Businesses are facing critical transitions in 2021 and heading into 2022. Global business is now looking at a continued focused digital transformation by taking the best of what we learned in 2021 and applying it to becoming a more resilient business in the future. The last two years have witnessed the booming e-commerce business, let’s look at five feasible trends and predictions in e-commerce in 2022.
Remote work
COVID-19 has created a new era of work that is here to stay, forcing us to increase our remote work capabilities by leaps and bounds. After one year, higher productivity has been reported and working from home has been proved to work.
Work from home can change the salary system
Despite the global pandemic closing borders and upending life as we knew it, projects were completed. Many industries saw increasing profits, and employees discovered that they loved working from home and leading an asynchronous lifestyle.
Organizations are still learning a lot about how to shift their employees to entirely remote or hybrid work. While some companies are trying to return to full-time office work, others have learned that remote work is effective, provides benefits to all parties involved, and maybe the way of the future.
However, there are still advantages to getting together a few times a year for team building, meetings, and other activities. Many teams are aiming for a “remote-first” environment rather than a “remote-only” one. Working remotely is the primary method of getting things done, with the option of visiting the office as necessary.
Communication app
In the previous decade, mobile devices have predominantly propelled our society as a whole, and they play a critical role in remote work and communications. Imagine telling a teenager about “long-distance charges” on a phone bill when they can conduct a video conversation with anyone.
Professional communication app creates a simple and effective way to call
According to an investigation from Google and Apple, the average amount of time spent on a smartphone per day has risen dramatically in recent years, reaching 186 minutes per day in 2020. By 2022, it is predicted to be roughly 3 hours and 17 minutes per day.
This can create an incredible opportunity for the e-commerce industry; the small or local e-commerce shop now can promote their products virtually, facilitate trading processes and even approach a larger market without any traveling or expensive dialing fee.
Affiliate programs from social media
More affiliate programs from social media
Most analysts believe that by 2022, Instagram and TikTok will have fully operational e-commerce platforms with built-in affiliate systems. Amazon's affiliate program has seen a lot of success, as publishers have been able to generate significant revenue streams by connecting to Amazon products. These affiliate links can provide a significant amount of cash, especially around the holidays. Within the current cookie period, Amazon pays a commission on all products the person purchases. Affiliate marketing on social media will undoubtedly be a marketing trend for e-commerce businesses in 2022.
Cashless payment
More simple payment gateways
Consumers and merchants, especially e-commerce ones, are increasingly using Google Pay and Apple Pay. Adoption will continue to rise in leaps and bounds as Apple and Google continue to simplify the process for connecting credit cards to their merchant checkout programs.
Another developing trend in finance is Defined Contribution Plans (DCPs) (decentralized finance). Various blockchain technologies are gaining traction, making it feasible to spend Bitcoin, Etherum, and other cryptocurrencies at physical stores. Defi is a small but rapidly expanding, a segment of the financial sector. While there isn't much bitcoin technology can do for e-commerce businesses right now, it's something to keep an eye on. When it gets more common, companies like Stripe and Square will most likely offer technology to make it as simple as accepting Visa or Mastercard.
This trend is practical to many e-commerce stores when most of the trading activities are processed through the screen. So diversifying the payment gateways with Apple Pay, for instance, will definitely facilitate the check-out process.
Post-pandemic situation
Many e-commerce stores will look to 2022 as a year to return to significant growth with new products and services as they emerge from over a year of maintenance. Many of the new products and services that will be delivered between 2020 and 2021 are a result of the work that was done around the world in 2018 and 2019. The rewards of labor cultivated in 2021 should be visible by 2022.
Be prepared for a post-pandemic world!
One of the most prominent trends will be a focus on diversifying revenue streams. Small e-commerce businesses will understand that if they were overly reliant on a particular revenue stream during a pandemic, now is the time to start looking for alternate revenue streams to complement.
Small town governments operate similarly to small businesses, and we can see how they are planning for the future of where businesses will go by looking at how they are preparing. Governments are concentrating on infrastructure and reinvesting in customer experiences. Small businesses can learn from this trend and follow suit. They can spend more time focusing on the unique needs of their clients if they invest in technology to achieve efficiencies. Accounting, marketing, and operations are examples of these efficiencies.
Many e-commerce stores will continue to consider remote work as a means of diversifying their workforce. Apple Pay or Google Pay will offer a new streamline of the check-out process and the global business will approach a new area after the pandemic. If you want your business to grow in 2022, don’t stay behind these changes.