Technology has played a significant role in evolving the e-commerce industry. The advancements have been remarkable, from personalized shopping experiences to augmented reality for viewing products. The e-commerce industry, which launched in the ’90s with a small revenue of approximately $1 billion, has seen explosive growth due to the tech revolution.
In this article, we will learn the top five technology trends in the e-commerce industry responsible for shaping the future of online retail.
Explore The Top 5 Innovative Technology Trends in the E-commerce Industry
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
E-commerce companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze user behavior and optimize the shopping experience. Every product you view on the platform is tracked, and similar products are recommended to you when you return or continue browsing.
For example, let’s say you were browsing on a fashion retailer website Zara, and browse through several categories of dresses such as a pair of white sneakers and black bootcut jeans. As you interact with these products, the AI algorithm working in the background closely tracks and analyzes your behavior, recording all the specific products you view. Based on this behavioral analysis, the AI determines the type of clothing you are interested in and suggests similar items such as bootcut jeans and white sneakers in various categories on the platform.
Thus, AI leverages user behavior by creating an engaging shopping experience and reducing the purchase cycle time.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality was invented to bridge the gap between physical and online retail. This enables customers to visualize products in a real-world environment or on themselves.
IKEA leverages augmented reality (AR) to allow customers to try out their home furnishing products virtually by placing true-to-scale models in their homes using their smartphone cameras. This technology provides customers with the satisfaction of seeing how the products will fit into their space. Additionally, this feature increases customer engagement and helps reduce return rates by enabling customers to identify products that might not fit their space before purchasing.
Social Commerce
The integration of e-commerce facilities into social media, known as social commerce, has been a game-changer for the e-commerce industry. Users can now select and purchase products while simultaneously engaging with their content.
Nowadays, you may have seen social media influencers promoting brands and other various types of products through their accounts. These influencers often create content revolving around the product that contains affiliate links to these product pages. If a follower clicks on the link, the influencer earns a commission.
In this case, influencers are leveraging their following to drive sales and provide brands with a way to reach highly targeted audiences through trusted voices.
Thus, social commerce has completely revolutionized the buyer journey through influencer marketing through popular social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.
Blockchain Technology
Businesses are always looking for a way to optimize their services for a better position in the market. One such technology that can help them in achieving their goals is blockchain technology. This technology ensures secure data transactions, transparency, and efficiency in safeguarding customer information.
IBM Food Trust, one of the advanced blockchain solutions, allows food products’ safety by providing access to real-time data about food products. An e-commerce platform like Amazon or Walmart, which sells organic food produce can utilize their services to provide, their customers with information about where the produce was grown, the methods used, and the journey it took to reach their table.
However, there are still some challenges with the integration of blockchain technology, including technical and scalability issues. Nevertheless, we hope this advanced innovation will improve and open up new revenue streams for businesses.
Data Analysis
Many entrepreneurs struggle to succeed due to inadequate market research, which is crucial for identifying product demand. Maintaining a firm market position is challenging without any data insights. Data is essential for research and development, competitor monitoring, and customer satisfaction reports.
However, to get these insights, we can utilize this dedicated e-commerce API.
E-commerce API allows businesses to extract product data from any e-commerce platform in the world, enabling effective price tracking, brand monitoring, and data-driven market research.
It contains several dedicated APIs of popular platforms including Amazon, Walmart, Flipkart, etc at super affordable pricing, unmatched in the market.
Market researchers can use this API to leverage the benefits of data analysis, manipulate product pricing, optimize inventory levels, and improve other operations, ultimately maximizing their revenue and profit.
Conclusion
Technological advancements will help the $16 trillion e-commerce industry expand to new limits. Moreover, massive urbanization in developing countries will create a larger customer base and numerous opportunities for businesses to deepen their roots in the industry.
Adopting and integrating these technological advancements into your infrastructure is important to increase your presence and provide customers with the best possible service.
This article taught us the top 5 technological advancements in the ecommerce industry. Feel free to message me anything you need clarification on. Follow me on Twitter. Thanks for reading!
