Various consumer technologies are changing the way people shop online and offline.

Mobile payments, chatbots and voice search are gaining popularity fast as more and more people are starting to see their advantages.

As an online seller, it’s important that you keep abreast of these technologies, but it’s equally important that you know what really matters to your customers before integrating any of these tools into your business.

Which digital technologies are they interested in?

Many of today’s new digital technologies were designed to offer buyers an interactive shopping experience.

However, in reality your customers will only want to use technologies that will enhance or speed up their shopping, not introduce them to a new process.

Mobile payment methods are among those that they would like to use on a regular basis.

Research shows that 400 out of 1,000 shoppers in the UK find it very convenient for them not to pay with cash or card.

The voice search technology may not be as popular as mobile payments, but over 20% of the respondents find it interesting and are likely to use it.

Chatbots are also gaining shoppers’ interest; majority of them who are receptive of this service are Millennials, while a small number of those who don’t have a clue what chatbots are and how they work are 55 years old and older.

Technologies shunned by most shoppers

Although they’re big in the gaming world, the benefits of virtual reality and augmented reality have yet to be understood by a lot of shoppers as they find these tools too complex to embrace.

Nine out of 10 customers said they don’t fancy using either of these tools in the near future.

Out of 1,000 customers, only a little over a hundred said that they’re willing to try augmented reality, and about 200 of them would give virtual reality a go, to see how a product would actually look like on them.

If you could find the time to learn more about VR and AR, and actually test them on your site, you will realise how beneficial they are as they could drastically decrease your product return rate.

Perhaps, the successive introduction of new consumer technologies may be stressing consumers out to the point of alienating them.

However, if you know your customers well enough, then it’ll be easy for you to decide which digital trends to adopt for your business.

If you’re not quite sure what could help improve their shopping experience, then you may want to revisit your customer groups.

So, which consumer technology are you thinking of putting to use?