Trends in Ecommerce: Machine Learning Fueling Growth?

Retailers are increasingly relying on technology to fuel their ecommerce growth. The US Census Bureau reports that retail domestic ecommerce sales for Q2 this year were $127.3 billion, a 15.2% boost from the same period last year. With the holiday season expecting 20% of overall sales to come from online sources and consumers expected to spend $785 each during November and December, businesses need to embrace ecommerce as part of their customer experience efforts. Companies must focus on improving their ecommerce offerings such as product selection, competitive prices, accurate inventory, rapid price changes, and fast website performance. Key trends in the ecommerce industry include machine learning for personalized experiences, self-learning algorithms for individualized solutions, and voice search for more conversational queries. As ecommerce sales are projected to reach nearly $5 trillion by 2021, businesses must adopt necessary technologies to survive in this competitive landscape.