The eCommerce industry is seriously expanding all over the world due to increased demand. Technology is the main reason for this expansion, as it makes transactions between businesses and consumers practically effortless.
Simply put, technology is changing the retail industry, adding various tools that make online shopping more satisfying than ever. Modern consumers want a great experience when searching for products or services and they have to be convinced to buy something.
Busy schedules don’t allow much shopping time, so online shopping has to be easily accessible. Here are the five ways technology makes the eCommerce experience better, both for consumers and businesses.
Software localization
With so many emerging web and mobile apps, it’s essential to provide the best user experience to different markets and cultures. No matter where in the world consumers are, they want to use websites and mobile apps in their language adapted to their habits and customs.
Software localization is a process that entails adapting web and mobile apps to the languages and cultures of different users. Localization is essential for business growth, and a good strategy helps you reach your target audience all over the globe and improves your earnings.
Customers love when brands speak their native language. This is a way of showing respect and it helps strengthen customer loyalty and build a long-term relationship with them.
With software localization, you’ll enter new markets and outperform the competition. Entering countries with great market potential can be very beneficial. It’s a matter of status and it makes your brand international, giving you a chance to sell more products.
The decision to buy something is emotional much more than rational. Using a native language increases brand trust and value, leading to more purchases and more revenue.
Various payment options
Secure payments are very important for online shoppers. In fact, the most popular thing about the eCommerce industry is its many forms of payment. However, people are sensitive to sharing personal information like credit card data on websites that are not trusted. Not enough options for paying for something is the lead cause of quitting the purchase.
Technology is here to settle this issue by providing a more secure and painless checkout process. Although payment methods are mostly digital, a credit card is not the only solution when paying for items and services online. Nowadays there are other options like Google pay, cryptocurrencies, e-wallets, and others. Bitcoins are also suitable and safe solutions that people want.
What’s great about the eCommerce industry is that the payment process is entirely digital. There is also more and more need for e-wallets and gift cards since they are a must in each major company, which has a significant role in growing a business.
Social shopping and chatbots
Keeping consumers satisfied and providing a great customer experience is essential if you want them to be loyal and buy from your brand frequently. Customer support is one way to achieve this, and being available to answer their questions at every moment is crucial.
But this is quite a challenge for eCommerce retailers because their customers are all around the globe. Different time zones leave you a limited time to fulfill everyone’s wishes. However, chatbots make this problem disappear. A chatbot is a technology that mimics human interactions and natural conversation, being available to people 24/7.
Besides answering people’s questions, another challenge is to keep them entertained. Social media plays a significant part in making decisions regarding what to purchase. While you scroll through platforms, you’ll see many people asking for feedback about many products or stores.
Companies use this advantage to captivate customers and use social media to draw attention. The power of social media is huge and businesses are competing to advertise on these platforms.
Instagram and Facebook have options that allow people to shop within these platforms. To be seen on social media, you need to optimize your posts and have beautiful images with quality content to appeal to your potential customers.
Procurement process decision making
Procurement executives and managers find it challenging to make decisions during the procurement process. This impacts the business on many levels, but the technology is there to assist the procurement teams to understand this process better and give them insights so they can make decisions effortlessly.
B2B eCommerce companies build customized dashboards for their clients, providing data and recommendations for purchases. Because of that, the procurement process can be significantly simplified, which makes purchases more organized.
Applying several technologies like IoT will help B2B companies to strengthen their omnichannel presence. Some experiments that have failed in B2C eCommerce have proven to be successful when it comes to B2B, like kiosk-based sales, IoT stores for large businesses, and others.
Push notifications
Push notifications are one of the largest issues for customers, even when they are just scrolling without an intention to shop. Before the social media expansion, email notifications were a way of communicating with consumers, but now most promotion emails end up in the spam folder.
Many apps use push notifications to promote various brands and this can get quite overwhelming. Technology is bringing efficient solutions when it comes to eCommerce stores. Consumers are getting the services they want, and advertisements are now more personal without being too intrusive.
Final thoughts
Technology’s role in eCommerce is immense because it helps with the fear of poor security and the lack of transparency, among other things. It is the reason eCommerce exists and is there to support any development process. As it advances, we will witness great changes in the shopping experience.
