Ecommerce

Future Trends and How E-commerce Will Change in 2013 and Beyond

What is E commerce? This is the main question that many people who don’t really have an idea about this prosperous industry ask themselves and when it comes to the answer, it’s quite simple. E-commerce is basically a term for any commercial transaction or type of business that involves the transfer of information across the web. In the last 5 years, the pace at which e-commerce has grown doubled compared to all retail sales and in the next 5 years, this trend will continue.

Just last year, e-commerce had a solid 14.8% growth rate over 2011, yet by 2017, 10% of all retails sales in the country will be made on the internet. According to Forester, in terms of value online sales will increase from 231 billion dollars this year to 370 billion dollars in 2017. Growth will happen not because of new shoppers, but from existing customers who are spending more money online.

What’s Driving Growth?

It seems that multi-channel offerings are something that the brick and mortar retailers are increasingly getting better at. Merchants are thus getting more experienced with accommodating the wishes of customers by allowing returns for items purchased online and also in-store pickup. Those who are actually experienced in online sales are witnessing their internet growth outpacing the growth of their store sales.

M-commerce Ruled by Tablets

Given the fact that more people are using smartphones and various apps, many merchants and analysts have been caught off guard. People prefer purchasing a lot of things by using their tablets and smartphones and according to Monetate, 20% of visits originate on mobile devices.

eMarketer research reports that this year tablets will account for 62.5% of all mobile commerce, regardless of the fact that compared to smartphones, they have a lower penetration. By 2017, that figure will rise to 71.5%. While in 2013 we have a 15% share of retail e-commerce sales in the US from mobile users, this will increase to 25% in 2017. An interesting aspect is also the fact that buyers who purchase online by using their mobile device tend to make a higher average order.

Amazon’s smart move: A profitable venture for US e-commerce

Amazon is the largest e-commerce website in the country and given its decision of implementing a new function, called “Login and Pay” it will actually allow people to make purchases without registering an account. This is a major move for Amazon which expects to see significant increases in sales this year. Certain sources say that the new function is partially aimed at mobile users, as many new shoppers were deterred by the thought of creating an account, which is in fact the main reason to why they abandoned finalizing a purchase.

According to comScore, the US e-commerce industry has topped 186.2 billion dollars in 2012, with hopes that 2013 will bring an increase of at least 15%. With the increasing number of smartphone and tablets users though, this will likely be made possible sooner than analysts expect.