With the internet becoming enmeshed in consumers' daily lives, seeping into its mundane moments, eCommerce draws more Asian-Pacific patrons. They embrace electronic transactions in the name of modernity and convenience.

FREMONT, CA: According to forecasts that the retail e-commerce sales worldwide will reach USD 5 trillion by 2021. At present, Asia-Pacific (APAC) leads the global e-commerce growth charge, outpacing all other continents with a forecasted growth of 25 percent of USD 2.271 trillion, representing a whopping 64.3 percent of global e-commerce spending.

Here are three trends in e-commerce across APAC.

The middle class will drive growth

China's economy might be cooling, but Alibaba is banking on high growth in e-commerce to drive sales. Investors state that its growth drivers include China's middle-class society, as an increase in per capita income is related to increased internet penetration and consumer spending the two elements that e-commerce combines. Meanwhile, e-commerce in Southeast Asia is deemed to grow explosively, to exceed USD 100 billion by 2025, according to a study. 

Brands will produce more short-form video content

As the millennials begin to step away from Facebook and explore other platforms like YouTube and Instagram, they produce and consume more short-form video content. A popular magazine states 91 percent of consumers today prefer interactive or visual content, like video, over conventional static media. Internet video traffic is expected to have a compound annual growth rate increase of 33 percent from 2017 to 2022. It is on the back of new technologies like progressive web applications (PWA) to the pending materialization of 5G. 

Artificial intelligence will augment the shopping experience 

Besides social shopping, technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) will also provide e-commerce sales a much-needed boost. There is an array of AI applications in e-commerce. Companies are starting to give an end-to-end retail automation platform through AI to various industries, like fashion. These companies utilize image recognition and data science to extract catalog data, analyze user behavior, and guide marketing strategies in improving customer experiences and driving conversions.

Several online companies have started to roll out chatbots. Leveraging deep learning and natural language processing, AI chatbots make human-like responses that address the customer needs while taking note of patterns that, over time, can be used to push highly-targeted offers. As they are not humans who need sleep, they can engage with customers 24/7. 

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