repay the amount to the third party within a fixed period. This way, customers don’t have to pay for the product immediately and can do so in fixed installments.
This secure payment solution prevents customers from sharing their confidential financial information on digital retail platforms or even saving their cards for future purchases. The BNPL-empowered one-tap payment option gives customers the liberty to pay the amount in EMIs, so the burden of making the full payment in one go is further minimized.
Retailers benefit from this scheme as they receive the complete payment on time, which boosts their sales, grows revenue, and promotes their business comprehensively. Realizing the promising future that BNPL can provide, Atome, hoolah, Rely, Openpay, and many other fintechs are successfully offering this feature to their customers. BNPL is thus one of the significant and global trends in eCommerce.
The above example is from Boohoo, a fast-fashion US giant offering four different BNPL solutions. When you click on the product page, you find all the three BNPL options displayed under the description section. Of course, each BNPL offering comes with a different set of terms and conditions, but still, all of them allow you to pay in installments comfortably.
Implementing 2024 eCommerce trends with an agile and robust strategy
Unsurprisingly, eCommerce is leading the fourth wave of the industrial revolution. These upcoming trends in eCommerce industry pave the way for the innovative future of online shopping and state how emerging and bleeding-edge techs can disrupt the digital platform and benefit the customers and the retailers. The integration of these major trends in the eCommerce industry also ensures cyber secure and safe data governance practices that can only be used to boost customer satisfaction.
By incorporating these latest eCommerce trends 2024, businesses can offer competitive solutions and improve customers’ shopping experiences. Talk to our experts to evaluate how to stay agile and relevant in today’s dynamic eCommerce ecosystem.
Ready. Set. Go.
A customer-centric eCommerce platform is just a consultation away.
