EGNITION

It would be fair to call this decade a decade of mobile devices. It would be fair to call this decade a decade of social networks. It would be fair to call this decade a decade of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Well, it seems like this decade will be a decade of many great things, inventions, newly discovered industries & technologies and, of course, Pokemons. But what else?

There is one market that is booming and we accept this boom as a fact without even wondering why it’s happening. I am talking about the e-commerce market. This decade is a great decade of e-commerce.

Even though e-commerce has been around since mid-nineties – the real power of online retail has been discovered in this decade. Why?

There are many reasons for this massive growth and one of the main ones is technology. Modern technologies like «Cloud» & APIs specifically allow any business to build complex and cost-effective integrations between an e-commerce platform and ERP, CRM, payment services, and all other thinkable and unthinkable systems.

These modern technologies at the heart of e-commerce SaaS platforms like Shopify make selling easy, fun & profitable for any business. The second most important reason is that e-commerce has an almost unlimited reach to its’ potential customers these days. Thanks to technology again.

Online retail stores can talk to their prospects through mobile devices, laptops, and even wearables. I’m not even mentioning social networks, digital marketing & growing in popularity CDPs (customer data platforms). Online retail stores have 365/24/7 unlimited access to a customer. Just think about it.

Let’s get to those simple facts that I promised about the global e-commerce market.

1. E-commerce sales will reach $4.058 trillion in 2020, making up 14.6% of the total retail spending that year. That means online sales will double in just four years if you look at the chart. The reach of the e-commerce market is expanding and it’s just a start. On the other side, e-commerce is powering a whole range of other industries: transportation, insurance, packaging, electronics, fashion, manufacturing, and so on. eMarketer (https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Worldwide-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Will-Reach-1915-Trillion-This-Year/1014369).
2. More than 51% of retail customers make their purchase online and the average revenue in 2016 per user is around $1600 US. This number will only increase in years to come. With mobile sales growing and technologies becoming more affordable all over the world we will see an increasing number of people spending cash online year on year. Statista (https://www.statista.com/forecasts/280703/e-commerce-arpu-in-united-states).
3. In 2016 more than 1.61 billion people went online and made a purchase. The world population is currently sitting at around 7.4 billion. That is more than 20% of the world population. It feels like there is enough space out there for growth. Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/251666/number-of-digital-buyers-worldwide/).

So, why do these numbers matter? E-commerce is booming, so what?

These numbers matter because there is no better time to get into e-commerce than right now. An old Chinese proverb says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” If you’re thinking about your own retail store online or digital business – stop thinking and get selling today.

I’ve mentioned a popular SaaS earlier in this article – Shopify. This is a great e-commerce platform for beginners and established stores alike. Shopify is the third most popular e-commerce platform in the world, but it is #1 service that does not require investment in infrastructure and in many cases zero development from your side. So feel free to visit Shopify website and see for yourself if you can join this amazing decade of e-commerce boom.

Let your customers have a great shopping day!