The New Wave of eCommerce: Growing eCommerce Trends to Look Out for in 2023

If there was one area that we saw progress in throughout the pandemic, it would be the rise of online shopping. It was during this time that we saw people who moved from “never or almost never” having shopped online before to “a few times per month”, all the way to “about once a week”, and sometimes even more.

This change was, of course, more apparent in the younger age groups than it was in older ones. For those younger than 35, for example, those who shopped online once a week or more jumped from 48% to 62% whereas for those aged 35-54 this number increased from 36% to 44%.

Looking at the figures from about a decade earlier, the online retail market share in the U.S. has increased from 9.7% in 2012 to 18.8% today. In Europe the market share growth is even higher, beginning with 4.8% in 2012 to 15.4% today.

All this tells us is that businesses need to continue building their presences online.

And building that online presence requires that you should take a look at the growing digital marketing trends in eCommerce, and how this might affect your business.

 

1. Social Commerce

One after the other, each of the existing social media giants have continued to roll out online shopping features for their platforms. Facebook and Instagram launched their tools back in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, allowing entrepreneurs and small business owners to start selling online through their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

What’s more, according to Sprout Social, last year, in 2022, 98% of consumers had planned to make at least one purchase through social media or influencer commerce.

What this tells us is that the impact of content creators, influencers, and strategic social media marketing have on consumers is growing. More and more businesses are therefore collaborating with influencers to get the word out about their products through various forms of content.

Additionally, apps and platforms like Facebook also tend to penalize content that leads users away from their platforms. This is why posting links on your Facebook page seems to reach fewer people than other forms of content. It’s also the reason why Instagram continues to allow only one link on their platform (the link in your bio).

This means, then, that eCommerce businesses looking to increase their profits and revenue have to start thinking about employing an omnichannel approach, marketing everywhere and anywhere that their audience is.

In fact, according to a Q1 2023 survey from Sprout Social, about 47% of consumers have acknowledged that they plan on using the shopping features within Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. This is important, especially if a large part of your consumers is either millennials or Gen Z.

 

2. Personalization

Personalization used to just be a fancy pen with your name on it, or a nice bag with your initials embroidered on the fabric. These days, however, it’s grown to be much broader and deeper than just that.

These days, personalization includes scrolling through a news feed that’s based off of your interests, needs, and preferences. It requires that businesses get to know their customers at a deeper level to identify what it is they need or are looking for in order to serve them to the best of their abilities.

In fact, to drive that point even further, 49% of consumers say that they would likely become a repeat buyer if they had a personalized shopping experience with a retailer.

Personalization in these terms covers a broad spectrum.

This can involve a range of strategies such as suggesting relevant products, providing exclusive offers and maintaining a consistent retail experience on different platforms like websites, mobile apps and social media.

An additional aspect is giving customers the option to choose from various payment methods since the absence of a preferred payment option can lead to a higher likelihood of shopping cart abandonment.

One of the more common and ways of implementing personalization that most people are familiar with is through personalized emails and push notifications. Who can forget, after all, the first time that they received an email from an online retailer or influencer with their name on it?

Finally, one of the most familiar forms of personalization is offering your audience customized product recommendations. It’s these recommendations that have increased revenue in many online retailers (including, of course, the one of the largest ones, Amazon).

As different ecommerce platforms continue to embrace this trend, they are increasingly investing in personalization techniques to improve the overall online shopping experience.

 

3. Mobile Shopping

Tied in together with both social commerce and personalization is mobile shopping. People are spending more and more time on their phones than anywhere else, which is evident in the rapid increase of mobile shopping as well.

In fact, about 53% of all eCommerce sales in 2021 were from mobile, and the total sales made from mobile devices is said to have come in at $359.32 billion. And this number is only expected to increase by 2025, where US retail ecommerce sales is expected to reach $728.8 billion.

What does this mean for businesses?

This could mean many things from setting up shop on your Facebook and Instagram pages, or to making sure that your website is mobile responsive. Because if you’re not optimizing for mobile, then you’re missing out on about half of your potential profits.

 

4. Increase in Voice Search

One of the more interesting growing trends in eCommerce is voice search. Smart speakers continue to sprout up in home across the world. But even in households where there aren’t any smart speakers, their phones are just as handy.

With every Android device now virtually equipped with Google Assistant, for example, voice search has become a much more handy tool in the hands of consumers. After all, why tire out your fingers when you can simply ask your questions out loud?

In Sprout Social’s Q1 2023 survey, about 25% of the respondents said that they plan to use voice search this 2023. This is a 3% increase from the previous year.

It’s not a huge jump, but if one-fourth of your customer base is into voice search now, then it’s a good long term strategy to optimize your website and web content for voice.

 

5. Rise & Growth of AI and Chatbots

Despite only having launched to the public late last year, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. But AI assistants have actually already been present in the online space for quite a while now.

Chatbots, for example, have been in use for some time now, constantly evolving to provide support to customers on various social media platforms and other channels. This is particularly useful for companies that operate across multiple countries but lack the resources to offer round-the-clock assistance.

Furthermore, AI assistants are becoming increasingly vital for online stores as they can help manage inventory levels, reorder products, and perform other tasks that free up your time to focus on other important activities.

Given the rapid technological advancements in this area, the popularity of AI and chatbots is set to continue growing in the coming years.

 

6. AR and VR Shopping

Finally, one of perhaps the most exciting growing trends in eCommerce is the application of both augmented reality and virtual reality in the online shopping space. In fact, it’s been estimated that the number of VR users in the U.S. will reach 65.9 million this 2023.

Now, the online versus brick-and-mortar debate continues to spark conversations about consumer behavior.

One thing’s for certain though: eCommerce and online shopping are here to stay. And the question many developers have asked and continued to brainstorm is how to bring that shopping experience you get from visiting an actual store and deliver it in a virtual space.

This is where augmented reality and virtual reality come into play. And one particularly interesting development in this space is Shopify AR.

Shopify AR is a feature that enables shoppers to view and interact with virtual 3D models of products in their physical space through their mobile devices. By using Shopify AR, businesses can showcase their products in a more engaging and interactive way, giving customers a better idea of how the product might look or fit in their environment before making a purchase.

You can preview a piece of furniture in your living room before deciding to make a purchase, for example, or you could check out how an outfit or shirt might look in real life before you decide whether it’s right for you.

Only time will tell if this mode of shopping will become a hit in the near future. But one thing’s for certain, it certainly seems like a more fun and interesting way to shop online than simply browsing through a website.

 

The eCommerce market is continuously growing, and change is almost a constant in this industry. This is why it’s even more important that businesses keep up with the trends. By taking advantage of these trends, businesses can improve their online presence and increase their revenue. It’s only through constant innovation and evolution, after all, that one continues to grow.