Trendspotting in e-commerce industry
By Priyanka Neelakantan
‘Trendspotting’ is not merely an exercise of “spotting” trends locally/nationally/internationally before they get mainstream, but also about going a step further to identify any new commercial opportunities or best practices that can be adopted from the trends. So, the question boils down to how can we assess and adapt any emerging trends to our business? We could firstly study the impact of trends via social media conversations, changes in purchase behavior patterns, etc. The second step would be to understand the costs involved and whether investing in the trend would offer any competitive advantage. Studying these dynamics will help you decide whether you want to invest in the emerging trend or wait for it to get more pronounced before adoption. In this article, I present to you some trendspotting topics that are already popular or currently making its foray into Indian e-commerce market.
1. The emergence of live-commerce:
‘Live commerce’ is an online shopping experience that happens during a live stream- Think Naaptol/HomeShop 18 but on an e-commerce app. The live show is predominantly hosted by influencers, and provides an opportunity for consumers to interact directly with brands & their spokesperson and also lets them buy the product instantly. This trend was first popularized in China by Alibaba during their flagship event- Single’s Day (Livestream shopping during 2020 edition of Single’s Day drove sales of over $6 Bn USD for the platform) and has now caught the world’s attention.
It is predicted that live commerce in India will be worth $4-5 billion by 2025 (According to study conducted by Redseer). Indian e-commerce players like Flipkart, Myntra & Nykaa are already on the livestream shopping bandwagon, albeit on a small scale. Social media platforms like Moj and Roposo too have introduced live commerce offerings on their platform. With the growing strength of Indian content creators especially in the beauty and personal care segment, this feature may soon become a crucial influencer in buying decisions.
2. The rise of social commerce to improve customer reach:
Social commerce is gaining a stronghold in Tier 4 - 5 cities of India. It leverages the networking power of community leaders to sell their products. These community leaders become resellers of the products. While in an e-commerce setup transactions happen while on the app, social commerce is when buyers & resellers interact on social media platforms like WhatsApp & Facebook to make transactions. With the increasing penetration of mobile phones & growing popularity of short form video platforms like Tik Tok, Moj, etc. more & more people in rural areas are getting comfortable with making purchases online. Homegrown start-ups like Meesho, Dealshare are at the forefront of this trend- Meesho has built a network of 2 Mn ‘social sellers’, of which women constitute nearly 80 percentage.
3. Audio search to simplify product discovery:
In order to cater to vernacular speaking crowd, e-commerce players are now adding voice search capabilities in their app. A study by Google claims that nearly 28% of their searches are now via Voice- “Voice Searches are growing at 270% YOY, and Hindi Voice Searches are growing at 400%”. Recently, Flipkart introduced voice search in Hindi & English and is already getting 5 MN queries a day. Voice-powered search eliminates hurdles related to conventional search- you don’t need to type in English, you aren’t restricted to suggestions that pop up midway, you don’t need to apply multiple filters to get relevant search results.
4. Use of AR/VR for an immersive customer experience:
If we were to study reasons for returns & cancellations in e-commerce, a recurring complaint would be that the product wasn’t upto expectation. An AR/VR experience can help solve this hurdle as customers would be able to access if red lipstick color, a gold ear ring or the purple colored top would suit them or not. Brands like Lenskart, IKEA & Ulta Beauty are already offer services in this domain. An AR/VR experience will help improve customer engagement and help them gain a better sensorial experience, while reducing return rates!
Let us know in comments if there are any other emerging trends that you have spotted in e-commerce industry!