The new ecommerce experiences driving results

It’s been said that the e-commerce growth we’ve seen since March 2020 would’ve taken years to achieve if COVID-19, the global pandemic forcing people around the world to stay home, had not accelerated trends. Indeed the events of the second quarter of the year have changed e-commerce dramatically. Throughout the 2010s, there was experimentation with digital tools aimed at helping establish apparel fit before buying (“fit tech”), providing augmented reality (AR) try-ons, offering social shopping experiences and more. While getting fit right on the first try was an important endeavor toward lowering online return rates and increasing profitability, in-store returns were always easy enough for many customers. AR felt like a nice-to-have but not-completely-trusted proxy for real life. And social shopping never really took off in the United States. Read more…