The retail industry underwent several transformations over the past years and continues evolving. Led by technological advancement and rapid E-commerce growth, the industry is continuously looking for process automation to cater to the growing needs of customers.
In 2019, emerging technologies are likely to define the retail market as well as how the companies make use of upcoming technology, such as Virtual Assistant to reach their customers. Let’s have a look at the latest retail trend for the year 2019.
Reducing the Shipment Time
E-commerce continues its march towards rapid growth with more than a billion dollar sales happening on online outlets. The industry grew by more than 10% in 2018 and continues to break previous records.
However, extreme growth also means more pressure on existing resources and increase delivery time. One of the Retail trends for 2019 includes major upgrades to the overall delivery process. E-commerce giants such as Amazon and Wal-Mart are already investing in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the delivery process and provide faster order confirmation.
Programs such as Amazon Prime are the primary example of this trend, and fast delivery is serving as a major selling point for many new Retail businesses. It is interesting to note that this trend is likely to grow beyond 2019 and will serve as a selling point to attract more customers.
Growth of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
Retailers are increasingly relying on Big Data and Artificial intelligence (AI) to cater to their customer needs. AI applications are providing assistant to every small and big retail outlet to understand their customers.
AI works like a charm and can help a business to extract valuable information from big data. Retailers can use this data to create more targeted campaigns for their products or make variations to their existing catalog to appeal to their target market.
Product Customization
The retail trend for product customization is skyrocketing in 2019. E-commerce and traditional shopping outlets are allowing the customer to customize their products by adding variation to styles, colors, and monograms.
Customization helps shoppers to purchase a product with specification they always want. It is becoming a unique factor to sell your product, and buyers are paying extra cash to the sellers offering such services.
Emerging Payment Options
The emerging payment options in the retail industry are a new trend. Gone are the days when people would shop using their PayPal or offline bank accounts. The year 2019 is the era of advancement, and shoppers are constantly looking for platforms providing various payment options.
Besides, adding additional payment option also means more sales and user growth for any business. Retail outlets are also making the checkout process easy, and many have also ditched the mandatory signup process and only ask for a user’s Email and Number for coordination.
If your products cater to the young generation, then maybe it is time to look for more payment options. The rising popularity of WeChat Pay in China and Facebook’s launch of their Cryptocurrency are the primary examples of this trend.
Shopping With AR
The future of shopping is Augmented Reality (AR)! Retailers are leveraging the AR technology to bridge the gap between digital and physical shopping experience. AR is bringing products to life in front of buyers through 3D models that products can be sized up, checked from all angles, and even set up in the environment surrounding you. Brands like Amazon and Target have already launched their AR platforms for shoppers to picture furniture and other products in their homes.
According to BRP 2018 Digital Commerce Survey, both consumers and retailers are taking Augmented Reality more and more seriously. About 32% of retailers are planning to implement Augmented Reality within three years, and 48% of consumers admit that they would be more likely to purchase at a store that implements AR.
The AR market is likely to have a parabolic growth from 2019, and the industry will reach $133 billion by 2021. To stay at par with competition brands are building their AR stores and heavily advertising them on their platforms and third party websites.
An example of this trend is Shopify, which is coming up with their innovative retail technology that helps smaller brands through Shopify AR. The feature is easy to use and is very helpful for a business looking to benefit from this growing trend.
Instant Support
Instant support is an emerging Retail trend for 2019 and is becoming attractive to increase revenue. The trend involves providing live support to the customer and not making him wait for his query. Buyers are not willing to wait 24 hours to receive a reply from an online retail store talking about their issue and are opting for platforms that provide instant customer support.
The trend also boosted the demand for chatbots on E-commerce stores, and many retail companies are now taking help from Facebook Messenger bots or other popular services to engage their customers.
Experience and Reviews Will Become a Priority
Customers are paying more attention to the product’s review and the buyer’s experience with the sellers on E-commerce stores. Products having an average rating are becoming less appealing in comparison to the one having a 4.5 or 5-star rating.
It is becoming an old fashion to greet customers and thanks to them for shopping from your Retail outlet. Instead, businesses are going forward with a more dynamic approach and asking questions regarding experience with the store and are providing after sales services to keep a higher product and seller rating.
In other words, the experience is becoming much more important for customers than before, and people are ditching sellers with lack of communication and those with low scores.
Social Media Will Give Many Retailers a Competitive Edge
The use of messaging and social apps is constantly growing. The new data collection from Hootsuite and We Are Socical shows that mobile phone users have increased to 5.11 billion in 2019, penetrating more than two-thirds of total population in the world. And there are more than 3.2 billion mobile social media users, among the total 3.48 billion social media users worldwide. The fact alone shows the potential for retailers to target their customers using messaging services.
To take benefit from the situation, the Instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger have now become an effective tool to increase leads, launch campaigns, address customer complaints, resolve issues, and provide product’s update.
In Conclusion
A combination of user experience and tech advancement drives the latest trends in the retail industry. Businesses are taking a more diverse approach to accommodate changes in consumer behavior and are spending a lot of money to take advantage of Big Data. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ethical practices are also becoming a selling point for retailers, and embracing these trends would mean a positive opportunity for another massive growth for several brands.
