Now that 2024 has come to a close, planning for the year ahead is a top priority. In the fast-changing eCommerce landscape, staying up-to-date is of the utmost importance. Whether you are a retailer, an advertiser, or a consumer, understanding upcoming industry shifts can be a game-changer. At MindgruveMacarta, we’re looking forward to what 2025 might bring by spotlighting the key eCommerce trends to watch this year, along with our very own predictions. We’re also sharing essential industry dates and a holiday calendar at the end of this blog to help you maximize the opportunities the year has to offer.
Our top eCommerce predictions for 2025
Embracing social commerce
Social commerce is a relatively new industry practice that is rapidly transforming the eCommerce landscape. In recent years, many social networks have launched integrated social commerce platforms, like Facebook Marketplace and TikTok Shops, which allow businesses to promote and sell directly to consumers within the app, streamlining the buying process. This evolution is changing how companies reach customers, enabling them to turn social profiles into full-fledged storefronts — managing marketing, inventory, and sales all in one place.
Social commerce has also displayed staggering growth in the last couple of years, grossing about $571 billion in revenue in 2023. Toward the end of 2024, industry forecasters predicted growth numbers would reach the $688 billion mark by the close of the year. If the expected annual growth predictions are right, social commerce could generate over a trillion dollars each year by 2028. Bearing this in mind, 2025 is starting to look like the perfect opportunity to advertise your brand on the latest social commerce platforms.
Pinterest: An emerging eCommerce powerhouse?
The breakout moment for a true champion in the social commerce space is long overdue, and we think it could happen soon. We’re talking about Pinterest, the standard-bearer of online aesthetic curation. Pinterest is popularly known as the go-to platform for anyone looking for visual inspiration, culinary recipes, or arts and crafts tutorials. But thanks to a variety of features it has incorporated over the last couple of years, it has also emerged as an eCommerce star player.
Vendors on Pinterest can upload images of their inventory to their account — i.e., catalog their goods — and then add Rich Pins to those posts. Rich Pins are metadata, additional information that users can link to their Pinterest “product listings,” which are fed straight from their website and updated live. Pinterest users who see product listings on the app can check their price and availability in real-time, as well as access their respective Product Detail Pages on the seller’s website with just one click.
Aside from the Rich Pins, Pinterest also offers innovative tools like the Lens feature, which allows users to image search millions of products. The Try On feature lets users sample beauty products or visualize home decor in their own space using augmented reality (more on AR later). And if your products do well enough on the platform, they could earn the “Popular” or “Best Seller” badges, which would then boost their reach and visibility. Consider giving Pinterest a shot in 2025 if your brand appeals to a more niche, visually oriented audience.
“Hey Siri, what is conversational commerce?”
AI has paved the way for the rise of conversational eCommerce, a model that allows consumers to purchase products using automated voice assistants and chatbots — technologies that enable customers to get the support they need while still maintaining their privacy.
Whether we’re talking about Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or Amazon Lex, options for AI assistants are now plentiful and on demand. According to Gartner statistics, about 24% of U.S. consumers already use chatbots regularly when shopping online, and it is estimated that one in four companies will use them as their main channel for customer service by 2027. Other research indicates that approximately 13.6% of the U.S. population uses smart speakers, such as Google Nest or Amazon’s Echo, to learn more about products or add them to their shopping cart, while “8% of [U.S.] adults claim to use voice shopping regularly.” Some analysts also expect yearly growth of over 60% in consumer expenditure through conversational commerce, which makes it an incredible area of opportunity for businesses and advertisers to invest in.
For more insights into the competitive landscape of online retail, check out our article on Amazon’s Biggest Retail Competitors in the US.
Try it at home (or wherever you want) with AR
We briefly mentioned this trend in our 2024 eCommerce predictions blog post, but the recent AR boom we witnessed last year deserves a deeper exploration. At the beginning of the 2020s, the standardization of augmented reality tools into digital marketplaces may have seemed like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, but that’s no longer the case. Several brands have already taken a gamble on AR, and those who have successfully integrated it into their platforms are now recognized as pioneers in their fields.
Take IKEA, whose furniture visualization feature has become immensely useful for decor dealers. Or Sephora, which developed an app that lets users virtually try on a wide range of makeup products with their smartphone cameras. Adidas, H&M, Fendi, Burberry, Vespa, L’Oreal, Apple, and many other renowned companies have also incorporated AR into their products to entice consumers, consolidate brand loyalty, and drive better results.
Smart move, because AR tackles a big problem for retailers: return rates. In 2023, the average eCommerce return rate was 17.6%, and the comparable measure in 2024 is expected to come in between 18–20%. AR visualization and sampling tools have been proven to decrease return rates and increase conversion rates, as they allow customers to make more confident and informed purchases.
Implementing AR requires a great deal of resources and manpower, so it’ll take some time to become an industry standard. Our take? Jumping in early on the trend could ultimately reap phenomenal rewards for your company.
The rise of BNPL: Don’t break the bank
The final prediction we foresee for 2025 is an even greater popularization of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions among retailers. First introduced in the early 2010s but brought into vogue during the pandemic, BNPL service providers soared higher than ever in 2024. On the last Cyber Monday alone, U.S. consumers spent around $991.2 million through BNPL services, a record-breaking figure for same-day BNPL consumer spending.
But how does BNPL work? When retailers integrate BNPL solutions into their websites, they show up as payment options during the checkout process. So instead of paying a single lump sum at once, clients could opt to pay via BNPL solutions like Klarna, Afterpay, Sezzle, or Paypal’s Pay in 4 — effectively agreeing to take on an interest-free loan to finance their purchases. Depending on the provider, this loan can be paid in full at a later date or over a specific period in fixed installments (say, four payments over six weeks).
Although BNPL solutions aren’t exempt from potential liabilities, like consumer overborrowing and costly late fees, they’ve shown impressive adoption and performance metrics since their introduction. Case in point: The authors of a Harvard Business Review article outlined a research project they conducted on BNPL consumer spending. Analyzing the spending patterns of 275,000 clients of a large U.S. retailer before and after it incorporated BNPL services into its business model, they found that purchase likelihood increased from 17% to 26% for clients who adopted BNPL, and that their shopping carts were, on average, 10% larger in size post-BNPL introduction.
In a best-case scenario, BNPL can be a win-win for everyone — retailers get their money upfront and customers get to treat themselves without draining their funds. Plus, it’s becoming popular among a younger crowd. Around 64% of Millennial and 58% of Gen Z consumers have used BNPL since it first became available. While it’s true that BNPL may not be the ideal solution for every type of retailer and consumer, adopting this model could potentially drive sales for your business and make your customer journey even more accessible.
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