What innovations in ecommerce are relevant and will be relevant for years to come?

In this post, we examine over a dozen ecommerce innovations that are changing the ecommerce industry and have the power to make creating and managing online stores much more efficient for merchants.

Some of these solutions are well known while others are under utilized but will likely be quite popular in the future.

Top innovations in ecommerce to watch for

These are the innovative ecommerce solutions that will be relevant for quite awhile:

  1. Frictionless payment
  2. Personalized product recommendations
  3. Personalized services
  4. Social commerce
  5. Progressive web apps
  6. Blockchain security
  7. AI chatbots
  8. Omnichannel experience
  9. AI-powered tools
  10.  Augmented reality
  11.  Beacon technology
  12.  Livestream shopping
  13.  Buy now, pay later
  14.  Voice search
  15.  Virtual reality
  16.  Sustainable commerce
  17.  Faster delivery

1. Frictionless payment

Frictionless payment involves payment options customers don’t have to input manually or save to their accounts. They allow your customer to complete orders in a convenient and secure way.

Frictionless payment options include digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay as well as autofill functionalities customers can use to import their payment information from browsers or password managers.

According to Statista, 26% of consumers abandon checkout when sites want them to create accounts.

statista abandon checkout reasons

25% abandon checkout when they don’t trust sites with their credit card information while, 22% leave when the checkout process becomes too long or complicated, and 13% exit when there aren’t enough payment options.

2. Personalized product recommendations

Personalized product recommendations are a step up from the generic product recommendations you promote to all customers on the cart page as well as within your email list.

They use customer data and customer behavior, such as order history and frequency between orders, to generate personalized recommendations that are filled with products customers are more likely to purchase.

This is even becoming a common use of artificial intelligence (AI) in ecommerce.

3. Personalized services

Personalization, especially AI-powered personalization, is also being used to deliver personalized shopping experiences to consumers.

Here are common personalized services online stores offer:

  • Dynamic pricing – Pricing that changes based on a customer’s location, cart contents, order history and more
  • Auto reordering – A subscription service customers can sign up for when they shop online to have certain items reordered automatically at a specific interval, such as bi-weekly, monthly, etc.
  • Dynamic content – Personalized marketing messages that change depending on whether or not customers are logged in

4. Social commerce

Social commerce negates the need for a dedicated online store by allowing consumers to shop online directly on social media websites.

Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook have online shopping capabilities that allow merchants to list their products within each app.

tiktok shop

Social media users are able to browse each platform’s shop and complete orders without leaving the app.

Merchants can even add shop buttons to videos for better product promotion.

5. Progressive web apps

A progressive web app (PWA) is an app your customer installs on their phone but uses in their browser.

They’re meant to provide better performance and shopping experiences than ecommerce websites provide and are able to be built with common programming languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

PWAs are bridging the gap for ecommerce businesses who want to give customers easier ways to access their stores from their phones but don’t have the time or budget to develop dedicated mobile apps.

6. Blockchain security

Blockchain, which is already being used for transactions involving cryptocurrency, provides secure and transparent online transactions by keeping records of transactions in a decentralized network.

It does this by storing data in what are known as “blocks,” which are chained together and cannot be altered without altering other blocks within the chain.

Because blockchain provides better transparency, it’s able to reduce fraud and increase trust and authenticity.

Blockchain does have transaction fees, but they’re thought of as being less than what traditional payment gateways charge since blockchain cuts out middlemen.

7. AI chatbots

Ecommerce businesses are using AI to improve customer satisfaction with chatbots.

AI uses machine learning, which can create conversational chatbots that are able to comprehend the messages your customers are trying to convey, then  adapt its responses to them.

Without AI, chatbots are really only able to provide canned responses based on keywords your customers mention.

8. Omnichannel experience

An omnichannel shopping experience unifies all shopping channels to provide a seamless shopping experience between channels.

A great example of an omnichannel experience is the way you can order products online and pick them up in store, or the way a retailer like Walmart is able to track your in-store purchases if you use a payment option that’s saved to your Walmart.com account.

An omnichannel experience is not to be confused with a multi-channel experience. In a multi-channel experience, your online store, physical store and ecommerce stores are not connected in any way.

9. AI-powered tools

AI has penetrated the ecommerce industry in multiple ways.

Along with AI-powered personalization and chatbots, ecommerce businesses are able to use AI tools to generate product descriptions, SEO titles and meta descriptions, blog content, and even product images.

Some of the most powerful uses of AI in ecommerce involve search and product discovery.

AI-powered search tools are able to provide search suggestions and results that are based on customer data like search, browsing and purchase history.

10. Augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) is a type of technology that uses an image or video recording from a smartphone and adds elements to it.

Pokémon Go is an example of a mobile app that uses AR technology.

Ecommerce stores use AR to improve the online shopping experience for products that are meant to complete a certain look, be it within your home or on your body.

It gives consumers the ability to see what such products would like in their homes or on their bodies.

11. Beacon technology

Beacons are a type of Bluetooth technology that allows merchants to blend physical retail and online retail.

When a store has a beacon installed and enabled in their store, they can use what’s known as proximity marketing to deliver promotional phone notifications to customers who have Bluetooth enabled and the store’s app installed on their phones.

Popular notifications include coupons that expire within the hour and personalized product recommendations. These notifications are designed to increase sales and improve customer loyalty.

Some businesses use beacon technology to keep track of customer data, such as what day of the week and time of day customers are most likely to shop.

12. Livestream shopping

Livestream shopping is a form of marketing in which merchants and influencers host livestreams to promote specific products.

tiktok live shop

It’s the new-age version of infomercials and channels like QVC and the Home Shopping Network (HSN).

It integrates seamlessly with social commerce by allowing consumers to buy products that are being promoted without leaving the app they’re being promoted on.

13. Buy now, pay later

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a newer type of financing in which consumers pay for products in installments, either monthly or in four equal installments paid over six weeks.

It’s an easier type of finance option for merchants to offer because they can work with a third-party service who pays for an order on behalf of the merchant’s customer, keeping the debt between the customer and the third-party BNPL service.

Popular BNPL services include Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, Sezzle and Zip.

14. Voice search

Voice search is another use of AI in ecommerce in which customers are able to search for products using their voice rather than manual text input.

target voice search

This technology uses natural language processing (NLP) to determine what words your customer speaks and comprehend them enough to output accurate search results.

When you enable voice search, your customer will be able to use this technology by interacting with a microphone button in your store’s search bar.

15. Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) is not just for gaming. It can also be a highly effective way to enhance the ecommerce landscape when done right.

With VR, you can give your customers an in-store shopping experience online.

They can put on their VR headset at home and browse products in a virtual store environment that’s almost as real as it’d be if they shopped in store.

16. Sustainable commerce

Sustainable commerce involves using greener hosting solutions, eco-friendly packaging and sustainable shipping services.

It’s a way of making online sales that meet consumer expectations about waste and pollution.

It can also be cheaper for merchants in certain cases. For example, eco-friendly packaging may be cheaper than fancier packaging solutions.

17. Faster delivery

Faster delivery has become a consumer expectation ever since the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down for a time in 2020.

drone delivery
Source

Consumers want faster delivery options, and they’re even willing to pay more for it.

It’s the exact opposite of sustainable commerce since many fast delivery options are not eco-friendly. However, faster delivery allows you to meet consumer expectations by getting orders to customers as fast as within the hour.

Some retailers have even begun experimenting with drone delivery.

Innovation in ecommerce

Some of these ecommerce innovations are already widely used today, others such as VR and drone delivery are more recent due to Worldwide changes.

The ecommerce market is constantly evolving and more ways are being developed to make online businesses more efficient, safe and personal for merchants as well as their consumers.

When starting your ecommerce business, pay attention to these innovations and how you could potentially implement them into your business model.

Disclosure: We sometimes use affiliate links in our content. This doesn’t cost you anything extra but it does help to support the operation of the site. Your support is greatly appreciated.