Anchanto forecasts the following 9 trends:

1. There’s no ignoring social commerce and social media:
   In 2024, the prominence of Social Commerce and social media in the e-commerce landscape will keep on rising. Businesses need to harness these platforms such as TikTok as essential tools for driving sales, engaging with customers, and cultivating brand loyalty. For this, Social Commerce integration will be a central focus, as it allows companies to manage their social channels, along with other sales touchpoints, in one central place.
2. Personalization and customer experience through AI-driven insights:
   Tailoring the shopping experience to individual customer preferences through data analytics and AI-driven insights remains a significant focus. Personalized product recommendations, targeted marketing campaigns, and enhanced customer service are key areas of development.
3. Brands will increase marketing spending on marketplaces:
   In 2024, businesses will increase their marketing spending on marketplaces such as Tokopedia, Shopee, or Lazada to push more sales. With thousands of new businesses launching operations online every day, brands will need to ensure they navigate price wars and stand out against competition on marketplaces. To do this effectively, brands would need to know search trends, keyword searches, category performances, etc.
4. Brand protection is going to be an important theme:
   In 2024, brands will become extra protective of their digital presence given the rise of grey and unauthorized sellers on marketplaces. They will aggressively move towards protecting brand equity, digital assets and have low tolerance for ineffective and counterfeit listings by third-party sellers and grey sellers. So, it will become crucial for them to monitor third-party online activities and identify unauthorized sellers to optimize distribution strategies.
   
   To do this effectively, brands will rely on AI-driven insights to detect price violations, track third-party sales performance, pricing history, and identify best and worst sellers.
5. Rise in flexible shopping and delivery options:
   Businesses need to increasingly offer a diverse array of customizable shopping experiences, providing consumers with greater control over how, when, and where they receive their purchases. To do this effectively, they need to offer a spectrum of choices, including flexible delivery time slots, alternative pickup locations such as lockers or local stores, on-demand delivery services, subscription-based models, and curbside pickup options. There will be a rise in these adaptable and personalized shopping and delivery choices that cater to the dynamic lifestyles and preferences of consumers, enhancing convenience, and reshaping the e-commerce landscape by prioritizing flexibility as a cornerstone of the customer experience in 2024.
6. Proactive and automated customer communication will become non-negotiable for brands:
   Customers looking to know the delivery date of their parcels are way in the past. They now expect to know the precise location and status of their parcels regularly, along with the ability to be able to check it at their convenience. Hence in 2024, businesses will need to proactively equip their customers with real-time tracking information, anticipating their needs before queries like WISMO “Where is my order?” arise.
   
   Many businesses will also work to make sure customers not only receive these updates with proper branding, but also to equip customers with tracking their orders in real-time. This proactive approach will redefine customer service standards, fostering greater satisfaction, reducing support tickets, imparting great customer experience, and streamlining the overall order fulfillment process for businesses.
7. Businesses will scrutinize delivery performance more:
   With order volumes rising for every e-commerce business, there is also more data available to understand the supply chain and delivery journey. Hence, brands would like to leverage analytics that monitor return shipments, utilize detailed reports that highlight reasons for returns, comparisons between new and returned shipments, and tracking return volumes within specific timeframes.
   
   Businesses will also be on the lookout for a tracking system to swiftly identify exceptions such as theft, customs hold, damaged or lost parcels, enabling them to anticipate potential delays caused by carriers. This will result in optimized logistics, improved customer satisfaction, and proactive address of issues in the supply chain, setting new benchmarks for operational efficiency in the e-commerce industry of 2024.
8. Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) will focus more on customer experience amidst rising competition:
   The competition will continue to rise in the logistics space, with the larger companies dominating the price point. This will lead to logistics companies innovating to find ways and keep their margins intact.
   
   3PLs will increasingly focus on automated customer onboarding and building deeper relationships with them to improve stickiness. They will try to achieve that through better transparency and providing autonomy to customers for managing services. And reliance on technology would be the norm, with many businesses looking to adopt white-labeled interfaces to manage logistics, fulfillment, warehousing, order orchestration, and customer operations.
9. Omnichannel is still on the rise as flexibility becomes the bar:
   In 2024, brands will double their focus on how they put their omnichannel practices into action. If not leveraging already, brands will focus on acquiring tools that support seamless product listings across channels, leverage quality digital assets to ensure customer retention, and focus on Online-to-Offline (O2O). This will be critical for brands to offer a consistent shopping experience to their customers across all touchpoints in an integrated manner.