In a survey of 46 trend and sweetness manufacturers and retailers, greater than 37% have launched a third-party market to their on-line shops, 35% of which did so within the final yr. These marketplaces let manufacturers promote merchandise from different manufacturers or suppliers by means of their very own web site with out having to develop, personal or ship stock themselves. Normally, that is finished in partnership with a tech firm like Mirakl, which offers the know-how for one model to course of and fulfill orders positioned by means of one other firm’s web site.

Matt Scanlan, who’s on the manager staff of a number of trend manufacturers together with Naadam, One thing Navy and Thakoon, beforehand instructed Shiny that, as extra customers transfer on-line, marketplaces may help deliver new clients and extra transactions to the location.

The opposite large funding corporations have made in e-commerce was round launching AI-driven personalised product suggestions. Greater than 15% of respondents mentioned they’d launched this function within the final yr, making it the most typical latest web site addition amongst these polled. In whole, greater than 36% of respondents supply this function, together with those that had launched it greater than a yr in the past.

Algorithm-driven suggestion providers are in excessive demand, as demonstrated by Pinterest buying the purchasing platform The Sure in June. Mada, a Gen-Z-focused app, is now aiming to scoop up The Sure’s former clients with its AI-driven outfit suggestions.

Whereas marketplaces and AI suggestions had been the 2 greatest latest e-commerce investments amongst manufacturers, a couple of different developments stood out, as effectively. Dwell chat was revealed as essentially the most broadly used function, with greater than 50% of respondents providing it, but it surely was additionally the function that the majority corporations had launched a couple of yr in the past; 47% mentioned they launched it in 2021 or earlier.