Chennai: Rise of hyper local commerce, mobile commerce and social commerce as well as deployment of artificial intelligence will help the rapid transformation of e-commerce in the next decade.
While e-commerce presents a massive opportunity for retailers, the industry has been characterized by rapid transformation in terms of product innovations, new channels and augmentation of emerging technologies, finds a study IBEF.
While books spurred the initial ecommerce momentum, fashion/ apparel and electronics, the next phase of growth, especially in emerging economies like India and the Middle East, will be fueled by hyper local categories like grocery, personal care, beauty services, food and FMCG products. In India, 96 per cent of the commerce still happens at mom and pop stores and in the coming years, India and China are poised for explosive growth in the hyper local space.
Several hyper local startups like BigBasket, Zopper, Swiggy and Dunzo along with ecommerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart are investing heavily in logistics and mobile technology to capture this massive opportunity.
Mobile Commerce is turning out to be a significant extension with the potential to outgrow e-commerce in terms of sales, engagement levels and conversions. The need for speed, deeper integration of artificial intelligence, focus on user experience and hyperpersonalization will help the growth of m-commerce. Further, retailers with physical stores are likely to invest in proximity-based marketing technologies.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will see a greater play in e-commerce, finds Vikram Bhat, Chief Product Officer, Capillary Technologies. This has given Amazon an edge over others.
The coming decade will also see social commerce becoming a key revenue channel. It is a great way for brands to acquire more customers at a lesser cost besides simplifying the purchase journey. In the coming years, it’s expected to become the third major sales channel. As per the estimates of RedSeer Consulting, social commerce is a disruptive model which is expected to double every year between 2018 and 2022. “Social commerce sites are able to reach out to the remotest villages where e-commerce has not ventured into,” said Nitin Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Mall91.
