Ready to elevate your eCommerce game?
New advancements in technology provide an exciting opportunity to enhance your eCommerce business this year. From shoppable videos to augmented reality, there has never been a better time to start taking advantage of new technology for eCommerce.
Let’s not waste any more time — read on to learn about the most popular technology trends in eCommerce and how you can add them to your online store this year.
1. Livestream Commerce
When it comes to current trends in eCommerce technology, livestream shopping tops the list. As the name suggests, livestream shopping allows your customers to interact with your brand in real time over video.
Your customers can tune into your livestream video and ask questions or leave reactions and comments in real time. At the same time, the host can showcase different products, answer questions, and directly interact with consumers.
Livestream shopping is widely popular in China, but it continues to gain popularity around the globe. According to McKinsey, livestream commerce is expected to account for 20% of all online sales by 2026.
This eCommerce technology trend is ideal for reaching consumers where they are while making the online shopping experience more streamlined and personalized. Customers can easily make a purchase directly from the livestream without ever leaving the video!
2. Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality isn’t just for video games and entertainment. Technologies like AR and virtual reality (VR) can now be integrated into your eCommerce platform to enhance the customer experience.
Essentially, AR and VR can help solve one of the biggest challenges of online shopping; not knowing how something will look in real life. This current trend in eCommerce technology empowers customers to virtually try on products or see how they would look in their space.
Not only does AR help engage customers with your products, but it can also help reduce return rates. The experts at Bloomberg explain how when AR is used to virtually try on products, it can boost customer confidence and reduce product returns, which benefits customers, your brand, and the environment.
3. Shoppable Videos
We can’t talk about eCommerce trends without mentioning mobile commerce (mCommerce). This trend involves shopping completely through a mobile device, like a smartphone, and it’s an essential part of eCommerce.
Insider Intelligence predicts that retail mCommerce sales will account for 43.4% of total retail eCommerce sales in 2023. It’s essential for your online retail presence to be accessible on computers, tablets, and smartphones.
Shoppable videos are a great eCommerce technology trend that can help you reach these mobile consumers. Consider turning your existing videos into shoppable videos that make it a breeze for customers to make a purchase directly from a video. This feature can also help you increase your average order value with opportunities for cross-sells and upsells.
4. Video Calls
Adding video calls to your eCommerce website is another emerging trend that can help you connect with customers in a new way. Videos are one of the most engaging ways to capture consumer attention, and live video calls take this to a whole new level.
With video calls embedded on your website, you can easily have one-on-one conversations with your customers. You can utilize this function to show and sell products in real time and use it as an extension of your customer service efforts.
The best part? As the host, you can easily join a call from your computer or mobile device. From there, you can view participant carts in real time to offer personalized recommendations and upsells.
5. AI Chatbots
You can’t be everywhere at once, and there’s definitely no way you can track your customers changing carts in real time. AI chatbots are a fairly new technology for eCommerce that can help you provide a personalized experience with your customers when you can’t.
IT Chronicles explains how the right AI chatbots can help your eCommerce business:
- Provider personalized product recommendations
- Upsell and cross-sell products
- Scale your customer support
These aren’t the painfully obvious robotic chatbots of decades past. This eCommerce technology trend has been refined over the years to offer a seamless, personalized experience for your customers.
6. Gamification
This technology trend in eCommerce is all about fun and games. Gamification has long been used in mobile apps and social media ads to increase engagement, and now it can be utilized on your online store.
Consider adding gamified elements like spin-to-win promotions or virtual scavenger hunts to your eCommerce website. Or, you can use game mechanics like bidding systems on your livestream.
Gamification is all about helping your customers have fun and rewarding them for their engagement with your brand. This can be as simple as offering them a discount code when they watch a promotional video or something more hands-on like a promotional contest, or something more fun from our friends at Nibble who have an AI-powered negotiation chatbot that invites customers to make offers on purchases they would otherwise abandon during their online shopping experience.
No matter what you choose, gamification is a great stand-alone option but can also help complement many of these other eCommerce technology trends.
7. Voice Search
Voice search has been around for years, but its benefits for eCommerce are just now gaining more considerable traction. According to Insider Intelligence, voice assistant users have grown at a slow but steady pace, and they predict that by 2026, more than half of internet users in the U.S. will use a voice assistant.
People are using voice search on their smartphones and smart home systems like Google Home to shop online, order food, and create schedules. It’s essential to make your eCommerce website voice-search friendly to capture these consumers.
Try These eCommerce Tech Trends Today
Now that you know about these technology trends in eCommerce, it’s time to try them for yourself. Bloo Kanoo helps eCommerce businesses like yours create an in-person experience for your customers conveniently online.
It’s never been easier to add livestream and video shopping to your website to build a better customer experience and sell more online. Start making real connections right from your existing store with help from Bloo Kanoo.
Request a demo today!