E-commerce: how to make a fortune online

E-commerce has become one of the rapidly growing industries. Moreover, it has boosted the development of online marketing. Today e-commerce is striving to reduce the gap between customers’ online and offline experiences. In order to achieve it, the industry implements AR, blockchain, personalized apps, AI, visual content, and express delivery.

E-commerce is the buying or selling of products via electronic channels. Broadly speaking, it is regarded as the center of the digital economy, which includes chains of constantly developing global business processes.

Advantages

Today any producer can have an e-platform whatever they produce. Marketplace allows finding your own client with minimal costs. Sellers using Internet channels are more likely to expand the customer flow and raise income.

Today e-commerce is accessible from any mobile device. According to Juniper Research, 7 billion devices are connected to the Internet. The number is expected to reach 50 billion by 2022. Thus, Internet globalization and telecommunication power contribute to the emergence of new business models and principles of work.

Besides, online trading is getting more and more robotic. Robots are expected to handle a big number of orders and optimize expenses.

International progress

China is currently the unrivaled leader of the e-commerce segment in the world. Its e-commerce market is valued at $2,1 trillion in 2021. Supposedly, it will reach $3 trillion by 2024. Such an enormous growth rate has been achieved by high Internet, smartphone penetration, the emergence of e-commerce platforms, and e-payment alternatives.

The USA is also one of the world's key players in the e-commerce industry. Their market was valued at $430 billion in 2020. According to the experts’ forecasts, its worth will reach $560 million by 2025. Retail e-commerce sales in the United States are projected to grow at a fast pace in the coming years.

Innovations & Companies

Artificial intelligence

It’s applied in collecting and processing data in CRM and other sorts of management. AI is also used in personalized services to improve customer experience in e-commerce.

Besides, e-commercial businesses implement artificial intelligence for a more personalized approach. The aim is to make search engines more efficient. Therefore, companies integrate AI-powered search engines. It allows them to combine search with machine learning capabilities so that it results in a more personalized and accurate search.

Who applied:

• Positronic

Positronic is an AI-based consultancy aimed at broadening the business lines via data science. This is a global manufacturer that creates predictive models and a machine learning platform.

VR

One of the major problems e-commerce is coping with is that consumers have to buy products without examining them first.

VR can bridge this gap. It enables customers to virtually experience shopping at a physical store. The VR technology allows you to fully demonstrate online products. You can place them in a virtual environment that visualizes how customers can use them.

Who applied:

• IKEA

IKEA Place is an app that lets you furnish your physical space with virtual pieces from the IKEA furniture. This app is a brilliant solution to help people feel comfortable before making a purchase. It will give them an overall picture and help make a perfect space by adding details online.

• Audi

Once you are willing to buy a car, you need to pass a test drive on the models that are in the lot. However, test driving a different model doesn’t necessarily help you decide what options you want for the car you will ultimately purchase. Therefore, Audi has come up with an interesting solution. VR showroom allows you to virtually test drive your dream car with all the bells and whistles installed.

Blockchain

This technology is now leading in the e-commerce industry. Both blockchain and e-commerce imply transactions. Blockchain can make them safer and faster while e-commerce activities rely on them.

This allows users to share and securely store digital assets. This technology has the capacity to handle payment processing, product searches, product purchases and customer care. The examples of blockchain used in e-commerce are Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Who applied:

• Netki

The company makes using cryptocurrencies secure for other businesses. The software develops a unique digital currency ID and wallet that allow companies to perform consistent blockchain transactions which results in an overall safer crypto ecosystem. 

Trends

International retail

Recent research has revealed that world retail sales of e-commerce are bound to reach a new high by the end of 2021. The companies in e-commerce are expected to grow by 265%. The volume of e-trading sales is merging the world retail market. Factually, 17,5% of the overall retail sales occur in e-commerce.

Of course, it’s still not a big share. In the meantime, it is giving more opportunities for future growth. In order to reap the benefits from the retail tendency, physical stores should form the infrastructure for online shifting. Online companies should look for new tools to develop.

Multi-channel approach

As the borders of physical and digital environments are getting blurred, the use of multiple channels is getting more common. According to statistics, 73% of buyers use several channels for making purchases.

The multi-channel approach when promoting products, services enables companies to identify what, where, and why people buy. For example, users can find all the information about a product on the Internet and then purchase it at a physical store.

The more channels your buyers use, the bigger your average order cost is likely to get. For instance, the buyers who used more than 4 trading channels spent 9% more at the shop than those who used only one channel.

Shopping on social media

More and more people go shopping through social networks thanks to its rapid development. Social nets have become more than mere channels for ads. People can quickly buy goods on the most popular platforms they use every day.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest have already implemented a function to browse catalogs which boosted online sales significantly. For example, Instagram has launched a function ‘shoppable post’ that allows companies to put shopping tags on their items. This tool greatly saves up customers’ time when they make purchases online.

The shift from the West

The US market share in e-commerce has decreased by 17%. Such factors as globalization growth and technological advance of other regions provoked the decline.

It means that companies should apply an international approach in order to provide global accessibility for clients all over the world. Though you don’t even have to leave your country for this.

The optimal way is to look for reliable partners where your product is likely to be in demand. For example, Mondelez International proceeded to collaborate with ChannelSight in order to sell its products in 25 new markets.

International shopping

Interestingly, buyers are looking for goods abroad more and more often. In fact, 57% of online buyers reported they made online purchases in foreign shops for the last 6 months.

The average percentage of consumers who shopped online abroad: 63% in Europe, 58% in the Asian-pacific region, 55% in Africa and Latin America, and 45% in Northern America. The tendency is linked with the globalization of e-commerce.