Absolunet, Canada, revealed the Top 10 trends that will impact North American retailers in 2018. The impact will be felt across the entire supply chain—by manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consumers alike.
Absolunet analyzed over 60 digital and e-commerce projects.
The Top 10 e-commerce trends for 2018 are:
- Rebirth of brick-and-mortar. A new breed of retail stores and in-person experiences will begin to replace outgoing retailers.
- The consumerization of B2B. The perfect storm is about to hit the nearly $1 trillion B2B e-commerce sector.
- Augmented reality. Augmented reality (AR) will go from "novelty" to a sales driver.
- "ROPO": The new measure of retailers’ digital success. Retailers will be able to know which clicks lead to in-store sales.
- Mobile checkout takes over. Mobile commerce's biggest challenge—checkout—will become its greatest asset.
- AI will create the perfect customer experience. Shopping will be customized and optimized for every consumer.
- Amazon and the year of marketplace maturity. Amazon will be an ubiquitous element in every e-commerce business plan.
- Voice will change Google/SEO/e-commerce forever. In 2018, consumers will speak to their devices and use voice to make purchases like never before.
- Photo shopping. Image-based product searches will be big in 2018, essentially altering the very nature of the "search" function.
- Reaching peak browser. The browser will no longer be the de facto means by which we purchase products or services digitally.
"The technologies themselves already exist; we expect the adoption and proliferation of these technologies to grow substantially this year, changing the very nature of how companies do business," says Charles Desjardins, senior vice president. "We hope that the top ten eCommerce Trends for 2018 report helps retailers, manufacturers and distributors gain valuable insight and helps them choose the right strategies and partners to bridge the ecommerce gap."
