E-commerce Trends and the World of Online Mystery Shopping

BY QDegreesPUBLISHED
Apr. 22, 2024

In 2024, it is expected that India's e-commerce market alone will reach a whopping ₹4,416.68 billion. It may not surprise you a lot, as the growth of e-commerce worldwide is pretty evident. Instead, you may find it as an opportunity, right? But there's a catch.

While entering the e-commerce estate, many people fail to understand what trends to follow so that evident growth can be chased.

Not following the trends may make your business unable to grab the opportunities, and grow in the industry,

That's why we have come up with five e-commerce trends to follow in 2024. So, without delay, let's dive deeper into these trends.

What Is the E-commerce Industry?

E-commerce or electronic commerce refers to the buying and selling of products and services online. As you shop in an offline store, an e-commerce store is set up digitally like a website or app to let you shop.

Moreover, the product or service you choose and buy is delivered to your doorstep without needing you to get up and visit offline stores. It's one of the most drastically growing industries in the world, which is why it features new trends every year. So, let's look at five such trends in the e-commerce industry in 2024.

5 E-commerce Trends to Look Out for in 2024

Seamless Omnichannel Experiences in 2024

Let's start with the trend already taking shape: omnichannel experiences. In 2020, America's biggest e-commerce platform, Amazon, had 2.44 billion visits to its platform, nearly one-third of Earth's total population. But how does it relate to omnichannel experiences? Because the visits were not only from desktops—mobile visits also had a significant share. Simply put, having more than one option for your consumers is becoming crucial because most journeys may start on one platform but end on another, as comfort is a key factor.

For example, if a person sees an ad for a product on YouTube and clicks on the link, he/she will be redirected to the website. However, if the person is surfing YouTube on a smartphone, then an app is a more comfortable option for shopping rather than a website. This seamless integration is what top Mystery Shopping Companies in India analyze to ensure businesses provide a consistent customer experience.

Moreover, let's say a customer ordered something from your website and later decided to download the app. Then, the app must get synced with the consumer's website profile as soon as the person logs in. This synchronization is a crucial aspect evaluated during a Mystery Shopper Audit, where businesses assess their omnichannel effectiveness.

The omnichannel experience is not just limited to shopping but extends to other consumer-centric aspects, such as customer service. For instance, if a customer starts a query on your app through a chatbot but doesn't get a satisfying answer, they may switch to another channel, like speaking to a customer representative. In such cases, customer support must be able to pick up the conversation from where it ended on the chatbot, ensuring a seamless transition—another critical factor reviewed by Mystery Shopping Companies in India to enhance overall customer experience.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Revolutionizing

Ever since this new technology came into existence, breakthroughs have kept coming in almost every industry. In the last decade, it has been the most incredible discovery, which not only transformed the way businesses used to be done but also introduced some completely new concepts.

First, let's talk about the transformation of e-commerce with AI. Do you remember those chatbots businesses started using to divert customer queries based on their complexity? So, every query starts with chatbot interaction and then gets converted into other forms like a call to a customer representative or an email. However, the chatbot interaction was not good enough due to its limited Intelligence.

But, as AI came, chatbots are able to handle more complex queries and assist the query more personally instead of giving the same response every time. Additionally, there are other AI implementation trends as well. For instance, Myntra, the clothing e-commerce business, has introduced FashionGPT on its platform to help its customers get advice from artificial Intelligence.

Sustainability

As an e-commerce business, there are many concerns that you have to actively deal with, and one of the concerns is sustainability. But to your surprise, in 2024, this concern has become a trend among customers who shop with e-commerce. Yes, you have heard it right. The thing that many brands have taken advantage of in recent years is now going to become a trend, which means sustainable products and services are no longer a luxury but a requirement to fulfill.

Simply put, sustainability is crucial, as your customer is now aware of it and looking for a sustainable option. So, adding it to your business process, like delivering with minimal use of plastic and using an efficient delivery mechanism, is important, but marketing these sustainability approaches is also important.

AR and VR Make E-commerce Immersive

From the beginning, e-commerce has been dealing with a problem in countries like India. As e-commerce started, the immersiveness of the shopping experience was eliminated. The person who used to visit a store and check the product before buying, let's say, the fit or the color now orders from an e-commerce platform based on a few images of the product and its description. Moreover, this is where people, to date, hesitate to buy anything online as it lacks that immersiveness.

However, as 2024 rolled in, two of the latest techs, AR and VR, are here to bridge this gap. While these two technologies are widely discussed in the tech space, like smartphones and related industries, they have also debuted in e-commerce. The Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart lets you see the fit and look of a product in your home using Augmented Reality technology.

Similarly, Lenskart, a prominent player in the eyewear e-commerce space, also lets you try their specs on your face with AR. So, that's how AR and VR can help you keep your business an edge over others.

Personalization and Curated Experiences are in High Demand

Last but not least is the personalized experience. According to research by Accenture, 91% of the total consumers may return to the brands that recognize them and offer a personalized experience. In e-commerce, be it the homepage of the website/app or the suggestion popping up in notifications, all this will play an important role in the success of any e-commerce business. The reason why it's going to be a trend to curate personal experiences for consumers is because the consumers need to research less and get a product that matches their needs without scrolling infinitely. So, recognizing your customers and personalizing their experience will help you grow exponentially in the e-commerce world.

So these were the five trends to look at in 2024 if you are a contender in e-commerce. However, no matter how many trends you follow, implementation influences the end results. How well you implemented something, will make all the difference.

So, how will you know if you have implemented the trends correctly? Your customers declare it by how much they liked or disliked it. Here comes a great method of auditing your e-commerce store called online mystery shopping. But can you audit an online store through mystery shopping? Let's find out!

Is Mystery Shopping Possible Online?

Yes, with online mystery shopping, the mystery audit of any e-commerce store has become possible. It is just like an offline mystery audit, where mystery shoppers shop on e-commerce platforms to audit everything about it, like buying experience, omnichannel experiences, technological implementations, and more. This service is a great way to understand how good your online store's experience is and what problems it has.

Why Choose Us?

While you may see many options to get your online mystery done, is there any valid reason to choose QDegrees? Yes, there are many reasons why you should choose us for your online mystery shopping.

Firstly, our experts and technological advancements in this field make us the best. We have a digital platform to audit the life cycles and quick touch point evaluation, which is a major part of e-commerce shopping. Moreover, QDegrees provide our reports filled with actionable insights so that you can make real moves.

Conclusively, following the latest trends is essential, but focusing on your customer experience is what helps you become a brand.