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~ Newegg WorldFirst ~

Today, marketplaces are driving the ‘fourth wave of e-commerce,’ with global sales expected
to reach £4 trillion by 2020, according to a report by industry magazine, eMarketer. With
online giants like Amazon and Alibaba continuing to dominate the face of retail, it’s
estimated that by 2020 global marketplaces will own 39% of the online retail market, with
60% of online sellers listing their products on marketplaces or selling third-party products
on their core commerce sites.

s retailers reach out to an increasingly ‘buy now, pay later’ payment schemes offered to customers
globalised market, and consumers hunt by retailers. Similarly, online sellers themselves are looking
Adown the best deals in all four corners of for low-cost methods of moving money around the world,
the world, FX has become an integral spoke in this paying suppliers and managing their overseas tax obligations
particular e-commerce wheel. SMEs trading in mul- – which is why FX companies like WorldFirst, with its com-
tiple currencies in international marketplaces are petitive pricing of fixed spreads, rich product offering and
looking for solid data for transparency and new ways intuitive integration capabilities, is such an attractive option
of managing, sourcing and tracking liquidity. They compared to other less-flexible foreign exchange providers.
also want integrated end-to-end systems that enable
them to integrate their FX needs with the smooth What could we see trending in 2020?
running of their business – ideally from a laptop or So, going forward, what innovations in the marketplace
even a phone. landscape could take centre stage in 2020?
• Uptake in use of cryptocurrencies. Long been touted as
What’s driving growth/change in the e-commerce the future of e-commerce, Newegg is one of the market-
marketplace? places at the frontier of this emerging payment system.
The ongoing political uncertainty in the UK, USA and Since the release of Bitcoin in 2009, over 4,000 different
across the Eurozone is one of the factors that is changing altcoins or alternative cryptocurrencies have emerged, and
consumer spending, affecting both businesses and customers as an early adopter in the field of technology, Newegg is
– and, perhaps ironically, driving e-commerce. As the global expected to be involved in taking these forward.
economy slows down, belts are being tightened and spend- • Blockchain-enabled financial applications. Adoption of
ing reined in. Consumers are becoming increasingly canny these applications (which are not necessarily currencies)
about how and where they spend their money, turning away should enhance online trust and eliminate inefficient
from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers in favour of manual processes in legacy industries as well as in pay-
looking online for the best available deals. This spans across ments.
virtually every marketplace, from real estate to winemaking, • ‘Shopping on Instagram.’ Kicking off in 2019, this is
to the travel industry. This may be bad news for those brick- expected to be huge in 2020, signifying a change from the
and-mortar retailers who find themselves stuck with soaring social media channel away from influencing and into the
rents and overheads just as the high street slows down, but world of commerce. Its early (and predictable) success as
represents a great opportunity for online retailers, as well as a retail marketplace has already resulted in a surge of B2C
for the marketplaces themselves. traffic to the brands’ e-commerce sites.
• More, not less, global trading. Despite the prospect of
It’s important to note that these online retailers also need to barriers to trade being raised by political events in the UK
move with the—increasingly fast-paced—times, too. Savvy and USA, as well as other countries, it’s predicted that
customers increasingly expect free and express shipping for global transactions will steadily increase as both business-
online purchases, which is why it’s become the ‘new nor- es and consumers capitalise on the opportunities outside
mal’ for marketplaces such as world-leading tech-focused the borders of their own home nations. The support of a
e-retailer, Newegg, which offers free shipping on all its prod- customer-centric FX provider is sure to become more of a
ucts. Research from Newegg indicates that 75% of customers necessity as the world gets smaller.
expect free shipping on orders over $50 – and they would
rather wait for 3 to 5 days for the item to be shipped than pay The future of fintech
for shipping. On the flip side, 76% of buyers are more willing In the past, fintech has been focused on ‘unbundling’
to pay for expedited shipping if the item is a gift. traditional banking facilities and, instead, offering vertical
slices such as payments, lending and card processing in a
This cost-saving approach to online shopping also extends cheaper, faster and easier form. Now, a pick ‘n’ mix approach
to the realm of payments, where there’s been an increase in to offering financial services is growing in popularity, with

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