The e-commerce market is developing very fast. The last 2 years of the pandemic have further accelerated this growth, forcing many traditional retailers to start selling online. In the face of enormous competition and constant innovations, we all wonder how to stand out on the market and what trends not to miss. Below you will find a list of 5 trends that will storm e-commerce stores in 2022 and that no shop owner should underestimate!
1. Live shopping
Live shopping is a trend that came to us from Asia. It is a combination of live video streaming and e-commerce that allows viewers to watch and shop at the same time. In 2020, the first 30 minutes of Alibaba’s pre-order campaign for Singles Day on Taobao Live generated an impressive total transaction value of $ 7.5 billion. In Poland, the possibility of selling products during the influencer stream is possible thanks to the Corner App, and YouTube will soon introduce a similar functionality. TikTok have launched a live shopping experience for the UK users recently – the video sharing app has launched a live event where users will be able to buy products directly on the platform. In the UK the possibility of selling products during the influencer stream is possible thanks to tools like Bambuser or Livescale.
2. Same day delivery
Same-day delivery is now available in the largest Polish online stores, such as mediamarkt.pl or eobuwie.com.pl. Recently, this form of delivery has also been available from selected sellers on Allegro. Contrary to popular belief, the service of delivering products on the same day is not only the domain of the biggest players on the e-commerce market – to be able to deliver orders to customers in such a short time all it takes is to cooperate with one of the many companies offering express shipping, such as CitySprint. All orders received by the specified time will be delivered on the same day to buyers.
3. Pro-social activities
The study “Social involvement of companies” by the SWPS University and LOTTE Wedel shows that 58% of consumers are more likely to buy products from companies that are involved in social activities. There are more and more stores on the market, which strengthen their image by focusing on pro-social activities, such as ethical production, ecological packaging or supporting charitable foundations. Cooperation with renowned charitable foundations requires signing complex contracts, which generally only enables large stores to take on such initiatives. DonateWise is here to help – a comprehensive charity solution for e-commerce that allows you to transfer a percentage of sales to a foundation chosen by the store and it’s consumers, without the necessity of signing complicated contracts or having to go through a difficult implementation process.
4. Voice commerce
Voice commerce is a technology that allows you to make purchases in online stores by voice, without the need to click the mouse. It is a technology that is gaining popularity in the era of digital assistants such as Siri, Alexa or the Google Assistant. Voice is our natural communication interface, so voice purchases seem to be the obvious direction of development in e-commerce. Almost half of UK households are forecast to own a smart speaker by 2022, up from 10% today.
5. Reusable packaging
One of the downsides of such a sharp increase in sales through mail order is the waste generated by packaging. Polish logistics company inPost started an interesting initiative aiming to reduce the amount of waste through the use of a secondary packaging circulation system. Package dimensions are perfectly matched to the size of the product shipped, so as not to carry air, and can be reused. It is enough to scan the packaging in any parcel locker and it will be returned to the InPost warehouse. From there, it is to be returned to the store and reused later. In the UK similar solutions are offered by RePack.