The growing acceptance of ecommerce as a means to fulfill almost every shopping need is unlikely to abate anytime soon, experts believe. According to figures released by Forrester Research in an article on Internet Retailer, the number of consumers browsing and shopping online will reach 270 million by 2020. With greater penetration of wireless internet across the world, this also means that e-retailers need to prepare not only to expand their business geographically but also to cater to the growing masses demanding their products.
In fact, Forrester Research expects the addition of 26 million shoppers by 2020 to the already existing 244 million consumers at the end of 2015. This will lead to the online sale value reach a whopping $523 billion by 2020, representing a stark rise of 56% from 2015, where the total online sale value stood at $335 billion. According to statistics, the annual year-on-year growth of online sales from 2015 to 2020 is estimated to be around 9.32%.
In fact, Forrester Research expects the addition of 26 million shoppers by 2020 to the already existing 244 million consumers at the end of 2015. This will lead to the online sale value reach a whopping $523 billion by 2020, representing a stark rise of 56% from 2015, where the total online sale value stood at $335 billion. According to statistics, the annual year-on-year growth of online sales from 2015 to 2020 is estimated to be around 9.32%.
“Consumers are more accustomed to using their phones everywhere and shopping is a byproduct of that ubiquity”, says Sucharita Mulpuru, report author and Forrester’s principal analyst. The report adds that in 2015, more than $1 trillion in total purchases was powered by mobile phones alone.
Factors Driving This Market Growth
- Going International: According to statistics, 1.4 billion people are expected to become part of a global middle-class family, of which 85% will be in the Asia Pacific region. This represents huge potential market for any e-commerce business. Extracting the maximum out of this upcoming market can be the driving trend in the e-commerce market.
- Customer Fragmentation: Challenges like consumer fragmentation can also be the biggest market opportunity. It can be rightfully taken care of with the right tech support. The right software can help increase efficiency and expands a business’ overall reach, while also easing administrative and logistic processes. say experts at Key Software Systems. Also, better tech support software will help in improving the overall customer experience, by maintaining a single point of contact for all customers, agents and the company.
- Content Marketing: According to an article on Shopify, content is the holy grail for customer engagement. It is the most effective and cost-efficient marketing strategy. It takes minimal resources to create helpful, educational and even entertaining content. It can be an important factor in the customer experience. According to research by Gartner, about 64% of the people believe that customer experience is more important than the price point. Another study shows that quality content can help in increasing the conversion rate of a website from 6% to 12%.
- Personalization: Again the right technology is the way to go here. Customer interaction on a one-on-one level would mean more value for the customer’s time. Statistics show that already 62% of the e-commerce retailers are taking care of personalization in one form or the other. Personalization would include better customer service and better resolution of queries at a more personal level.
- Faster Payments: Already mobile payments have taken a major chunk of the payment market share. In 2015, the mobile payment market in the US reached approximately $8.7 billion. According to an article in Lets’ Talk Payment, it is estimated that payment transaction will reach $142 billion by 2019. The number of people opting for mobile payment transactions in 2016 is estimated at around 37.5 million, which in itself is an increase of 61.8% from 2015. Payment methods like mobile wallets are in their initial stages but are definitely a thing for the future, with around 78% customers being aware of them and approximately 32% already using them. With technological growth and even faster network connections expected in the future, mobile transactions are sure to lead the payment markets in the US and also around the world, fuelling further growth of the ecommerce market.