Study Reveals e-Commerce to Hit an Astonishing Benchmark in 2018

Global e-commerce sales made on mobile devices will reach an unprecedented $683 billion by 2018, a new joint analysis from Assocham and Deloitte has revealed.

According to a July 6 NDTV article, researchers attributed this impending growth to the widening availability of e-commerce applications on mobile devices. Additionally, e-retailers, or “e-tailers,” are increasingly able to tailor the shopping experience to individual users, offering them relevant, real-time, personalized recommendations.

“E-tailers like Flipkart, Amazon and Jabong now get 50% of their revenues from consumers shopping on their mobile phones,” Assocham secretary-general D.S. Rawat said. “Predictive analytics is helping the e-tailers provide better solutions real-time, enabling compelling user experience even on mobile screens.”

Another innovation that will help e-commerce is the advent of more developed cashless payment systems that will allow consumers to make purchases with the click of a mouse — or the touch of a smartphone screen.

The gradual launch of wearables — smart devices that are worn on the body and can relay data over an Internet connection — will also help expand the realm of e-commerce, NDTV reported. Devices like the Apple Watch and Google Glass are expected to open up unparalleled opportunities for introducing new products to consumers over the next few years as are more widely adopted within the consumer market.

The current state of e-commerce supports these predictions. Every 30 seconds, $1.2 million in profits is generated by e-commerce. About 40% of Internet users worldwide, more than two billion people, have bought goods and products online, and this percentage is quickly rising. Given these figures, it’s no surprising that e-commerce will pass such a momentous benchmark within the next three years.

Even with the stratospheric profit margins of e-commerce’s future, however, it will still be vital for e-tailers to take their customers’ security and privacy seriously, Rawat remarked. Trust, transparency and protection are three key factors to retaining customer loyalty that will never go away, even as commerce and retail becomes increasingly web-based.