5 e-commerce trends to watch in 2023

E-commerce continued its steady rise in 2022 and has become an integral part of our lives. The global ecommerce market grew to over $3 trillion in 2022 from the $2.6 trillion recorded in 2021, a growth that represents 15.7% CAGR.

Growth in ecommerce is set to continue well into 2026 and beyond at an average of 12.24% CAGR per year with the global ecommerce market set to cross the $5 trillion mark in 2026.

As we look towards 2023, there are several key trends that businesses in the e-commerce space should be aware of.

Mobile is king

Smartphones have taken over the world and are now a pivotal part of our day-to-day lives. People continue to spend more time on their smartphones and tablets than any other device making it a necessity for businesses in the ecommerce space to optimize their sites for mobile to deliver seamless mobile shopping experiences.

According to Salesforce’s report, global black friday shopping in 2022 hit $40 billion globally with 78% of sales traffic coming from mobile. Mobile is also expected to account for 50% of all online shopping revenue in the US in 2022.

Technology is changing the game (for the better)

Big data and artificial intelligence are changing the e-commerce industry and their influence is only expected to grow in 2023.

Businesses who use customer data to provide personalized product suggestions and recommendations and targeted discounts based on personal activity using big data and artificial intelligence have seen 60% of their customers buy again.

With artificial intelligence, businesses can also handle multiple conversations across different channels (sms, social media etc) at once, providing 24/7 personalized support.

Rise of social commerce

From Tiktok shoppable ads to Pinterest shopping lists, Instagram drops etc, social channels are set to continue to prod shoppers and merchants to do business on their platforms.

It is therefore more important than ever for brands to invest in content marketing in order to building an online reputation and community around their brand on social media.

Younger users now also use social media channels like Tiktok to conduct research on businesses they want to do business with.

Eco-friendly brands are winning

The race to save the planet is picking up pace and online buyers are doing their part by vetting the eco-friendliness of brands they do business with.

Shoppers tend to favour brands who make real efforts to contribute to the fight against climate change by using sustainable materials for their products, shipping or packaging. Brands also get extra points for providing channels to repurpose or resell their products.

It is important to add that consumers are also paying attention and cancelling brands caught greenwashing.

Diverse payment methods

The increase in the use of payment services like Stripe, Apple Pay, Square, Affirm etc has seen checkout bounce rates reduce significantly as a lack of sufficient payment options has always been one of the top reasons for bounces during checkout.

It will also be interesting to see what the future holds for Buy-Now-Pay-Later which rose to unprecedented levels in 2022 allowing users to pay for purchases in instalments.

Crypto currency may also gain greater acceptance in 2023 although their instability continues to remain a stumbling block.

‍

Other trends that rocked 2022 and may impact the ecommerce scene in 2023 include:

• Voice Search
• Image Search
• Augmented Reality
• Livestream Commerce

‍