Did you know that 3 out of every 4 Spanish users are online buyers? Electronic commerce in our country is evolving faster and faster. In fact, Spain occupies ninth place in the ranking of countries that buy the most online, surpassing other European countries such as France or Italy. Since the smartphone is part of the daily life of more than 80% of the population, the ways of purchasing goods and services online have also changed. A few years ago m-commerce (mobile commerce) appeared, when users began to find it more comfortable to make purchases through their mobile phones. But we continue to evolve and now we have reached the era of a-commerce.
What is a-commerce
I’m sure something like this has happened to you at some point: you go to take a shower and you realize there’s no shampoo left, so you go to the supermarket and, for one reason or another, you dawdle and buy everything except the shampoo. Don’t go back to the supermarket! A-commerce (automated commerce) comes so that we don’t worry about shopping lists. This is a electronic commerce trend in which the consumer can schedule their purchases based on their consumption habits. In this way, every three weeks an automatic purchase of shampoo will be made so as not to be in the situation we described before again.
This means that, according to the trends of 2018, we will be able to leave our most basic shopping needs in the hands of robots and algorithms. Or, simply schedule treats or gifts for specific dates. In a-commerce, the entire online purchasing process would be automated, from placing the order to home delivery, including payment.
But this is not all, automated commerce can become the best ally of brands if it is combined with the Internet of Things. If a refrigerator is already capable of detecting that milk is missing, if it is also capable of scheduling the purchase, brands do not have to worry about customer loyalty. It would be enough to configure our preferences when installing the refrigerator and forget to check that we have everything we need inside.
The first examples of a-commerce
Amazon: the Dash Button
In a post about e-commerce and innovation, the great online shopping giant could not be missing. Amazon has developed the Dash Button, a small device connected to the Wi-Fi network that allows you to make purchases just by pressing a button, without the need to enter any website or place an order. Its operation is very simple, you just have to link it with an Amazon account, paste it to the product you want to buy and press the button. The order will be placed automatically and hours later we will have it at home.
Digit
This is an application whose objective is for the user to save. Work as a financial advisor and make small movements of money into savings accounts at the most opportune times. It works through an intelligent system that transfers only the amount that the user can afford. For now, only Americans can enjoy this application, which in its first months of life managed to save 500 million dollars for its users.
But it is not the only financial advice application that is succeeding. In Hong Kong there is Neat, which supplies payment cards with artificial intelligence. Plum is the almost twin sister of Digit, only developed to make people in the United Kingdom save, just like SusuAI in Nigeria.
Finery
It is an application launched at the end of 2017 that helps users fill their closet at the best price. The first thing to do is provide an email account with which Finery will sync to add purchases to a digital closet, organized by categories. Users save items to their wishlists to receive notifications when prices change. Before becoming an app, its web service saved consumers $209,000 through deal notifications.
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