How will e-commerce evolve in the 5G era?
The digital world is changing too fast. A few years back, before the Covid pandemic, we started using 4G with Reliance Jio and other service providers. Now, things moved to the next level. By incorporating and engulfing digital technology into our lives, 5G will influence the whole landscape of retail. Multiple new use cases and expansions will be made possible.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly introduced 5G services for India at the just-finished India Mobile Congress, India made history in the digital sphere. The revolutionary qualities of 5G and how they will affect every part of our lives have been extensively discussed. To reiterate, 5G will make digital technology a part of every aspect of our lives.
Alongside this, e-commerce in India has exploded in popularity. Today, all firms, including those who sell traditionally offline, are adopting eCommerce and finding development in it. It used to be an auxiliary channel for sales. Redseer predicts that holiday season sales will total $11.8 billion. While Techarc projects that smartphones worth $18 billion will be sold for 100 days between September and December 2022, Counterpoint expects that smartphones worth $7.7 billion will be sold throughout the holiday season.
All of these estimations point to the importance of e-commerce in today’s trade, which seeks to combine the most pleasing aspects of old channels with digitally driven channels while becoming more and more channel agnostic. Let’s look at how 5G will impact eCommerce now that it has begun to roll out throughout the nation and what needs to be done to get ready for it.
Video Rich Content with 5G
The product pages on e-commerce platforms may need to be redesigned such that video takes precedence over all other content. Currently, a product page has 5–10 multimedia assets published, one of which is a video.
Users will want more video reviews and product descriptions as a result of this move. Currently, most video descriptions fall short of expectations and lack credibility. As a result, businesses will be encouraged to produce more films and extremely rich content, changing the definition of A+ content.
Live Trading Has Started
Live trading has already started. This year, influencers conducted several live commerce sessions with exclusive offers for customers. Live commerce will become more common as video content consumption is pushed by 5G, and eCommerce platforms will offer more sessions during the holiday season and regular business hours.
This will lead to more performance-based marketing, the goal of which will be to encourage interested parties to sign up for and attend the event. Performance campaigns will be put to the test. It’s nearly impossible to “control” the performance of live events. Similar to how organizers of webinars may be able to acquire registrations, the important factor is how many people show up in person.
Influencers safeguard their reputations and commercial interests
Influencers have simply recommended products till now, leaving it up to the consumers to make their own decisions. Influencers will now assist customers in making purchases using social and live commerce. Influencers will develop into “micro” publishers that use their distinctive tags to promote purchases and profit from them.
Many of these influencers may be unaware of organic theft and brand safety. Influencers must now be aware of these issues with digital fraud and take proactive measures to safeguard their reputations and commercial interests.
Web 3.0, Metaverse and NFTs
There is already so much chaos around web 3.0 and NFTs. Companies like Facebook already started working on Metaverse and even rebranded themselves as Meta last year.
The web will undergo a fundamental upheaval thanks to 5G and NFT. We have already seen how well-known auctions have brought in over $91 million for the highest-ever NFT sale, the digital artwork “The Merge” by artist Pak. Web 3.0 will become operational with 5G, and we will observe that such regions will also embrace online trading.
Infringement would cause the most difficulty in this situation. Up until now, protecting against digital infringement has been a headache, since even the most well-known firms have fallen victim to misuse of their assets and trademarks.
To monitor digital art infringement and safeguard the copyright and intellectual property of the artists whose creativity may be threatened by it, it will be necessary to use advanced image computation and analytics.
Gen Z susceptibility to cloud gaming
Millennials who were born with the Internet were the early adopters but Gen Z carried it to the next level. The 5G community as a whole agrees that customers will have access to cloud gaming right away in the 5G era.
Cloud gaming is now a reality, and 5G can hasten its development, while other use cases will take some time to evolve and appeal to customers. The requirement of owning a fantastic device—a smartphone or laptop—to be able to play games with high graphics is also removed.
Children will be the main players in cloud gaming. Although there is a minimum age to enter into a contract in our country, in many of these situations, the buyer and the customer will be different. Children, and even minors, will use their parents’ accounts and digital identities to play these games. This will pose significant risks to children’s general wellness, including fraud, theft, and “mind games.”
The ecosystem has to work together to establish a brand-and content-safe environment so that kids may play on the digital playground without worry or constant parental monitoring.
E-commerce encompasses more than simply the buying and selling of goods and services. It has become a habit in our lifestyle, one in which we invest more of our time and money. The immersive nature of 5G will open up several new use cases and e-commerce concept extensions.
Key Takeaways
The above-discussed key points require high-speed internet users to get processed in general. Ecommerce is the heart of internet business. To build a forward-thinking and successful eCommerce system that can unleash the potential of 5G to amplify the user experience, we all need to work together as an ecosystem. Meanwhile, Industry 4.0 is flourishing and IoT devices and automation will be at their peak in the 5G era. Being part of this digital era, we are completely ready to take off with 5G. Stay updated with Beardy Nerd for more such articles which keep you ahead in the game.
