E-commerce has continued to grow at a pace like never before. We saw a massive boom in the pandemic of 2020 with everyone being home. Now, global sales are expected to reach close to 8 trillion dollars by 2028. While this expanding market is excellent news for opportunity, it also means online sellers face significantly more competition. Rapidly evolving customer expectations, platforms, and buying trends require businesses to readily adapt to stay relevant.
Of course, there may also be some trends that aren’t worth the hype or following. This begs the question: which e-commerce trends are worth following in 2025? This article trims the fat of all the trends and shows the top ones every business should be monitoring in the current landscape.
What is E-Commerce in the Modern Landscape?
The reality is that e-commerce has changed a lot over the years. It’s still the same concept of buying goods online, but the shapes and methods have shifted vastly. From digital ads to omnichannel marketing, etc, the technology and strategy to succeed are much different from the early days.
Now it requires a much more well-thought-out plan and strategy to win over competitors. So, really, the answer to “what is e-commerce in the modern landscape?” changes with each year. This is why it is so important to stay on top of relevant trends.
E-Commerce Solutions: The Trends to Follow
Now, let’s take a look at the vital trends to stay on top of in 2025.
AI: A New Revolution in E-Commerce
Of course, we have to start off with artificial intelligence (AI). After all, AI has made huge advancements and waves in the past couple years, and this includes in e-commerce. In fact, AI is arguably one of the most significant driving factors in modern e-commerce marketing. From AI-driven personalization and product recommendations to dynamic email campaigns, this tech is invaluable to reaching the right customer. It helps to ensure that customers are seeing exactly what they are most likely to buy at the right time.
Moreover, tools like AI chatbots are taking customer service to a new level, ensuring around-the-clock service. As for running a business, AI e-commerce solutions can help with inventory management, pricing strategies, and predictive analytics.
Security, Privacy, and Transparency
More than ever, buyers want to know who they are buying from, the business’s practices, and that it is secure. They want to know why their data is being collected and what’s being done with that data. This means brands that make transparency and security a priority will stand out in the sea of competitors. Methods to incorporate this include:
- Advanced encryption
- Displayed transparent privacy policies
- PCI compliance
Not only is this appealing to customers, but it can also help to protect the business from legal issues and liabilities.
The Rise of Social and Livestream Selling
One of the biggest growing trends that every seller needs to be a part of is social and livestream selling. Social-powered platforms like TikTok are allowing people to discover products without leaving the app. Additionally, they see immediate social proof of it being in use from other influencers and users.
User-generated content and livestream selling have become a vital part of virtually any e-commerce business. Even if products aren’t achieving high sales velocity on the app itself, it drives traffic toward other commerce platforms. Pair this with influencer partnerships and affiliate outreach for a more complete strategy.
Sustainability and Ethical Commerce Policies
A large portion of consumers are concerned about practicing ethical and sustainable buying practices. In other words, purchasing from businesses that offer sustainable products/materials or ethical production. This can include eco-friendly packaging, carbon-neutral shipping, and ethical sourcing.
Practices like this can help e-commerce businesses to better connect with the values of shoppers, especially if they are transparent about these practices. Moreover, it can often help to cut down on waste throughout production and delivery, which can potentially reduce operational costs.
Augmented Reality Shopping
Augmented reality tech has been growing over the past several years and is now being implemented more in online shopping. This tech lets shoppers virtually try on clothes, test products, and even see furniture in their home. For example, Amazon’s feature allows buyers to see how something would look in their home using a mobile device. Overall, this makes for more buyer confidence in a purchase, which can help to lower return rates and bad reviews.
Large retailers are already seeing strong ROI from this technology, and it is only likely to continue growing in implementation.
Personalization is Key
A personalized shopping experience is a necessity in the modern age of e-commerce. Shoppers are tired of having irrelevant offers or discounts delivered to their inbox or screen. This doesn’t mean simply slapping the customer’s name into a marketing email. Rather, it means tailored shopping experiences that appeal to their interests. Using omnichannel approaches and sharing can help to appeal to personalization by showing customers relevant products, no matter the platform.
Pair this with the data privacy mentioned above by allowing customers to opt in to personalization recommendations and sharing. This can help to build trust with the customer.
Voice Activated Commerce
Voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant are becoming much more common in the realm of e-commerce. More consumers are beginning to use these tools to buy single products, add products to shopping lists, etc. Additionally, they are being used to answer queries about products and give advice on what to buy. While the big commerce platforms already integrate this technology, sellers need to stay on top of remaining in line with them. This means make product listings voice response friendly.
Seamless Checkout Experience
Customers don’t want to be hung up when trying to buy something. One-click payments, guest checkout options, and stored payments will make for much lower cart abandon rates. Additionally, buy now, pay later options are seeing a huge surge in popularity to make higher-priced items more accessible for buyers. Every seller should be sure to evaluate their current buying and payment offerings to see whether they are up to par with current market standards. Otherwise, they may see many shoppers turning toward competitors.
We hope this guide helps you understand the changing trends in the current market. Overall, businesses are working hard to connect with customers on a much deeper and personalized level. This provides the right products to the right person at the right time.
Improve Your E-Commerce Experience with Graphem Solutions
If you are looking to significantly improve the buyer’s experience across your e-commerce business, Graphem Solutions can help. We offer a wide range of services to improve your e-commerce business across various customer touchpoints, including:
- Web design
- E-commerce store design and integration
- Web app development
- Mobile app design
- CRM optimization and management
- Custom consultation
Modernizing your e-commerce solutions is vital to succeeding in today’s competitive market, and we want to help. Whether you want a custom-designed website or to improve your WordPress site, our expert team can handle it.
To learn more, call us today at 1-800-590-0175 or fill out our online contact form. We look forward to helping you connect with your customers better than ever.
Check out some of our completed e-commerce projects with other clients.
