Category: Ecommerce Trends

To create an eCommerce website in Magento, you must focus on its design. 

The design leaves an impact on humans and it increases engagement on your website. Most importantly, it connects your users with your website. 

A user-friendly and engaging design helps your users to scroll and browse your website without getting bored. 

As a leading eCommerce web design agency, we have written this article to help you learn the most salient eCommerce web design trends. 

Let’s discuss design trends without any further delay. 

Top 7 Magento Web Design Trends You Must Apply

1. Keep Your Website Mobile-friendly 

97% of Americans own a mobile phone and mostly they perform their daily tasks of shopping and researching on their mobile phones, according to PewResearch. So, if you plan to have an eCommerce website, it should be mobile-friendly. And, it helps you maximize your reach. As a leading web design company, we are sure you don’t want to miss out on this potential audience. Do you? 

Having a mobile-friendly website improves the speed of your pages getting loaded on mobile phones. It also decreases your bounce rate as well. In addition, making your website mobile-friendly helps users to shop from your website anytime and anywhere in the world. 

Remember, users are always lazy and impatience, therefore, it is a must to have a website that operates well on mobile devices and also functions well. So, at the end of the day, your efforts don’t get wasted. 

2. Making Your Website Interactive 

Make your website simple and convenient to use for your users. This means placing the buttons in the right places where they are easy to find out. The use of proper design elements helps you to make your website looks perfect and easy to navigate while making purchases. 

In addition, you can make different sections of coupons, promotions, product recommendations, and discounts. So, it increases your overall conversion. But, make sure it’s easy to find for your users. 

Offering your users a personalized experience takes your eCommerce website to another level. For example, offering customizes in their eCommerce account on your website is something other eCommerce vendors would have done it before. From setting up an account to the checkout process. That’s why this trend stands second in the position.

3. Use of Grid Layout on Your eCommerce Website

The third Magento web design trend that comes in our list is the Gird layout. It is an advanced version to make your eCommerce website more flexible in terms of the whole layout. Grid layout allows you to have a controllable or how you can handle the size of the different screens more flexibly and easily. 

So, users access your eCommerce website easily from different devices without facing the problem of layout or structure. Whether your visitors are using your eCommerce website from mobile, tab, computer, or laptop, they are able to see the perfect layout of your website without facing difficulty. 

That’s where you provide an exceptional experience to your users and it helps you increase your conversion rate and your sells get double. The grid layout covers different blocks of your website, including the product detail page, header, footer, other blocks, and widgets. 

4. Hovering Effects, Illustrations, and Animations

Providing illustrations of your product and brand helps you present your products in an interactive and playful way. Adding animation to your eCommerce website helps to convey information more efficiently and in an interactive way. And, it is the most used Magento web design to make websites more interactive and irresistible to surf users. 

With Magento, it allows you to add motions to your eCommerce website in a pleasant, effective, and delightful way. Remember, adding a lot of animation can also badly impact your website. However, having a sensible enough animation on your eCommerce website really helps. 

5. Creating a Material Design

Many popular websites have started implementing a material design. And, the material design has helped them gain potential. A material design is content-focused, vibrant, and created with a minimalistic appearance. This design is created with motion and depth. Designers are able to create clean and beautiful interfaces for your websites. So, you get a more realistic approach to your website. 

For example, checking out Behance’s website for material design helps you to get a visual idea of what material design looks like. To give your a basic idea, even Behance has used a material design with boxes that are far deep than the grid, shaded background, and added more depth to grab better attention. 

6. Integration of Video in Your eCommerce Website

Adding powerful and interactive videos of products helps you to offer the best visual deal of information to your customers. That’s why adding videos is important in an eCommerce website.

With videos, you can explain and introduce videos that explain how to use a product. Creating an interactive eCommerce website helps you to get ahead of your competitors and build your brand faster and easier in the market. 

7. Hamburger Menu 

Adding a hamburger menu is three lines, which further upon a click displays underlying clicks for the hidden sub-menus. 

The use of the hamburger menu helps you to make your Magento eCommerce website more comfortable to use and easy to navigate on your whole website. 

Most importantly, this menu helps especially on smartphones or small screens. So, users are able to know the complete menu without any weird design or structure of a menu.

Having this type of menu on your Magento eCommerce website takes up the lower space of your screen. And, the benefit of having a structured menu for your website as it makes not complicated for your end users.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned about the top Magento eCommerce web design trends. We hope following these trends surely brings results to your eCommerce website. However, if you have any doubts or issues, get in touch with us.
As a top Magento development services provider company, we have experience creating websites for our clients from countries like the USA, UK, Germany, and more. So, if you have an idea of creating an eCommerce website, we are can help you from scratch to end. Connect with us by scheduling a call. One of our experienced executives will surely help you to bring your idea to life.

Since we live in the digital age, we are surrounded by various devices and technology that make our life convenient and exciting today. It takes only a few clicks to complete these tasks, whether sending a message, getting information, or purchasing the desired product.

More than 20% of overall retail sales will come from the eCommerce sector by 2024, surpassing $1 trillion. To be ahead of the competition, eCommerce development company should re-evaluate their strategies from the view of web development trends in 2022. Here is a list of the top eCommerce web development trends to watch out for in 2022 to help you increase sales and gain potential customers.

Rise of contactless payment

The increasing expectations of customers and the recent pandemic have seen a sharp rise in the demand for contactless payment across the eCommerce sector. In the age of omnichannel eCommerce, voice-based smart devices play an important role in assisting contactless payment with simplicity and speed. 

Contactless payment will rapidly grow in the year 2023. Customers can use a microphone to search and make purchases online with the help of a virtual digital assistant. Voice commerce gives businesses a brand-new way to transform how people shop in everyday life. Contactless payment can be made through various modes (debit cards, credit, net banking, UPI, and wallets).

Interactive product visuals

Everyone must have heard- A picture speaks a thousand words. Apply this thing to your eCommerce website. Choose original, beautiful and high-quality pictures for your brand and minimise the use of stock images.

This year has seen an advancement in interactive visual design methods like augmented reality (AR), 3D imaging and virtual reality (VR). This technology helps consumers understand the products they are looking to buy, which results in repeat customers and more sales.

Keep ahead of this trend and emphasise custom photography. Several businesses have already started engaging professional photographers to add real photos on their eCommerce websites.

Personalised filters and content

Most websites now show personalised content based on location and recent purchases. Most e-commerce businesses can now implement such innovation thanks to the development of big data. These websites use your map, geo-location, preferences, and taste to provide products accordingly.

A feature like this improves customer satisfaction and makes it easier for them to find the things they want. Instead, what they need is directly placed in front of them with the help of personalised filters and content. The e-commerce sites offer a wide range of options to filter your selection according to your preferences. 

Faster page speed

One of the most important web development trends is ultra-fast load times. A quick loading time has long been an important ranking and conversion element for websites.

With the introduction of Google’s Core Web Vitals algorithm upgrade in 2021, page speeds are more crucial than ever for website results. Most internet browsers anticipate that a website will load instantly, and the time after clicking shouldn’t be longer than two seconds. If it takes more than three seconds for your website to load, you’ll probably lose visitors who won’t return.

Developers must understand how to create fast-loading and light websites to assist their eCommerce consumers in achieving high rankings in search results.

Chatbots

Chatbots are one of the most embracing trends in eCommerce website development. For the eCommerce sector, chatbots are quite useful because they automate human-to-human interactions. Users can communicate with chatbots on an e-commerce website to quickly and easily access various services.

Chatbots provide answers to consumers’ queries and communicate with them to resolve any possible problems, and consumers don’t need to wait for long times to find solutions. You can hire an eCommerce services provider to create a feature-rich website with an intelligent chatbot.

Final thoughts

These web development trends for e-commerce will prepare you for the near future. Integrate them into your ongoing practice for developing eCommerce platforms which will deliver better outcomes.
These trends will provide your eCommerce portal with a competitive edge and prepare you to meet customer needs. When you use eCommerce website development services and these trends, you’ll step up your game and find your way to success.

Have an idea for making an eCommerce platform? Are you confused about where to start? Or which platform to choose for Magento eCommerce development? As per Trends BuiltWith, there are around 189,062 live websites that are using the Magento tool. So, there is no doubt that Magento is one of the best eCommerce tools to build an affordable eCommerce platform. Build faster & scalable real-time applications with Node JS.

As a leading mobile application development company in the USA and Canada, we have experience developing custom eCommerce platforms using Magento. Therefore, we have written this blog post on eCommerce trends, the benefits of the Magento platform, and the benefits of hiring professional company developers.

Let’s get started.

Firstly, let us address the eCommerce trends in Dubai.

eCommerce Trends in Dubai

Before you develop an eCommerce platform, you might want to know if it’s the right time to create an app or not. Whether there is an opportunity to develop an eCommerce app or not.

• As per the study, the mobile eCommerce market in UAE will reach $8 billion by 2025.
• In UAE, users almost spent 7 hours and 49 minutes online daily as per the report by Bain.
• Around 55% of users in the UAE use mobile phones to make online eCommerce purchases.
• Souq is the leading eCommerce market leader in the eCommerce industry of the UAE.
• Electronics and Fashion are the two most popular and largest eCommerce categories in Egypt and GCC.

As you see above, there is tremendous growth in the eCommerce market of Dubai. So, if you are thinking about a custom eCommerce platform, there cannot be another right chance available like this after the pandemic.

But why should you choose Magento to develop an eCommerce platform for your business? Find the benefits of it in the following section.

Benefits of Magento Platform for eCommerce and Mobile App

Magento is an open-source tool. It helps developers to create eCommerce applications easily within a limited time duration. Let’s check out its benefits.

1. Features and Functionality Rich Platform

Magento is one of the most powerful platforms that allow developers even develop enterprise applications. It allows managing hundreds of products with this platform seamlessly without any problems or errors.

Even when your requirements grow, you don’t need to worry about the performance and scalability of your Magento application. It is powerfully backed by the strong framework of the PHP programing language. With its features like product management, and inventory management you are easily able to organize your platform without any hassle.

You also have the option to set up filters and navigation, and it helps you to boost your conversion rate. That indirectly helps you to improve the performance of your website.

Explore More: Boost Your Magento Store Revenue’s On Mobile With MobiCommerce Tools

2. Build SEO Friendly Platform

Building an SEO-friendly eCommerce app with Magento is easy as it offers advanced features. As the Magento is optimized by keeping SEO in mind. So, merchants easily craft new SEO-friendly URL structures, and meta-information, and include rich snippets to it help them to rank their web application easily on Google and other search engines.

3. Affordability

Developing an eCommerce mobile app with the Magento platform is a reliable and affordable option. As it has vast support and community, it helps to develop your eCommerce mobile application faster. Also, hosting the Magento is low cost, and also it offers benefits in reducing the cost of maintaining and monitoring the solution.

4. Flexible to Scale Your Application Over Time

Over the last few years, Magento has come with a new version, and currently, there are two versions of Magento, such as

• Magento 2 Community Edition
• Magento 2 Enterprise Edition

In short, Magento offers various possibilities, from creating single-page applications to countless pages of applications.

You get control of your entire mobile application, from single products to bundled products, and even customization of your application at your fingertips.

Explore More: Magento as a Headless commerce Solution and Magento Page Builder for PWA and Mobile Apps

5. Fast Loading

Developing native progressive mobile applications is easy as it provides various tools. Developers are able to create stores with a fast-loading experience, and that results in fast interaction of internal components. So, it makes the user experience seamless and helps to increase the conversion rate into your business.

6. Analytics and Tracking

The advanced analytics and tracking system provided by Magento allow the admin to get track of users’ sales orders, payments, delivery of orders, and top picks of each day.

With that, you get large data of your customers like purchases history, customer details, and average users’ spending ratio so it lets you analyze the data of your eCommerce application and you get to know better information about customer spending, and preferences, and buying patterns.

This ultimately helps you to optimize your eCommerce application. Thus, you can offer a personalized experience to your user.

Why Should You Hire a Professional Mobile App Developer from MobiCommerce?

MobiCommerce is an end-to-end eCommerce solution provider company in the USA, Canada, and the UK. We have a team of several experienced mobile app developers who have already developed custom B2B eCommerce applications that are running live today.

Whether looking to develop B2B or B2C eCommerce applications, We develop solutions for every sort of requirement on eCommerce. As a leading Magento mobile app development company in Dubai, we are majorly focusing on creating scalable and bug-free eCommerce platforms that stand out from the competitors and perform well.

In addition, MobiCommerce has worked with more than 500 clients worldwide. And provided solutions in around 35+ countries of the world.

Therefore, with our years of experience in the eCommerce industry, our developers are technically proficient to create on-demand eCommerce solutions.

In this blog, we learned about the trends of eCommerce in Dubai, and the benefits of Magento to create eCommerce applications. If you are thinking about developing an eCommerce app for Dubai, then this is the right time. As the market of eCommerce is growing, it brings an opportunity to tap into the eCommerce industry.
Do you want to develop a custom B2B eCommerce application using Magento? Or looking for B2C eCommerce application development? Book a call with us today. You are just a click away from creating your dream eCommerce platform. Mobicommerce, an eCommerce development company in Dubai that holds 10+ years of experience in developing custom solutions for well various clients in the UAE who deals in different industries like fashion, Jewellery, Supermarket, and Pharmacy, etc.

E-commerce was already on the crest of a wave but, in 2020 when the world caught under the net of the pandemic; the demand for e-commerce only doubled further. Today, every other person is taking interest in the e-commerce business, and hence with the bubbling competition, it is becoming challenging to find someone reliable, skilled, and top-notch in providing end-to-end e-commerce solutions. But, there are also a few exceptions like; Mobicommerce whose e-commerce solutions is a talk globally.

The Great Migration from Offline to Online

COVID-19, the deadly pandemic, put the entire world to a halt which none of us ever imagined would happen. The complete lockdown forced many offline retailers to put shutters to their business temporarily which led to permanent later due to lack of money. Only online businesses that too with the essentials were allowed to operate, and hence customers who were offline shoppers had no choice but to switch to the online platforms in order to shop the essentials.

Also Read: COVID-19: A Glitch in the 21st Century Causing Major Change in Online Shopping Behaviour

The way COVID-19 brought a massive change in consumer behavior and the paradigm shift that began taking place from offline to online, it seems that the day is not too far when brick-and-mortar stores will become a thing of the past. Many offline retailers realized the importance of having an online presence during the pandemic and are headed everywhere hunting the best eCommerce app builder to get their e-commerce appearance designed and developed.

What to Expect in 2021?

Due to the unfortunate event of the outbreak of Coronavirus in 2020, where everyone experienced a dramatic loss and downfall in both; personal and professional life, for the e-commerce industry, it was a reverse effect. It began to proliferate like never before, and looking at the current pace of it; e-retail revenues are expected to grow to $6.54 trillion by 2022.

Therefore, every day, with more retailers making the move to online selling, while entrepreneurs getting their start through e-commerce ventures; 2021 is going to be definitely a year of e-commerce, in fact, we can see many e-commerce trends expanding further this year which will take e-commerce to new heights without any doubt.

Ecommerce Trends to Watch Out in 2021

With the rising demand for online business, and due to the drastic change in consumer behavior, we can see more of the following e-commerce trends this year.

Voice Commerce – The fear of touching anything amidst the pandemic is causing an increase in voice commerce i.e., shopping by commanding voice assistant devices like the Amazon Echo with Alexa and the Google Home with Google Assistant.

Omnichannel Retailing – With customers becoming more tech-savvy and using all possible online platforms, sellers too are making effort to providing shoppers with a seamless and consistent experience across channels and devices.

Don’t Miss: Multichannel Marketing is The Road to Success for Brands in 2021 

Visual Commerce – Since visuals are the only factor that attracts customers to shop online, unlike offline where they can touch and feel the product; high-quality 360-degree images or videos, shoppable video ads, all of these are getting more importance and attention.

Single-brand Online Stores and Marketplaces – Online business is booming in both ways. While some are getting their individual online stores or a whole marketplace developed, others are simply selling on giant marketplaces. In short, one way or another, online selling is booming. 

AI, AR, and VR – All those fancy technologies that appeared to be fantasy are now a reality and customers are enjoying shopping with all of these as they not only make shopping easy but also interactive.

Green Consumerism – The year 2020 made us all pause and think about our actions like how much we are polluting the world and how the planet was healing when we all were locked inside. Thus, people have started looking for products that have been produced in an eco-friendly way that preserves the environment or involves recycling.

Ready for A Digital Makeover? Shout Out to Mobicommerce

Needless to say, whatever e-commerce trends we mentioned above and even other than that, Mobicommerce knows them all including the tricks and tactics of each so that one can make the most out of it.

Known for its revolutionary e-commerce website and mobile app solution for B2C and B2B brands as well as multi-vendor marketplaces, Mobicommerce is making headlines all over the globe which is why it is now recognized as the best eCommerce solution provider in the Middle East. 

Mobicommerce is a one-stop solution for all e-commerce needs, be it, mobile, booking, B2B, B2C, and even multi-vendor marketplace. Backed by proven expertise in multiple industry verticals like fashion, grocery, food delivery & restaurant, pharmacy, spa & salon, laundry, home decor, automotive, electronics, jewellery, cosmetics, Mobicommerce is the name you can trust for getting developed everything from a responsive online store, progressive web app, to Android and iOS apps.

Takeaway

E-commerce is growing at a rocket-speed, and to be on board, you need to approach a lightning-fast, but trusted and efficient e-commerce partner as only together it is possible to achieve online goals in this competitive world. And Mobicommerce is a hand you can firmly hold on to as it is their work that speaks louder than words.

Shopping earlier was what you want to buy, and sellers show it to you but today, it is more like sellers already know what you are looking for and they display it and you simply have to pay for it. Got the point? It is nothing but eCommerce personalization that is taking over traditional commerce.

 

eCommerce has revolutionized the shopping experience so much that now, shopping offline feels like a challenging task with no fun. Although there are various features in eCommerce that are making it a preferred mode of shopping, personalization is something that is winning hearts and luring people more towards online shopping that we got to see more in the previous year not because it gained fame recently; but because of the deadly pandemic.

 

The year 2020 witnessed a major shift of everything offline to online from office meetings, social gathering, celebrations to the most important shopping. Hence, the adoption of digital commerce is not at all a new concept that sprouted in 2020. It simply accelerated due to COVID-19. Thus, in order to keep customers, continue with the online saga, retailers are now taking eCommerce personalization more seriously, and it seems that it will soon take over traditional commerce.

 

For a long period of time, eCommerce has been seeking the holy grail of personalization – a consistent, cross-channel experience that adapts to customer requirements and goals in real-time. To achieve this, retailers have started adding conversational commerce elements like messenger chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI), and customized information etc., to their online store. But, before we weave stories around it, let us understand what we mean by eCommerce personalization.

 

Also Read: 7 Steps to Prepare Your Ecommerce Business for Continuity and Unexpected Future Post-COVID-19

 

What is eCommerce Personalization?

eCommerce Personalization refers to the way of making customers feel special by creating personal interactions and experience on eCommerce sites and improving their shopping experience by showing them content, product recommendations, media etc., based on their previous actions, browsing behaviour, purchase history, demographics, and other personal data.

 

Personalization is becoming an important part of eCommerce as it is the best way to bring in more customers, achieve customer loyalty and repeat purchases, keep shoppers engaged, drive sales, increase conversion, and to boost growth and productivity.

 

eCommerce Personalization and Conversational Commerce

There are various ways to offer eCommerce personalization to the customers, and integrating top-notch technologies to the online platform is the first step towards it. Offering eCommerce personalization is becoming easier and attainable with conversational commerce that is nothing but an automated technology powered by rules and artificial intelligence (AI) that enables online shoppers and brands to interact through Messenger chatbots, RPA (Robotica ProcessAutomation) and voice interfaces like Alexa by creating an interactive environment that compensates for the missing human touch typical of a physical brick-and-mortar store.

 

In short, conversational commerce and eCommerce personalization are like two sides of the same coin but, their purpose is similar i.e, to provide a personalized shopping experience to the customers. In fact, conversational commerce act as a medium to provide a personalized experience to customers that is now slowly overtaking the traditional way of commercialization.

 

Thanks to the latest technologies, data collection, understanding customer behavior, providing them with what they need or are looking for, giving them an individualized shopping experience, all have been possible due to the duos.

 

Personalized Commerce Is the Next Frontier

Customers love personalization, and with online retailers competing with each other, they are implementing personalization strategies better from one another in order to please customers. Moreover, with personalized customer experience being something that customers do not get in any traditional commerce; it is quite natural for them to bend towards online shopping more than offline. After all, a salesperson asking you what you like and displaying products is better than a technology showcasing what’s on your mind based on the data collected and stored from your past interactions with the store.

 

So, what can be done to give a personalized shopping experience to the customers? Well, here are some of the strategies that you can implement on your online store and see the magic happen.

 

1. Create Personalized Homepages – Homepages are the first impression, and hence you got to do it right. Greet them in the way that you get to win a position in their heart. If gathering their information via cookies, make use of it in improving their shopping experience.

 

2. Offer Personalized Guides – Like, in traditional commerce where a salesperson assists you in shopping, you too can offer a personal shopping assistant for every customer on your online store. Take a quiz about their taste, style choices, size, and budget, and provide on-site assistance when they shop next time.

 

3. Display Recently Viewed Items – Not necessarily everyone visiting your store will shop, but while browsing, some may like a particular product of yours but forgets to wishlist. Hence, with the “Recently Viewed” section on the homepage, you can remind and urge them to make the purchase.

 

4. Personalize Product Pages Based on Location – Knowing where your customers are by asking them directly or via cookies, you can provide a more accurate shopping experience for customers that they will remember forever.

 

5. Create Special Campaigns Based on User Behavior – No two visitors are the same, and hence offering the same to everyone doesn’t make any sense. Personalizing your on-site messages will attract customers more than you can imagine.

 

6. Get Personal in Email Marketing – There’s no limit to the personalization you can do on emails. Starting from the subject lines, wishing your customers on birthdays and anniversaries, offering discounts up to reminding them about completing a purchase, you can personalize emails the way you want.

 

7. Make More Personal Recommendations – Personalized recommendations have emotional value. If done right, they can directly hit the customers at the right spot.

 

Now, let’s understand various benefits one can achieve with eCommerce personalization

 

1. Improve Customer Experience – Of course, a personalized shopping experience means a customer’s interest in your online store will double up, leading to more sales and conversions.

 

2. Save Time & Resources – Messenger chatbots are the real time saver. From providing a personalized shopping experience to pulling leads, as well as engaging customers with conversations, they can handle all freeing you for other important tasks.

 

3. Know Customers Better – With personalized interaction via chatbots, you will get to know your customers better to serve them the best.

 

4. Increment in Sales – The more personalized experience a customer receives from your end, the more it will keep coming back to you which means; a boost in sales.

 

5. Be Unique – The online competition is tough, and to stand out, you need to have some unique elements in your store that can be personalized for attracting customers. So, build an app using eCommerce mobile app builder that allows you to create a user-friendly environment with unique elements.

 

Summing Up

With incremental shift happening in customer’s behavior due to growing digitalization and the pandemic effect, an online presence with personalized experience is becoming a necessity more than just a trend. And, if you are in a notion that only big brands can afford classy technologies like AI, chatbots, messaging apps, PWAs, native mobile apps, voice assistants, etc., then guess what? They do not come at a fancy price that a small business cannot afford, in fact, one must gear it up all if one really wishes to survive the competition and the future ahead.

 

Need expert advice? Mobicommerce – an eCommerce solution provider in the Middle East and other countries is at your service!

Do you know focusing all your marketing on one channel is risky? Because while you are doing that, your competitors are out there taking multiple routes to reach out to customers. So, what should you do? Well, you too should follow the trend.

Marketing Then & Now

Gone are the days when one marketing strategy was enough to please and lure customers because today, you don’t know behind which screen your customers are hiding. So, you have to be there where your customers are. What we mean to say is you need to take multiple routes to market your brand if you want to get noticed by a large customer base. But, how should you market? On your own or your exposure in a marketplace is enough for your brand? Let’s get into the details.

The exposure a brand gets in a marketplace is not as same as the marketing a brand does for itself as both have opposite goals. Where multivendor marketplace owners want their customers to choose from the brands that are available at their marketplace, brands want customers to go to any retailer to find their product. Therefore, depending solely upon the marketplace for marketing your brand is not advisable for brand owners if they want to stand out from the crowd.

Keep in mind that marketplaces give prime importance to customer behavior and display and rank products as per their demand, ratings, reviews, and choice. Therefore, for your brand to get noticed either it must meet all the above eligibility or you as a brand owner need to deliver a unique experience that beats the competition. Also, as per the research, 70% of users never go past the first page of the search results so to be there and maintain the first-page position; brands need to have a sound channel strategy spanning which includes other channels i.e., Multichannel Marketing.

What is Multichannel Marketing and Why Branded Manufacturers Need to Focus on It?

Multichannel marketing is the utilization of multiple platforms to reach out to customers at every touchpoint. By diversifying your marketing strategy, you not only get to connect with more leads but also can stay top of mind with your customers. There are various ways to achieve that like:

Direct to Consumer – You can reach out to your customers directly, cutting out the need for any intermediaries. It allows brand owners to provide an end-to-end brand experience because they have control over the entire process. Unlike marketplaces, a brand is fully responsible for driving traffic, customer experience, acquisition, and relation.

Social Platforms – Today social networking platforms have turned into shopping mediums more than connecting with people. With the rise in smartphone usage, people are always hanging in one or the other social platforms, and hence it becomes easy for brands to reach out to customers on such platforms as the chances of getting noticed are more via them than the website or app. Social platforms act as the best medium to lure customers to your website or mobile app and push them to make a purchase.

A lot of commercializing happens nowadays on social platforms because the majority of customers are on it, and hence; it takes fewer efforts to reach out to them than the traditional techniques.

Also Read: Multichannel Selling: Experience eCommerce at its Best

Traditional Methods – Although the world is becoming digitalized and people more tech-savvy, it is important to stick to your roots and hence, traditional ways of marketing still play an important role in a brands’ success. Therefore, print, television, radio, emails, all these are necessary and one must incorporate in their marketing strategy along with the latest methods to achieve the attention of a wide customer base as well as for growth and sales.

Now, to travel multiple roads of the market, you must have an eCommerce solution that supports all of the marketing strategies as well as the below-mentioned points.

• It must support multiple touchpoints i.e., website, mobile, any other connected device, social media etc. as you never know where your customers are using what kind of device. Thus, while developing your eCommerce solution, ask your eCommerce mobile app builder implement headless API-first architecture to onboard new sales channels. Know from your developers whether the APIs are RESTful, well-documented, and easy to use as the nature of it significantly impacts the speed to market for new sales channels.

• It must be scalable. As your business grows, you will have to make changes in your eCommerce solution as well because you cannot build a new one every time. Therefore, ensure that your multi-vendor marketplace solution is extendable to accommodate new experiences with changing trends in order to deliver a unique experience to your customers.

• It must provide a unified shopping experience across all sales channels. A customer not necessarily browses and shops at a time. It happens that they leave a shopping cart halfway in a website and then later open up in a mobile app but, if at that time the customer is displayed that the shopping cart is empty, it can annoy the customer so bad that he/she may never come back. Thus, your marketplace solution must give a unified experience no matter what sales channel the customer uses and when.

 

In a nutshell

The competition is getting fierce and for your brand to get noticed, you need to not only make your marketing strategies effective but also your marketplace solution well developed to stand out in the competition.

COVID-19 has painted a completely new picture around the world. Nothing is like before, neither our lifestyle habits, economy, nor the consumer behaviour and their way of shopping. Let’s see the scenario of UAE and the current status of eCommerce there.

Digitalization in UAE

UAE or Emirates, with its 9.5 million inhabitants, occupies the second position in the Middle East in terms of the internet penetration rate, estimated at around 90%, one of the highest in the world. It even has the highest smartphone penetration in the world about 81%, and 82% of the total population are active mobile internet users which have led to the rise of online shopping. In fact, the UAE is becoming the fastest growing e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region because of the millennials, both local and expatriate who are among the most digitally connected and the most active online buyers in the world. All these stats speak of how UAE is digitally forward compared to other countries.

Ecommerce in UAE: Before and After the Emergence of COVID-19

eCommerce in UAE is growing exponentially ever since it set its foot in the MENA market. At present, e-commerce accounts for 4.2% of the retail revenue in the UAE but is expected to grow by an average of 23%2 by 2022. Amazon’s acquisition of Souq.com and the launch of Noon.com by Emaar Group in 2017 shows Emirates’ serious interest in eCommerce.

If you ask why eCommerce is soaring in Emirates then the reasons are many:

• High internet penetration
• Quick digital adoption by the Millenials
• A large number of tech-savvy Gen Z
• Improved infrastructure
• Successful adoption and support for e-payment platforms
• High investment potential
• Trust in eCommerce and digital payments
• High spending potential due to high per capita income
• Better warehousing facilities
• Increase in consumer demand for e-commerce services
• Market barrier easing
• Full support of government for entrepreneurial initiatives
• Ease of obtaining eCommerce license
• Increased convergence between online and offline channels

Today, with the emergence of COVID-19 around the world, there is no doubt how much the business sector has been affected. The brick and mortar retailers are finding it hard to survive but even many online retailers are suffering from its consequences too. Well, the UAE market is no different but eCommerce during the pandemic saw a sudden rise in the MENA region.

UAE – where the retail sector relies heavily on tourists, COVID-19 and global lockdown posed a grave danger of revenue generation for MENA due to restrictions of movement around the world. But the UAE government had no plans to give up and encouraged eCommerce full-fledged amidst the pandemic. The highest number of business licences about 196 were issued to the e-commerce retail business sector in the UAE itself during May 2020 alone which made the UAE more successful than 30 other economies during the COVID crisis. Moreover, the eCommerce platform saw a 20 % month-on-month jump in shipments delivered from March up till now, and about 300% of the rise in consumer demand was recorded in the first five months of 2020. Overall, there was a rise of 49% in online shopping during the coronavirus outbreak and the need for an eCommerce development company UAE increased suddenly with the offline retailers jumping to online platforms to survive the pandemic.

Also Read: Why Middle East Entrepreneurs Must Make Their Appearance in the eCommerce Market?

Who all are eyeing the UAE eCommerce?

COVID-19 and the implications of the lockdowns have not just fast-tracked the adoption of eCommerce by UAE residents but, have also triggered various brands and entrepreneurs to invest in the UAE market, like how Amazon launched its AWS Data Center in Bahrain as part of its market expansion and CarrefourNow, traditionally a single play supermarket who successfully developed a strong omnichannel e-commerce platform challenging those regional players. Other than that, some of the major e-commerce players in the UAE right now are Careem Eats (previously Uber Eats), Namshi, Mumzworld, eBay, Awok etc.

The changing consumer behaviour in the UAE

The UAE consumers are big spenders and are extremely loyal to their favourite brands. They happily spend around 30% of their salary, or £1,450 a month, on luxury goods. Also, as per the stats, the female Emirati citizens spend 43% of their income on fashion and beauty products. Their luxury mindset also has high expectations from an online business like – excellent customer experience, personalised service, exclusive rewards and benefits etc. Moreover, the UAE has the most multi-culture residents across the Gulf countries as only 19% of the population is Emirati and the rest are the immigrants from different corners of the world. Hence, eCommerce acceptance happened largely and quickly in the UAE.

Earlier, shopping malls dominated the retail landscape because they were an all-in-one package – global products, entertainment, a social experience, and – just as important – air conditioning. Today, due to coronavirus, since it has become necessary to avoid socializing and crowded places, the Middle East consumers are taking a pivotal shift to eCommerce than shopping offline. The searches for “groceries”, “online courses”, “telecommuting” and “Ikea” were seen a sudden surge than luxury products during the lockdown which shows more and more millennials are preferring online shopping and therefore for anyone thinking about starting an eCommerce in the UAE right now can prove to be a good decision.

Don’t miss: The adaptation and evolution of e-commerce in the Middle East during the COVID-19 period

Conclusion

eCommerce is still at a growing stage in the UAE as the residents are habituated to offline shopping, but, due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the scenario has changed. eCommerce sales witnessed a sudden surge in between March and May during which applications for eCommerce licence too increased like never before. Therefore, if you planning to step into the UAE market with your eCommerce solution, the first thing you need to do is to approach an ecommerce development company in Dubai who can help you develop your solution with features that support the localization of the Middle East region like multilingual functionality, RTL functionalities, multi-currency feature, elastic search, inventory management, etc.

eCommerce growth is breaking records worldwide, and Saudi Arabia too, is getting hold of it slowly and steadily. So, will the online retailing be the new normal for Saudis? What are the latest trends and opportunities as an e-commerce retailer of Saudi Arabia must keep watch? Let’s peekaboo.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Known to be the third-largest in terms of population in the Middle East after Iran and Iraq, Saudi Arabia is home to about 34 million inhabitants. It also holds the second-largest position in terms of the internet user population having a penetration rate of 73.5%, which is expected to hit 91.2% by 2024. It even tops in terms of smartphone penetration rate that is 65.2% right now. Saudi has about 84% of the country covered by urbanized people who have good access to super-fast internet connections. Moreover, a majority of its population are rich, young, and tech-savvy that makes it the most eligible market for e-Commerce offering a huge potential for industry players.

Ranked among the top 20 richest countries by spending power, Saudi is pretty soon going to become an eCommerce hub not just because of its people’s high-spending potential but also due to its government’s going all out to improve digital payments, streamline licensing, and activation of affordable e-commerce enablers. Till now, modernization was the main reason for eCommerce growth in Saudi, but today, with the COVID-19 pandemic that forced us all to stay home, eCommerce witnessed a sudden boom as online shopping appears to be safe rather than going out for shopping risking lives.

Saudis and the eCommerce

Online shopping was not so popular among Saudis until last few years when it began to gain momentum. In fact, just a few years back only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) started to experience a steady shift from offline shopping to online shopping. In spite of being the largest among the GCC countries, KSA’s eCommerce penetration in 2017 was just 1.4% but times are changing, and now it has exceeded 32% and is expected to cross 9 billion USD by 2025.

Although growing at a slow pace compared to the global average (12.5% as opposed to 24.8% worldwide), eCommerce in Saudi is predicted to grab the position of top e-commerce market in the Middle East from the United Arab Emirates. If we take a look at the eCommerce segments then, fashion products lead online sales in Saudi Arabia until Corona arrived, as today, online grocery sales are riding high not just in Saudi Arabia but the entire world.

After fashion products which stood at US$ 1.91 billion in 2017, comes the electronics & media which amounted to US$ 1.85 billion in the same year, followed by furniture & appliances due to the growing number of real estate development. As soon as the government lifted the ban on the use of beauty products, online sales of personal care products sky-rocketed. Other than that, online purchase of games, consoles, music, film, event tickets and travel services doubled in the past few years taking online sales in Saudi to a whole new level.

By payment methods, Saudis depended on Cash on Delivery only (comprising between 69% and 85% of online orders according to various estimates) due to fear of cyber frauds. However, the situation has changed. Now cards and e-wallets such as PayPal, Amazon Payments, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Mada Pay, STC Pay, and BayanPay are taking over accounting for 24% of all purchases.

By eCommerce marketplace, Amazon, eBay were the rulers in Saudi Arabia due to people’s craze of shopping foreign products. Now, 65% of all online purchases are made from websites based in Gulf Cooperation Council countries like Noon.com, based in the UAE but owned 50% by Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Haraj.com.sa – an online auction website, Waadi.com, and others.

Don’t miss: The adaptation and evolution of e-commerce in the Middle East during the COVID-19 period

Trends to Watch Out in Saudi Arabia

Saudi online shoppers are frequent buyers. According to the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission, about 23% of e-commerce customers shopped online at least once every two weeks, while only 3% buy less frequently than every six months. Also, the smartphone leads among devices for online shopping in Saudi Arabia. This indicates that Mobile Commerce will soon become the hottest trend in Saudi Arabia by looking at the pace with which mobile shopping is happening right now.

Many local offline retailers experienced a great loss during the pandemic which has pushed the need for eCommerce solution provider in Saudi Arabia to get their online portal developed. Therefore, the trend of setting up online stores is going to spice up further in the coming days due to cut-throat competition.

Opportunities for Retailers

From brick and mortar to click and mortar

Saudi Arabia offline retail is the strongest but now with many local retailers opting for online presence. Omnichannel commerce has a good scope.

Also Read: Why Middle East Entrepreneurs Must Make Their Appearance in the eCommerce Market?

New and wide customer reach

Since eCommerce in Saudi Arabia is still at its growing stage, it is the best time for those planning to tap into its eCommerce market as not only the government is welcoming and issuing licenses for it but also the demand from Saudis for online groceries and appliances are increasing day-by-day.

Social commerce

Saudis were found to spend on an average of 2 hours 55 minutes per day on social media. There are nearly 19 million social media users having a Facebook account followed by Instagram, Snapchat, etc. While 88% of the total – 21.2 million people use WhatsApp. Therefore, Saudi retailers must not miss the chance of social commerce and make use of these platforms for advertising and promotional activities as between one-third and one-half of online shoppers in Saudi Arabia make purchases from social media sites, according to a survey from early 2017 cited by yStats.com.

The economic recovery post-pandemic

We all very well know how the world economy has affected due to the COVID-19 infection. For Saudis, the two major operations oil export and offline retail business which make the most of the economy came to halt during the lockdown, causing a disruption in the economy. Hence, now is the time for investing in the Saudi eCommerce market.

Wrapping up 

Ecommerce in Saudi Arabia is growing at an impressive rate due to the rise of digital payments, improved logistics, high internet penetration, etc. The Saudis are open to new markets and with the government allowing the eCommerce sector, the time is ripe for those eyeing in it now. The future of eCommerce is Saudi is only going to rise further and hence you better approach an eCommerce app development company in Saudi Arabia like MobiCommerce – who is gaining popularity in the entire Middle East for its eCommerce solutions, to get your online presence developed for Saudi market as soon as possible.

eCommerce is all about buyers and sellers, what a manufacturer has to do with it? If you too are a manufacturer having the same thought then guess what, eCommerce is for you too, and you must invest in it.

eCommerce is like launching your business on the big screen, but whether investing in it will make it a blockbuster or a flop show, is the fear that stops many from getting into it. Ever since eCommerce made its entrance, online business has become a sensation, giving the brick and mortar retail owners a tough time. Everything is available online and which is why it is high time for physical store owners to open up their online presence. But, is it really all about online retailers and customers? No, eCommerce is today much more than just digital retail. Actually, manufactures can see an increase in their sales with a properly designed eCommerce model. So, let’s take a look at the reasons why manufacturers must think of eCommerce investment right now.

eCommerce for Manufacturers

Manufacturers have a wrong notion that eCommerce is beneficial only for B2C selling, while the point they are missing is that in B2B and B2C, one thing is common and i.e. buyer, therefore, engaging in an eCommerce model will give them the following benefits.

1. Direct selling

Manufacturers should not miss an excellent chance to connect directly with their buyers as it can give them a good and complete control over the customer relationship. Doing so will help you kill two birds with one stone – first, it will widen your customer base and second, you can enforce MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price — also known as “sticker” price) as you seem fit. By having direct access to customers, manufacturers can also gain faster and direct feedback from them and improve their product offerings and services accordingly.

2. Brand awareness

Nothing can beat the marketing you can get via an eCommerce platform. Half of the marketing of your business is done when you open up an online store as more and more customers will come to know about it. Thus, as your brand awareness increases, your visibility will increase too, taking your business higher in Google search ranking as well.

3. Lower operating costs

One of the best parts about getting started with an eCommerce store is great cost savings, how? Well, it takes half the expense required to set up a physical store and maintain it well than developing a fully-featured eCommerce solution. Moreover, manufacturers can customize their eCommerce solution such that their sales and inventory management between their online and bricks-and-mortar operations can be carried out effortlessly and systematically.

4. Improved and smooth business operations

Manufactures can make use of digital and innovative ways to meet the needs of customers than the traditional ways which take time. By all means, an eCommerce store can help them in becoming efficient in their customer service, marketing, and sales, in reaching out to a wide customer base, in managing sales and orders, in cost savings, in problem-solving etc.

Now, let us take a look at some tips and tactics that can help improve your eCommerce sales

1. Create an engaging online presence

Remember online shopping is on the rise and customers expect an online platform that loads fast, provides the great user experience, is secure and navigates smoothly, etc., therefore, instead of settling for something cheap, choose a professional to design and develop your eCommerce store.

Select an eCommerce platform that can work well for your manufacturing business. Get it developed from scratch or customize it with all important functionalities. Choose/ design a store theme that works for manufacturers. Add product listings and include product descriptions with images to create SEO value and help customers to make decisions.

Try to make your eCommerce site as attractive as possible but also don’t go overboard. Keep it well-balanced with high-quality photos, videos, blog posts, or articles to educate buyers about you, your products and services.

“Don’t miss: Grow your B2B sells by accommodating wholesale eCommerce Platform”

2. Invest in technology

Technologies keep changing hence it is necessary for you to change with time to keep up with the competition. Update your eCommerce site as and when needed, make use of software that can work wonders for your online business, conduct security check regularly and if you have enough budget and want to seek the attention of your customers just like that, try implementing latest technologies like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Chatbot etc.

Recommended blog: Voice Search trends in E-commerce – A next big thing in Industry

3. Include personalisation 

Personalization is what customers want today in everything and you can make use of it in many ways to keep them engaged. Provide personalized catalogs, content, notifications, etc. for the buyers to feel valued and make their shopping experience even more enjoyable so that they keep coming back to you.

4. Improve product search and product configuration 

As a manufacturer, the most important thing on your eCommerce site should be an easy product search feature. Your customers must be able to find spare or replacement parts, tools, or accessories to go with their purchases without any headache or confusing navigation. Related products recommendation or a list of parts or accessories must be visible to them while browsing a particular product. Also, include apps and customizations to allow your buyers to configure products online. If they can add or remove items based on their requirement, budget etc., they will love you more.

In a nutshell 

Online shopping is now a household thing. It is slowly becoming a habit and hence having an online presence has become a necessity if you want to survive the competition. It is not that eCommerce is only for retailers and customers, everyone can benefit from it and so as a manufacturer if you want to attract audiences and serve them well, its high time you get an eCommerce store developed for your business. Therefore, without wasting any furthermore time, get in touch with the now known to be the best eCommerce solution provider in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar – MobiCommerce for your one-stop solution.

Tap yourself on the back if you are planning to start/expand your eCommerce business in the Middle East because the time is ripe and you can reap sweet profits out of it.

eCommerce in the Middle East is slowly flourishing like a creeper. Inspired by the eCommerce hubs like the United States or European markets, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has started to embrace eCommerce and the growth is clearly visible from the stats.

Back in 2016, where about 90% of online purchases were made from foreign businesses, today, the e-commerce in the Gulf States alone is estimated at around $20 billion and may reach $48.8 billion in 2021. eCommerce is opening the doors of opportunity to countless entrepreneurs who are now into selling everything from shoes and clothing to mobile phones and home appliances in MENA.

Also read: The adaptation and evolution of e-commerce in the Middle East during the COVID-19 period

Why to Sell in the Middle East?

The Middle East has one of the youngest populations in the world and it is the youth who make the most of the online shoppers. With almost all major countries in the Middle East – Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, having more than 28% of the population aged between 15 and 29, eCommerce has the benefit of high spending youth consumers due to high per capita income as and smartphone usage.

Apart from high internet and social media penetration, another favourable thing that makes the Middle East eligible for eCommerce is the support of the government who is putting every effort to make the Emirate more attractive for e-commerce companies. In fact, the government have started many initiatives like CommerCity, located right next to the Dubai airport, which is a $735 million project that’s dedicated to eCommerce, and Dubai Internet City, which is aiming for expansion. In short, when the government and citizens are welcoming the online businesses, eCommerce in the Middle East is the step you must take without any further ado.

What to Sell in the Middle East?

When it comes to selling, you cannot just open up any business and expect it to be a success. Even if it’s an eCommerce you are starting, it should be done keeping a few factors in mind like what products or services you want to offer to consumers? What do the consumers need? Where all you want to serve? Will the demand for your products stay for a long time or will it be short-lived? Is the logistics available? Does the target audience have the potential to spend? As all such questions decide the future of an eCommerce store. Now, let’s take a look at what’s hot in eCommerce right now that have a good scope in the Middle East now.

Middle Eastern Gulf Countries fall under the top 34 wealthiest nations in the world with Qatar known to be the wealthiest country in the world having a GDP of $116,799 per person. Middle Eastern consumers love spending on luxury products. With the majority of the population be the youth and a significant number of women in the UAE who prefer to shop online, eCommerce business is bound to prosper in the Middle East.

Considering the consumer behaviour in the Middle East, the top e-commerce business ideas for 2020 are:

1. Fashion/Jewellery Products
2. Smart Home Products & Accessories
3. AR/VR Headsets, Apps & Accessories
4. Vape Hardware, Flavours & Liquids
5. Online Learning Platforms

How to Sell in the Middle East?

• To get started with an online business in the Middle East, you need to first know about the laws and regulations of the nation and comply with it.
• Next, get into the market research. Is there a demand for your product? Hows the competition for the same?
• After deciding upon your business, find a secure supplier to meet your customer’s demands both now and in the future.
• Next, decide upon whom you want to sell? Do you want to sell directly to a niche community or go global?
• Then comes narrowing down a few details about your products like where will you store them? How will you distribute them?
• After that comes the most crucial part, approaching an eCommerce development company in the Middle East who can develop your eCommerce solution such that you can carry your business without any hiccups.
• Once you have answers to all of the above, consider setting up your trade license so as to legally operate and conduct business in the region.
• Got the license? What about payment? How are you going to collect money from your sales? Open a commercial bank/merchant account and arrange an online payment gateway.
• Last but not least, start marketing. It is important to market your e-commerce business by setting up social media accounts, organising photography, PR, trade samples, focus groups, advertising, testimonials etc. to grab the attention.

How’s the Future?

Although not quickly and effectively like foreign countries, MENA is slowly entering the third phase of digital adoption. With highest levels of the Internet, smartphone and social media penetrations, MENA consumers are getting ready for eCommerce. They have started searching for products and offers online and are taking high interest during key seasonal shopping events.

Over the past couple of years, the growth trajectory of eCommerce in MENA has seen a sudden surge which is going to keep gaining momentum due to people and the government of the Middle East encouraging eCommerce business whole-heartedly. Moreover, with the expansion of the middle class, the growing role of women in the workforce, improvements in logistics, and access to online products in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the e-commerce market in the Middle East is expected to grow 3.5 times by 2022, achieving a total market size of $28.5 billion and a penetration rate of 7% of total retail sales without a doubt.

Wrapping up

Yes, eCommerce in MENA is still at the development stage, hence; there are a few challenges that can hinder your eCommerce growth but if taken care, there’s nothing to be worried about. For example, make sure you have secure payment gateway options as about 62% of MENA consumers still prefer cash on delivery fearing online fraud. Next is the long shipping and delivery times in the Middle East. To keep going, is it important to cooperate with local suppliers for fast and smooth logistics. Lastly, is the language localization, meaning, you need to have a clean and readable site in both Arabic and English languages to reach every corner of the Middle East.

In short, if you are eyeing the Middle East market for your eCommerce business, then don’t scratch your head any further, the time is right, the scope is good and when Mobicommerce – known to be the best eCommerce solution provider in the Middle East is there, just jump in, your eCommerce venture will rise and shine.

Coronavirus, the name we have been hearing since the start of the year 2020 till today has turned our lives upside down bringing downfall in every manner be it the health, social life, economy, or livelihood of all. But, amidst the lockdown and restrictions, one thing that outshined and turned into a rescuer was the eCommerce business. Unfortunately, the impact of Coronavirus was so strong that even eCommerce underwent some disruptions which we are going to discuss today.

E-commerce has been seeing new entrants, constant growth since the start and has amounted to worldwide sales over 3.50 trillion US dollars alone in 2019.  But, with the emergence of Novel Coronavirus in 2020, the booming e-Commerce industry was put to test with disruptions in the supply chain and changing consumer behaviour.  However, despite all these challenges, e-commerce sales are rising but with a twist. Only a specific section of the e-Commerce market is in demand whereas others are seeing the downhill. Why so? Let’s peek into the details.

The year 2020 has been great for industries like pharma and eCommerce but it has been challenging for other industries like fashion, tourism, automobile, electronics, etc. which have seen layoffs, pay cuts and even closures of their retail stores. The account of the sales percentage of the pharma industry is more than the combined sales of all other industries put together.

Sales figures of E-Commerce giant Amazon which delivers A to Z products to the customers’ doorstep is expected to reach $416.48 billion which is about $12 billion more than the pre-COVID estimates. At the same time, the travel industry saw a whopping 35 percent crash in the estimated sales of 2020.

So, what does e-Commerce have in store for the future? We have tried to map the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on e-commerce from all angles in this article for your understanding.

The Good Effects on eCommerce 

Sale of hygiene products spiced up

The sale of hygiene products like masks, sanitizers, gloves, etc. have never seen a demand before like now which almost every eCommerce businesses have started selling them in their store. The COVID-19 scare has got people so much that people are looking for hygiene products more than anything else, in fact, some are even bulk buying them for the future.

Sudden surge for daily essentials and medicines

The need to avoid crowded stores has made people turn to online shopping for their daily essentials. Due to the fear of lockdown, panic-buying, and other restrictions, groceries are being highly stocked up fearing scarcity while medicines are being ordered in bulk amounts. Shoppers are spending more than usual on these items as they don’t want to run short of any supplies if at all lockdowns in their cities get extended. Other than groceries and medicines, household disinfectant products, perishable food items and home entertainment products like books, videos and board games also witnessed a huge demand.

Walmart is going to introduce Walmart+ as a competition to Amazon prime with yearly subscription plans that will give members great discounts, free deliveries and early access to promotional deals.

Recommended Blog: COVID-19 Effects: Time to Switch to Grocery eCommerce from Offline Grocery Business?

Fitness freaks go shopping spree

Gyms, swimming pools and other fitness centres are still shut in most of the countries as the possible scare of coronavirus widespread is keeping fitness conscious people at home but it is not stopping them from working out at home. The online sale of fitness equipment has shot up during the lockdown periods.

French sporting goods retailer Decathlon has seen a 220% growth on cycles, yoga mats, dumbbell kits and push-up bars. Nike saw an abrupt demand for its sneakers and other fitness accessories on its digital platform in the first and second quarter of 2020.  Although they have laid off many employees and shut many stores across the world due to government restrictions, they are now planning to invest in technology to better understand and target customers online and improve the online user experiences on their website.

The Bad Effects on eCommerce

Disruptions in supply chain and covering up losses

A lot of dependency for global trade was built on China over the years for being the primary producer of the supply chain for various industries. Small components of electronic items like mobile phones, TV, refrigerators and many other products were vastly imported from China and then assembled in the home country. With the operations of the manufacturing units in Wuhan coming to halt for nearly 2 quarters and China’s increasing political tensions with other countries, the world is facing a major scarcity in the supply chain.

Initially, brands gave huge discounts to continue customer traffic to their website but situations now have changed. In order to cover up the losses made during the first quarter; brands are increasing the prices of products to unreasonably high levels.  These factors are leading to less demand for non-essential items in the market.

Unpredictable consumer behaviour

COVID-19 pandemic has made consumers cautious. With the future being so foggy and the hope for a vaccine being uncertain, consumers are hesitant to spend anything more than essentials. Surprisingly, the definition of essentials has changed overnight with the onset of COVID-19 virus. According to a UK based market research firm, Kantar, sales of hand sanitisers saw an increase of more than 250 percent as compared to last year. Who would have thought that a product like a hand sanitiser would be the biggest selling item online?

McKinsey & Company have reported that due to falling in incomes, consumers are sticking to only essentials while the sale of fashion and apparels which was on the top game till last year has taken a backseat on consumer’s shopping list. This is because consumers aren’t very optimistic about their country’s dripping economy and its recovery.  There has been a shift from extravagant shopping to mindful shopping in consumers.

Product Safety concerns, deceptive practices, and cybersecurity concerns.

Most people are preferring shopping online as compared to visiting retail stores during the pandemic. However, safety protocols while delivering the product still is a major concern for many cautious consumers. People fear that the virus can enter their house through parcels as it has been exchanged by many hands before it reaches their doorstep and the delivery person has also visited many houses before he comes to theirs.

Cybercrimes have increased with scammers feasting on people’s vulnerability through fake emails and apps which gives them full access to the phone’s camera, location and photos. Such deceptive malpractices refrain people from using online payment portals as they don’t want to lose their hard-earned money during such uncertain times.

Promising Days Ahead for E-Commerce

eCommerce sure was a knight in the shining armour during the pandemic and hence, the popularity of eCommerce is only going to increase further in the coming days. Since it will take much longer for people to switch back to offline shopping, there are some moves eCommerce business owners can apply to keep going now and in the future ahead without any drop in sales, like remaining in constant touch with your customers by sending them Push Notifications, SMS, and emails reminding them how much you care for them, getting regular updates from your suppliers, getting a mobile commerce app solution developed to reach out to a wide number of customers, implementing contactless delivery, etc.

Final Thoughts

Companies that display resilience during testing times are the ones which survive. The threat is for those brands who don’t adapt quickly. Darwin’s theory of adaptation has always proven itself to be true when humankind is faced by unprecedented scenarios, where responding to change is the only option to survive.

Companies are closing their stores and investing money on mobile commerce app solutions to make shopping a delightful adventure for the customers which so far was just a basic app without a WOW experience.

So, if you are ready to give your retail store the much-required shift to go online and don’t want to be out of the race or are looking for a makeover of your age-old app then seek none but the best mcommerce app builder in town – MobiCommerce.