Tag: ecommercetrends

Conversational Commerce: How the Trend Has Shaped E-commerce?

Today, it has become essential for every industry to stay ahead of the most recent trends to survive, grow and fight upcoming contingencies. The e-commerce industry has revolutionized the way people shop today. But the point of focus is ‘How can we surpass the customer experience?’

Customers are the most important assets of any business, and it sometimes becomes difficult to interact with them, leading to unsatisfied customers.

Do you want your customers to develop full trust in your brand? But the question is how? Well, the only answer is Conversational Commerce! 

“Conversational Commerce serves as a liaison between businesses and their customers!”

Not only does Conversation Commerce help you customize your customer’s experience, but also makes it easier for you to interact with them, creating a great impact on every touchpoint in your customer’s journey. With modern conversational commerce systems, customers & brands can interact and transact together across a variety of channels. This intuitive interface makes buying more convenient for customers, giving them a seamless and personalized experience.

Let’s dig deeper into the real definition of conversational commerce and check the two main systems brands have been using to serve their customers!

Conversational Commerce Systems

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are excellent solutions to support real-time customer service. It makes the sale process user-friendly, decreasing the gap between online and traditional shopping experiences. They provide you assistance at any time with integrated live chats and detailed FAQs.

2. Voice Assistants

We all know to what extent, Alexa and Siri have made our life easier. Not only are they used by urban households, but also help brands formulate their business plan. Not to mention, collecting reviews has never been this easy for businesses. 

6 Reasons why you should use Conversational Commerce?

Conversational commerce generates profound benefits for many brands. You can make the most of conversational commerce by adding a conversational approach to the way you market and sell your offerings. To know more about this strategy, let’s read on to find the benefits of Conversational Commerce! 

1. To provide 24*7 support

Retailers can collect information through a support system while a chatbot solves the queries of the customers. A chatbot needs to be maintained once it is set up. But once businesses integrate a chatbot, they give their brand the opportunity to connect with each and every customer 24/7 without hiring a large number of customer representatives. Though a human touch to the support is necessary, you can use the bots to cater to the initial level complaints.

2. To send order tracking deets

Integrating your brandstore with messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Hike, etc is a great way to send order updates to your customers. Additionally, you can also send new offers, discounts, etc via instant messaging. You can consider this as one of the advantages of conversational commerce. When people come across exciting offers, they often circulate them among their friends, making your promotional strategy viral. 

Quick tip: Want to satisfy your customers by sending order tracking updates but don’t know how to? Kartify brandstores are integrated with WhatApp, enabling alert-based messaging and WhatsApp chatbots! To know more about it, request your free DEMO now! 

3. To give accurate solutions to customers’ queries

If a customer walks into a store, they can get help from the in-store staff, asking about the quality of the product, warranty, etc. Imitating this type of experience online hasn’t been as easy and efficient. But with conversational commerce, you can make sure you solve all the queries of your customers. In addition to sending recommendations based on what is trending, stores can answer customers’ questions enabling them to make the right, convenient and suitable choice.

4. To increase customers satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is the heart of any brand. A satisfied consumer is more likely to come back and promote your brand to others. Conversational Commerce makes the customer feel at ease when they are in your e-store. With customer care being automated, it not only saves the waiting time of the user as the bot answers their queries but also ensures they are satisfied with the quick help.

5. To reduce the Cart abandonment rate

The only downside to online shopping is customers’ scepticism towards the product quality. They generally fill their carts but don’t end up making the purchase, leading to a high cart abandonment rate. In such cases, bots come into play. A chatbot helps you solve customer queries with the best alternatives. For instance, you want to buy a pair of shoes, but you are sceptical about the material used in it. A bot can solve the query in such a case, making you purchase the product. 

Is cart abandonment crippling your online business? Read more to know how to reduce the cart abandonment rate! 

“Eventually, if the customer is happy the growth of the business is guaranteed!”

6. To remove manual and repetitive work

Whether it is an online retail store or a traditional store, you can’t escape from customers’ dilemma. But in the case of an online store, it becomes hectic and monotonous for the support team to clear each and every query. Here comes Chatbots in the picture with automated responses to manage hundreds of conversations simultaneously so customers don’t have to wait in line for a response. 

Conversational commerce presents a huge opportunity for brands and retailers to enhance the customer experience and maximize sales across channels. It has become more important than ever because of its conversational style of interaction as it can enhance personalization and warmth in the online shopping experience. 

Now that you know everything you need to know about conversational commerce, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and request a free DEMO, integrating your online store with chatbots through Kartify!

Impact of Coronavirus Vaccines on the E-commerce Industry in India! (Post-Pandemic Trends for 2021)

In March 2020, the Indian government declared the national lockdown with strict guidelines, exercising social distancing. As the pandemic reshapes our lives, people are finding comfort in online shopping more than ever. The e-commerce sector per se became the largest beneficiary of the coronavirus outbreak. 

However, now that the COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out, will there be a threat to e-commerce? The first question replays in our mind – what is going to happen to the online sector? Are people willing to adopt the new normal trends forever or will they switch over to traditional buying patterns? 

To discover the result of vaccines on e-commerce and online shopping, let’s first have a look at the e-commerce trends amid the pandemic in 2020! 

5 e-commerce trends accelerated by the pandemic | #2020Recap

1. Share of online shopping increased 

The most definite trend of 2020 we can’t ignore is the rapid increase in online sales. From clothing to electronics to groceries, the dependence on online surged during the pandemic. Further, with an increase in the number of mobile users, tier-2 city users seemed to become more confident and aware of online shopping.

2. Brands highlighted health & hygiene in their marketing campaigns 

Hygiene was the biggest concern in unprecedented times. Many brands made the most out of the situation while rolling out aggressive marketing campaigns highlighting their packaging and shipping to be 100% safe. To list out one, let’s not forget how food aggregator brands claimed to check the temperature of their delivery agents before picking up the orders.

3. Upsurge in the contactless payment options

One thing the pandemic has completely changed is people’s reliance on contactless payment options. Even the online businesses supported the option of digital wallets over COD to make the process completely contactless. Online payment options emerged mainly because it ensures complete safety.

4. Rise in the demand of e-gift cards amid festive season

A gift card is another trend the pandemic has given rise to. Be it a gift card for a clothing store, or an online ticket for a nearby salon or dance studio, people were seen giving e-gift cards to their relatives especially around Diwali season. Given the fact that the gift card option is highly versatile, both brands and customers supported the idea.

5. Increase in the trend of mobile commerce

To let people enjoy the perks of quick shopping, brands looked for ways to integrate WhatsApp & social commerce as another online sub-channel. Due to a tremendous increase in online shopping, Instagram also came up with a new option to sell. It expanded its shopping services across IGTV.  

It’s reasonable to expect the long-lasting effects on e-commerce and digitalization – given the fact that people are habitual of the comfort online has to offer.

What will happen to the E-commerce Industry after the Pandemic ends? (Major trends to come up in 2020)

For now, the market drift is clear about the practice of social distancing even though the vaccines have rolled out around the nation. But many online businesses are afraid that their growth might slow down in the next few months. What is exactly going to happen?  

  • If you have an online store or you have just established your own online business, you don’t need to be afraid as e-commerce will eventually boost. Seeing there’s a lot of scope for growth in India, especially after people have become habitual using online channels, your online investment won’t get wasted. 
  • Amid the hard times, people were forced to discover and shop online to avoid the transmission of Coronavirus. Now that they have finally found their comfortability in online shopping, there’s a very small possibility of them switching over to the traditional channels. Not to mention, online shoppers enjoy the convenience – price benefit, selection benefit, payment benefit that e-commerce offers.

Digital marketers will need to buck up and come up with aggressive and unconventional marketing strategies!

Online businesses and marketers will keep practicing a few strategies to boost digitalization. Keeping that in mind, we have curated a list of four trends expected to resurge after the end of the COVID-19! 

1. Upsurge in the Omni-channel Marketing

Consumer data collection and omni-channel marketing tactics are becoming increasingly popular. The more brands are realizing the significance of the data, the easier it has become to retain loyal customers. For instance, a fashion brand has both a brick and mortar store and an online store. Now a person frequents their offline store for office wear clothing. With this knowledge and the collection of customer data, they can send marketing adverts for formal wear to boost online sales. 

2. Emergence of multiple e-commerce platforms 

The only conventional e-commerce platforms we are aware of include; marketplaces and brandstores. But in the coming months, the nature of e-commerce per se will evolve, giving rise to various other unconventional models. The display of offerings on social media channels is one of the examples. Showcasing products and generating orders via live video options on channels such as Instagram and Snapchat could also be considered on a broader scale.

Quick tip: If you are having a problem selling on marketplaces, let us assist you with our robust marketplace management solution. From account management to growth planning, we help you establish your mark while boosting your sales. To know more, request your free DEMO today!  

3. Creating in-store experiences

Augmented reality and virtual reality are definitely going to be the center of attraction in the upcoming months. To compete with offline shopping, concepts such as virtual trial rooms are going to increase. Moreover, the retailers will come up with more creative ideas to fill in the gap between online and offline. 

4. Headless Commerce will become mainstream 

To enrich the customer experience, the idea behind headless commerce will evolve in the next 4-5 months. The unconventional architecture will give more liberty to the brands to build and integrate various channels altogether. Largely, the whole retail will be operated in a more organized way irrespective of what channel is being used. 

5. Intelligent forecasting

As the new and intelligent way of forecasting has developed over time, businesses will continue to keep analyzing the behavior with these unconventional methods. For instance, instead of checking the inventory levels manually, warehouses have deployed software to check the inventory level and forecast the future demand. Same way intelligent forecasting is going to upsurge. 

While businesses are trying to forecast the changes the vaccines will bring in, one thing is for sure the e-commerce industry is not going to end at all. But one thing you must do is to revisit your business plan and buck up with the changing market scenario. Strengthen your e-commerce marketing strategies to persuade and retain customers!

7 Constructive Tips To Design A Persuasive E-commerce Newsletter!

With the rise in online shopping, the influence of email marketing has also emerged. Gone are the times when the exchange of emails was used for mere transactional purposes. Today, almost all brands are employing content marketers to strategize and curate persuasive email copies. 

When a new offer rolls out, or a new collection comes in, retailers pop their users with emails. But it isn’t enough just to send those emails. They need to be inspiring and motivating so the users actually end up making the purchase. Otherwise, your offers will be sent to spam or avoided completely. Let’s study what actually influences the effectiveness of email marketing.

Here’s How to Create a Persuasive Newsletter to Drive Customer’s Attention!

1. Keep the design elements minimal

Making your design too flashy would only result in an unsubscription. By minimal, we don’t mean boring colours and monotonous themes. Keep a balance between text and images. It’s essential to leave some negative space (white space) here and there, for the design to settle in the mind of the readers. Without that, you’ll end up creating clutter and confusion. Harmony and balance of the design elements is the key to a successful newsletter. 

2. Draft short-crisp copy

Email newsletters are generally sent at the time when people are waiting to board a metro, or traveling in a cab. Optimize the content of your newsletter so that it’s easy to consume in a short time. People don’t respond to the text the way they do to the visuals and graphics. But if you keep your text rather crisp with quirky words and informal expressions, you have a chance to win attention.

3. Insert product unboxing video play button

Videos are best to engage the users, especially if they talk about the pros and cons of a product. To attach a video to your newsletter, add an image with a video play button, redirecting your user to the YouTube video. Since these videos are more about product feedback, they enhance your brand reputation and create social proof. 

Quick tip: User testimonial videos should be original. To create such videos, you can request your customers to send in their video opening the product with complete details.

4. Write process tutorials with step-by-step images

Another way to entice customers is by curating tutorial content of your offerings. For example: If your business is all about leather bags, sending a tutorial on “How to clean your leather bag?” will grab attention easily. You can add CTA to the images, by linking the leather bag page of your website. Also, highlight the features of your product wisely while writing the tutorial to convert the readers.

5. Add animated GIF Images

To drop your customers in the sales funnel, it’s important to formulate a narrative. Animate promotional messages have an advantage over mundane text messages as they can tell a tale, fascinating the reader to hit the button. Now the question comes; ‘how to create them?’ There are plenty of GIFs generators, to help you create a GIF. Also, don’t use more than one GIF image to avoid any clutter. To convert the readers and generate leads, make sure the image is clickable and redirects to the page. 

Quick tip: Keep your GIF size to 1 MB as a heavy newsletter can get cropped, damaging its aesthetics.

6. Include countdowns in your newsletter

To add a sense of urgency and convert your customer quickly, include a clock with countdowns of your most exciting offers. Limited offers have one advantage over the normal offers, it stimulates user interest in a jiffy. They work best at the times of spring and autumn season sales.

7. Announce contests and giveaways

Community outreach ideas such as running contests and competitions work best on social media. But newsletters are also an incredible platform to convey the message. You need to be more creative and unique to run contests over email. Scratch cards or win wheels are some of the elaborative ideas to make the most out of email marketing. 

Quick tip: You can also include a simple creative, asking readers to tag your brand on social media with their videos and follow your page to win exciting prizes. This way your engagement on other social media platforms increases. 

If your e-commerce store is not gaining brand visibility, then fret not and invest in our performance marketing solutions. From checking your brand logo to creating account progress reports to optimizing the load time of the website, ANS Commerce provides you with performance marketing solutions across various channels with a special focus on sales and ROAS. Request your free DEMO now!

A well-curated emailer can help you drop your customers in the sales funnel. Don’t forget to add CTA to your content with optimized HTML URLs. Also, keep the tone of your content the same for all the newsletters as it’s the voice of your brand. Follow these tips and promote your brand efficiently.

Bid Adieu To 2020 With Top 20 E-commerce Trends!

Did we ever think classroom sessions will be replaced by video call applications? Did we ever think sanitizer will be given more priority over a bottle of water? 

Whatever they say, 2020 has been quite a momentous year! 

With a pocket full of technology and free time, we have faced many challenges. Not to mention FOMO has finally become our best buddy! But still, it would be a shame to say that the year was boring. There was a time when we were a bit skeptical to shop online. But, this year, has clearly changed that too, as we were left with no choice but to buy everything we had abandoned for months. 

So, can it be any better than 2020? Well, to kick off your year-end blues, we have curated a list of 20 e-commerce trends to wave our goodbyes. Also, if you are planning to start your online business, or you already have an established e-commerce business, you must capture the recap of this beloved year!

Top 20 E-commerce Trends of 2020! 

1. Spike in the contactless payment options

The pandemic has surely seen a decrease in the percentage of cash on delivery orders! According to our data, the contribution of the COD payment options has decreased from 47% in 2019 to 27% and the share of online payment modes has increased to 73% this year. Seeing this trend, e-commerce businesses have included a plethora of social payment options such as Apple pay, Google wallet, Facebook payments, Twitter Buy, etc., to let customers make seamless payments. 

2. The increasing demand for Mom & Babycare products

There is no doubt in saying that health has been a major concern this year, especially for new mothers and infants. This need has surely upsurged the demand for the Mom & Babycare products. If we talk in numbers, there has been an 8X increase in the sales contribution from this segment in 2020!

3. Devouring healthy snacks and counting their nutritional value is the new norm

The outbreak of pandemic has increased the importance of food and nutrition in our lives. But now, people have become more conscious about their health. Soy milk, whey ice cream, protein bars, dried berries, roasted seeds, etc, have become their go-to snacks. Marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc. have been flooded with nutritional products.  

4. Increase in the sales contribution from non-metro cities

According to ANS Commerce partner brands data, the sales contribution of tier-2 cities has increased from 44% in 2019 to 65% this year. Buying patterns of consumers all around the nation seem to have changed significantly with categories such as health & nutrition and FMCG & agriculture making a surge. Further, with an increase in the number of mobile users, tier-2 city users seemed to become more confident and aware of online shopping. 

5. The importance of the user-generated content

With the emergence of social media, the pandemic has failed to keep people distant mentally. They have been using social media sites more than ever. Taking the advantage of this trend, brands have been using engagement marketing tactics such as contests and giveaways by motivating users to generate content. 

6. The rise of independent local businesses in shaping customers’ journey

Local businesses, on one hand, are the backbone of our nation’s economy, while on the other hand, they serve with a plethora of inexpensive options, not to mention the fact that they keep us close to our culture. People’s preferences for local and small brands have increased in the year 2020. Not to mention how our social media news feeds are flooded with users giving shoutouts to their favorite brands.

7. An increase in the service-based subscription model

The subscription model has been preferred by almost all e-commerce businesses, given the fact it has the leverage to boost sales. Coming over to the specific type in the e-commerce business, the service-based subscription model seemed to hold a great value. This business model generally controls pricing based on the value, giving users flexibility. Extra benefits such as free delivery, quick delivery, etc, add more value to the customers’ lives. Almost all the platforms are indulged to position their brand through these tactics.

8. Loyalty programs to establish long-term relationships

In entrepreneurs’ marketing toolbox, loyalty programs hold a certain value to enhance long-term relationships with customers. With deeply personalized offers, brands try to make sure their customers are rewarded.

9. A surge in the sales of Sustainable products

People all around the nation have seen to pay more attention to their purchasing decisions. More sustainable ways of production are fabricating ways into shopper’s marketing strategies. Some of the popular sustainability trends include the production of homegrown food items, cruelty-free makeup products, sustainable & slow fashion apparel, etc.

10. Influencer marketing is the new sales model

With an increase in the consumption of social media, influencers have attained enormous power to guide their audience. Through influencer marketing campaigns brands are trying to make use of the creativity and control that the influencers have made over time with their audience.

11. New ways of gifting loved ones

The idea behind giving e-gift cards to loved ones has become popular these days. And e-commerce players are well acquainted with it. So, if you want to grab the notice of your prospects, invest in e-gift cards to give your customers flexibility! ANS Commerce has been in close contact with their partner brands and decided to expedite a module in our product roadmap given its increased relevance. We had enabled the gift cards feature on Kartify this year – it’s an easier way to boost a brand’s sales.

12. Chatbots have become a new way to communicate

Be it tracking your product, or asking queries regarding product exchange, communicating with chatbots have increased more than ever! Chatbots have been there forever, but with the surge in online sales, their usage has also increased. 

13. ROPO (research online purchase offline)

Forecasters and marketers have forecasted last year that ROPO (research online purchase offline will continue to rise. But looking at the current scenario, the trend seems to have disappeared in the year 2021.

14. Mobile commerce in 2021

To let people enjoy the perks of quick shopping, businesses are engaging in mobile/ social commerce. Also, brands have looked to integrate WhatsApp & social commerce as another online sub-channel. Due to a tremendous increase in online shopping, Instagram has come up with a new option to sell. It has expanded its shopping services across IGTV. You can sell and merchandise your products by showcasing your range of products via IGTV. 

15. An increase in the Omni-channels tactics

Customers are present everywhere. Be it website, mobile applications, social media platforms, you won’t see a single platform that doesn’t have a social presence. Omni-channel is an approach that provides a fully-integrated experience to the customers. Warehousing and fulfillment also play an eminent role when it comes to e-commerce sales. Not to mention how omni-channel tactics can improve inventory depth! Along with the drift, the preference of brands has also seemed to change with the rising number of stock-keeping. To enable simple, fast, and reliable delivery, brands are seen to get fascinated by multi-city warehouses and omnichannel delivery options.

16. The rise of AR and VR

Virtual reality has been there before this year, but it has continued to pick up speed in 2020.  Virtual reality and augmented reality have increased to enhance the e-commerce experience for customers with online assistance/ recommendations, virtual trial rooms, etc. 

17. Most preferred product segments of 2020

Fashion & Lifestyle was always a major contributor to e-commerce sales. But this year, the festive season in the wake of coronavirus has upsurge the demand for other segments as well. Beauty & personal care segment contribution has also increased. In the current scenario of washing and sanitizing each item, there is a surge in the hygiene and germ control category too.  

18. Unstoppable growth of B2B e-commerce

In the age of digital technology, B2B e-commerce is growing with an accelerated speed. The days of supplies needing to be ordered via fax order forms or other offline methods are seen to be shrinking. Both new and established brands have started to value their customers online.
By automating B2B through their e-commerce site, the businesses also seem to reduce their operating costs. 


19. Country of origin norm

100% of brands around the nation have this information on the mandatory guidelines of using ‘Made in India’ as a product attribute. This has risen in both the production and consumption of Indian goods. Kartify – our brandstore tech – is made in India to deliver exceptional e-commerce experience to Indian brands. We are striving to increase India’s e-commerce presence by assisting brands! Request your free DEMO now!

20. Voice Commerce has introduced us to voice search

With Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Amazon’s Alexa, shopper’s reliance on voice assistants has increased. Simply commanding a voice assistant while indulging in the routine chores helps you save time. People have seen to use voice search more rapidly in 2020. 

While these are some of the biggest trends of the year 2020, we can see many other trends impacting the industry. We are super excited to see what next year brings in, are you?