The COVID-19 outbreak acted as the long-awaited catalyst towards bringing e-commerce into the mainstream of the consumer shopping experience. Long quarantine periods led to an unprecedented rise in traffic to e-commerce sites, from both new and existing users.
Businesses putting off the digital transition of their shopping experience found few excuses to delay upgrading their infrastructure as the world shifted to a new paradigm of digital commerce, perhaps irrevocably.
The numbers behind the shift
While 37% of Indian consumers said they delayed buying luxury items, that also makes it more likely they will make those purchases once restrictions lift. E-commerce payment platforms were expected to grow by up to 25% in 2020, and over 100 million consumers worldwide were expected to use augmented reality in online shopping.
Four trends
Retail experiences become more digitized
Even before the pandemic, the industry saw 21% growth in sales figures in 2019 alone. The spread of COVID-19 pushed those numbers further as a wave of hitherto brick-and-mortar shoppers moved to online stores.
Automation takes the lead
Self-quarantine forced businesses to rethink shelving, tracking, last-mile delivery and shelf inventory. As businesses operated with fewer employees, many looked to automation: aerial drones fulfilling last-mile deliveries, robots handling packaging and shelving, and constantly updated shelf inventories through IoT.
IoT enabling e-commerce
Voice commerce, as personal assistants revamp how products are bought online. Smart things, where an IoT-enabled fridge detects grocery levels and orders tomorrow's milk and eggs. And augmented reality, letting shoppers try out a shirt, new shoes, or see how furniture looks in their home before buying.
Personalized shopping
Instead of irrelevant advertisements, businesses leverage machine learning and data science to customize the shopping experience. This is already reality in fashion, with systems that provide real-time recommendations to customers as they move around a store.
What to expect
The bottom line is that e-commerce, perhaps more than most industries, will receive a major technological revamp as more businesses digitize their operations. Interactive chatbots, systems that create a customized experience, augmented reality product trials, digitization of brick-and-mortar stores and drone delivery are the world of now.