With the continuous innovation of e-commerce technology, retail technology is destined to undergo a new round of reform on 20 18. The following are five bold predictions of e-commerce technology in 20 18:
1. The "golden age" of customer experience will be even more brilliant.
Today's e-commerce merchants not only want to change the color of advertising banners and buttons. The development stage of e-commerce has shifted to thinking about the whole shopping process and how to optimize every detail.
With the collapse of e-commerce entry barriers, at least dozens of e-commerce startups in various industries are vying for the favor of consumers. At the same time, thousands of marketing technology providers are trying to sell their technologies to these companies to help them provide excellent digital experiences.
With the intensification of competition, the retail industry has spawned incredible innovations in all aspects of supply chain, logistics and app augmented reality. Smart e-commerce merchants compete to attract consumers' attention on the Internet. Eventually, the end-user experience will get better and better.
2. Artificial intelligence will have a real impact, but the "halo" will decline.
20 17 Apart from the words "growth hacker" and "storytelling", there is no more popular word than "artificial intelligence (AI)". It has replaced big data and become a topic that everyone is talking about.
However, the problems caused by the adoption of artificial intelligence in e-commerce are not due to the limitations of the technology itself. AI has been accessing data to help machine learning. In order to effectively optimize the customer experience, machine learning algorithms need to absorb a lot of data; Machine learners will eventually become as good as the learning tools you equip them with. However, even for those retailers who are at the forefront of science and technology, these data often exist in the dusty areas of countless software programs and servers, making it impossible for them to create unified configuration files for customers.
The "low-level" application of artificial intelligence in retail industry is mainly used to solve uncoordinated problems, such as providing suggestions for new visitors to e-commerce websites. Although artificial intelligence cannot immediately subvert the retail industry, the practical application of machine learning to ordinary e-commerce problems will surge in 20 18, which will be beneficial to brands adopting this technology.
The "middle class" in the retail industry will face the most difficult year.
In 20 18, retailers and department stores targeting the middle class will not only face the compression of profit space, but also face a more severe market environment.
All optimistic articles that any brand can compete with Amazon ignore the fact that most brands that successfully compete with Amazon sell very expensive goods. Middle-income families in the United States simply can't buy suitcases, rent clothes from "Rent the runway" or shoes with a Rothy value of $ 150.
Quietly, the "retail doomsday" is a prosperous period for some super discount retailers. For example, Dollar Tree is a company that can still compete with Amazon in price. Incredibly, Hollar, headquartered in Los Angeles, successfully realized the online dollar store experience, combining competitive pricing with complex supply chain and digital technology.
It is expected that Hollar will become a truly household name company after 20 18, bringing tangible value to the e-commerce ecosystem.
Amazon will really enter the fashion world through acquisition.
Last time, Jeff Bezos failed to open a niche e-commerce market, so he directly acquired Quidsi, a diaper startup company of competitor Vito Kolonen. In 20 18, Amazon finally succeeded in using this strategy to enter the fashion world.
Scott Galloway, an Amazon expert and a professor at new york University, predicted that Nordstrom would join the Amazon Empire next year to fill this gap. Well-known analyst Jean Munster's bolder prediction is that Amazon will acquire Target for $40 billion in 20 18. Although Amazon has planned to use the acquisition of Whole Foods Supermarket to complete some big moves, there is a view that Amazon should look for some high profit margins, emerging customer groups and unique physical stores as its main goals. Amazon can use "some small change" to buy retailers with incomes below $6,543.8+$0 billion, while avoiding annoying antitrust concerns.
Bold prediction: Amazon will integrate the South American market by bidding for Patagonia (the world's top outdoor luxury brand). Bezos chose an active brand loved by millennials, and Amazon reached the deal in Patagonia to lower its price and provide financial guarantee for more political activities.
5. The brand value will never be the same.
Amazon's influence is everywhere, and the old brands in the retail industry are being hit, because more shoppers are disgusted with the signs on their clothes every month. For many millennials, a $65,438+02 black POLO shirt has no logo, just as a $70 crocodile POLO shirt has a small crocodile logo.
Perhaps nothing is more telling than that in the e-commerce industry, there is a kind of venture capital darling called "no brand". In 20 18 years, there will be a lot of unlicensed clothes with good quality flocking to the market, which will put pressure on many well-known brands and win the favor of consumers on the basis of customer experience rather than brand assets.