In 1994, Dan Kohn, a 21-year old Economics graduate sold a CD set to his friend sitting 300 miles away. The transaction was far from user-friendly, but nonetheless, Phil, the buyer was able to securely share his visa card number using PGP encryption to make the payment online.
That is the story of the first eCommerce sale.
Today, it takes less than a minute to securely buy and sell almost anything on the web. In fact, at the beginning of 2021, eCommerce sales hit the $4.891 billion mark.
And unlike the situation in 1994, today, online shopping is an exciting experience. Online retail therapy is proof that people enjoy it. And for online sellers, it has opened up a plethora of opportunities to get more customers and boost bottom lines.
But as we enter a new year, it would be naive to assume that eCommerce will be the same as it was in 2021. If we are to go by the data, by 2040, 95% of sales will happen via eCommerce channels. That means 2022 is going to be a monumental year, with dynamic trends shaping the niche.
And here are 5 top trends that you should look out for in the first half of 2022:
Usually, when you change something on your eCommerce store’s frontend (in terms of UI/UX), you also have to make a lot of changes on the backend. This takes time, reduces the speed of implementation, and makes customization difficult.
Now picture this: You are able to change the frontend and the backend architecture of your application without disturbing the other. Simple, isn’t it?
Well, that’s possible with headless commerce.
Headless commerce is a term that was coined by Dirk Hoerig, co-founder of commercetools, in 2013 and it separates the front and the backend architecture, offering you speed and flexibility while ensuring a unified customer experience with the help of APIs.
With or without Elon Musk’s tweets, Cryptocurrencies are set to gain more acceptance in 2022 and beyond.
One surefire sign hinting towards that is governments coming up with their own cryptocurrencies. Ecuador, China, Senegal, Singapore, and Tunisia are a few of the first movers in the market. And powered by blockchain, Cryptocurrencies will soon become one of the commonly accepted methods for online payment.
Magento (BitPay and Coingate) and Shopify (BitPay, CoinBase, and GoCoin) have already rolled out support for crypto payment. And more acceptance is expected to follow suit.
Other than security, cryptocurrency transactions will also eliminate commissions (as transactions happen directly between buyers and sellers) and chargebacks, leading to reduced frauds.
A McKinsey report predicts that by 2026, live stream commerce will account for 10-20% of all eCommerce sales. In simple terms, Live Stream Commerce refers to an arrangement when brands (or influencers) go live on Streams and people can shop for the things they like on the stream with the click of a button.
Amazon Live, Walmart’s integration with TikTok, and Facebook’s Live Shopping Friday are nascent stage examples of what Live stream commerce will look like in 2022 and beyond.
Chatbots are nothing new in 2022. Most people have already chatted with a bot behind the screen to get information about the products and services they want to shop for.
In fact, a survey by Userlike suggested that 68% of users like chatbots because of their quick response time. And in 2022, the use of Artificial Intelligence, and natural language processing is likely to make chatbots even more efficient and widely used.
And we can look forward to audio-video chatbots!
Tech-savvy Internet users have been using the reserve-image search on Google for a long time to find the things they are looking for on the Internet. But with Google’s Multitask Unified Model algorithm (MUM), visual search is officially here.
All users have to do is upload the image of what they are looking for and Google will come up with buying options. Pretty simple!
And while you are doing the reverse-image search, with the help of augmented reality, you can try out apparel, footwear, and eyewear before making a purchase.
Imagine walking down the streets of your neighborhood and seeing a lovely hat. You can just click a picture of it, know where to buy it online, and pay using your bitcoin wallet. And you’ll probably have it delivered (via a drone!) even before you reach home. What a time to be alive!
Gear up to bank on these trends today
eCommerce is a very dynamic market. With new trends shaking up things ever so often, it is important that you stay (technologically!) prepared to not just follow these trends, but also bank on them.
We, at SynergyTop, have the eCommerce skillsets and the hands-on experience to help you do that. Whether you want to build a headless commerce platform for your business or want to integrate crypto payments, our experts can deliver the required solutions. We also have the required expertise for building chatbots, adding shop-on-stream functionality, and optimizing your eCommerce site for visual search.
About SynergyTop
SynergyTop is a San Diego-based digital commerce company offering a bespoke mobile app, web, and eCommerce development solutions. We use new-age technologies to deliver turnkey solutions to our clients across several industries including healthcare, construction, real estate, EdTech, solar energy, hospitality, tourism, and retail sales.
To discuss project details, write to us at info@synergytop.com
