Shopify is an ideal platform for small to medium-sized businesses for developing a powerful solution for e-commerce. The platform delivers an intuitive and professional experience to run an E-store. The biggest advantage is that it can be developed and delivered as a turnkey solution to be handed over to shop owners quickly. 

Shopify makes it easy to integrate features such as unlimited products, multiple sales channels, discount codes, integrated PoS, Financial and other reports, and even fraud analysis. 

Before you start searching for Shopify development company in India, you should be aware of some of the current trends and future expectations from the solution. You will need to hire Shopify developers or a Shopify development company who for the best of all the features and solutions for easy deployment. So let’s look at some of the e-commerce predictions for 2020 so you can hire the right Shopify developer:

Conversations, not clicks

Experts feel that there will be an increased focus on building conversations with people, and on creating thoughtfully integrated opportunities. For the past few years, there has been a lot of effort in generating clicks, but there will be greater chances of closing a deal with conversations. 

The architecture of e-commerce is undergoing a radical change in terms of customer service. Customers also need to have opportunities to deliver feedback so they can see the improvement in their interaction with brands. When brands try to sell aggressively on their websites, customers will actually turn away. That’s because, for the customer, the experience is important. It would be more helpful to give customers an opportunity to explore what they want through interaction on the website rather than just displaying products for sale. Shopify is a great way to deliver the wholesome experience for your customers with several conversation-starting opportunities ready your brand!

Video Presentation

Any social media engagement metric will show you that video scores highest in terms of audience engagement. Videos, when done right, captivate the audience and will be more responsive to your message. 

This is why experts predict that this trend will flow over to e-commerce sooner rather than later. There will be greater demand for video content from sales websites for varied audiences. Recent examples include Zomato, which is turning to videos to engage their audiences. 

This is why just placing videos on your website won’t be enough. You have to deliver a better video placement and viewing experience for your customers’ seamless experience. With Shopify, you can go beyond just promotional videos to highlight well-produced videos on products, their features, related products, etc. Customers will love it! 

Delivering the e-Commerce Experience

Websites have gone beyond overhyped design and now aim to deliver full-scale experiences, as per Shopify experts. Thanks to better data processing and management, it is easier than ever to make simple upgrades that do not cost too much. At the recent Shopify Unite 2019 event, merchants were excited with the potential to develop customer experiences that give them a competitive edge. So this year, experts predict that there will be a further breakdown of customer data silos to build stronger brands across all the verticals. So even if you hire Shopify developers, you should make sure that this point is well addressed. 

Chatbot AI

Gartner recently predicted that by 2020, more than 25 percent of customer support and services will be integrated with virtual assistants. Shopify experts feel that this is due to customers demand for prompt and accurate answers to their questions. Merchants and shop owners would not always be able to address all the messages they receive, moreover, it would require a lot of disparate information. So chatbots powered by machine learning are getting smarter. They analyse all customer communication to understand the questions better, and with all the customer data at their fingertips, they can personalise support experience to every specific customer.

Voice Search

Another prediction at the Shopify Unite conference was the importance given for voice search. With Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, voice search will soon lead to voice shopping. Deloitte, in a recent report, predicts that voice-based search industry will grow to a valuation of at least $7 Billion. And that by 2020 as much as half of all searches will be done through voice. Merchants can leverage this trend to build a strong website that can be optimised for voice shopping. 

Content is Crucial to Driving Growth

Content is powerful not just because of the ability to sell, rather it is to drive mass desire. Great content marketing actually is as simple as a consistent story well told, with people at its core. Paid advertising is great for building reach, but delivering impact is subtler than that. Audiences will respond better when they connect to your content and are inspired by it. 

Brands have to leverage written, audio, visual, and experiential content to drive full-funnel marketing campaigns through all the stages of buying. Driving audiences to a piece of branding content is a great way to start building awareness, and retargeting can help you build qualified audiences. So your website needs to be geared to deliver all these content forms to your audience to keep them engaged. Whether through humor or through seriousness, content is what creates audiences. 

Social Media Shopping

Instagram has recently announced Instagram direct shopping where merchants can directly sell their products on the platform. This move from just advertising to selling requires a few new features that will help a customer complete the transaction without leaving the app. Facebook has already made it possible to leverage the huge amounts of time people spend on social media. Given the opportunity to reach and address the customer directly, brands have to be able to deliver the wholesome experience even within social media apps.  

Shopify already supports the ability to sell products on Instagram, so your website is fully locked, loaded, and ready to go! 

Integrated Physical – Digital Shopping

It is becoming obvious that people are not going to limit their purchases to the online marketplace. They are driven by a number of factors when buying something, and visually appealing screens are only a part of that. Even those who have launched businesses exclusively online, have to have an offline presence as well. In this regard, it becomes crucial that the websites cater to those who are interested in browsing goods and services. Digital can help physical stores get a better understanding of customer behavior and preferences through invaluable insights. 

On-site Personalisation

Accenture recently shared that around 43 per cent of customers prefer brands that personalise the shopping experience over those that have generic experience. This is why merchants are investing in building on-site personalisation strategies for better conversion rates. Customer data is an important input in dynamic websites that promise a high degree of personalisation. Sections such as “You might also like” and “Why not try” are becoming more important to deliver customised content for visitors based on their behavior and preferences. Especially with the advancements in ML, strategies such as micro-segmentation can help build a better customer conversion rate. 

Faster and Better e-Commerce

Shopify and the advanced Shopify Plus are making e-commerce businesses faster and leaner in recent years, and this trend will only grow. Experts are positive that brands and companies will move away from outdated software to platforms such as Shopify which are easy and cost-effective to scale. These brands can leverage greater control, better efficiency, and less reliance on developers. 

In conclusion, the Shopify platform has certainly changed the development and marketing of e-commerce brands, with its secure and scalable solutions. If you are looking to hire Shopify developers, it is crucial to understand that even merchants have to be addressed and not just customers. Shopify development company can give you complete control of your e-commerce store and can proactively help you in the complete development process.