Jack W. Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research, Ltd, highlights several e-commerce trends that are transforming retail, travel, entertainment, and communication.

Like all digital technology and consumer-driven markets, e-commerce has evolved over the years. With the global growth of B2C e-commerce, retailers face new challenges and opportunities. In order to meet customer demands, companies have adapted their strategies to fit current trends. This blog covers the top five trends that have carried e-commerce through 2015 and will continue into the new year.

Rivaling consumer electronics, clothing has become one of the most purchased physical products online in recent years. Clothing was also the leading category in global cross-border B2C E-Commerce in 2014, accounting for over a third of all cross-border online purchases. In China and Japan, online mass merchants and marketplaces have become the most popular platforms for consumers to purchase clothing. In Europe, clothing has been the leading category by share of online shoppers in countries such as the UK, Germany, Russia, Italy and Turkey. Clothing merchants stand to benefit from adoption of current market trends, including but not limited to: M-Commerce, Omnichannel and Cross-Border B2C E-Commerce. Those merchants currently operating purely online or predominantly store-based could seek to adopt these strategies in an effort to gain a share in the booming online clothing market.

Social games are one of the fastest growing segments of the online gaming industry. According to the industry body, Entertainment Software Association, social games increased in popularity by over 50% last year. Together with casual games, social games account for the largest share of online games played most often, with their share being even higher among the games frequently played on mobile. Social games are popular not only among the tech-savvy youth, but also adults. The International Social Games Association reports that the average age of a social game player is as much as 40 years. Overall, close to half of gamers engage in social games.

The South East Asia region has great potential for online retail growth, as several countries in the region rank at the top of a parameter for determining B2C E-Commerce potential, according to recent market research from yStats.com. Countries within this region, including, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philipines, Thailand, and Vietnam, are helping to boost E-commerce growth potential in the following ways.

The Information Technology (IT) industry encompasses many different sectors, all of which receive make-overs on a frequent basis because of the constantly evolving nature of the industry and resulting new discoveries. While many IT trends change quickly, there are some trends that are sticking and expanding into bigger ideas for future technologies. Some of the most notable trends include: mobile diversity, software-defined networking, smart machines, 3-D printing, the internet of everything, and cloud computing.

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Several vendors have developed a portfolio of products and solutions that act as the building blocks of the Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) ecosystem. Although there are a multitude of companies in this arena, only a few offer the end-to-end solution or, at least, certain key products for the HetNet environment.

In the recent report, HetNet Deployment and Operational Strategies for 4G and Beyond, Mind Commerce has evaluated the key players that are emerging as market leaders, including Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and NSN. For now, let's focus on Cisco.

While much is spoken of mobile Internet's impact on various industries, the distinction is rarely made between smartphones and tablets. In online retail, the M-Commerce sector is usually referred to in general terms; however, all the market players involved should clearly understand the difference between the two and what implication this distinction has for their businesses.

The most popular terms used by enterprise communications vendors today—and, indeed, for many years—are “UC” (which stands for “unified communications”) and “UCC” (“unified communications and collaboration”). But, if you think that means IT buyers understand what those terms mean, you’re wrong.