The future of Shopping 2030

The first online B2B transaction was done by a UK based company called Thomson holidays. Till then a lot of improvements have been made for online shopping experience. 

Coming back to the topic, how I imagine shopping to be in the year 2030. The current scenario is fine, Customers buy online through various payment options available including COD. The online payment has 128-bit SSL encryption which is secure enough.  There are Smartphone applications through which you can easily buy products on the go. There are 1 paisa auctions and used products can be bought. Offers and Discounts are on every site.  But there are some changes I would be wanting in 2030 :

(a) For Retailers

• The Comparison chart and the reviews of the product should be available for the product while consumer is buying. (Half of it is done by eBay’s new extension by providing the user by recommending with same product while they are surfing site other than eBay with the best possible price on their site). It satisfies the customer that he has bought a best deal price and best product in the category.

Other Similar Product and Reviews

• The customer should be informed and given an exchange facility when a new or upgraded version of a product comes. This will be in benefit of consumer as well as the retail company from where the consumer has previously bought the product. (Suppose that you are a gaming freak and you bought a PS2 from eBay a long time back now PS3 has come. Imagine eBay sending you a message exchange your old PS2 to buy a brand new PS3 with a discounted price and eBay can put the used PS2 in the used product category, this can be easily achieved using the Database maintained). This keeps the consumer with latest version of product. 

• The current scenario for e.g., on eBay is you order a product online; it notifies that your order has been shipped and it will reach you by XX.XX.XXXX date. So, what if you want to track the status after it is shipped. In 2030, we as a consumer should be able to trace where exactly our order is. (In-transit either the product is with the starting courier point of the company through which it is shipped or the destination courier point of the same company, which is in your locality).

My Order

(b) For Manufacturer

In 2030, what is done in days would be easily done in hours. So, the customization could be done in hours.

• Customization of products: While buying online the buyer should be able to customize the product through the retailer’s website. The retailer will send the request to the manufacturer for production. Suppose, I want a specific design to be printed on my T-Shirt I should be able to do that or If I want the product to be available in red.

The customization should be done rapidly so that the product can be delivered on time.

• Simulator of Products : The trend of touch screen Monitors has started, by 2030 everybody will have touchscreens. The manufacturing companies should release a Simulator for their product so that every person may touch, feel and operate a product before they buy. This can be easily done with programming. For example, an I-phone Simulator would help give a feel of it through the Simulator.

Simulation

This would really make a nice complete shopping experience for me in 2030.

So, the Shopping Experience for a mobile goes this way:

I want a mobile phone. I go to an online site eBay.in.Search for a mobile, the eBay extension gives me suggestions and reviews for the mobile. On the basis of the reviews, and my choice I choose a mobile. Use it by using the simulator. I make my request for the customization of phone (like color, printing my name, print design etc.) pay the extra customization cost. eBay sends this request of customization to the manufacturer. I pay the total cost i.e., the customization cost + the product cost using the available mode of payments. My product is sent to me I track it on the eBay website. Finally, my product reaches my place. Further, eBay sends me options to update to new series with an exchange offer.

The post is written for Indiblogger.in contest #eBayCheck Extension bit.ly/eBayCheck_Extention