We get asked a lot about what the shopping experience of the (near) future will look like, so we’ve compiled a list of the e-commerce future trends that you need to know.
While we’re not fortune tellers, it doesn’t take a futurist to see that traditional retail and e-commerce touchpoints are fragmenting and converging at the same time. This has led to what is being called omnichannel commerce.
These changes, along with the inherent freedom of the digital space, has presented us with an opportunity to apply a human-centered approach to interactive design—implementing e-commerce solutions that have the potential to benefit consumers and merchants on each side of the digital experience.
The e-commerce future trends that are reshaping digital
In the course of our research and evolving efforts to apply human-centered design to interactive, we see a number of areas that will be impacted sooner rather than later:
- Direct, direct marketing – We still haven’t seen real, targeted, personal email marketing…yet. With your actual or implied permission retailers will soon analyze your recent purchases, web history, app interactions and social media posts, among other data points, and present you with offers you didn’t even know you needed, until you see them.
- Predictive search – You’re on a conference call with a client/prospect and the need to make a trip to Baltimore comes up. By the time you end the call, your calendar will be blocked off, hotel and flight options will be presented and the search app will display dinner suggestions near the client’s office that can accommodate your group. A click or two and you’re done.
- Wearable tech – Google Glass may flop. Apple’s iWatch may or may not be the next big thing. But in some form wearable (and then implantable) tech is coming. Imagine a trip to the store where your augmented reality app provides product information, reviews, and pricing just by scanning the shelves. This will either be a golden opportunity for multichannel retailers or the next frontier of showrooming.
- Participatory personalization – Personalization without consumer participation can be a bit creepy. Instead, allow people to create a “dossier,” an encrypted file containing photos, physical characteristics, personal tastes, and buying history from across retailers and channels. By voluntary sharing this dossier with a retailer, consumers will receive pinpoint recommendations that are guaranteed to fit their body and budget, while taking things like hair color, eye color, and complexion into consideration. Dressing rooms and returns may become extinct.
- In-Store e-commerce – The promise of true “channel-neutral” shopping will be realized. E-commerce sites will detect and adapt whether you’re in-store or not, providing store maps leading directly to product, alternate suggestions based on in-stock inventory, or allowing you to scan items and have them shipped directly to you, if you prefer. And don’t be surprised when an associate approaches and follows up on that email promotion you received earlier. They’ll know you’re there, after all.
- 3D Printing – Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing as it’s more commonly called, is still a ways away from direct-to-consumer applications. But one day you’ll likely own a device about the size of a microwave oven, and this technology will forever change manufacturing, retailing, logistics, warehousing, sales, marketing, ecommerce, and consumer behavior as we know them. Disruptive? Yes.
How these and dozens of other forthcoming changes will play-out in the real-world is anyone’s guess, but brand-consumer interaction is moving beyond the traditional paradigm sooner than many might think. The time to begin considering these changes is now.
