Global eCommerce 2016 What to Expect
eCommerce is no longer a coming thing. The use of mobile devices for eCommerce is no longer the next trend. They are both here and are a way of life. It is as common a practice to research products online in markets like India, China, and Russia as it is in the US. Online purchasing is done in most major markets today as an accepted common practice. The adoption rate in some markets can vary significantly, but it is either a highly accepted practice or it will be soon.
Projected Global eCommerce
As you can see from the below table all key market segments of eCommerce will be increasing in 2016 and for the foreseeable future.
Table Credit: https://www.statista.com/outlook/243/100/ecommerce/worldwide#market-revenue
Statista has a wonderful website to view not only the global forecast for eCommerce, but they provide a similar table for a large selection of countries which include much more information for a given market. For example the table for Mexico in the following link shows very high growth is planned through 2020: https://www.statista.com/outlook/243/116/ecommerce/mexico#
Mobile Wallets
Large tech industry players, such as Apple, Google, PayPal and Square are making a strong push in the marketplace for consumers to adopt mobile payment applications which will allow a person to pay for items online and in brick and mortar stores. The term often used for this technology is mobile wallets.
Mobile wallets eliminate the need to carry or hand over a credit card. Your mobile device is all that you need. While the capability has been around for a few years the wider adoption of the various technologies from major retailers and banking systems and the confidence of strong security from device to bank will see use of this technology by the average consumer begin to get traction and become a common practice.
While PayPal has their core service and application, in 2013, they acquired a payment service called Venmo, which is especially popular with Millennials. The application allows free person to person money exchanges. It is expected that PayPal will begin to adapt the application for consumer to merchant in the near term as well. The application has a social kind of feel to it in that you must include a message with the money transfer. It is popular to use an emoji as part of your message when exchanging money with friends. Free, simple, fun, and no need to use the same bank as your friends. It replaces using checks for many who see this as outdated and inconvenient.
Be Local When Global
Helping the adoption of eCommerce globally is the availability of localized websites and apps for consumers in global local markets to shop and make purchases in their own native language. Businesses selling globally online have taken the next step in understanding their international customers with the translation of content, videos and product information. They also are enabling customers to buy in their own currency and preferred method (credit card, invoice, etc.) with localized checkout engine, local product sizes (as a size 8 in one country may not be the same in another), and access to customer service in their own language.
Summary
2016 will see global eCommerce take another leap in how marketers customize their approach for local markets and the technology available to global consumers will only get better and easier to move more purchases online than we are doing today.
