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The story behind 5 e-commerce technology developments
Happy woman shopping online during breakfast.
By 2021, e-commerce retail sales will reach $960 billion, according to Census estimates, accounting for less than 15 percent of total retail sales for the year. This is more than 1 in 7 transactions.
Americans have grown increasingly reliant on e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic. But that’s not the only way e-commerce has continued to grow steadily over the past two or more decades. During that time, retailers have struggled to integrate emerging technologies into their online business models.
Iron Plane compiles the history of five technological developments that have advanced e-commerce or are creating new innovations in space today. These technologies are mostly focused on the consumer retail sector.
As the Internet has grown in scope and user base, retailers have designed their e-commerce sites to be lean, mean, personalized recommendation machines. That’s on top of tech trends like augmented reality experiments and cryptocurrency wallets. For consumers, these technologies have resulted in smoother shopping experiences that offer more options and ways to shop. And in the sales business, an informed and engaged customer is an active customer.
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Application stores
Apple App Store icon on iPhone.
Google Play Store and Apple App Store each offer about 2 million apps worldwide, they say. More people may interact with free apps than anything else, but most free apps still engage in the business of advertising and in-app purchases.
Paid apps range from the seemingly expensive -$10.99 Android port of Final Fantasy IX to a $1,399 professional piano tuning app. Both stores came online in 2008 following the launch of the iPhone and the first Android phone. And app stores allow customers to find and download each major retailer’s proprietary apps to make direct purchases.
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Personalized recommendations
A young woman shopping online browsing recommended items.
According to a November 2021 McKinsey survey, 7 out of 10 consumers in the United States expect businesses to personalize their recommendations. More than 3 out of 4 businesses get upset when they point out things that don’t apply to them.
Personalized recommendations come in many forms, from customer data that aggregates past items to fully algorithmic recommendations based on large pools of consumer data. They can also be as simple as extra items that are referred to as “annoying” in the sales world. All of these suggestions make the grocery store checkout area lined with candy and magazines a veritable buffet of temptation.
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Buy now, pay for services later.
Various payment apps that offer pay-after-pay appear on the iPhone, including Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, Sezzle, Zip (Quadpay), Perpay, and Tabby.
30% of respondents to a McKinsey survey conducted in October 2021 said they made purchases using Buy Now Pay Later services. These services, such as PayPal Pay in 4, Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna, usually allow you to pay in installments after the event without the need for a credit card.
They position themselves as a combination of traditional leasing and lending, and many e-commerce sites offer these options for everyday items – not just for expensive items. That 30% figure is up from 7% in 2019 and 2020, when PayPal still easily leads the market.
Andrey_Popov // Shutterstock
Augmented and virtual reality
A woman uses augmented reality to try on virtual shoes.
13% of respondents to the October 2021 Bizerte Insights survey said they have used AR and VR while shopping, while 37% said they are interested in doing so. Shoppers can use AR to try on clothes and accessories from home. He was also successful in furniture marketing, which requires some elbow grease and creative thinking that can be facilitated by AR.
And don’t count out VR, which can help people shop virtual stores or tour potential apartments. Together, the two have helped make shopping more personal, allowing consumers to look at things in new and exciting ways.
Mykhaylo_Kozelko // Shutterstock
Crypto currency
Unlocked smartphone to cryptocurrency wallet.
According to a May 2021 PYMNTS survey, more than half of cryptocurrency owners will use it to buy something in 2020. That’s become much easier with the proliferation of cryptocurrency debit cards that pull funds directly from cryptocurrencies like dogecoin or ethereum.
It’s still a bit surprising, because for a long time, cryptocurrency was considered more of an investment than a currency of daily use. In the year A year passed between Bitcoin’s debut in 2009 and the first exchange of goods, technically: a user paid someone 10,000 bitcoins for pizzas from Papa John’s for him. Many cryptocurrencies are relatively free, so it might not be the best time to buy those same pizzas.
This story originally appeared on Ironplane and was developed and
Distributed in partnership with Stacker Studios.
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