WHILE most people are very satisfied with the changes and developments that have occurred in the online shopping industry in recent years, there is a great deal of excitement about what the future may hold. After all, there have been massive steps forward taken in recent years and there is still a great deal of improvements being made in the technological elements in the online shopping industry. We may get to a stage where online shopping reaches a plateau or level where it cannot advance beyond but at the moment, there is still genuine hope that there is a lot more to come from an industry that has already been pleasing a lot of people.
One of the biggest changes has been the instant download element of many commercial products. This is not something that is open for everyone, after all, you cannot download a dress or food over the internet, but there is going to be an improvement in the instant nature of online buying. For content that can be downloaded or streamed online, there will be a quicker way to get access to these elements. You may not be on the site of an ecommerce store when you hear a song or see a film clip that you would be interested in but the links between that site and the retail stores will allow you to buy with just one click. The Amazon one click purchase model has set the barrier for this style of shopping and you can expect to see it rolled out amongst a number of sites and stores.
An example of this would be the plethora of gossip sites or celebrity sites that people love to visit. One of the biggest aspects of visiting this style of site is to see what celebrities are wearing. Many people freely admit that they draw on celebrities as their style guru and if you see a celebrity wearing a dress or with a necklace that you love, one click on the image can take you to an online store with that outfit on sale. After a quick check that the site has your size, you can order the dress or accessory. This means that within seconds or at worst minutes from seeing your new favourite dress, it can be ordered and on its way to you.
With many sites offering next day delivery and Amazon once again taking the lead by offering same day delivery in certain locations and for certain products, you can have the hottest catwalk or red carpet dress to wear that day or the next day. In an era when consumers are demanding more at a faster rate, online commerce has to keep up. The one benefit that the High Street has held over online shopping is that a customer can buy an item and then have it to take away or put on there and then. This immediacy is crucial and it is the one element where online commerce is looking to develop.
You may even see a number of online commerce stores having more depots in city centres or around the country. This will see them holding stock in order to provide it to online customers in a shorter turnaround time. This may be bridging the gap between the traditional High Street store and what people consider an online store but given the increasing demand for goods as quickly as possible, it is something that the larger online retailers will be quick to exploit.
With smartphone, apps and scanning equipment becoming ever more readily available, there is likely to be a big step forward in fitting and trying on of outfits. Whether it is scanning a person’s body shape so a site can provide the best clothes or to provide an augmented reality image of what the person will look like in their new image, the next wave of online shopping is likely to utilise mobile technology to provide a better level of service.