Business is booming on the internet. There is a lot of money to be made on the internet. Amazon is now not just the biggest retailer on the internet but is actually the biggest retailer on the planet.

As our enterprising young people rush in to create startups that would be the future of e-commerce in Africa it is important for them to keep an eye out for the practices and business models that are being adopted the world over. Here is a rundown of some of the trends that will characterise the present and near future of commerce on the internet.

Services run by delivery companies

Delivery is one of the main pillars upon which internet shopping is built. It therefore makes sense that more and more delivery ventures are joining the ranks of startups that are cashing in on the internet gold rush.  These businesses are essentially drop shippers of the modern age. They do not have any production or storage facilities; they simply provide a platform through which their customers can order goods from third parties. They then handle the logistics of getting the products delivered to the customer in the most timely and efficient manner.

Examples of such companies are Instacart and Postmates. The former allows its users to order groceries from local physical retailers. Its founders often brag about how they are leading the last stand against the threat that is Amazon as the online behemoth continues to eat away at the market share of physical retailers forcing closures. Instacart delivers fast food from joints near the user. There was a local Bulawayo based startup called Foodie with a very similar business model but it went silent a while ago.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions as a business model are proving very popular with both online retailers and their customers. Products which one can subscribe for range from the seemingly obvious like tooth brushes, shaving razors, female hygiene products and the slightly less intuitive like socks, underwear and other clothing items.

Dollar Shave, an American startup which sold nothing but shaving razor subscriptions was acquired by Unilever at a valuation of over a billion dollars. I have never heard of any Zimbabwean startup pursuing this kind of business model and I do not blame them; it is only just in recent years that even funeral assurers have managed to convince people to join plans which require monthly premiums.

Faster and less expensive shipping

The cost and speed of shipping significantly affects a customer’s decision to buy from you. Online retailers are taking heed of this and more of them are offering free delivery on a wider range of items. My favourite online retailing example, Amazon, built what it calls “fulfilment centres” all over America and other parts of the world so that customers’ orders can be delivered faster and cheaper.

What is probably more exciting is that these same companies (and others) are spearheading the development of automated delivery vehicles. These range from delivery drones that will fly and land your parcel right at your feet to robotic carts that will zip along roads and pavements to bring you your purchases.

Delivery is still very slow and expensive in Zimbabwe and that is why it is still one of the major stumbling blocks for widespread adoption of e-commerce in the country. Some local startups try to overcome this challenge by owning their delivery vehicles. Unfortunately most of them have yet to achieve the economies of scale that would make these cheaper so they end up being just another expense that the final consumer has to foot.

Increased number of A.I applications

Some local companies (the likes of Econet) are just now realising that given a large enough customer base and time, you are going to be overwhelmed by the demand for customer support. As human beings are generally expensive, companies have deployed artificial intelligence applications in the form of chatbots to interact with their customers. These chatbots are deployed on the companies’ websites and social media accounts. A surprisingly large number of customer service queries can be successfully resolved by these.

Another major application of artificial intelligence in online stores are the systems which recommend particular products based on the customer’s past choices or the choices of other similar customers. While I have seen little to no evidence of product recommendation systems in local shopping sites, there has been a bit more enthusiasm in the adoption of chatbots particularly on widely popular applications such as Facebook and Whatsapp.

Direct to consumer brands

Some companies are taking the “cut out the middleman” approach to whole new levels. Nowadays there exist startups which are selling highly counterintuitive products over the internet. Companies like Casper are selling their beds solely through their websites while Warby-Parker is selling affordable and fashionable (or so they claim) prescription eye wear through its site. Warby-Parker is so intent on making buying glasses over the internet so natural that they also developed an online eyesight test that can allegedly do away with the need to visit an actual professional.

This may actually be the trend that will take the longest to catch on in Zimbabwe. As of yet e-commerce is mostly an unproven business concept locally. The internet will have to prove itself a worthy retail channel before the direct to consumer business model becomes more popular among the less adventurous business people.

Bricks and clicks

While some local traditional retailers are trying to cobble together e-commerce platforms the opposite is happening in developed countries. Startups like the aforementioned Warby-Parker have been so successful online that they are opening actual physical stores in order to consolidate their markets. Amazon, far from being outdone, is opening physical stores. Amazon is also giving us a glimpse of the future by opening stores into which people can just go in, pickup groceries and walk out the door, no checkout needed. The stores use facial recognition to recognize, tag and automatically bill customers as they leave them.

As I always say, ours is like any other country: unique with its own special challenges and opportunities. Therefore in addition to following international trends which shall develop our own.