This post will go through three new phenomena that have developed since the brand-new millennium in the field of commerce, showing just how major an influence the digital era has had.
The first step towards development and change in the world of corporations and retail has surely been the establishment of online platforms: nowadays incredibly popular, some web giants in this sector have actually been around for a while, but are by no means losing their success, as indicated by the interest of the head of the activist fund that recently took a stake in eBay. In the history and evolution of e-commerce, this platform has probably been among the most indispensable players, allowing users to both buy and sell on it, and with innovative features such as online auctions, that might be entered from all around the world. Especially nowadays, as folks turn out to be more conscious of how this consumerist society creates a bunch of waste for products we don’t use anymore, being able to sell second-hand items is a very great contribution from this variety of e-commerce when it comes to sustainability.
The domain of commerce is, for evident reasons, closely linked to that of advertising and marketing, and the introduction of brand-new platforms has distinctly indicated the need for fully brand new marketing tactics. As consumers, we have actually seen a tremendous amount of new e-commerce business models and strategies, and the primary new footballers in this specific industry seem to be social media platforms. As digital marketing becomes a basic part of advertising, figures like the founder of one of the biggest funders of Instagram know the evolving times, and the platforms themselves have introduced new functions that are specifically intended to make online shopping more straightforward, straight from the social network. With the advent of other internet services becoming progressively much more renowned than the traditional ones, such as streaming movies instead of watching them on television, a social media post could replace tv commercials as the advertising framework of the future.
Possibly the latest development of e-commerce, observed just in the last couple of years, has been the rise of the figure of the influencer. Closely linked with social media marketing, commerce is slowly relying more on individuals striving and showcasing products to their audience, producing a somewhat more personal connection that a billboard or a consistent commercial might not have. With various systems of referrals or rewards, the future of ecommerce might be going hand in hand with that of this characteristic figure, and systems that facilitate this type of advertising and online behaviour are benefitting from this phenomenon as well, as seen by the interest of the Chief Executive Officer of the bank that funds Hootsuite.