Catherine Barba, general director of the Digital Commerce Factory of vente-privee, has elaborated a complete analysis that gathers the main trends of e-commerce in a prospective study published with the support of Fevad (Federation of e-commerce and distance selling) and the DGCIS (Directorate General of competitiveness, industry and services).

These are the five main trends of the future of e-commerce:

Cross-channel strategies

• For a brand, an e-commerce site is much more than another of its stores: it is the opening of its “global flagship store” open 24 hours a day for all its customers around the world
• The only way to guarantee a consistent experience in the whole set of sales channels (physical stores, e-stores, social networks, mobile phone …) is to place the customer in the center, allowing them to decide
• The main question about e-commerce takes us back to the stores: What is special to offer for consumers to come back? How to attract them to physical stores from online stores?

The m-commerce

• Smartphones and touch tablets must be placed in a central position in the reflection of brands on the digital world.
• The rate of growth in terms of the time users spend in front of mobile devices increases at a much faster rate than other media.
• Mobile telephony multiplies the number of exchange and purchase possibilities to infinity.

Differentiation by the image and tone

• The quality of the images is key to increase the impulse of purchase, when you can not emphasize the price.
• Immersive experiences in video to immerse visitors in the universe of the brand.
• The challenge of tone: you have to get mixed the codes of e-commerce in the routes that customers follow to the basket, with their DNA, their unique values.

Excellence in service

• Exceptional logistics and customer service are the most important in an e-commerce that is committed to excellence in service.
• The most critical moment is after placing the order. It is at this moment where the commercial promise is concretized, where contact with the customer originates and where a large part of their satisfaction resides.
• The consumer tends to the lowest possible price for a quality service, not just to get the highest possible discount.

Luxury and internet

• Luxury brands have a long way to go if they want to keep pace with the needs of today’s consumers, who are very skeptical and experts on the Internet.
• Another constant: buyers of luxury products prefer online shopping, less intimidating than in-store purchases (60% consult the web before making an online purchase or going to the store).
• For this reason, luxury products websites have to propose an extraordinary «e-selling ceremony»
• The first objective that an e-commerce site for luxury products should have is not to be the online sale, but to awaken the desire to buy, either online or in the store.
• But you have to follow some «e-commerce codes», for usability, navigation, product information … since e-buyers of luxury products have taken habits, reflections: they are experienced buyers!

According to Catherine Barba: “An online store is not an end in itself for the consumer who will always return to the real, simpler, more concrete, more personal, more human. The challenge for e-commerce is to combine the new technologies and the return to reality. By creating the link with the internet, the stores would immediately benefit from being multi-connected, digitized, with the resources of a wide range of technologies using smartphones, mobile codes or technologies such as RFID or augmented reality. An interactive store with the consumer. As online the customer is alone with the products, this will make their level of demand with the human relationship in the store much higher. Before, products were sold, in the future the experience will be sold.