What comes after E-commerce and M-commerce?
How is the consumers’ retail behaviour changing?
Here is what lies ahead for retail commerce – A-Commerce.
The “a” in a-commerce stands for Automated.
Automated commerce is the latest trend identified by TrendWatching in consumer retail behaviour.
What is Automated Commerce?
AI and machine learning technology have been changing our lives and our society for the past few years.
From voice-activated personal assistants like Siri which gives us directions and sends emails on our behalf to Google’s Duplex which takes it one step further and actually talks over the phone to book hair salon appointments or restaurant reservation, digital assistants set out to make our lives easier.
AI has brought change to various domains such as car making, customer experience, education and healthcare, and even influence our emotional well being by becoming our digital companion (Read about Replika, your digital companion).
A-commerce is the result of AI and automation having a powerful impact on consumer behaviour.
Why is A-commerce a trend?
A-commerce is a trend
because in 2018, shoppers with more important things to do – and that’s all of them – will embrace the outsourcing of certain retail experiences to algorithms and smart devices. That means the automation of hunting, negotiating, purchasing, delivery arrangements and more.” (TrendWatching)
Here are 3 illustrations of A-commerce:
Finery
Do you enjoy organising your wardrobe?
Don’t feel bad, no one does, unless you’re Sheldon of the Big Bang Theory.
Do you constantly ask yourself in the morning What should I wear?! looking helpless at the pile of clothes on your bed?
image source: finery.com
Finery allows women to outsource much of their fashion retail making it the perfect solution for every woman’s wardrobe related problems.
This is what Finery does:
- helps you catalog your wardrobe and rediscover clothes you haven’t worn in years
- brings your closets online and help you pick and style your outfit for the day
- helps you track and style your clothes
- lets you know when something you want to buy goes on sale
- styles every item for maximum usage
- connects your email, accesses your shopping receipts and helps you build out your wardrobe
WeSwap
Do you need to go on holiday or take a short trip abroad?
WeSwap takes care of your travel money.
image source: metro.co.uk
What is WeSwap?
WeSwap is the world’s first peer-to-peer travel money platform.
Instead of going to banks or exchange bureaus for currency exchange, WeSwap allows users to swap currency with other travellers.
Here are the main benefits of using WeSwap:
- it helps travellers round the world get a better deal on their travel money
- it helps users avoid losing money in foreign ATM transaction fees
- based on the platform’s insights, the app offers guides on how much money travellers can spend in various cities around the world
WeSwap was voted the Best Travel Money Provider in 2018 British Bank Awards by UK consumers.
Amazon’s recommendation engine
The latest statistics say that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
If consumers buy products and services based on what their friends and family recommend them, why wouldn’t they buy following recommendations from an A.I.-powered engine which is objective and data-based?
The numbers that Amazon report hold this hypothesis to be true:
- sales increase of 29%, from $9.9 billion to $12.83 billion
- 35% of Amazon.com’s revenue is generated by its recommendation engine, both on-site and off-site
Product recommendation based on algorithm helps Amazon harness the power of personalized marketing and it is a real success!
