Whoever predicted the death of ecommerce would be eating their words now; ecommerce is now as strong as every and continues to grow not only yearly, but on a monthly basis. People are now more than ever choosing to purchase goods and services of all types over the internet. So how can ecommerce retailers keep up with demand and new technologies and remain at the forefront in their niche? We’ll now take a look at some of the innovations in retail and B2B internet commerce.

Without a doubt one of the biggest trends in ecommerce today is the use of video to demonstrate products. With video, retailers are able to not only show their products off, but actually show what they can do. It has been reported that conversions increase when customers can see a product in action rather than just read about it and look at photos.

Some other benefits of using video on an ecommerce site include:
- Customers can see the items in context
- You can cross sell items by demonstrating how they work with each other
- For clothing and fashion, seeing the item “on” someone makes a world of difference

Audio is another major innovation in ecommerce. Some websites now use audio to give verbal affirmations whilst a person is shopping. This positively reinforces to the customer that the item will benefit them.

Reviews have always been a part of many ecommerce sites but until recently, text reviews were the norm. Now we are seeing more sites allowing users to submit audio and video reviews. These provide an element of reality to the site as prospective customers can see it truly is real people making the testimonials, which adds to the legitimacy of the site. Of course, it has always been difficult for customers to tell whether text reviews were fake or unsolicited.

Finally, podcasting is really taking off in ecommerce. Video podcasting in particular is useful as retailers can make mini-episodes and distribute them freely. For example, a cooking retailer would be smart to have a cooking show podcast whereby they are promoting their products on the show whilst providing free value for the customer. Video podcasts are cheap to make and can be distributed to a wider audience than regular TV shows. They also allow small retailers and websites to compete with the ‘big guns’ in their niche market.

eCommerce is far from dead, in fact the only question about it now is how much bigger it can get.

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