Top 5 eCommerce Trends changing the future of the UK

Did you know that the first-ever eCommerce transaction took place in 1995? The first item ever ordered online was through Amazon – a book.

Today, two decades later, the eCommerce industry has made over 2 trillion U.S. dollars – eCommerce has revolutionized retail for good.

Globally, already 93.5% of internet users have indulged in online shopping.

Evolution is the ground rule to sustain any business. It isn’t about the survival of the fittest today, rather about the most adaptable. The eCommerce industry has adapted to the technology and the market demands, and has led many sectors with its advancements.

With eCommerce becoming increasingly competitive, it is imperative to monitor the eCommerce trends to stay ahead of the curve.

It is estimated that 95% of all purchases will leverage eCommerce by 2040

With a revenue of US$97 billion in 2020, the United Kingdom is the fourth-largest market for eCommerce. The 18% rise in the U.K. eCommerce market significantly contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 26% in the year 2020. While the U.K. is successfully paving its way to be the eCommerce capital of the world, we have penned down five eCommerce tech trends that are changing the future of U.K. retail.

• Digital Payments
• eCommerce Gamification
• Chatbots
• Sustainability
• Subscription-based eCommerce

The next generation, Gen Z, is taking over the World. This shift in the population will have massive significance. This shift is essential as most of the population will be tech-savvy or comfortable with tech.

This generation will have a higher dependency on cutting-edge, automated, quicker, and efficient technologies and services. As a result, the demand for digital payment systems is expected to see growth in the coming times.

With the world continuously experiencing increased business-to-business eCommerce sales, digital wallets hold the power to provide an exceptional checkout experience. The result is better customer experience and increased conversion rates.

According to  Baymard, 21% of shoppers abandon their cart because the process is too long or confusing. And there’s a 6% abandonment rate because there weren’t enough payment methods.

The U.K. eCommerce payment market is expected to be worth US $203.08 Billion by 2026

It is predicted that digital wallets will become the most popular mode of payment in the U.K.- approximately 33% of the market.

Here are some of the advancements in digital payments adopted by companies

• Contactless payments
• Unified eCommerce
• Biometric authentication
• Voice assisted payments

35% of users leverage smart speakers for shopping home care products, groceries, and clothing. In the eCommerce market, the growth potential of accepting digital wallet payments is robust.

Simply put, eCommerce Gamification is an evolved way of interactive shopping. eCommerce gamification is strategized in a way to make the entire brand experience more fun and motivate the consumer to interact and shop. The gamification creates a favorable environment for winning customers’ loyalty – a cherry on the top for any business.

Many businesses have leveraged this concept, Google Pay being one of them. By offering a reward after every transaction, it encourages its users to come back more often. Here are a few more examples, how businesses globally are harnessing this concept.

Did you know Domino’s pizza saw a 30% increase in sales after launching a mobile game app?

GiffGaff

The U.K.’s community-driven mobile phone network leverages gamification to encourage the user to support one another. The support is contributing to the forums, rewarding the supporter with points that can be redeemed against airtime.

LinkedIn

The professional network uses several different gamification elements such as a profile completeness bar and a profile strength display, showing the percentage of the profile completed and gently encouraging members to reach 100%.

Molton Brown

Molton Brown cleverly developed a creative link between their TV and digital campaigns by creating a gaming experience that resonated with the campaign. The unified experience yielded exceptional brand gains.

They created two games where the user could win actual redeemable prizes by entering their email. The brand gained 47,685 entries, 32,367 users, 21,967 referrals through social media, and most importantly, 18,983 email captures that the brand could add to its mailing list.

Gamification incorporates branding alignment, seasonal marketing, multimedia marketing, email list building, user engagement, and interactivity, leading to higher website traffic.

The key to creating a successful gamification experience is to find a balance between making the process fun for customers without making it a distraction to the actual process.

With the constant increase in digital interactions, creating a brand experience beyond the screen – humanizing the brand is extremely important. If leveraged right, chatbots can help make an exceptional experience.

Recent studies indicate that 59% of businesses are already leveraging chatbots, and the most beneficial among them is eCommerce. It constitutes 77% of the most successful companies that generate leads through chatbots.

Today, when customers demand to be heard 24/7, chatbots can be your company’s perfect partner providing you with an immediate, bias-free, personalized, and cost-effective solution.

Sephora

Sephora – a french multinational retailer, has two AI chatbots on Facebook Messenger. One is a Reservation Assistant, enabling customers to book faster. This innovation yielded an 11 percent increase in conversions.

The second chatbot leverages virtual reality and blurs the line between the digital and physical world. Sephora Virtual Artist is a shade matching bot that allows customers to try different lipstick shades by uploading a picture. Virtual artists can also be used to find different shades of lipstick.

Burberry

Burberry, UK’s digitally forward luxury fashion brand, launched its chatbot during New York Fashion Week in 2016.

The primary aim of the chatbot was to provide fans a BTS of their collection and enable shopping for the same. Burberry put in exceptional efforts and leveraged push notifications to interact with the audience and enticing them to shop their holiday collection.

The chatbot is constantly adapting to the market and experimenting with new features such as enabling customers to get in touch with a Burberry consultant, locating a particular store, or booking an Uber ride to the brand’s exhibition.

It is not just the chatbot that does the wonders, but how it is incorporated into the business to enhance the overall brand experience counts. Helping you pick the right product, answering your questions, finding the store location, providing payment options, relevant product suggestions are a few features that have proved successful.

Today’s world is screaming for sustainable practices, and it has been said that consumers are more aware of the products they consume. They want to know the story behind the product, the damage/ benefits it does to the environment. Many eCommerce businesses are shifting to a more sustainable approach, which creates a balance between the economy, environment, and society.

Here are a few things businesses can consider implementing to take a step towards sustainable practices

• Sustainable shipping
• Sustainable packaging
• Recycling policies
• Reducing energy waste
• Marketplace to resell used merchandise

In the U.K., 62 % of young consumers would reconsider buying if retailers better communicated about the environmental impact; 63 percent stated they would stop using a brand if it was damaging to the environment.

Consumers today value such efforts. They are actively choosing sustainable brands over cost-effectiveness. As a business, if you make the effort to have both a positive economic and positive environmental impact, it will be a win-win situation.

Simply put, subscription-based eCommerce is a business model that enables customers to subscribe to products or services they need regularly. The various types of subscription plans are carefully strategized based on the kind of service, its demand, and the customers.

A service subscription is where users can subscribe as per their needs. It is a value-based subscription model. Product subscription with subscription boxes is another example where subscription boxes are prepared. Customers can subscribe to receive curated products based on their preferences. Meal box, book box – are a few successful product-based subscriptions. Zomato Pro and Uber ride pass are two examples of a few miscellaneous subscriptions.

The subscription eCommerce model helps you develop better customer relations, increase loyalty, and yield multiple other business benefits, enabling a regular cash flow.

According to a Royal Mail report, the subscription box market in the UK is forecast to grow 72% by 2022 – valued at £1bn by 2022 from £583m in 2017.

With the flexibility and the convenience these plans offer, subscriptions are becoming the new normal. Customers have started embracing subscriptions in their daily lives, right from entertainment to health.

These are a few eCommerce trends that have been in the spotlight in the industry, but Mcommerce, conversational commerce are the two driving forces in the industry. While some trends may workout for your brand, some may not. The important thing is to provide value and create an exceptional shopping experience for your customer. Here are a few things to consider before jumping up on any market trend:

• Do the research
• Understand your goals
• Calculate the feasibility

Need some help? We are a proud Magento agency in UK, accredited with Adobe (Magento) Gold Solution partnership. With the expertise and experience that our technocrats have, creating exceptional eCommerce brand experiences is something we thrive on. Let’s get on a call to discuss a few.