15 eCommerce Trends to Look Forward to in 2023

eCommerce is an evolving industry. To gain a competitive advantage, you must keep track of the latest trends and developments in the eCommerce space. Check out the blog to learn about 15 such eCommerce trends that are a hot cake this year.

Shopping today is different than what it used to be a few years ago. You don’t have to spend hours visiting popular retail stores in the city. You can order a product today, which will be delivered tomorrow.

This radical shift has made online shopping a favorite among many people. According to the global eCommerce growth forecast for 2022 by Morgan Stanely, eCommerce sales in the US will increase to 31% of retail sales by 2026 from 23% in 2022.

Brick-and-mortar stores will still be integral to the eCommerce world. Consumers now rely on eCommerce stores to order and purchase their favorite products. eCommerce business owners must build ecommerce solutions that engage visitors and maximize purchases. They would have to keep up with the latest ecommerce trends and adapt to the evolving behavior.

Let’s look at the top ecommerce trends you need to know, adapt, and integrate into your eCommerce website in 2023:

Top 15 eCommerce Trends for 2023

eCommerce web development has seen phenomenal growth & changes over the last few years. New features, more sophisticated elements, and a more incredible customer-oriented approach guide the overall business policy. The following are some top eCommerce trends online retailers are poised to embrace in 2023.

1. Zero-party data and privacy

Each consumer wants a personalized shopping experience. However, not all of them are comfortable sharing their data. Most are concerned about how the eCommerce website would use their data or if collecting data poses any security risks.

Given this and in the wake of Google’s planning to end the support for third-party cookies this year, many brands have started adopting a zero-party data policy to counter the issues of third-party cookies.

Are consumers concerned about zero-party data during online shopping? Yes, at least that’s what the Q1 2023 Sprout Pulse survey reveals.

However, 55% of consumers feel it’s okay if brands use their personal information to deliver relevant content and offers.

As the eCommerce industry moves toward zero-party data, you must learn how to balance data privacy concerns and collect customers’ data to offer personalized shopping experiences. Here are a few things you can do:

• Ensure you collect customer data in-house to avoid a breach, theft, or other issues.
• Implement appropriate data security and privacy protocols to ensure your customer data is safe.
• Be transparent with your data collection policies. Clearly state how you collect, store, and use this data.

2. AR & VR shopping experiences

Do you know why most people hesitate to buy a product online? It’s because they’re skeptical about whether it would fit or not. However, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) solve this issue by letting you try products before ordering them.

As a result:

• Consumers get the feel and glimpse of the product even if they don’t see it. For example, they can assess how a T-shirt would look on them or how a piece of furniture would look in their room before they order it.
• Consumers can make more informed decisions as they preview a product before buying it, thus leading to lower product returns.

IKEA is a famous example of a brand using AR to improve the consumer shopping experience. It uses AR to let consumers try furniture before buying it. They can see if the new table will fit their living room using it.

Here’s how you can use AR and VR to improve consumers’ shopping experience:

• Invest in AR ecommerce features through your brand’s or AR app like Snapchat.
• Showcase how customers can use your brand’s AR offerings on social media.

3. Voice search

In 2023, many consumers rely on smart speakers and voice assistants for day-to-day tasks. They prefer asking Alexa and Siri for product recommendations instead of manually reviewing various product collections and sizes. It saves their time and makes their shopping experience immersive. That’s why eCommerce businesses leverage voice search to level up their strategy to improve customer experience, increase sales, and gain a competitive edge.

You must also optimize voice search on your eCommerce website to stay competitive and retain your customers. Here’s what you can do:

• Optimize voice search by using traditional search engine optimization and semantic strategy.
• Optimize product/service descriptions for search using natural speech like “who,” “what,” “where,” “why,” “when,” and “how.”

4. Conversational marketing

Consumers don’t just look for quality products but also for immersive experiences and meaningful conversations that can make them feel valued and engaged. That’s why conversational marketing is on the rise, using which customers can get answers about the product/service or even buy a product with the help of a Chatbot or live agent.

Conversational marketing benefits eCommerce businesses by:

• Helping them engage customers through meaningful conversations.
• Boosting sales through personalized recommendations and offers they can’t refuse.
• Gathering valuable customer data and real-time feedback to make informed decisions.
• Reducing service costs by providing quick and efficient support.

To leverage conversational marketing, eCommerce business owners must:

• Implement Chatbot on their official website or social platforms.
• Use Chatbot call-to-action prompts or live agents with Chatbot to optimize conversations.

5. Loyalty programs

64 percent of customers are more likely to purchase more frequently from brands that offer a customer loyalty program. 50% would even recommend them further. – Mckinsy Research

Customers are savvy these days. A great customer experience can make them purchase a product. But to make them stay, you must offer them something more concrete, such as a loyalty program.

People love loyalty programs because they reward regular customers for repeat purchases. On each purchase, they receive rewards like cash-back, discounts, next-purchase coupons, and freebies. This way, customers stay engaged and keep coming back to purchase more.

Here are some other benefits of loyalty programs include:

• Improves customer retention
• Increases sales
• Improves overall customer experience
• Promoting word-of-mouth sales
• Providing valuable data about consumer behavior

Companies like Starbucks use the data from their loyalty programs to understand customers’ buying behaviors and present them with special offers based on their unique purchase history.

Loyalty programs can be successful even if you can source 20% of sales using them.

6. Buy now, pay later (BNPL)

Sometimes, a customer likes a product but doesn’t buy it because they don’t have enough budget to spare. Many eCommerce businesses have launched a scheme called buy now, pay later to ensure they don’t miss out on such customers. It allows shoppers to pay for products in regular installments over some time rather than spending it upfront.

39% of consumers prefer BNPL over credit card payments since BNPL agreements are typically interest-free. The scheme is trendy among the 34-44 age brackets, with 50.1% of consumers preferring it, followed by the 25-34 age group (48% of consumers choosing BNPL).

Popular platforms facilitating BNPL transactions include Klarna, PayPal, Afterpay, Affirm, and Sezzle. Mastercard has also introduced Masterpay Installments – a Buy Now, Pay Later scheme for users who can’t afford to pay upfront for products.

Retailers are adopting the BNPL model because it has been shown to:

• Reduce cart abandonment rate,
• Boost sales,
• Speed up the checkout process,
• Increase order value size.

Pro Tip: Shopify also offers a BNPL plugin for its customers called Shop Pay Installments for its customers. Hence, you don’t have to integrate a third-party BNPL provider if you use Shopify to build your eCommerce platform.

7. Personalized shopping experiences

49% of consumers say they will become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a retailer. – State of Personalization 2022

Customers are looking for personalized shopping experiences. They want you to recommend products they may like and offer a seamless experience across all channels, along with attractive discounts and cash backs. Even when it comes to payments, they want to offer various options. 42% would even abandon the website without completing the purchase.

Hence, it’s high time you leverage personalization to improve the shopping experience on your eCommerce website. Many brands implementing personalization are already reaping benefits. BCG’s personalization maturity index states that retailers using personalization on their websites earn 4x revenue on average compared to those without.

Here’s how you can implement personalization on your eCommerce website:

• Offer product recommendations and exclusive offers tailored to each customer’s journey.
• Offer multiple payment methods like Credit/Debit card payments, Google Pay, Apple Pay, or Klarna (a buy now, pay later service).

8. Video Marketing

92% of video marketers say they’ve gotten a good ROI from video marketing. – Wyzowl Video Survey 2023

Video is all the rage in eCommerce, with online retailers leveraging everything from product explainer videos to video testimonials in their marketing offers. It makes perfect sense when you think about it because video takes the guesswork out of ordering a product you’ve never seen. You can see the item in action, understand its size (which a photo might not convey), and figure out how it works if it’s a product with moving parts.

Moreover, people tend to prefer video over reading through product descriptions. According to the same video survey by Wyzowl, 91% of consumers like seeing more video content from brands.

Here are a few other compelling advantages of video marketing:

• Easy and dynamic engagement
• The opportunity to display authentic customer reviews and demonstrate social proof
• Reduced likelihood of costly returns since customers know what they’re getting.

Pro Tip: Software platforms like VideoWise can help you find, collect and post customer-generated review videos for the products you sell.

9. Social commerce/Influencer marketing

Social commerce involves selling products directly through social media channels. Short videos, paid advertisements, and influencer marketing help drive purchase decisions on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube Shorts.

Shopify and other eCommerce platforms have invested in efforts to help their customers take advantage of social commerce. By partnering with TikTok, eCommerce companies that use Shopify can easily advertise on the platform. The TikTok Ads Manager sits on the Shopify dashboard, making creating, customizing, and publishing product ads easy.

Here are the compelling benefits of social commerce:

• Social proof from influencers can boost sales
• Brands can gain followers and expand their reach
• Social commerce improves brand-to-consumer communication and customer engagement

10. mCommerce (Mobile Commerce)

Mobile Commerce (also called mCommerce) is a fancy way to describe eCommerce focused on mobile users, making it easier for them to buy products from smartphones and tablets.

Many eCommerce businesses are building mobile-first strategies as mobile traffic continues to rise. Mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) payment systems make it easier than ever to conduct business from smartphones, and SMS (text-based) marketing makes connecting with customers to earn repeat business easier.

SMS marketing tools like LiveRecover make connecting with customers easily via SMS, providing order information and reducing abandoned carts by reminding customers to return and place their orders. LiveRecover is available for Shopify stores.

Additionally, focusing on mCommerce can:

• help you reach more customers
• attract new customers who prefer using their mobile phones
• encourage repeat business with push notifications and SMS marketing
• enable location-based personalization

11. Live streaming commerce

Live streaming commerce would account for 10-20% of all eCommerce sales by 2026. – Statista

Have you ever found yourself flipping through TV channels at a hotel, stumbling over the Home Shopping Network? You may have wondered who on earth would buy a pair of earrings from a stranger on TV. Well, something similar is taking the eCommerce world by storm!

Live Streaming Commerce is a new trend where brands (or influencers they’ve hired) do live streams (i.e., produce live content where their audience can interact with them), placing commercial products front and center. And they’re not just plugging those products and offering a link in the description. Some video streaming platforms make it possible to purchase those items directly from a live stream.

Live streaming commerce is currently quite popular in China and is gaining ground in the U.S. Brands can stream shows on television, social media channels, websites, or mobile apps live.

The following are some examples of successful livestream commerce efforts.

a. Walmart + TikTok

In 2021, Walmart collaborated with TikTok for a live-streamed shopping experience. Viewers could add items to their cart with a simple click.

The event garnered 7 times more viewers than anticipated, leading to a 25% increase in follower count.

b. Amazon Live

Amazon has launched a standalone live stream platform called “Amazon Live” for its audience. The platform has endless shoppable live streams, where influencers and curators post product-oriented videos and special offers.

Viewers can also ask product-related questions on the chat, which increases engagement and boosts sales.

c. Facebook + Live Shopping Fridays

Facebook is experimenting with live shoppable videos where viewers can watch and place orders simultaneously. These videos include product demos from a wide variety of brands. Viewers can experience new products, ask questions, and place orders without leaving the Facebook platform.

Here are the benefits of Live Streaming Commerce:

• Improved customer reach
• Increased brand awareness
• Reduced returns
• Improved customer engagement

12. Visual search

The global visual search market is estimated to surpass $14,727m this year, growing at a CAGR of 9% during 2018-2023. – IndustryARC

Tech-savvy internet users have been using reverse-image searches for years on Google, but the technology has taken a step forward—offering an entirely new eCommerce shopping experience.

Thanks to Google’s Multitask Unified Model algorithm (MUM), a shopper can upload an image of something they’d like to buy, and the search engine will present them with a whole host of similar items for sale. MUM will be integrated with Google Lens, making visual product searches seamless.

If you run an eCommerce business model that works well with visual search, you’ll want to optimize your images and product descriptions to meet MUM standards. This will help them rank better in a search and enable direct purchases.

Some of the best eCommerce platforms are beginning to offer visual search capabilities that you can embed on your website and mobile app. For example, Shopify has apps like Visual Search, and Magento offers Product Search Via Image Extension.

Here are the benefits of optimizing Visual Search:

• Customers can easily find your products
• It’s a great way to reach Gen-Z shoppers
• Visual search is likely to grow in popularity as more consumers discover it

13. Big data

Data will grow 61% to 175 zettabytes by 2025. – IDC Report

Consumers know that eCommerce websites collect their data, whether they’re open about it or not. While around 55% feel it’s okay if brands use their details to offer them unique shopping experiences, some are not okay with brands collecting their personal information. With new legislation being passed, they can even opt out of it.

It would create an exciting scenario. On the one hand, you would have customers with hyper-personalized shopping experiences. On another, you would have the ones who don’t, as they chose not to share their personal information. A significant challenge among eCommerce business owners is to strike a balance between both. For this, they must decide which details they should collect from customers based on their comfort level and leverage that data to customize their shopping experience.

14. Headless and API-driven commerce

In today’s hypercompetitive eCommerce space, you can’t wait for customers to land on your website and buy from you. Instead, you must offer them an omnichannel experience where you can convert them where they are with content optimized to their unique needs. It has led to the rise of Headless and API-driven eCommerce.
In headless eCommerce, an eCommerce platform is decoupled from the frontend presentation layer. As a result, businesses get more control over the content and customer journey. This way, they can easily convert customers and boost their sales.

15. Sustainability

Achieving eCommerce sustainability means building a brand that supports environmentally-friendly practices, from green packaging to more eco-friendly shipping. Not only is it the right thing to do for the planet, but it’s an essential issue for many consumers as they now care about sustainability, given issues like climate change and global warming. Going green might help you expand your market share while you help make the Earth more habitable.

You can achieve eCommerce sustainability by:

• Evaluating how your brand can follow sustainable business practices.
• Analyzing how you can make your products or services more eco-friendly.

Adapt to an Ever-changing Industry with Net Solutions

Retail sales are one of the oldest business models in the world, but eCommerce is forever evolving. Understanding the latest trends will help you stay ahead of the competition, integrating techniques that work best for your brand and business model. Hence, you must monitor your competitors, observe the new techniques to rs, and prioritize changes impacting your bottom line.

Need a tech partner to integrate any of these updates? Net Solutions has built and enhanced countless eCommerce websites, serving everything from small businesses to retail giants like Euro Car Parts, 2XU, and Legend Footwear. We’ve updated their eCommerce technology to compete as they expanded internationally and helped them adapt to the latest changes in this dynamic sector. Contact us if you’re looking to build a new eCommerce website or optimize your existing one.