Innovative E-commerce apps: enhancing the online experience
Online shopping witnessed enormous growth in the first quarter of the year due to the pandemic. According to Statista, e-retail revenues are expected to increase to $6.5 Trillion in 2022. A report from Wunderman Thompson Commerce has revealed that Amazon’s share of the UK ecommerce market rose to 35% during lockdown, up from 30% at the end of last year. Studies show that ecommerce is the most popular online activity. Retail platforms are enhancing the shopping experience for customers and facilitating retail stores as they adapt to the changes in consumer behavior amid the crisis.
The latest initiative from tech giant Google, aims to maximize E-commerce potential. Shoploop created by Google’s experimental Area 120 team, is a video shopping platform for discovering, evaluating and buying products.
Google defines Shoploop as “an entertaining new way to shop online”, and according to its General Manager Lax Poojary, “The experience on Shoploop is more interactive than just scrolling through images, titles and descriptions on a traditional e-commerce site. All Shoploop videos are shorter than 90 seconds and help you discover new products in an entertaining way, whether you want to try at-home nail stickers, revive your second-day hair or get a concealer that gives full coverage.”
In addition, the app gives people a personalized, seamless customer experience – without the inconvenience of being physically present and waiting in ques at the store. The app also provides expert, independent product reviews.
“Once you find a product that interests you, you can either save the product to buy it later or click straight to the merchant’s website to complete the purchase. You can also follow your favorite Shoploop creators and share videos you like with your friends and family,” Poojary notes.
What does the company hope to bring to the E-commerce industry? This new tool provides content creators and online storeowners in the beauty industry with a platform where they can review and recommend products and help others shop directly from their videos.
By doing so, Google will maintain an important share of ecommerce search activity by efficiently tapping into the data tools it already has in search, and provide more product comparisons and price information.
The domain is expected to have 300 million online shoppers in 2023, and will make up 22% of global retail sales, according to reports.