For sellers, the end of each calendar year is a good time for summaries and statistics. What should we not forget about when analysing 2022? How are the e-commerce trends for 2023 shaping up? Read on!
Read on the year in passing and get acquainted with e-commerce trends for 2023!
Summing up 2022—General Analysis
During the pandemic, e-commerce experienced an explosion. A wave of online businesses flooded the market. When examining the 2022, it is worth going back to the beginning of the year. It was the time when social unrest related to the energy crisis and the political situation began to grow. And equity funds decided to review the businesses in which they had previously invested.
People began to think more carefully about how much money they were spending. The decline in demand was primarily felt by industries related to non-core goods, such as home décor and electronics.
The last 8 months have been marked by declines in e-commerce. Poland was less affected by the crisis, as we are a less developed country than Western markets. There, the issues occurred much faster and more clearly.
Take a look at the summary of 2021 and trends for 2022.
Summing Up 2022—What Should Not Be Forgotten?
Positive Developments:
- Falling production prices in China (except in the case of EU and rising energy prices).
- Drop in sea shipping prices to pre-pandemic prices (except rail transport).
- Handling of Covid-19 worldwide (with the exception of China, despite a very restrictive zero COVID-19 policy).
Negative Developments:
- Civil unrest and uncertainty in markets following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
- Rise in global inflation at the rate not known for last 30–40 years.
- Rising hydrocarbon prices and food shortages in various parts of the world.
Key Factors Affecting Sales in 2022:
- Post-pandemic return to retail and services.
- Decline in demand from consumers, window shopping.
- Price wars between Sellers.
- Broken supply chains, manufacturing downtime in China.
How Are The E-Commerce Trends for 2023 Shaping Up?
We have summed up 2022, now it’s time to discuss the dominant trends for 2023.
Mobile Commerce
M-commerce is a naturally separate area of e-commerce. The fact is that mobile devices have transformed the way people shop. During the period 2016-2022, the share of mobile sales in total e-commerce sales increased from 52.4% to an impressive 72.8%
This result illustrates how important it is that all pages on your online shop are responsive, i.e. adapted to both computers and mobile devices. A mobile app will absolutely be an asset to facilitate the customer’s purchasing process.
How Can You Take Advantage of This Trend to Its Fullest? Take the following factors into consideration:
- Visual appearance UX/UI – by giving your mobile app a great look and high-quality images of your products, you can take it to the next level.
- Search functonality – when a user searches for a product, they see previous searches for comparison or as a reminder.
- Checkout process – include a mini shopping cart on mobile devices showing the contents of the cart as an overlay when the user clicks on the cart icon, rather than taking them to a whole new screen.
- Push notifications – notify customers of special offers and other reminders (e.g. re-availability of a product or a particular size).
According to Statista, 61% of retail traffic is generated by mobile devices. Up to 70 million people use their mobile devices to shop online. Due to the convenience of mobile shopping, the number is bound to increase. Customers can search, compare products, and pay while they are on the go.
Social E-Commerce
- 300% → Global social e-commerce will grow three times faster than traditional e-commerce. From $492 billion in 2021 to $1.2 trillion by 2025.
- 62% → The millennial generation of consumers will drive the growth. They will account for 62% of global social commerce spending by 2025.
- 17% → The forecasted increase in the share of social e-commerce to 17% of all e-commerce by 2025. It will be achieved thanks to platforms and sellers making significant investments and partnerships in this field.
Marketplace Boom
During the following years, this model is expected to grow in popularity. According to Forbes, sales on marketplaces will surpass $3.5 billion by 2024.
How Can You Take Advantage of This Trend to Its Fullest? Take the following factors into consideration:
- Brand & niche marketplaces – instead of competing for market share in established ecosystems such as eBay or Amazon, look towards branded or niche marketplaces.
- Omnichannel strategy – omnichannel strategy will not only bring the benefits of increased sales potential, but also better customer service, and a larger customer database.
- Cross-border trade – in order to reach the full potential of sales without geographical barriers, pay special attention to tax issues, exchange rate differences, or local consumer specifics (e.g. cost of delivery included in the product price)
Multi – Channel marketing strategy
The ability to have your products available wherever your potential customers prefer to shop helps maintain brand visibility and recognition. Consequently, it enhances trust in it through the exposure effect.
How Can You Take Advantage of This Trend to Its Fullest? Take the following factors into consideration:
- Omnichannel mindset—be flexible in your decisions to redirect marketing resources between sales channels.
- Holistic mindset—look at holistic metrics to help evaluate marketing spend vs sales.
- Forecasting mindset—plan marketing spending with data-driven business objectives in mind.
Last mile delivery
- 70% → Up to 70% of shipments will be delivered from local warehouses by 2025.
- 20% → US shipments will be delivered to customers the same day by 2025 (including testing drone shipments).
- 70% → In the next 3 years, losses due to lack of optimisation of the so-called last mile could reach up to 70% of retailers’ profits.
Subscription Sales
Conclusions
In the past 6–8 weeks, e-commerce has returned to its 2019 mode. Furthermore, investment funds are taking a renewed interest in its funding.
The next year will be a time of stability after the decline in 2022. What’s more, it will be a time of improving and streamlining existing solutions in logistics, integration, and availability of goods or fulfilment centres. The era of augmented reality, such as drone delivery, will happen, but not necessarily in 2023.
What should we not forget about when summing up 2022? Deferred payments reigned supreme last year. In 2023, the goal will be to make the purchasing process even easier than it was before. With the development of logistics networks, simplified fulfillment and 1-2 day delivery will become standard.
Finally, an absolute trend for 2023 is the desire to umarketplace every shop.
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