With 2018 just a couple of weeks away, 11street announced its predictions of four key trends that will up the ante for eCommerce industry in the country. These trends include the rise of diversified payment methods, evolvement of the check-out process, greater transparency on product delivery and dynamism of the eCommerce market for brand players.
Hoseok Kim, CEO of 11street said that given the broadened acceptance of the eCommerce industry in Malaysia, the time has come for e-marketplaces to make online shopping a better and more seamless experience for customers. This calls for continued efforts of innovating services and offerings, support the rapid growth of the industry and exceed the expectations of consumers.
“Once the right infrastructures are in place, we expect to see Malaysia accelerating its eCommerce penetration, with a rate of anywhere between 4% to 5% in 2018, which is a figure that doubles that in 2015,” Kim added.
eCommerce Trends Predictions in 2018:
Rise of Diversified Payment Methods
As consumers become more adept about e-commerce and gain to believe that it is the avenue to help them manage their day-to-day cost of living, they also expect to see more options for payment, such as going cashless through mobile wallets.
According to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2016, seven in 10 Malaysians expressed a willingness to use mobile wallets, while 68% of Malaysians will opt to use contactless payments over cash. Existing offline payment methods such as MOLPay @ 7-eleven will continue to offer the added convenience for consumers, but e-commerce platforms also ought to note the growing prominence of the cashless society, to introduce new and varied payment infrastructures to appease consumer demands.
Evolvement of Check-out Process
The ‘Remember Me’ feature as consumers reach the tail-end of the transaction will set the pace for 2018, driven by two factors: convenience and efficiency. Already a must-have feature in global online marketplaces, the ‘Remember Me’ function will expedite online shopping and make it an even more seamless experience, as it has all the necessary payment and delivery information of the consumer in a secured manner.
This feature is vital because in accordance to an analysis of 37 different studies about consumers’ online shopping journey and their rates of shopping cart abandonment, it was found that consumers would disregard a purchase if the check-out process is too complicated or long.
While online marketplaces introduce this feature onto their respective platforms, they also need to strengthen their check-out security to protect the privacy of their shoppers, to result in a holistically safe shopping experience.
Greater Transparency on Product Delivery
Consumers of today expects their products to be delivered fast, while also knowing where and when it will reach them. Product visibility is now a common want of the new breed of consumers, eCommerce platforms need to simplify the delivery process, yet embed a comprehensive tracking system to shorten consumers’ anticipation period and give them greater transparency on the whereabouts of their purchases.
Fundamentally, to support the growth of the eCommerce industry, online marketplaces need to ensure that their website interface is more intelligent, their customer care service remains outstanding pre- and post-purchase and a delivery service that is fluid.
Dynamism of the E-commerce Market for Brand Players
Local businesses and brand players, regardless of the size of their organisations, realise that as eCommerce cements its dominance in the online retail sphere, it is also the ideal platform to support their growth. Giving nod to this, organisations that want to excel are expanding omni-channel to better accommodate the shoppers.
The store-in-store concept (an online shop within an online marketplace) will help the businesses and brand players to bridge the gap between their offline-to-online transition, increase brand visibility and branch out beyond their own digital assets. This strategic move will not only allow them to leverage the online marketplace’s marketing capabilities to bolster greater brand visibility, they also tap onto its secure payment and logistics management, in order to focus on their above-the-line tactics.
Furthermore, one rising trend is the ‘Click & Collect’ concept, in which consumers will purchase products from a particular brand from an online marketplace, and then driven to its offline store to try out and purchase. This spells another opportunity for brands to forge stronger synergy between their offline stores and their corresponding online marketplace, to upsell their brands and other offerings.
This tactic has proven to be successful in other advanced markets, with 60% to 75% shoppers voicing their preference for this, for they believe it encourages them to shop more during item collection.
