The New Year as predicted in the year past has truly been the year of the customer. Through all the prediction and fortune telling for the ecommerce industry, 2015 has surpassed all the thresholds anticipated just before the dawn of the New Year in 2014 with overwhelming sales that reached $400 billion in December.

What’s in for Ecommerce in 2015?

It’s a difficult dilemma in this industry, handing power to the consumer. When you are selling and the consumer is buying it’s rather the buyer who is the taker in the scenario, hence it controls the market with snap of its fingers. Undeniably, after calculating the predicted outcome of e-commerce industry, the result of global sales has easily crushed the $1.5 trillion mark, thought to be so unapproachable by the business master mind since the past decade.

Consumer takes all

Thanks to crowd-sourcing any product that is about to be released can become an internet sensation. For instance, the new Nikes are ready to hit the shops, the fans from all across the world start gathering on blogs and e-commerce stores, just watching and drooling, waiting to get their hands on them.

To show how the consumer has dominated these trends let’s start with the top 5 e-commerce trends that webmasters should incorporate in their online stores to take advantage.

1.     Selection of Booming Products

Customers amass on websites and online stores sometimes just to get a glimpse of the product. Right there is the moment when a small time e-commerce store that just so happened to have erected a website begins to boom as traffic multiplies and conversion rates increase.

Consumer, a Merciless Creature

The customer of 2015 is the New Year’s judge jury and the executioner and tends to carry out its responsibilities as mercilessly as possible. While some sneaker of a top notch brand gets aired and millions of jaws drop simultaneously, another sneaker gets greeted with boos and rotten tomatoes...Why?

The merciless consumer cherishes the one product that it has supported since its birth while the other has yet to win affection from the consumers before it gets destroyed and annihilated on the internet. If a small time ecommerce store features a top of the line product then rightfully all the traffic will start converging to that lucky website. So the consumer has spoken, thus the product will be a hit.

2.     All Day All Night, Stay Online!

So when owners sell their stuff online they make it available 24/7, no exceptions whatsoever or else it would defeat the purpose. So now, responding to buyers is imperative and listening to their queries is essential for the future business.

Responding to consumer needs

This called forth the incorporation of individual departments such as customer care representatives, billing, complains and several other departments installed to do one and only one task, listen and sell. Since the intervention in the e-commerce industry, buying has become interesting more than ever. There are very few ecommerce businesses that don’t have these departments and even fewer which can survive without them. You may like to have Help Desk Professional Extension for Magento by FME.

3.   Faster Delivery of the Online Shopping

For ages the only slogan wood and brick stores chanted was “purchase now, leave the store with your name on it”. This was an effective strategy that granted immediate fulfillment. It is fast and less risky. The consumer needs the product desperately hence he travels to the store to purchase it But what if the speed factor gets morphed in the equation to a whole new level?

Converting in-store shoppers to online shoppers

Introducing faster and neater shipping methods to e-commerce stores has changed the definition of online shopping for millions of customers who did in-store shopping and were proud of it. With the help of inventory control and 30 minute delivery option on online stores, shipping products is evolving by the day. It is anticipated that by 2018 shipping will be a part of aerial drops and drone transport.

4.     Mobile Commerce is Owning

It’s true the mobile revolution has decimated several other channels of shopping such as in home or in store purchases, but mostly now folks just walk and shop on their tablets and phones which were considered an accessory back in 2012.

Customer’s Chronicle

It wouldn’t be a surprise if you discover a review about how a customer came to buy a particular table. Firstly he came across an attractive piece of furniture while walking through a mart and then he did a little armchair research on the product before walking back in the mart and doing some comparison shopping. Finally, satisfied and determined, he makes his move and purchases the product while relaxing and chatting with his friends in a dinner next to his apartment.

Internet at its best

Mobile commerce is taking 2015 by storm and sellers are introducing newer and better incentives for their e-commerce customers all across the world. Several technological factors have affected the sale and purchase of products in the market and keeps to change and create opportunities as long as the internet thrives with a screen in your hand.

5.     Social Media Commerce

More than 81% of Americans use social media networks on daily basis. So understanding how vital and powerful social media has become in the ecommerce industry can unlock secrets to profit and cost effectiveness for businesses operating in the smallest of capacities. This thought was rather rejected almost a decade ago when traffic was merely understood as means to get a website piercing through competitors to the top of the food chain.

2015 will dominate social media

Now in 2015 social media is more than what meets the eye, it’s a vast network of people all around the world attached to their devices, ready and willing to purchase any product that pops up on their screen.  To a survey, sales through social commerce are expected to expand by 93% yearly in the U.S alone. This means $14 billion of sales by 2015.

Why social media is trending?

To create an e-commerce friendly image for their brand, merchants are compelled to socialize more on such networks and create awareness through blogosphere and Twitterverse. While at the same time sellers get the opportunity to endorse their products, injecting it into their audiences. Whether it is Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter or any channel, the content gets through to the followers and the results are astonishing. People are hungry for more, feeding them through the fastest and most effective channels is eminent.