1. Ecommerce Statistics 2022
In 2022, global inflation rose from 4.7% (2021) to 8.8%, leading the global economy to witness a gloomy view. Many world’s top eCommerce companies tended to tighten their expenses, leading to massive global layoffs. However, these firms still collaborated across borders to strengthen their impact and make online selling simpler than ever.
Amazon and Walmart have constantly been providing seamless and safe selling environments for their merchants. Besides, it was a busy year for Shopify to expand its business with international collaborations and acquisitions. This eCommerce giant has been continuously updating to make the selling experience easier with multichannel and cross-border selling.
There were trends for eCommerce companies to collaborate to expand their influence in 2022. We can continue to expect that there will be more and more partnerships in the eCommerce industry. Therefore, this will still be an ideal place for all online sellers and customers.
1. Online shopping trends
1.1. Ecommerce personalization
“eCommerce personalization has become a must-have experience.”
When talking about personalization in eCommerce, many shoppers are likely to interpret this term in a positive manner. As communications are personalized, customers feel as if they are the ‘special one’: every info delivered to them is tailored to match their unique preferences.
Brand sustainability has never taken a backseat in the online retail market. Amidst the global inflation situation, customers across all generations are still willing to pay more for sustainable products, as reported by FirstInsight.
Sustainable eCommerce is now an essential factor that influences consumers’ purchasing decisions. Over half of shoppers worldwide claim that they value sustainability more after the global pandemic. On top of that, 36% of global consumers will prefer one brand over another based on brand sustainability.
Digital payment is not among the new eCommerce trends, yet its effect still echoes down the ages. A report by McKinsey has pointed out that nearly 90% of Americans are making purchases via online payment methods, 62% of them admit to using at least two kinds of digital payment channels when shopping.
Statista also suggests that digital payment will continue to rise in the near future, reaching a total amount of $15.17 trillion in transaction value by 2027.
Content creators are taking the internet by storm in 2022, and with them comes an authentic way for brands to advertise on social media. User-generated content (UGC) is a land full of opportunities for brands to both nurture existing customers and attract new ones.
So why is user-generated content so important?
With smartphones in every pocket and the number of social media users continuing to grow in 2022, UGC will help brands meet consumers where they are and keep your brand top of their minds when it comes to choosing between your brand and competitors.
UGC marketing now plays such a crucial role in brands’ marketing strategy that 62% of consumer brands would work with content creators in order to generate more brand engagement.
Having great ease of use, robust built-in features as well as dedicated support, hosted eCommerce solution seems to be the pathway to success for store owners. In 2022, 60.4% decided to switch to a hosted cart. By that ballpark figure, the data migration to hosted cart was one of the dominant trends in 2022.
On the other hand, 39.6% migrated to an open-source platform to enjoy endless customizability and scalability.
It is surprising to know that WooCommerce topped 1st most migrated-from eCommerce platform in 2022 since this position had belonged to Magento in 2021. WooCommerce users chose Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce as their new prosperous destinations, with a proportion of 78.1%, 6.8%, and 3.5%, respectively.
Ranking in 2nd place, Magento witnessed negative customer retention in 2022. 39.2% switched to Shopify, and 15.0% decided to go with BigCommerce instead. Store owners switched from Magento to a hosted platform due to the fact that it’s much more complicated and expensive to continue their business with Magento.
LitCommerce has defined Main Store as “the source when importing products and the place to fulfill orders from all sales channels. The Main Store is normally built on an eCommerce platform that’s connected to LitCommerce right after you create an account.”
In this part, let’s take a look at the most used eCommerce platforms when sellers begin on a multichannel journey.
The top 4 integration channels remained Etsy (38.3%), eBay (25.1%), Amazon (15%), and Google Shopping (8.5%), with a total of 86,9% most picked integrated channels. When looking at the top 4, they mostly sell general merchandise, with only one specializing in a specific product category – a craft giant Etsy.
Furthermore, this data is mainly based on the behaviours of customers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, which accounted for 61,8% of total integration processes.
3. Trending products
The year 2022 witnessed a global boom in online selling & shopping. Retail eCommerce reached $5.2 trillion globally in 2021, rising to $5.7 trillion.
To show the top trending products in 2022 and to recommend the emerging products for 2023, in this eCommerce report, we refer to major product categories on Amazon – the eCommerce behemoth with a 39.5% share of US retail eCommerce sales in 2022.
While ‘Health and personal care and beauty’ appear to be the fastest-growing category (up 24.4%), consumers continue to purchase items for significant consumer needs like ‘Furniture and home furshinishings’ (up 15.7%) and ‘Food and beverage’ (up 20.6%) as compared to 2021.
Two other majority categories continue to see demand, including ‘Apparel and accessories’ (16.7% of Amazon’s total retail sales) and ‘Books and music and video’ (11.5% of total retail sales).
In year-end holiday season, we saw high demand for ‘Computer and consumer electronic’ products, while Thanksgiving received increased demand for ‘Toys and hobby’ according to Adobe 2022 Holiday Shopping Report.
Back to the present, what products are in high demand now? Recent trending products variate with important events of the year. Google Trends, which displays the most recent search phrases that describe customer demands, is a reliable tool for finding the most popular trending products.
In 2022, consumers emerged from their pandemic cocoons. That factor triggers wants and needs for ‘Health and personal care and beauty’ and other fundamental consumer needs. Those category inches toward being an eCommerce-majority category. Therefore, e-merchants can still catch these recent eCommerce trending products in 2022 and hope for an embellishment in revenue in 2023.
As the overall trend for eCommerce in 2022 is the technological application in online selling, it is clear that brands are paying more attention – and investing more time and money – to cater to any possible customer request.
What used to be a normal online shopping experience: product to cart to payment, is currently considered unattractive and lacking in effort. Customers now look for a minimalized and convenient purchase, but it also has to be personalized, engaging, trustworthy, and transparent.
In a world where everything is happening online, meeting these newly-arisen demands proves to be one big puzzle for many smaller eCommerce merchants to solve in 2022.
Here are more details on why rising customer expectations is an eCommerce challenge worth acknowledging this year:
- Customers want shopping online to be more convenient and trustworthy: More than just diversity in payment gateways, payment methods, and shopping channels, customers also demand transparent post-checkout updates. They want to receive real-time updates about their orders, precise tracking, as well as expected delivery dates.
- Customers want even more care and support from brands: The booming popularity of eCommerce personalization has created a more competitive customer service environment than ever. Buyers no longer want to be treated as a number. They want to be provided with a unique shopping experience that includes constant support, a reasonable return policy, and satisfying loyalty benefits. Moreover, the crowd’s preference for AR shopping technology poses a significant challenge to small brands with fewer resources.
- Customers want to identify themselves with the products and brands they buy from: Brands also need to fulfill the requirement for customers’ identity, as they now wish to belong to a certain community or adopt a lifestyle when they shop. Sustainability is a leading factor, together with the impact of social media influencers and user-generated content.
Now that providing an optimized shopping experience has become a race between brands, managing customers’ expectations will be among the top priorities for brands from 2022. Tackling this challenge may require thorough research in order to forecast what consumers will anticipate, but all these efforts will be worth it in the long run.
