The rise of eCommerce over the past few years is no surprise to anyone. The low barriers to entry, low startup cost and high potential profits are but some of the reasons why there’s been an explosion in business going online. In fact, according to Pew research, over 66% of Americans have purchased something online in the past year alone.
Nowadays there is a website for everything, with over 1 billion websites live in September of 2014.
The beginning of what we’d call the internet had some very interesting origins. As with many cool technologies, it was created in the 1960s by the US Department of Defence. Initally called ARPANET, it was designed as a communications platform so that if a computer site was compromised, communication and documents could still be sent across the country.
This system proved to be so successful that over time, other US D.O.D sites, universities and major corporations decide to join the network. This enabled a variety of different organisations to communicate more effectively and faster than ever before. Thus, the International Network or Internet, was born.
Although the internet began as an unwieldy command-line based system, fast development of the technology meant that the internet became increasingly accessible to your average consumer. Initially, the internet served as an academic tool, but in the 1980s, people saw the commercial opportunities of the internet which led to the development of the World Wide Web.
The development of the World Wide Web has continued to change and evolve with more and more people coming online every day.
The future of eCommerce
As the internet has developed, so will eCommerce, however, we feel it will continue to move and progress, faster than ever before. The evolution of eCommerce will develop before our very eyes.
More engrained in multiple devices
When eCommerce first started, it was only possible to sell using your desktop PC, however nowadays you can sell using a range of platforms like an Apple watch. In fact, there are fridges that automatically replenish your food via a WiFi connection. In the future more and more devices will support eCommerce, enabling consumers to purchase products and services wherever they are.
Frictionless checkout
Shoprocket led from the front with the modal checkout process which made life easier than ever to purchase a product from our client’s website. For our clients, this resulted in an industry leading 66% conversion rate. For their customers, this resulted in an easier checkout process than ever. However, we will continue to review, iterate and optimise the process to never stop improving.
E-commerce will Bring Sales from Brick and Mortar Stores
In the majority of OEDC’s eCommerce accounts for around 7% of total sales. Whilst this number isn’t groundbreaking in itself, the rate of growth shows that more and more people will be selling and buying online. You can already buy nearly anything, even groceries!
Fraud detection will become increasingly sophisticated
In recent years, the tech team at Shoprocket have noticed a rapid increase in the volume of fraudulent transactions. However, our tech team, and those at our payment processors, are constantly innovating and developing to ensure the safety and security of our customers. Although fraudulent transactions will still be attempted in the future, the clever brains behind Shoprocket, Stripe and Braintree will implement advanced security to combat any potential threat.
Faster Shipping
A lot of eCommerce sites already offer same day or next day shipping with their products. This was initially pioneered by Amazon. In order to compete, more and more stores will offer this in an attempt to effectively compete with one another.
This article was written by Daniel Johnson at Shoprocket, a fully-featured eCommerce Platform that enables you to start selling on your website.
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