5 Predictions About the Future of eCommerce

eCommerce Is Growing but Only Represents 11.9% of Retail
eCommerce continues to grow as retail brick and mortar outlets establish an online presence to bolster their falling sales at their physical locations. The ease of just a few clicks to purchase products in your pajamas from the comfort of your home is a trend that is not going to go away. With more and more people being frustrated by dealing with lines, parking and people in general, eCommerce will continue to grow. Representing only 13% of retail sales in 2017 there is plenty of room to move up the ladder.
Mobile is the New Normal

“A report from comScore shows that eCommerce growth overshadows all other online retail spending, with over three times the growth of PC eCommerce” – Rishabh Software, 2017.

With the number of smartphone users to top five billion by 2019, eCommerce will continue to expand the abilities of online shopping and mobile spending.
B2B eCommerce Will Continue to Outperform B2C eCommerce
US B2B retail topped $8 trillion in 2014. The size of the B2B market is growing thanks to rapid increases in the number of online buyers and digital technology. The ease and convenience of savings are helping small companies reduce costs and have what they need to be shipped right to their office. These decisions are made on the basis of efficiency.
Better Customer Focus, AI Will Make it Smarter
Artificial Intelligence will focus on personalized shopping for eCommerce buyers. Brands are starting to highlight customer-based engagement in all the facets of their business online, such as their social media platforms. Customers will see personalized ads relevant to their shopping habits and be more compelled to buy a product. The idea is that AI will determine your interests based or your browsing and shopping history.
Video Will Rule Content for Brands
Here are some engagement statics when a video is present:

• 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
• Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
• Sixty-four percent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos (via tubularinsights).
• 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video.
• Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
• Views on branded video content have increased 258% on Facebook and 99% on YouTube as of June 2017 (via tubularinsights).
• [NEW] You can now use GIFs in Facebook ads! We tried it out ourselves, and on the first day, the ad below outperformed any other live Facebook ad we were running.