9 eCommerce Trends 2017 in Australia

Australia, with the population of 23 million, has now become world’s top leading country for online marketers. According to a research report by Roy Morgan, Australians spent about $41.3 billion on online shopping in the year 2016. And following this trend, it is forecasted to surpass $32 billion online sales by 2017.

In Australia, there are 19.4 million people as the mobile user. And by the year 2015, 35% of online transactions were made through mobile. Thus, we can say, previous years were a huge outbreak for the online business.

On the run to eCommerce, in 2016, we have seen quality content, usage of social media and mobile usage were on the top. And this year also seems to follow the same trend along with some new stuff.

So, which eCommerce trends are going to strike in Australia this year, 2017? Let’s see.

Surging Mobile Payment

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Today, we are living in the digital world. And, most of the transaction is made digitally. Nowadays, debit card and credit card are the popular means to make the online payment.  We can see consumer also uses smartphones, watches and other wearable/handheld devices. With the increasing usage of these devices, the traditional approach of cash payment is slowly fading away.

Keeping this aspect in mind, it is likely to expect the user-friendly website with the simple and clean design in 2017. The merchants have to optimise their site such that they can accept online payment without hurdle.

Chatbots Integration

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Integrating chatbots to the website is enumerating this year. This will pledge your reputation towards the customer in a more effective way. This feature will make your online store interactive.

Whenever the consumer has a query relating the products, s/he will ask the merchants before purchasing. And Chatbots integration lets AI (Artificial Intelligence) to solve the general query of your customer regarding your brand. This will surely support better user experience with a possibility of higher conversion rate.

Fast Shipping & Delivery

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Who doesn’t want to have a quick delivery of the purchased item in their hand? Well, everybody loves it. And this is going to be more competitive this year. This feature is trending due to the busy schedule of customers. The customer will be ready to pay extra charges for quick delivery service.

The company/store who can guarantee the same-day delivery is going to be listed in the customer’s favourite. So, it’d be wise to provide the delivery or shipping information along with the products.

Real-time Customization & Personalization

ECommerce is upgrading the user’s expectation to the next level in 2017. This year, e-commerce will offer the real-time personalization feature to enhance the user experience.

With this feature, the shoppers are allowed to choose their specified content with product recommendations, offer and add-ons. Then, for each visit of the particular shopper, the site will display the products, marketing trends or ads based on the past purchasing behaviour, preference and geographic location. This will cater the customer to make the right decision before purchasing the product.

Increasing GST for international online stores

From July 2017, Australia will start gathering GST for the international businesses. This trend will add economic relief to Australia. Any international business requires collecting GST before selling their product. Beside this, this trend caters the local business to grow their potential to reach more customers.

Social Media Marketing

As the year passes, the rate of internet user with the social media is also exploiting. It is believed that the number of users in social media will reach 12.1 million in (Australia) 2017. With this huge volume of traffic, the online retailers can make the use of powerful social media.

The merchants can set their account in different social media and start marketing their products. This is the most efficient and effective way to reach the niche customer. For the convenient shopping experience, these social media brings buy now button. This button will redirect the customer to a direct buy page, instead of the website. The robust strategy of social media marketing will lead to the successful eCommerce business.

Predictive Analysis

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The most trending approach of eCommerce in these days is Predictive Analysis. Predictive Analysis will collect the data from the huge volume (Big Data) and analyse the required trend for the individual or group of the customers. The data could be from the customer profile, customer purchasing behaviour or interactions.

Analysis of these data will produce more informative and refine data to know the nature of the customers. Eventually, the business can quantify the conversion rate. This data will also provide a personalised experience for the user in the real time.

Small Business Go Online

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Any small business requires a specified amount to form. However, the large business holds high overhead to commence their niche product. This aspect will serve an opportunity to every small business to get established.

For the one who wants to start their online business, can put his best effort with a little expense to give a quality product with online visibility. If the online store can fulfil the needs of the potential customer at the reasonable price, then it’s no longer a business owner has to wait for the success of his business.

 Unified eCommerce

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Integrating all platforms – web platform or physical store at a single point is possible in the real time with the use of unified eCommerce. Yes, you got it right. This stuff seems to be a little bit complex, but it will highly populate the online store this year.

The unified eCommerce will centralise all data of the store at one place. This will help the end customer to make a purchase or return products whenever relevant. This trend will make the shopping experience more exciting and interesting like never before.

Wrapping up

These are the glazing eCommerce trends for 2017. If you are thinking to start your online store, then you must have to ascertain these trends. But before commencing your e-store, first, you have to ensure eCommerce checklist on your website.