The eCommerce marketplace has been growing ever since it burst into the scene. With the advent of technology, it has become more convenient for people to buy online. Taking advantage of this, eCommerce platforms are ramping up the experience that they provide to the customers.
Over time more customers have been adopting eCommerce as a way of shopping. In this pandemic, that adoption has just been accelerated. eCommerce provides a much more convenient way of shopping than going to brick and mortar stores.
In this infographic, we will explore the growth of the eCommerce marketplace and all the different aspects related to eCommerce:
Embed this infographic on your site
The growth of eCommerce
eCommerce has been growing at a phenomenal rate. It’s important to understand the growth patterns of this industry in order to map your strategies accordingly. There are predictions about the growth that can be made about the trends that the eCommerce industry will follow and those predictions drive future decisions.
There are certain markets and segments that are dominating eCommerce right now. If the investments are made in the right direction, then the returns could be great.
Following statistics show the growth of the eCommerce industry over the years and where its headed:
- Percentage of retail sales that eCommerce accounted for in 2019: 14.1%
- Worldwide retail eCommerce sales in 2021: $4.9 trillion
- Percentage of retail sales that eCommerce is predicted to account for in 2023: 22%
- Percentage of all purchases are expected to be via eCommerce by 2040: 95%
Demographics
Understanding who your customer is is a crucial part of the business. If you don’t know your customer, you’ll probably not do a good job of providing them with the service. It’s important to know which demographics your customers belong to; their age, their gender, the country, and the city they belong to.
The demographics of your customers give you an idea as to what might their purchasing patterns be or how much would they be willing to spend on the product/service. This helps you customize your offerings in accordance with their needs which ultimately increases their trust in you.
Over time, in the eCommerce marketplace, certain demographics have shown specific trends related to their buying behavior, which can be shown through these statistics:
- Online spending of men is more than women by 68%
- Generation X indulge more in online shopping than Baby Boomers and Millennials
- Per year Generation X does 19 transactions on average
- On an average, per transaction Baby Boomers spend $203
Customer Behavior
Understanding how and why customers interact with an eCommerce platform is very important. This helps in getting an idea as to why customers visit your website and why do they interact with the platform as they do. Once we have a good grip on all of this, we can go on to provide the best experience to our customers.
Customer behavior includes a myriad of things like understanding why customers use your eCommerce platform, why do they drop out of checkouts, how do they compare prices, what kind of segments are they interested in buying. All of these factors combine to make a good understanding of customer behavior.
The following statistics reflect on the above factors and can help you understand your customers better:
- 65% of customers compare prices on mobile while in a physical store
- Ability to shop 24/7 has been stated as the primary reason for shopping online
- 30% of customers prefer to buy from websites that have already used
- Unexpected costs cause 53% of online shoppers to abandon their carts
- 81% of consumers trust the advice of family and friends
- Purchases related to fashion rank highest at 61%
The Growth Of mCommerce
mCommerce has been one of the most dominant types of eCommerce. With mobile phones and internet access becoming cheaper and available to everyone, it’s much easier to access the internet now. Consumers prefer to use hand-held devices to shop online rather than traditional desktops. It’s easier and much more convenient.
Seeing this trend, many companies have put their focus on providing a great mobile experience and made their websites mobile responsive. This goes a great way in increasing customer retention and increasing the time per session for each customer.
The following statistics explain why mCommerce is important and why companies should be paying attention to it:
- By 2020, mCommerce sales are projected to reach $2.91 trillion
- By 2021, mCommerce is expected to occupy a share of 72.9% by 2021
- Online shopping through mobile increased from 8% to 15%
- The trend of shopping via desktop dropped from 78% to 63%
- 49% of consumers prefer mobile for shopping
Impact Of Social Media on eCommerce
Owing to its commercial success, many eCommerce businesses have included social media in their marketing plans. A well planned and executed social media campaign can help eCommerce businesses achieve their desired business goals.
Social media is where people share their experiences with their peers. They share their reviews, their suggestions, and engage in conversation with people like them. For eCommerce businesses, this can prove to be a great source to generate word of mouth and acquire more potential customers for their service.
The following statistics show the impact that social media can have on eCommerce:
- 30% of consumers have gone online and shared their feedback
- e-tailers with at least one active social media account generate 32% more sales than the ones that don’t use any social media
- 40% of retailers use social media for generating sales
- 71% of online shoppers will recommend the brand they bought on social media
- 50% of online shoppers say they follow shops on social media for the discounts
Biggest Markets for eCommerce
Knowing where to invest your efforts is possible one of the hardest things in business. Different markets are at different stages in their lifecycles and need attending to accordingly. Coupled with the market size, the market’s growth rate also allows you to predict how the market sizes are going to change.
Some of the biggest markets for eCommerce as of 2019 are:
- China: $1934.78 billion
- US: $586.92 billion
- UK: $141.93 billion
- Japan: $115.4 billion
- South Korea: $103.48 billion
- India is the fastest growing eCommerce market in the world
Customer Service in eCommerce
Consumers prefer to buy from websites that make it easier for them to contact their customer service. It’s a basic need. Customer service is the ability to assist your customers throughout their buying journey and sometimes even after the purchase. Providing great customer service improves the customer’s experience.
In eCommerce, where there are thousands of options available for customers to buy, providing great customer service could be the differentiating factor for making customers stay with you.
The following statistics lay emphasis on the importance of customer service in eCommerce:
- 80% of customers stopped using a website because of bad customer experience
- 84% of customers think of customers service is an important factor in deciding whether to buy
- 95% of customers said that customer service is important for brand loyalty
- 3 poor customer service experiences will cause 92% of customers to stop purchasing
eCommerce Conversion Rates
Conversion rates tell you how effectively are you able to convert your visitors into paying customers. An effective strategy to convert customers will most definitely result in a better conversion rate.
Understanding the factors that affect your conversion rate should be a priority. Higher conversions result in higher revenue. It gives you an idea as to what might need improvement in the whole customer journey.
- In the year 2019, 2.72% of all eCommerce website visits converted into purchases
- 45% is the average open rate for abandoned cart emails
- The average conversion rate for desktop users is 4.14% and for mobile users, it is 1.82%
- The top-performing websites have a conversion rate of 11% and above
eCommerce And Email Marketing
Amongst all other marketing techniques, email marketing has proven to be quite effective in terms of the ROI that it generates. It’s extremely convenient to use and implement but it does require a fair bit of research about consumer behavior before implementing.
eCommerce implements email marketing for various reasons like suggesting customized shopping options to customers, implementing drip campaigns, or cart abandonment emails. All of this helps companies keep their customers engaged with the platform and email marketing proves to be a hand in glove fit for this.
These statistics below show you the extent of the efficiency of email marketing:
- The average ROI for every dollar that is invested in email marketing is $38
- 3 abandonment cart emails produce 69% more orders as compared to a single email
- The average unsubscribe rate is 0.21%
Future Trends In eCommerce
It’s always better to be prepared for the future than to follow your competition. eCommerce is an industry that is extremely fast-paced and changes almost instantly. In order to keep up with these changes, you need to be aware of the trends that will affect the industry in the near future.
These trends give you an insight into the direction in which the industry is going to go. You can plan ahead and be ahead of the competition by improving the different processes in your service delivery.
Here are the trends that are predicted to dominate the industry:
- AR will enhance the online shopping experience
- Voice search will be on the rise
- AI will help improve the shopping experience
- On-site personalization will improve customer experience
- Chatbots will automate the customer support
- Videos will play an important role in improving customer experience
In conclusion, the eCommerce industry has seen a great amount of growth and things are not slowing down. It’s a great time to move your business online and capitalize on the growing eCommerce trend.
