10 Industries that Will Shape eCommerce Future

Predicting how eCommerce will evolve

The eCommerce as we know it today is going to be revolutionized.

Like any revolution, it occurs once several factors are matured enough such that their aggregated impact creates a new reality.

In this article I will try to take you on an imaginary journey that will demonstrate how today’s most evolving industries will join forces to create the next major disruption in commerce.

eCommerce Future – Close Your Eyes and Imagine

You are at home and want to buy new clothes to a party you have in 2 days, therefore you put your virtual reality glasses (1. Virtual glasses) and start surfing an online mall (2. Virtual Marketplace). You check online to see if one of your friends is logged-in so they can join your shopping quest (3. Social). John is free. You start walking with him on the virtual mall, in front of you, you see some ads of clothing with discounts hanging on the walls (4. Personalized Virtual Ads). You go besides a nice looking virtual store and check their showcase window, it looks great so you enter the store and ask the virtual workers (5. Shop bot) to see some shirts. The worker (that looks like a celebrity that you love) asks you about the event you are about to attend, you answer and he points you out to the right shelf (6. Structured data) that is available to be shipped within 2 days (7. Fast Shipment). After you choose some optional t-shirts, you press a button and try them out virtually (8. 3D Virtual Fitting Solution), John also approves the shirts fit nicely. Within a blink of an eye (9. Iris Recognition), and by using cryptography currency (10. Blockchain), you purchase safely online the t-shirt you love without leaving your house!

In my vision, I see industries joining forces to create the next big eComemrce revolution. Of course we will also see smaller revolutions that involve collaboration of fewer industries, that are bound to be significant as well. But in order for the entire commerce to change, we will probably need the entire ecosystem to change.

Where would you want to be?

If you plan for the long run, and believe the revolution is on its way, you should think where you want to be when it starts. Which industry involved in the value chain above will be best for you to join?

I am betting on eCommerce virtual marketplace as the place to be.

The marketing channels, who are responsible for facilitating eCommerce by managing the traffic and distributing the information between the buyers and sellers, are in the best position to gain bigger profits from such a revolution.

Will it be a big marketplace company (like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba), or perhaps a new emerging player that will manage the virtual ecosystem? Only time will tell.

In the mean time, the only thing we can do is to bet on the right industry for us to grow inside.

Ori Feldstein is a senior manager, experienced in eCommerce and in management of multi-million dollars programs in various industries – Big data, e-commerce and Defense. He is a co-founder of two family owned websites in the B2B eCommerce of chemicals (cheta.biz ; chemcenters.com). Follow him on Linkedin, @ori-feldstein.