The online retail industry isn’t one
to stand still, and according to industry insiders, 2019 will be no exception.
As 2018 comes to a close and workers
across the country are switching off and preparing for a week of feasting and
celebrating, we took a moment to talk to a selection of retailers and solution providers to see
what they think the next 12-months will hold.
Billy Huynh,
Founder and CEO, Interior Secrets
Voice search is an exciting one! We’ve
seen the capabilities of Siri, Alexa and Google assistant. I think the
voice-centric world is still in its early days, however, the thought of being
able to search for the best price for a particular product simply by saying the
product name to your phone is probably as convenient as it gets. Online
retailers could create content that answers common questions asked through
voice assistants.
Small or large, brand value will
matter. With smaller retailers, in particular, we are seeing more creative ideas
emerge. A clear digital strategy will be critical for retailers to survive in a
growing competitive landscape. We’ve overhauled our digital strategy at least
six times in the last year, and our new website
is set to launch in January 2019.
Retailers with increased store numbers
will advance there supply chain making it possible for retailers to capture and
fulfil orders quicker. We launched our first experience store in the heart of
Southbank directly opposite Crown Casino last year, the second store happening
in Sydney next year. When we first opened, we had in-store sale targets and
focused heavily on closing the sale with every visitor that walked through the
door. Now, we’re centred on providing exceptional customer service. Often, we
would assist a customer in the store in the morning, and soon after would see
their name pop up in the back end of the sales system.
Phil Suggate,
Co-Founder, EasyShed
Retail
overall in 2019 will continue to perform strongly. Retailers continuing to
ignore the essentiality of integrated e-commerce platforms and the rapidly
changing shopping habits and expectations of their customers will continue to
struggle and die. However, retailers that are providing a well-integrated and
engaging omnichannel experience (both online and offline) will see strong
growth and continue to rapidly gain market share.
James Tinsley,
Founder, FitMyCar
I really hate seeing the bad news
stories about established bricks-and-mortar brands collapsing because they
haven’t adopted digital and e-commerce strategies. So my hope for 2019 will be
seeing good new stories about iconic brands kicking goals in the digital
marketing and e-commerce space, embracing social media and being rewarded for
it.
Mike Wilson,
Founder, TinyMe
Certainly the big trends such as
mobile, social, video, on-site personalisation and relevance, speed and
contextual commerce are as big for us as they are for everyone else in
e-commerce. We are, however, primarily a design and manufacturing business with
core capabilities in software and engineering automation interested in building
direct-to-consumer brands. In this sense, the trends affecting us go well
beyond e-commerce and are more into areas such as mechatronics, robotics and
automation, as well as global logistics, large data wrangling etc.
Dion Appel, Chief
Revenue Officer, Openpay
2018 was a big year for e-commerce
with a number of changes and developments, and we’re most excited to see how
things will continue to grow in 2019 – especially the continued growth of
digital payment solutions. Convenience will be key for consumers and there are
so many ways this can be achieved, with payment methods at the forefront,
allowing e-commerce
sites to increase conversions and shopping basket sizes to remain
competitive.
We also see the online retail industry
continuing to grow and evolve at a rapid pace with payment solution offerings
leading the way. The rising popularity of buy now, pay later providers has
proven that customers want an online shopping experience that is tailored to
their individual preferences. They want to be in control of how they shop and
the industry will need to continue to evolve to keep up with that.
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