E-commerce trends

28/04/2020

Reviews

Providing a review section on each product page will immediately gain you trust with your potential customers. As visitors can see clearly that other people who own this item and used your website that you are reliable and trustworthy. If you provide more of a service or only a few products, then using a service such as TrustPilot or Reevoo and then adding your rating to your website to promote your excellent rating.

AR shopping

More businesses are taking advantage of AR to show off their products. Online retailers such as Ikea, Wayfair and Amazon have features in their apps to allow you to view their products in your own space so you can see what it would look like in (almost) real life. Fashion retailer is introducing an AR catwalk to their app, so you can view what an outfit would look like on someone who wears the same clothes size as you. This is fairly new technology but it is quickly emerging as the next best thing to have!

Video

If delving into the world of AR seems too much for you, then featuring a clear, well produced video of your product in use and showing off close-ups of the details could be an alternative option. The use of footage can encourage users to browse more of your website, can better promote your work than just an image can convey, and can make your website more memorable too.

Mobile First

With over half of online sales coming from smartphones, ensuring your website works seamlessly on mobiles is one of the most significant things you can do to keep your users happy. If they land on a desktop site or a website that’s badly optimised for mobile, they are likely to go back and look for somewhere different to shop. With 5G coming in to force too, soon we will have more options than ever to exhibit your products

Chatbots

Users expect great customer service and a chat service is becoming more popular to provide part of this. A chatbot consists of rules and sometimes artificial intelligence, which you interact with through a chat interface. Chatbots can help answer questions you may have about the services you provide quickly without necessarily needing a human to be present. These can be as simple as answering specific queries through to complex AI which learns as it chats to users and can understand the way we naturally speak and can be asked more vague questions and still present an answer.

Voice Search

With more homes having a smart speaker in, and Siri or Google Assistant playing more of a role in our lives than ever before, ensuring your website is optimised for speech will end up becoming obligatory. Many now use these devices for asking for the news, weather and streaming music, but now shopping is climbing up the list too. This is definitely an area to watch over the next 12 months and see if it could work for your business.