2020’s e-commerce trends, broken down by our partners (Part 2)

Emilie Benoit, Country Manager France for the e-commerce solution Shopify is certain that the future of commerce will be democratized thanks to the accessibility of technology. “Encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurs to develop their businesses and enabling those already established to grow is part of Shopify’s DNA, along with its mission to make commerce better for all.” According to Emilie Benoit, simplicity, autonomy, technological innovation and training will be the keys to the democratization of e-commerce. In 2020, global e-commerce will maintain its dynamism and will even pass the $1 trillion mark by 2021, according to a recent study published by Kantar.

As far as the online advertising industry is concerned, Joe Sweeney, CMO of MakeMeReach, foresees a series of developments up to 2020. First of all, he expects that Stories will continue to “grow as the ‘default’ sharing format on social.” He also believes that more and more platforms will become video-first over images or text, and that ad-spend will increase on Amazon.

Joe Sweeney also expects “further innovation in retail advertising from Facebook and Google” and for these two players to enable retailers to drive, track and analyse offline and in-store actions more effectively, thanks to online advertising.

“In 2019, the return has become an integral component in the purchasing process. By 2020, it will be a strategic issue for retailers.” As the UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper study reveals, nearly three out of four shoppers base their decision to buy from a retailer on their return experience. According to Vincent Torres, CEO and founder of Revers.io (specializing in returns management in Europe), “returns have the triple effect of building customer loyalty, engaging the brand in a responsible approach and controlling its margin”.

In 2020, digital media will have a major card to play, in meeting new expectations of audiences. As Erik-Marie Bion, VP France & Germany for Verizon Media‘s native advertising platform, points out: “Tired of ‘snackable’ content, internet users now want to be reliably informed”.

The figures speak for themselves: in the United States, the time spent on news sites has increased by 28% in two years. According to Erik-Marie Bion, “this development will favour quality media sites, and by extension the brands and merchants that will be present on these ‘trusted’ sites”.

The year 2020 is set to be filled with new challenges that brands and retailers will have to rise to offer consumers a higher quality shopping experience. To help you in all your projects, our teams remain at your disposal throughout the year to answer your questions:

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