Ecommerce personalization has been the hottest trend in customer engagement for a while now. Many consumers can hardly remember what it was like to visit a website that didn't use at least some degree of this method to better engage with them.

According to a study published by eMarketer in 2016, the ecommerce sector will experience double-digit growth until 2020, when sales are expected to exceed $4 trillion.

Singles Day is like if Amazon Prime Day was a real national holiday. And this year, shoppers in China spent $25 billion in 24 hours. The 8-year-old e-commerce holiday promoted by Alibaba--Amazon's biggest competitor and an e-commerce force in China--started as an anti-Valentine's Day encouraging single people to buy gifts for themselves every Nov. 11. Now, it comes with crazy deals and nationally televised concerts. This year, Nicole Kidman and Pharrell Williams made appearances.

Shoppers are rapidly waving goodbye to impulse control as new software platforms that drive e-commerce websites create innovative visual search capabilities. As well as finding matching products, AI is enabling shoppers to discover complementary products whether it is size, colour, shape, fabric or even brand. The visual capabilities of such software are truly outstanding. By first obtaining visual cues from the uploaded imagery, the software can successfully assist the customer in finding the product they desire. The consumer no longer needs to be shopping to see something they would like to purchase.

It is easy, cheap and time-saving. The sphere is growing: there appear new players and ideas. Launching or running e-commerce project is not an easy task. Numerous factors are to be considered: there should be clear aims and vision, customer's experience and interests are to be taken into account. However, apart from "general truth" for e-commerce, it is crucial to monitor trends that influence the whole sphere and set the pattern to follow in the near future.