Modern business is all about technology, so innovation and quick adoption is the only way to succeed.

Consumer behavior is changing fast thanks to the easily available Internet via mobile phone. E-commerce has revolutionized the way people buy and sell goods and services.

The impact of disruption is visible in brick-and-mortar stores across the world.

Startups with innovative technologies like marketing insight, consumer behavior analysis, simplifying supply-chain and logistics, virtual reality, or blockchain technology to make transactions secure and straightforward are turning unicorns in just 2-3 years.

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The global e-commerce market is expected to reach US$6.07 trillion in 2024, with projected annual growth of over 11% during 2020-24. Besides economic growth aided by smart-phone linked behavioral changes, buying behavior of millennials, the most important factors driving the e-commerce industry are the simplification of the payment, third party logistics, and tech-enabled improvement of operational efficiency.

Although logistics and data security challenges remain, several startups are coming up with innovative solutions to revolutionize the way people shop and businesses operate, focusing on making the whole process simple, enjoyable, personal, and of course more cost-effective.

The last decade in the e-commerce space was all about simplifying the onboarding of vendors and attracting customers through tempting flash sales.

The goal might still be the same, but the effectiveness of the traditional approach is declining. Some of the new and upcoming waves of innovation in the e-commerce space to attract and engage customers, and make business more efficient and profitable are:

Frankly, customer acquisition isn’t a big challenge in the e-commerce space. Of course, products and services should be competitive, both quality and cost-wise, to retain customers and bring more customers through word-of-mouth.

But, almost all vendors struggle to maintain quality data to build and strengthen the relationship with clients.

Smart data capturing and a simple interface could be a game-changer as businesses are looking for something that integrates the e-commerce process comprising inventory management, order fulfillment, dispatch, follow-ups, and of course, marketing and targeting.

So, companies involved in finding innovative solutions to simplify the process will ride the unicorn wave in the coming times.

Geo-targeting customers through push notification aren’t new, as Google has been successfully doing so for a ,long to show prospects contextually relevant ads.

The next wave of innovation in this space could be synchronizing real-world experience with the online world. The idea revolves around showing something more appropriate and intriguing when the customer is perceptually closer to reality.

If a person is in a salon or spa, and s/he gets a notification about something related or more tempting like hot deals, the chances of conversion rate increases manifold.

So, capturing customers’ movement data and pairing them with possible visual triggers and showing quality results could revolutionize the way people shop online, especially when people don’t have free time to explore the best possible products and services.

The biggest possible hurdle for the e-commerce industry is minimizing the time between buying and delivery.

People love to touch and hold products, and studies suggest that the closer the product is to customers, the quicker the buying decision is. Logistics companies working with e-commerce companies can make it big if they could make it possible to deliver near real-time.

The gap between buying and delivery time is decreasing, but it is still too big to satisfactorily meet customers’ satisfaction.

Some companies are using blockchain technology to enhance logistic and shipping efficiency. Imagine a scenario when a vendor could swap orders with the nearest vendor to be delivered instantly at far less cost.

Information bombardment is reality, so is the resistance to such non-contextual information. The world is slowly moving from virtual socialization to personalization.

So the next big innovative wave could be creating something that could be less direct, very close to perceptual needs, and delivered in personal space without breaching the sense of privacy.

Pinduoduo is already changing the e-commerce landscape in China by introducing gaming in the shopping journey, of course with elements of fun, interaction, and highly gratifying rewards.

Another next big innovation happening in the e-commerce space is the smart use of augmented reality to help people experience products virtually through AR, VR, and MR. Facebook’s foray into metaverse is a big clue how online shopping is going to evolve in the coming years.

Frankly, data collection is not an issue anymore. It is making those data points usable and synchronizing them for effective marketing and positioning that is challenging.

Ecommerce players, big or small, are using raw data to target prospects blindly. Imagine a scenario that delivers relevant information, to target based on need and mood, and how it will drastically cut customer acquisition costs.

Most importantly, personalized information with customized solutions will make consumers feel special, with added benefits of time, energy, and money-saving.

No matter what, ultimately, it is all about winning consumers’ trust, so the e-commerce industry needs to constantly incubate ideas and develop technologies that could help them reach the target audience easily at the minimum possible cost.

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