e-commerce, started as an almost nonexistent business model back in the 1970s, is now one of the most popular business practices. Technology is now powering the huge wave of changes happening in the e-commerce industry. It is redefining the industry in more ways than we can even begin to imagine. New concepts and their potential applications are getting discovered every passing day. In the last decade itself, e-Commerce has seen heightened consumer interest and participation. This has led to estimated sales of about USD 27 trillion in 2020 alone. Riding on tech, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow to USD 350 billion by 2030. Much of the growth for the industry has been triggered by an increase in internet and smartphone penetration.
“India continues to be one of the fastest growing markets in the world of ecommerce. And I think there are a few reasons what is fueling this growth. One is the booming internet usage, and smartphone penetration in every nook and corner of the country. Even in the remotest village you will find smartphones with fairly good bandwidth speeds. Last, but not the least, is the UPI payments—backbone which is very closely related to making e-commerce even more accessible and friendlier to consumers,” says Sridhar Hariharasubramanian, Senior Director, Solution Engineering, Salesforce.
As newer technologies like VR, AR, Big Data, ERP, AI and more enable e-Commerce businesses to grow and thrive, it is only a matter of time before the industry expands in completely unprecedented ways.
“Over the last few years, e-commerce has boomed due to the rapid adoption of digital technologies, propelling innovation, and economic growth at an unprecedented rate. With the rise of cloud-connected apps, digitalisation has also unveiled new identity-related threats, as the number of connected devices and identities that need to be authenticated continues to soar. This has brought identity security to the forefront of conversations in today’s digital landscape,” says Sumit Srivastava – Solutions Engineering Manager – India & SAARC at CyberArk.
“When compared to other global economies, the Indian e-commerce industry is a very small subset of the retail market. The industry is projected to grow to 350 billion USD by 2030. What has happened now is that demand and desire have grown from “convenience items” to everything under the sun, and they are highly influenced by immersive technologies and the lives that consumers live through their smartphones, shares Nisschal Jaain, Co-founder and CEO, Shypmax.
But how profound is the influence of technology on e-Commerce? “Trends such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and online payment gateways are making headway in creating a premium and convenient consumer experience, which are the developments that will shape the future of e-commerce. Additionally, there are also trends influenced by marketing expertise, such as innovative and multi-formatted product advertisements, gamification, automated advertising, etc.,”explains Nisschal. This feature is an attempt to find what the most impacted areas are.
AR and VR: transforming customer experiences: Emerging technologies like AR and VR have the potential to reshape the world of retail. In fact, several major investments are being made to develop powerful, technologically advanced AR and VR products for the e-commerce market. With comfort and efficiency becoming critical factors in e-commerce a notable impact VR and AR has on e-commerce is the convenience it brings to consumers, and to retailers. With VR integration, shoppers can get a three-dimensional feel of the shop just by wearing VR headsets. They can discover items exactly like in a real shop, browse the specifications of each one displayed on screen, and make quick purchase decisions. An AR-integrated app can take the immersive experience one-step further. For instance – if a shopper likes a chair and wants to see how it will look in their room; they can pull up the camera against the spot of their room. The app will display a 3-D overlay of the chair against the background. While the technology is still new, it makes sense for retailers to make the most of this transformative technology and offer unmatched experiences to customers while trying to outperform the competition.
Big data and its use: Nobody knows exactly what will be possible in the future, but it’s certain to be driven by data. Big data can make a significant impact on your customer service. But the problem is that even many of the largest businesses around aren’t using their data effectively. An advanced behavioural analytics solution can help e-Commerce businesses get complete visibility into every step of the customer journey and crack the ‘digital-shopper genome’ as McKinsey puts it. Big data can also be used to create extremely precise models, which can then be used to run simulations of real-world scenarios. This can be further used to make definitive business decisions like finalising a personalised marketing campaign, starting a website redesign, launching a new product or expanding the business to a new region.
AI & personalization: Through AI content personalization, organisations can build unique profiles of users and customers and tailor their products, advertisements and services to better fit them. Predictive personalization uses data analysis and profiling tools to adapt content in real-time to optimize conversions automatically. This enables much more complex personalization powered by machine learning algorithms. This type of personalization goes beyond even highly targeted “micro-segmentation” to achieve a unique offer optimized for each individual. This rapidly progressing field is being used for new and innovative applications all the time and we can only guess at how the changing face of marketing may look a few years from now. Some companies are already using AI to drive personalized product development
Mobile commerce: Mobile commerce has long been touted as the future of ecommerce itself. Mobile commerce (also referred to as “m-commerce”) is a branch of ecommerce that covers any transactions conducted on a mobile device. Unprecedented advancement in mobile technology has made smartphones the most popular buying medium for online shoppers, with a wide majority of first-time digital buyers to conduct monetary transactions via mobile devices. Apart from customer preference, e-Commerce businesses, especially those interested in omni-channel retail, are also going the mobile-first way for another vital reason – being visible in the app store enables them to extend their reach as well as get a branding advantage. Mobile commerce offers customers a variety of personalized purchasing options as well as additional marketing channels. Such apps can go viral and leverage their consumer base much faster with mobile-only offers, discounted prices, free shipping for app users, and coupons & promo codes.
The ERP convenience: With robust Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, brands are now focusing on instantaneous communication, information transfer, logistics processing and online networking. Sellers no longer need to micromanage each aspect of their business in order to ensure timely delivery of their products to the warehouse and then, the end-user. Instead, ERP-powered process integration can alleviate their stress by lessening involvement of human resources, eliminating delays resulting from human errors, improving internal productivity and reducing operational costs. Real-time availability of data about stocks and deal status can help to reduce overstocking and wastage, thereby reducing inventory costs significantly.
The security factor
Ecommerce sites will always be a hot target for cyberattacks, as they are treasure troves of personal and financial data. The cost of a breach both in loss of data and in customer trust can be hugely damaging for businesses of all sizes.
“As a must-have, e-commerce platforms need a robust security posture and compliance program to deliver a frictionless and secure purchasing experience that customers expect and rightfully demand. Digital identity verification, such as Know Your Customer (KYC), is an essential part of retailers’ arsenal in the fight against identity fraud, making it possible to spot and quickly stop fraudsters in their tracks. Organisations should also consider secure authentication methods such as multi-factor authentication to verify their customers’ identity and ensure that only duly authorised people are making purchases. E-commerce security needs to prevent access to personal and credit card data, protect confidential information through hacking, and prevent phishing attacks by fraudulent sites posing as a particular e-commerce site. To stand against hackers, e-commerce businesses need to approach their digital security holistically while ensuring continuity of seamless experience with unified user authentication as customer interactions change from platform to platform or device to device,” explains Sumit.
In this constant game of cat and mouse, as online retailers add increasingly innovative technologies to their sites to stay competitive, cyber attackers are equally honing their skills and finding new vulnerabilities to exploit. The best way to stay ahead is to be aware of ecommerce security best practices and the types of attacks to be on the look out for.
Cyber security for online merchants has never been more important than now. The first line of defence against cyber criminals is to have a cyber security policy. With a cyber security policy, you can ensure that everyone you work with is on the same page about staying cyber secure.
E-commerce in Metaverse
Nisschal says, “The metaverse is the result of the seamless integration of numerous technological advancements. In the e-commerce space, it will enable online shoppers to interact with items in real-time from the convenience and ease of their homes. It is the ideal solution for a lot of physical restrictions currently present in business, given that brands wishing to create and maintain an omnipresent strategy will be able to do so with minimal constraints and commercials. There’s also much to be said about the consumer experience, as businesses will be able to provide consumers with highly personalised digital experiences.”
Conclusion
E-commerce has come a long way since it began in the 1970s. It started out as an almost nonexistent business model and is now one of the most frequent business practices being exercised in the modern era. With new technologies emerging such as VR, AR, biometrics, AI and more, e-commerce will only continue to grow and thrive. Technology is functioning as the rudder that propels the e-commerce industry. It’s only a matter of time before it expands in entirely new directions.