Brexit, a fall in sterling, new demands for technological sophistication… retailers will look upon 2017 with the same fondness that mice reserve for the Cats’ Protection League.
The bad news is that 2018 should see more of the same. With online shopping more popular than a nappy salesman at a convention of bedwetters and UK shoppers spending around £1.2 billion around Black Friday, online retailers are seeking ever-more creative ways to outdo each other.
Here are four trends in e-commerce we can expect in 2018.
1 E-commerce will dominate the world
E-commerce will take over the world. Probably from an icehouse in the Canadian Arctic while wearing an eyepatch and stroking a large white cat.
In its annual Global Payments Report, Worldpay says that UK e-commerce will become the third-largest global market, worth over £200 billion by 2021. That’s a growth rate of 9.7%, with m-commerce due to balloon nearly 50% in the next five years.
So, will e-commerce grow throughout 2018? Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?
2 Delivery options will increase
You thought delivery options were already as flexible as a Romanian gymnast? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Customers can now shop in-store, online or on their various devices, so there’s a real need for delivery to keep up by providing a wide range of options.
Expect click-and-collect to be bigger than Elvis in 2018, while retailers search for partnerships with larger network channels to reach their customers. Also get ready for more ways to combat fitting deliveries around consumers’ busy lives.
3 Cybersecurity will get bigger
You can also expect cybersecurity to mushroom next year. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force in May 2018, will force people and businesses holding personal identifiable data to be vigilant about their security. Expect carriers and retailers to ramp up their security strategies.
4 Technology will get silly
Expect technology to get really silly in 2018. Carriers and retailers are desperate to get around the last-mile delivery challenge, which currently costs them a cool £60 billion in losses. Expect a huge push for UK legislation to make drone deliveries legal.
Bear in mind that Switzerland already has carriers that can drop goods directly into the boot of a car. And in America, Amazon Key allows delivery drivers to pop into your home while you’re out.
Let the cat out, would you? Cheers.
