Four Ways E-Commerce is Evolving in 2020
Welcome to the second half of the year - we've gone through a rollercoaster of events in the first half, and it seems that we're only just getting started. Here are how the biggest trends at the start of 2020 ave evolved post-COVID.Â
Retail has certainly gone through the wringer, and as a result, e-commerce experienced an unprecedented boom. How will things look in the second half of the year, and what should retailers anticipate?
While the e-commerce boom was particularly felt from March to May, there hasn’t been any signs of slowing down. Many retailers have chosen to immerse themselves into e-commerce.
Personalisation and Customisation are Big Hits
This is no new trend, but as more people use online shopping as their primary tool in the future, personalisation and customisation are only going to become more prominent. How can retailers take their personalisation and customisation to the next level? Build interactive content such as:
- Quizzes
- Surveys
- Multiple choice posts
- How-To Videos
Replicating an In-Store Experience
It’s hard to replicate the in-store experience online, but as times change, so does online retail. Retailers across Australia are taking the closure of physical stores and injecting their experiences online. Mecca is a great example here: during the pandemic, stores remained shut. However, using FaceTime, the employees could replicate an in-store experience from their own home, virtually and seamlessly.
Understand and Embrace Social Media
Social commerce has been bubbling away as one of the underdogs of e-commerce, and now it’s hitting the big time. As Instagram and Facebook truly define themselves as shopping platforms, now is the time to get involved in the action. According to a study from Avionos, 55 percent of online shoppers have made at least one purchase via a social media platform.

via Cotton On
Learn to be Flexible with Payments
It’s no longer acceptable to have one or two payment options in 2020. Now, it’s time for retailers to be more flexible than ever with their payment options. Five of the most popular forms (in no particular order) of payments in Australia include:
- Debit / Credit Card
- PayPal
- Afterpay
- Zip
- AliPay
From BNPL to PayPal and AliPay, the more options a shopper has, the less likely they are to abandon a shopping cart.
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