The Biggest Commerce Trends of 2017 |
Posted: June 1, 2017 |
Commerce and the business world have seen a lot of change in recent history. Things like mobile and big data have been earth shattering in regards to changing the way businesses across the globe offer goods and services and create a profit. However, commerce is in a perpetual state of evolution. Change is a constant. As such, the business landscape across the globe is sure to continue changing indefinitely in ways that are hard to predict.
This is the case in 2017. Currently, there are a number of big trends in commerce in 2017 that could help shape how companies do business decades into the future. Here is an overview of some of the most important commerce trends of 2017 you should be aware of.
Ecommerce Is Growing at a Rapid Rate
As far as the retail sector of the world economy goes, brick and mortar is on the wane. Ecommerce is growing at an extremely accelerated pace and my someday soon supplant it entirely. The size of ecommerce as a whole will grow to near $2 trillion a year by the year 2020.
This has been a sea change for the global economy. The internet has in a large part removed trade barriers in a way not seen before in previous decades. Thanks to ecommerce, any consumer in almost any country on the planet can buy a product from any other country.
The business world has become smaller, and it has presented a great opportunity to companies that now have much larger markets to pull customers from. Smaller companies have also benefited greatly since brick and mortar retail is significantly more cost prohibitive than the very low overhead required for shipping products to consumers through the mail.
Automation Is In
Another commerce trend in 2017 that is paving the way forward for decades or possibly even centuries of progress is the introduction of automation on a much wider scale. In the past, robots were something only read about in science fiction pulp novels. Today, however, robots completing work once performed by human beings has become science fact.
One of the companies leading the way forward for this automation revolution is the online retailer giant Amazon. Amazon has expanded its legion of robots by 50 percent. It now implements 45,000 of its automatons across 20 different facilities it uses to prepare orders for shipment to customers.
In part due to Amazon’s leadership on this front, the shipping and handling industry may soon be completely automated. The same may also be the case for other industries especially those that use factory production lines. While this change to commerce is helping increase efficiency across the board due to the error free precision of these robots, it also adds new ethical concerns. Employees with jobs at risk of being replaced by robots will need other sectors of the economy to find employment to live a middle income lifestyle.
Driverless Cars Are Moving Forward
Whether you like it or not, a future of driverless cars is almost certain at this point. This has been proven by the amount of research and development spent in 2017 to insure the quick arrival of automated automobiles in the commercial market.
Multiple companies are currently testing designs for driverless cars on the roads of the United States and Europe. 10 million driverless cars have been expected to be on the road by 2020.
This will be a substantial change for many industries related to travel and cars. Commercial auto insurance, for example, is certain to alter greatly. There will be less accidents, and the ones that do occur will be the fault of machines as opposed to drivers unlike is the assumption with the insurance sold now.
Overall, 2017 is a big year for the evolution of commerce. Things being developed and invested in now could change how products and services are sold for hundreds of years into the future. It is certainly an exciting age for business.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|