R&D & Innovation

The ever-increasing demand for goods is creating new ways for those goods to be delivered to customers. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift outwards of the big cities create new challenges. Picking goods from a store or pick-up points is an option that is selected more and more by customers. Direct chat and updates by the person who delivers the goods, and the customer are being integrated with more and more online shops as there is a need for more flexible last-minute options.

Temporary pick-up and drop-off locations are also on the rise as people who live in remote locations need a place to manage their purchases. The demand for delivery personnel is at an all-time high. Services for the delivery of food and groceries are everywhere and the influx of investors’ money makes these positions more desirable and better paid. This creates a vacuum for conventional goods delivery couriers that again leads to more waiting time and less competitive pricing.

Metaverse and its commerce options bring a new dimension to the stagnated user experience. As opposed to the standard search, add to basket, and checkout process, the new universe, the metaverse, can enhance the experience. A customer with its virtual avatar can interact with other customers, exchange ideas and real-time reviews about the products, can speak directly with customer support, try on the product, combine it with products from other brands, and so on.

On the other hand, the business can use this opportunity to explore different options. A/B testing with in-store branding would never be so easy. The virtual shops can be used to test arrangements for the physical ones. And let us not forget the “cool” factor as eCommerce is one of the pioneers in this space.

It has never been easier to purchase something online and it has never been more difficult for a business to rely on a subsequential buy. Consumer loyalty toward brands has declined ever since the pandemic, and that is resulting in higher rates of churn with numerous consumers switching to competitor brands.

What can a business do in this case? If it is hard to compete on a scale level, then do the best on your local level. Packaging is a good place to start. If you send your goods using minimum waste and if it is all pretty and recyclable, customers will appreciate that. You can also level up your services around the goods such as how-to videos, tutorials, and manuals.

Customers are thinking more about their footprint when buying both online and offline. How is this product made? Is it sustainable or not? What is the combined carbon footprint of this purchase – from the time the product is conceived in the designer’s head, till the time the product is in the customer’s hands … and the options to deal with the product when the product is no longer needed. Is there a recycling program provided by the business? What is the reselling value of the product? More questions the business needs to have answers to.

Live shopping is a way to create live-streamed shopping events. You can showcase products in real-world settings, put product details and purchase options front and center, and interact with your audience directly from your live broadcast.

Well-established platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok are either offering live shopping as part of their business tools or are just joining it, but there is a market for independent platforms that do just that. And there is a good reason for it as the numbers tell the best story. Conversion rates via YouTube live shopping are 10x higher than via conventional e-commerce, $500B is the expected revenue by 2023 from global live streaming events.