E-commerce dynamically evolves. Customers are looking for technologies and solutions that will enable them to get acquainted with the product before they decide to purchase it. Everything has to be quick and efficient, hence new payment and delivery methods. And finally, we have solutions for streamlining and automating customer service. There’s quite a lot to cover! In this blog post, we gather some of the most interesting modern solutions (seven of them, to be exact) you can implement in your online store. Let’s cut right to the chase!
Over the last few years, a lot has changed when it comes to the way people buy products online. E-commerce technology has become quick, efficient, and accurate. Many of the modern solutions are readily available even in medium-sized stores. Let’s see what your choice is.
Augmented reality (AR)
Customers cannot touch or test products that are sold online. So, they need different ways of getting acquainted with them. Augmented reality comes to the rescue. Thanks to this service, your users can see how a given product could look in their house, on their desks, or even on themselves. More and more online stores and retail chains invest in AR. Take a look at this example of IKEA’s AR feature:
Embedded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UudV1VdFtuQ&ab_channel=IKEA
Of course, AR requires some significant investments; that’s not something you can just copy-paste into your business. Therefore, it’s a solution primarily for larger stores.
Biometric payments and authentication
This trend started in the offline world, but it’s slowly conquering e-commerce as well. There are emerging solutions that enable password-less authentication of payments and other online operations. As a result, users don’t have to use passwords, PINs, and any other safety measures. They are authenticated by their specific characteristics, e.g., an iris of an eye or a fingerprint. One of many companies offering biometric authentication is LoginID. They even released a plugin for WordPress websites, enabling them to introduce biometric authentication to their offer.
Embedded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cv7nFP7RUk&ab_channel=LoginID
Mobile apps
According to ecommerceDB.com, 93% of stores with over 200m visitors have a mobile app (data from 2021):
That’s not surprising at all. Mobile apps are very useful, both for retailers and their customers. Thanks to a mobile app, you can build long-lasting relations with your customers, and you have access to new, effective ways of communicating with them (e.g., push notifications). Your customers, on the other hand, can view the entire offer, order products, participate in a loyalty program, and discover new products. Without a doubt, the number of mobile apps in e-commerce will only grow. We can expect that even smaller stores will sooner or later decide to create such an app.
Chatbots
At first, many people were reluctant to use these virtual assistants. After all, it’s better to talk to a real person, right? Plus, chatbots weren’t too sophisticated. But things are changing. Now, chatbots more and more often are powered by AI, which makes them more useful. They learn from real conversations and can improve over time.
And the fact is, they are extremely useful when it comes to repetitive tasks and questions. A simple example – questions about the order status. Yes, some stores give access to an online account where each customer can check that themselves, but others don’t. In such a situation, every question about order status can be automated with a chatbot. The same can be done with other repetitive questions, e.g., about:
- Product availability
- Return policy
- Delivery times and forms
- Details about the product
With a chatbot, your employees don’t have to deal with tens of such questions daily and can focus on more strategic assignments. And you don’t even have to build a chatbot for your store from scratch. You can go with one of many chatbot platforms, including Tidio, Chatfuel, ManyChat, Sentione, and more.
BNPL
Buy now, pay later is yet another solution that’s getting more and more traction. In essence, it’s a straightforward service that enables payments in installments for products available online, even ordinary ones like clothes or kitchen equipment.
Thanks to platforms like Klarna, AfterPay, and even PayPal, your customers can be more flexible regarding their budgets and purchases. To give you an idea of how popular BNPL is right now, let’s just say that globally, Klarna has over 140 million users, is available in 45 countries, and works with over 400,000 online stores. And estimations are this model will only grow:
BNPL is very easy to implement in your offer. You just need to get in touch with the selected provider, and they will take care of the rest. It doesn’t even require significant money investments. And believe us, your customers will surely appreciate another way of purchasing products in a flexible way, especially when you offer expensive products.
Livestream commerce
In our recent news about video in e-commerce, we mentioned that over 50% of livestream event attendees said they purchased a product as a result of a live virtual shopping experience. Livestream commerce is a trend especially eagerly used by influencers and digital creators, but it doesn’t mean that “traditional” online stores can’t benefit from this service. It’s all just a matter of creativity. You can think of creating an online event for your customers (especially when there is an interesting novelty in your offer) where you can show a given product and encourage people to buy it (a special discount during the event can work miracles).
Take a look at this interview by Bloomberg Technology to see how livestream commerce is already gaining traction in China. We can expect that soon, something similar will happen in Europe as well:
Marketing automation
That’s where iPresso shines. Marketing automation is huge in e-commerce, and for a reason. Every online store processes thousands of orders and sends tens of thousands of emails every month. Of course, you need a way to automate all these repetitive, mundane tasks. Thanks to platforms just like ours, you don’t have to develop your own marketing automation tool from scratch.
iPresso has quite an extensive offer for e-commerce companies. With our help, you can automate the following:
- Email, SMS, web push, and on-site communication
- Creating and optimizing communication scenarios
- Personalized product recommendations
- Advanced selling techniques (upselling and cross-selling)
Take a look at how it can look, concerning creating automated communication scenarios:
We invite you to give iPresso a shot! Start your free trial today and see how marketing automation can make your life easier and your work – more effective.
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