With physical store locations shutting down across the globe due to COVID-19, consumers turned to ecommerce. By the end of 2020, global ecommerce was predicted to reach $3.9 trillion, and by 2024, that number is forecasted to rise to $7 trillion, which is 25% of total retail sales.
And as our partner, Attentive—a comprehensive text message platform—shows in their 2021 SMS Marketing Consumer Trends Report that 75% of consumers not only shopped online considerably more in 2020 than they did in 2019, but also more shoppers than ever used their smartphones to complete online purchases. As the survey shows, 57% of shoppers primarily use their phones for online shopping, and 37% use a mix of mobile and desktop. As few as 6% stated that they primarily do their online shopping on a desktop.
Looking to 2022, many consumers have signaled that they’ll take their new online shopping habits into the new year. With the acceleration of ecommerce—including more purchases made on smartphones—the ways that consumers interact with brands will continue to shift fundamentally.
My recent post on omnichannel strategy and investments in mobile ecommerce looks at the different value propositions of mobile websites and mobile apps. However, what other mobile trends are worth looking at considering the continued growth in mobile adoption and commerce?
Below we’ve listed the 9 most prominent trends we see right now.
Trend 1: SMS Marketing
Most companies are not yet using SMS Marketing to its full potential. There are many opportunities for brands to use this marketing technique to optimize their conversions and profits, and create meaningful interactions through personalized messaging. Moving forward, more brands will invest in text message marketing—whether launching their SMS channel or building upon their existing program.
As more and more consumers shop on their smartphones, they’re becoming interested in managing all aspects of their orders via mobile, including communicating with customer support. This is a natural evolution of the mobile shopping experience that benefits both consumers and brands. And as more and more companies start using SMS marketing, the revenue from SMS—and overall customer engagement—will continue to grow.
SMS marketing isn’t just limited to lead generation and driving conversions. It’s also the perfect tool for branding, service messaging, and building customer relationships.
Trend 2: Livestream Ecommerce
More and more, shoppers are choosing live streaming over the traditional ecommerce experience. Why? Because they prefer to see their product in action before making a purchase. Livestream ecommerce is a rapidly growing trend that allows companies to engage with customers more effectively than traditional ecommerce techniques.
As Brian Dearth explores more in-depth in his blog post on Ecommerce Trends: 2022 Outlook, Livestream Commerce is definitely a trend you should consider heading into 2022. Livestream shopping takes place on different social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok, and consumers primarily engage with these social networks via their mobile devices.
Related reading: Livestream Ecommerce is the Future of Shopping
Trend 3: Voice Shopping
Over the past couple of years, voice technology and assistants like Siri and Alexa have grown increasingly popular. This is changing how consumers use voice search. At first, people would mostly use voice search to check the weather forecast or ask for their favorite song. But as the technology evolves, so do the use cases, and voice is becoming increasingly relevant for ecommerce merchants to consider.
Voice shopping is predicted to reach $40 billion by 2022. Up from a more modest $2 billion in 2018, that represents a 1,900% increase in four years. And as of today, 40% of consumers use voice search daily. This increase will profoundly affect ecommerce. Today, voice search accounts for almost 20% of all searches made on mobile devices. 22% of people regularly use voice search to make purchases, and 51% of consumers use voice to research products.
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Trend 4: Mobile Shopping Apps
The way people are using their devices to shop is changing. One very significant mobile commerce trend is the increasing use of mobile shopping apps. This is one of the most influential mobile commerce trends right now, and it’s rapidly changing the ecommerce landscape.
In 2019, as many as 57% of US consumers used mobile retail apps to learn about products. So instead of using an Internet browser, more than 50% of US shoppers went directly for an app to get their shopping done.
This change in consumer behavior will be a game-changer for ecommerce merchants. As even more consumers use smartphones, it will be necessary for ecommerce retailers to have mobile-optimized websites and offer native shopping apps. Apps that allow shoppers to buy products or services with just a few taps on their phone screen.
Trend 5: One-Click Ordering
Amazon invented One-Click Ordering to allow customers to place orders with just one click of the mouse. Today, it is a popular feature on many ecommerce sites. One-Click Ordering simplifies customer checkout by allowing shoppers to purchase items without re-entering payment information for each item they buy.
Placing an order online requires a lot of information from the consumer. And having to manually enter all this information every time you want to make a purchase online is tedious, especially when using the small screen of a mobile device. This is one of the reasons the abandonment rate of mobile site shopping carts is a staggering 97%. Compare that to mobile apps, where the cart abandonment rate is only 20%, and you begin to understand the potential.
Trend 6: Social Ecommerce
Social ecommerce is becoming an increasingly important trend for marketers, retail executives, and consumers themselves. Now, more than ever before, social media networks play a pivotal role in the way people browse for products, interact with brands—and make purchases.
In 2021, even more brands will be partnering with social sites for advertising and integrating ecommerce functionality on social sites—to allow consumers to scroll, research, shop, and connect with their friends and favorite brands at the same time.
As social commerce continues to take over how consumers connect every day, you need to begin strategizing how to incorporate it into your business plan.
Related reading: What is Social Commerce? 13 Tactics to Get Started
Trend 7: Mobile Chatbots
Increased customer expectations mean that customers now demand a hyper-personalized experience once they engage with a brand. With an increasing number of customers using mobile devices to interact, ecommerce sites need to innovate and improve the customer shopping experience constantly.
Many brands are already leveraging chatbot technology on their ecommerce website. It’s a great way to provide a customer-centric shopping experience, and it keeps increasing in popularity. Customers often need help when shopping online, and many consumers prefer a chatbot over a human sales representative because it’s so quick and convenient. Many ecommerce websites provide this functionality already. The popularity of mobile commerce chatbots will continue to grow in the future as well.
Trend 8: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality has been around for decades, but it is only now beginning to make an impact on the marketing world.
Some mobile shopping apps are already using Augmented Reality (AR) to improve the customer shopping experience, and more and more merchants are becoming aware of the potential of VR.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies together provide a full virtual experience that allows customers to see, hear, and interact with products as if they were really there. The combination of VR and AR enables ecommerce brands to wow their customers, by transporting them into another world.
Whether it’s shopping at their favorite department store or watching sports events in real-time from home, Virtual Reality can make customers feel like they are anywhere.
Trend 9: Mobile Payments
Mobile Payments in ecommerce are shifting the way consumers make payments online. As mobile penetration (number of phones per person) rises, the demand for m-payments will also grow.
Consumers use mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Alipay to make payments when shopping from mobile retail apps. It’s a quick and safe way to shop, and these wallets can also be used for touchless payments in brick-and-mortar shops.
How Vaimo Can Help
At Vaimo, we work with brands, retailers and manufacturers all over the world, helping them sync all of their channels and create winning E Commerce and M Commerce strategies. Get in touch with our team of experts to learn how we can help you take your ecommerce business to the next level.
