We had predicted that Thanksgiving Day would become the ultimate “couch commerce” day, with most big-box retailers’ stores closed that year, driving early Black Friday shopping to smartphones and other ecommerce channels. Thanksgiving Day fell nearly 30 percentage points below of our predicted growth rate of 49.5%, while Black Friday ended up nearly 20 points shy of our 39.4% growth expectation.

For occasions where physical checkout is necessary, the experience should be as quick, frictionless, and contactless as possible. Amazon is rapidly advancing the technology and customer awareness of frictionless commerce. The rollout of Amazon Go, the cashierless convenience store concept featuring its patented Just Walk Out technology, is well underway.

Click and collect sales in the US will see an acceleration of growth amid the coronavirus pandemic, rising roughly 60% to $58.52 billion this year, according to our estimates. That’s a considerable increase from our previous estimate, when we anticipated a 38.6% growth.

eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu speak about innovations in ecommerce and how technology is creating a frictionless experience for online shoppers. They discuss the jump from fast to free shipping, what drone deliveries could potentially look like, and dive into the many facets of click and collect. They also explain the downsides of frictionless commerce and how businesses can overcome those hurdles.

Frictionless commerce, a trend permeating many facets of the customer journey today, leverages technology to improve the retail experience by saving people time and hassle. And arguably the most competitive battleground in frictionless commerce is in fast and free ecommerce delivery.

A new paradigm of physical retail, created and accelerated by the pandemic’s disruptive forces, is ready to emerge. In the coming year, the “retail apocalypse” will reach a crescendo as many teetering legacy retailers close hundreds of locations. In their place, frictionless, digitally enabled retail experiences will dot the landscape.

The 2019 holiday season posted modest retail sales growth amid a strong consumer economy but challenging calendar. With more economic risks ahead, the 2020 season may be even more challenged for growth.

Lastly, online-to-offline (O2O) returns partnerships at brick-and-mortar stores will also scale the frictionless commerce landscape in 2020. Amazon has partnered with Kohl’s on returns and Rite Aid on pickups in their stores—both, interestingly enough, in retail categories currently being disrupted by Amazon.

Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu discuss how the coronavirus changed retail and ecommerce. What are our base, best and worst cases scenarios? They then talk about who frictionless retail is for and what Americans' online grocery experience really looks like.

That’s frictionless commerce. One thing we see on the logistics side is consumers needing to have control over that last mile. Whether it's to reschedule a package because they're on vacation, or they want to redirect it to a retail location so their child doesn't see it before Christmas. That's another element of creating frictionless commerce: putting that choice in the hands of your consumer.

The result is subpar execution of frictionless omnichannel commerce and an experience that isn’t especially personalized to the customer. This could be why, according to SoDA, companies overwhelmingly plan to ramp up their personalization efforts in 2019.

“We'll continue to see more and more frictionless experiences, whether it be through a virtual wallet; or in a brick-and-mortar store, the ability to just pick up goods, scan them yourself; or via in-store scanning mechanisms, and you can just walk out with them,” said Pete Stein, global lead for experience and commerce at Merkle. “That trend of contactless is going to continue in a pretty big way.”.

How to make online and offline transactions more frictionless. The benefits of embracing a first-party data mindset. How to turn cross-channel experiences, like click-and-collect and returns, into competitive advantages. Techniques to improve discoverability through AR and remote video. Plus!

Embedding transactional functionality into advertising, engagement, social, servicing and loyalty moments means the consumer can make purchases in a more frictionless way than ever before.

About 85% of consumer transactions happen inside of a retail location, but most conversational commerce companies only focus on 15% of transactions that happen online. Inmar shares why marketers don’t need to limit chatbots and other one-to-one tools to just ecommerce transactions.

Checkout on Instagram definitely holds a better chance of commerce actions than a “buy now button” because it reduces friction. Buy buttons are tricky because they require upfront work on the consumers’ part—they have to link their accounts to various buy button offerings. Shoppers typically want to check out in the easiest, most frictionless way possible.

Together with NovoPayment, we are delivering frictionless payments experiences for tens of thousands of delivery drivers that work for Rappi, the Latin American on-demand delivery platform. With Rappi, we are also partnering to expand financial inclusion through the RappiPay contactless Visa card, which can be easily topped-up in a number of ways.

Ultimately, this need has accelerated a shift toward developing one-stop shop ecosystems among POS and other commerce enablement providers. The emphasis on services as a revenue generator—especially as PaaS becomes more popular—has placed merchants and commerce enablement providers into a complex dichotomy, forcing them to balance cost pressure with the need for new technology.

It’s part of providing a frictionless checkout experience, whether on social or elsewhere—another important trend for 2021. Learn from abroad. Social commerce (including checkout) is already a big business in China, thanks mainly to the popularity of catch-all app WeChat.

It’s part of providing a frictionless checkout experience, whether on social or elsewhere—another important trend for 2021. Learn from abroad. Social commerce (including checkout) is already big business in China, thanks mainly to the popularity of catch-all app WeChat.

"To drive that, a frictionless ease of service and low consumer effort are going to be important in an ongoing way. That is really where differentiation will occur, and businesses need to make sure that they're building their brand footprint around that.".

Payfacs can also provide technology to help merchants create a frictionless ecommerce shopping experience and compete against ecommerce giants like Amazon. The Appeal of Payfacs. The payfac model continues to gain momentum, thanks to the benefits it brings to key participants across the payments ecosystem.

A discoverability solution creates a frictionless experience that helps ensure buyers can find what they need more quickly and with less effort. This results in increased conversions and more satisfied customers, which ultimately drives business growth, profits, and sustainability. Use AI to understand and engage your buyer.