Five Ways Smartwatches Will Change E-Commerce

Over the past five years, we’ve seen smartphone commerce skyrocket from obscurity into a state of near-ubiquity. Platforms like Uber, eBay and even Starbucks have all shown that a vast margin of consumers prefer to conduct digital transactions on their smartphones. With these trends in mind, there’s no reason for us not to expect the same to happen with smartwatches. Still, as e-commerce continues to expand and fragment across devices, we’ll also see a wide array of new issues start to emerge.

In this slideshow, Himanshu Sareen, founder and CEO of Icreon Tech, focuses on the many ways that smartwatches will change e-commerce as we know it, whether it’s through altering the face of consumer data, miniaturizing the act of consumer engagement, or changing the way we pay for things.

The Changing Face of Mobile Commerce

Click through for five ways smartwatches will change e-commerce as we know it, as identified by Himanshu Sareen, founder and CEO of Icreon Tech.

Miniaturizing the Shopping Experience

As the size and nature of our devices continue to change, so too will the shopping experience. As our devices have gotten smaller, they’ve become much better at streamlining purchases that happen on a recurring basis. While we may not be able to browse for hours through online storefronts, we’ll be able to make quick purchases depending on where we are and what we’ve been doing.

The Rise of the Impulse Buy

By shifting the nature of the shopping experience, the smartwatch will bring different types of purchases to the forefront. With the help of the Internet of Things and advanced data tracking, customers will be able to buy products at the touch of a button — meaning that retailers will need to hone their appeal to impulse buyers.

Reevaluating Customer Behavior

With the ever-changing nature of transactions, digital businesses will need to find new ways to dissect the information they collect, continually refining their customer profiles based on purchase context.

Commerce, Contextualized

Contextual commerce flips our current shopping paradigms on their head, turning the purchasing process into something that works in the customer’s favor — and not against them. Using data from smartwatches will reverse the shopping process so that we streamline the shopping process.

From Annoyance to Convenience

In the near future, when sharing smartwatch data will translate into lightning-fast deliveries and convenience on a grand scale, customers will actually have something to gain from sharing their information. Instead of intruding on personal space, retailers will use data to deliver helpful products to customers in real time.