Global e-commerce sales via mobile devices are expected to cross $638 billion by 2018, according to a joint study conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) and Deloitte.
D S Rawat, Secretary General of ASSOCHAM, said in India alone, e-tailers like Flipkart, Amazon and Jabong now get 50% of their revenues from consumers shopping on their mobile phones. Predictive analytics is also helping the e-tailers to provide better solutions in real-time.
However, the joint study, “Global Powers of Retailing 2015,” highlighted that retailers will need to surround this service with very strong privacy and security. Trust, transparency, and protecting customer information will be critical in retaining loyalty as mobile retailing becomes the norm.
The rise of online sales in the developing markets is encouraging retailers to go online for global expansion. The e-retailers are becoming exclusive partners for different brands. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi, for example, entered Indian market through Flipkart e-Marketplace that helped to reach a large customer base in a short time. Similarly, OnePlus teamed up with Amazon India for exclusive partnership.
Increasingly, social media is becoming important for e-commerce players to understand reviews of people on products and services. The e-tailers can check their social media footprint with the number of likes and tweets about the brand and products. Social media provides a platform to directly interact with customers and respond to their queries.
Meanwhile, the launch of wearables, such as Google Glass and Apple Watch, opens new opportunities for reaching out to customers.
The report noted that online retail players have also started to use social media analytics, which can be used to mitigate risks and frauds, to know customer lifetime value, customer segments, forecasting and targeting.