Ten e-commerce trends for 2022 – part 2

The e-commerce trends for 2022 are more diverse than ever and new ones are constantly being added. The main trends in part 2 of the blog article are sustainability, NFTs and blockchain, recommerce, social commerce and TikTok.

This is part 2 of the blog article on e-commerce trends for 2022.

Sustainability is becoming standard practice

The discussion about sustainability has been another popular topic, at least since the outbreak of the pandemic. It is about much more than just added-value for local products, dependence on China, whether electricity is green or if product production was eco-friendly. The topic has expanded to include social compatibility, recyclability (circular economy) and reuse (recommerce).

A representative KPMG survey finds that information on sustainability is important for 46 percent of Swiss consumers, and extremely important for 18 percent. 91 percent of the Swiss population are willing to compromise in favour of sustainability. Anyone who’s been doing their homework should be following this trend in e-commerce and adding environmental and sustainability points to their sales arguments.

NFTs and blockchain

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are almost certain to be a trend in e-commerce in 2022. A NFT is a non-replaceable, digitally protected object recorded on the blockchain. This provides proof of ownership for the virtual asset or can be used to store rights of use and copyright. Currently, the most significant use of NFTs is to identify digital files, such as programs, photos, videos and digitally created works of art. According to a list on Wikipedia (15 December 2021), the highest sale prices achieved to date for a NFT were paid for Beeple’s two artworks “HUMAN ONE” (28.985 million dollars) and “the First 5000 Days” (69.3 million dollars), and for Pak’s “The Merge” (91.8 million dollars). Sotheby’s – an auction house with a rich history – has since opened a marketplace for NFTs, selling several for millions of dollars.

Recommerce – Second-hand 2.0

Recommerce (reverse commerce) is another aspect of the trend towards sustainability. Used or returned products are resold or rented out as second-hand options by the manufacturers or other companies. Even Ikea, H&M and Zalando are bowing to the trend or rather to societal pressure. This is because reports keep surfacing that companies are destroying returned goods, even when they are good quality. Here, too, the lockdown has increased consumer interest in sustainable consumption and given recommerce a boost.

Social commerce as another sales channel

Social commerce is the practice of selling products via various social media channels using “shoppable posts” or a catalogue. In addition to Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping and Pinterest Shopping, Google also intends to provide a sales platform for retailers via YouTube. YouTube calls it live shopping because products shown in a video can be purchased directly. In addition, it has established a partnership with Shopify so that products already listed there can be easily made available and sold via YouTube Shopping in just a few clicks. This will certainly fuel the trend towards social commerce in 2022.

TikTok came, saw, and decided to stay

TikTok will be an e-commerce trend in 2022. The article on Digital Marketing Trends 2021 which appeared at the beginning of last year described the potential of the TikTok social media platform. Since then, TikTok has evolved into one of the largest social media platforms which has not gone unnoticed by companies. The social media app has already been downloaded 3 billion times, something previously achieved only by Facebook. So if you want to successfully advertize and sell your products on social media, TikTok will prove essential in 2022.

If you have no idea how to create a successful TikTok channel, listen to the following podcast from a B2B company: TikTok in B2B marketing.

Conclusion on e-commerce trends for 2022

Trends in e-commerce set the pace for online retail – that will continue in 2022. It’s important to recognize, study and observe these trends and the changed purchasing and usage behaviour, and to carry out tests and experiments. This calls for courage and a pragmatic approach. The best option is to first create a minimal viable product (MVP) to keep costs down and test whether a new idea will work.

You can read about other e-commerce trends set to emerge in 2022 in part 1 of our blog post, which was published on 4 January.