The retail & e-commerce landscape is shifting dramatically. Review the current state of retail and you will see the ‘retail apocalypse’ impacting an incredible amount of household brands, with stores closing with increased frequency. Decisions are being made to shutter less profitable brick-and-mortar locations, while others brands are ditching brick-and-mortar all together. As a result, retailers are doubling-down on their e-commerce efforts at a rapid pace.

Current retail trends show that 51% of Americans prefer online shopping, with e-commerce growing 23% year-over-year. E-commerce is expected to change at an even faster rate as brands embrace the power of voice search and Omni-platform/omni-device options. Voice assistants are already being used to make purchases by 40% of millennials, with that number expected to exceed 50% by 2020. This transformation of the digital retail landscape will only continue to grow as more consumers integrate digital devices into their shopping habits.

With this real-time retail disruption happening, it was time to poll the industry and eight e-commerce luminaries share their thoughts on the future of e-commerce in 2018 and beyond. Here are the anticipated retail trends, offline and online, to be aware of.

In 2018 we’ll see more companies investing in chatbot services to automate part of their customer service process. The market for chatbots and automated customer service is growing; a Business Insider survey reported that 80% businesses expect to have chatbot automation implemented to some extent by 2020. A LivePerson survey of 5,000 consumers showed that 67% had used a chatbot for customer support in the last 12 months.” — James Gurd – Owner, DigitalJuggler

During the coming year, it’s likely consumers will increasingly choose to shop with brands that demonstrate customer centricity across all facets of their business, from personalized, customer-aware marketing to shopper-friendly shipping and return policies.” Jimmy Duvall – Chief Product Officer, BigCommerce  

I’d say the trend that’ll have the biggest impact on ecommerce in 2018 will again be Amazon. Their growth is continuing to advance at an incredible rate, and they’re changing the ways in which independent merchants have to sell, think and operate online” — Andrew Youderian –Founder, eCommerceFuel eCommerceFuel

I think the ‘ nobody is 100% offline anymore’ is the critical part. That and tech is getting more user-friendly & the users are getting more tech-savvy, which means there’s a whole new area between ‘ traditional ecommerce’ and ‘ traditional offline retail’ opening up — it will be an exciting space that rewards bold new entrants.” – Visakan Veerasamy – Content strategist, CandyBar

I believe that the subscriptions segment of the eCommerce market is going to continue to grow rapidly in 2018. But beyond subscription boxes, many online retailers are finding a lot of success by adding subscription models onto their traditional eCommerce model.” — Danny Halarewich –LemonStand Founder & CEO, LemonStand

My biggest prediction for eCommerce in 2018 is that more brands will use content to differentiate themselves. A big part of that content will be videos.” — Bill Widmer –Ecommerce Marketing Consultant, BillWidmer.com