Online shopping has brought about the slow demise of traditional retail, with many consumers relying solely on sites to shop for everything from groceries to electronics. In this episode, Ananya Bhargava interviews Zuzanna Blasco, a lead UX/UI engineer for Newfold Digital and a faculty associate who teaches e-commerce classes at Arizona State University. Blasco analyzes the impact of e-commerce on consumer behavior while also diving into emerging trends in online shopping, including AI integration, influencer marketing, social commerce, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and subscriptions.
Transcript
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Ananya Bhargava: Online shopping has resulted in the slow decline of traditional retail, with many consumers relying solely on sites to shop for everything from groceries to electronics. As new technologies continue to emerge, it’s essential to understand how the evolution of e-commerce affects us as consumers.
I’m joined here by Zuzanna Blasco, a lead UX engineer for Newfold Digital and Faculty Associate who teaches e-commerce classes at Arizona State University. In this episode, we’ll discuss the impact of e-commerce on consumer behavior, focusing on emerging trends in online shopping, including AI integration, influencer marketing, social commerce, augmented and virtual reality, and subscriptions.
Bhargava: Would you like to introduce yourself and talk a bit about your experience with website and e-commerce strategy?
Zuzanna Blasco: Sure, I think that sounds great. So my name is Zuzanna Blasco. I currently work as a lead UX engineer for Newfold. We own web.com, hostgator, all of the crazy website things we kind of dive into. And with my team, I’ve been working on new AI components for e-commerce, a lot of influencer work, and all of those little golden nuggets that you want whenever you’re working with selling items online.
Bhargava: That sounds very fascinating, and I’m sure we’re going to get to more of that. You brought up AI and influencer marketing, so we’re definitely going to get into more trends in e-commerce.
Before we do that, would you like to define what e-commerce is? How would you explain it to someone who maybe has never heard of it before?
Blasco: Absolutely. So e-commerce is anything that you can buy online on your phone, on your tablet, on your MacBook, on your laptop. It’s pretty much anything that is not physically in front of you. It’s being shown to you. You’re not touching it. You are pressing a button that is, the product is literally not there in front of you, if that makes sense. That’s the best way of explaining it to someone who’s never ever used e-commerce before.
Bhargava: And what would you say fascinates you about e-commerce?
Blasco: I think it’s honestly the best way to make money right now for businesses. It doesn’t matter if you’re small or big. It is the best way to get started. It’s the best way to do research as well, because you can get a lot of free research out of it.
And so instead of opening a real store and then watching it slowly fail, you can actually test out most of your products online to see how they’re actually doing before actually starting a real store, which is absolutely incredible.
Bhargava: So since you brought up the whole, you can’t really experience the product right in front of you, right? You don’t have tangible access to it when you’re shopping. So how do you think the shift from traditional in-person retail to e-commerce has impacted both consumer shopping habits, as well as the way sort of retailers approach selling?
Blasco: So I guess my favorite way of explaining this, and this is kind of crazy because it goes back into psychology. It’s the psychology of gambling almost, because you’re buying something online and you haven’t seen it yet. You haven’t touched it. You haven’t like used it, right? But you’re so excited to use it because you need this item. And it’s something that’s not going to come to you right away. So it’s literally like pulling down that leather and not really knowing what you’re going to get.
You know, most of the times sometimes we go on Amazon and we order something and we get something completely different. And we’re like, whoa, that’s not what I wanted. And what’s great about e-commerce in this sense of shopping online is that it’s a hype moment where we have like these points of adrenaline because we’re so excited for that item to come to us.
And in the store, sometimes you pick something up. For example, you go to Target and you see something that you like, you pick it up, and you’re like, oh, I actually don’t want this. I don’t need this. And to be honest, there’s too many things around me in Target, for example, where I don’t want to buy anything because I’m overwhelmed.
Thanks to e-commerce and online shopping, you’re given one page, right? You’re giving one product on a page. You’re looking at it. There’s a lot of great info about it. You know, you get ratings about that product. It’s so much more fun to shop both psychologically and like mentally. It’s so fun to shop online versus in person because you’re just overwhelmed with choices.
So that’s why we’ve kind of noticed that that’s why e-commerce is doing so well instead of like actual stores. That’s why so many stores like Toys R Us, Babies R Us, a lot of those huge mall stores are closing down. All of the Disney stores closed down because more people were actually shopping online.
Bhargava: Yeah, that’s interesting how you brought up that it’s sort of like gambling. And I know for a fact when e-commerce was first like introduced into the mainstream, a lot of people were pretty apprehensive towards it because you can’t trust what’s on the internet, right?
Blasco: That was the main thing back then.
Bhargava: So what do you think changed? Like how is it now that we trust e-commerce almost more than we trust like going in person?
Blasco: It’s definitely the reviews. You can see a review for every single item. You can double check it. You can price check it, which is amazing because you can see where you can get the lowest price so you’re not getting scammed. You can also see all of the materials that’s being used in the product.
It’s sometimes really tough to go into a store and read the fine print. You know, UX-wise, that’s not user-friendly at all. It’s hard to look at all of those little teeny tiny labels. And when you go online, you’re actually able to see what a product might look like on someone who is plus size versus someone who is on X-XS, you know? So it’s absolutely wonderful. It just gives you more opportunities there. There are a lot of advantages there where it’s easy.
It’s also easy to see how much money you spend. When you’re online shopping, it’s nice because you get a breakdown of all of the prices. So you get to see exactly how much everything costs versus going to a physical store. Sometimes it’s kind of hard to tell how much you’re spending and you kind of see that in the target world, right? Where you pile up all of your things from Target and you’re like, “How did I spend a hundred dollars on these three items?”
With e-commerce, it’s very nice because you can kind of control your budget in a better way. You can kind of see how much everything will cost before you check out. And I think that is a huge plus to e-commerce. So you can kind of monitor your spending health there as well.
It’s just so exciting to be able to go shopping online for things that we couldn’t do 50 years ago. It’s crazy how positive it is where someone who might not have the ability to go shopping to get their own things. It’s really a huge plus. You have this open, beautiful world open to you and it’s not like you live in a castle, you can only get this stuff, right? The benefit is that it’s open to everyone, which is really, really great. It’s an open market.
Bhargava: Yeah, that’s very interesting. And I think we’ve covered now sort of the basics. So now I’m very excited to jump to some of the things you mentioned earlier.
Could you talk a bit more about AI integration in e-commerce? Something you were talking about earlier. I would love to know more like what you’re working on and what do you think the future looks like in terms of integrating AI?
Blasco: So I don’t know if you’ve played with Amazon’s new photo features where you take a photo of a product and it tells you what it is and how much it’s listed for on different places. And even like, I believe Google Gemini does this too, where you take a photo of something and it tells you where you can find it online. So the AI process is absolutely incredible. It’s so cool to be able to find whatever you need.
So for example, let’s say I’m out and about at the zoo and someone has this amazing bag that I absolutely love. I can take a photo of it and I can find it online in less than like 10 seconds. And this is crazy, but before you would have to go up to the person, ask them where they got it. And you know, with COVID and everything happening, a lot of people don’t want to talk to each other. There’s a lack of communication. So a lot of times people just don’t share where they got things anymore. This way it’s really easy to find exactly what you need almost instantly.
It’s a great way to use AI to compare prices too. So if I’m in Walmart, I take a photo of a blender that I like, I can take a photo of it and I can see where it might actually cost less too. I could see that on Amazon, they’re having a deal right now. So I’m going to go and buy it off of Amazon instead of in Walmart. And so having AI as a hack and using that is extraordinarily helpful.
I know a lot of people are kind of afraid to use it, but honestly, a lot of these e-commerce companies aren’t actually labeling it as AI. They’re just calling it like a helper, so to speak. They’re using it as a chat feature and they’re kind of like watching you to see what you’re purchasing so that you can get better ads. And just overall a better reflection of what you actually need in your lifestyle and what your price point is usually.
So I would say that AI is being pretty positive. I haven’t seen it on smaller sites, but the big ones are using it all the time and it’s really helpful in my opinion.
Bhargava: And do you think smaller sites should also start using it?
Blasco: I don’t know how they could because it’s difficult to implement, if that makes sense. You would need a team of developers working with the AI, teaching it and everything. So unless you get widgets that do it for you, I don’t see that happening anytime soon in the near future because it is a lot of work. There’s a lot of effort that goes into AI.
A lot of people think that it’s, oh, it’s going to learn by itself. No, that’s not how it works. It takes a lot of coding. It takes a lot of development for the AI to actually be specialized to understand exactly what you’re looking for. So there’s a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of weird misconceptions about AI and it’s not as simple as it sounds, if that makes sense.
Bhargava: Yeah, that does. And do you think there are any other misconceptions, especially from the consumer side, about AI being integrated into e-commerce?
Blasco: All the time, people tell us that they’re so worried about someone watching them and what they’re buying. But what people don’t understand is that Amazon literally keeps a spreadsheet of every single search you’ve ever done. You know, even Google does, it tracks everything. It tracks where you go. It tracks where you drive. It tracks how fast you drive and all of that. You know, it shows how many people you’ve been around.
So like, let’s say, for example, I am around my husband and he wears a type of cologne. I’m going to get advertisements for that cologne because he purchased something. My phone is, you know, close to his. We’re in the same area, in the same zone. And, you know, I’m going to get ads for that. And that’s how AI kind of works in that way where it’s crazy.
But I just think that we have to be open to it because it’s not going to go away. It’s just going to make things easier for us.
Bhargava: But do you think that AI would sort of exacerbate the situation and sort of make consumer privacy even more of a concern?
Blasco: I don’t think there’s anything, there’s no such thing as consumer privacy anymore. It hasn’t been there for the past 10 years. And if you work in this zone, you will know that that’s just, it’s just kind of silly. Whenever someone says, oh, my stuff isn’t private, well, it actually never was private.
The fact that you can go on Facebook and download all of the years that you’ve been on Facebook and everything that you’ve searched for, everything that you’ve bought off of Facebook, it’s pretty insane because anyone can get that information. So nothing is private anymore. So anyone who argues about privacy, about seeing all of that, it’s just, it’s not realistic. They just don’t understand how it actually works.
Bhargava: And then now pivoting to the other thing that you mentioned, influencer marketing. So could you talk a bit more about that and how you’re sort of integrating influencer marketing into e-commerce?
Blasco: This is where we actually get into the dark side of e-commerce because TikTok shop is filled with so many ads, right? You scroll like through two stories and then you get another ad and you scroll through another two stories and then you get another ad. And it’s like, it’s extremely manipulative because these people probably don’t even use these products and they’re just trying to sell them to profit off of others.
And so influencer marketing has definitely taken a dive into the dark area. And we’ve seen that everywhere with Amazon, with Instagram, with TikTok, with YouTube. It’s been, I would say it’s been a real problem because you can hire a bunch of these amazing influencers and they will make your product look so incredible. But you don’t really know if that product actually is that incredible, right?
Like you can sell a good story. You’re selling a great story, but you’re not selling a good product. And so I think that’s where we should be more concerned. It’s about the human part of, are these people actually using the product? Are they doing the right sort of testing to say, oh, this is actually safe for your child or for your baby? We’ve seen a lot of that where it’s just kind of very, very manipulative and it’s all around the world.
And so I think that’s where I find more concern instead of AI itself and getting targeted for ads for specific things. I think it’s more so the influencers selling fake information for you to buy a product that doesn’t actually work the way it’s supposed to be working. And it’s extremely manipulative.
But as a company, if you can put these beautiful influencers in front of you and they do all the heavy lifting where they talk to their, you know, all of their followers and they say how amazing it is, you practically don’t have to lift a finger because you don’t have to pay these influencers that much. It’s kind of crazy how little influencers get and how desperate people are to become influencers.
Bhargava: All right. And then another question I had for you, sort of along the lines of emerging trends and online retail, virtual reality has also become pretty big. So sort of like, especially with fashion is what I’ve seen the most in beauty, where they’re like virtual triumphs, which is pretty interesting. So do you have any thoughts on how virtual reality can be further integrated and whether this is like a step in the correct direction?
Blasco: Yeah, I think it’s really cool. So there’s two types, right? There’s augmented reality, which is something that everyone has access to. And so the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality, augmented reality is you can use it on your phone.
So you, for example, use your camera to show what a, like what makeup might look like on your face, maybe a foundation color or a lipstick color, or you can go to Amazon or the IKEA app, for example, and you can see what a chair might look like in your living room. That’s what augmented reality is.
And then there are differences between augmented and virtual reality.
Virtual reality is where you’re actually wearing a set of glasses or some sort of machine over your face, and you’re actually shopping in a virtual world. So you know how Facebook has those meetings or like even Google has those meetings where you’re all like virtual characters and everyone’s wearing like VR glasses. So you can actually turn that into a store where you’re shopping on Amazon.
I know this is crazy, but you can actually shop as a virtual character with your friends or you know you can shop at work for specific things. And it’s just so cool. It’s so much fun and I’m so excited for that to grow because this really helps anyone who has disabilities or anyone who can’t really get out of the house or anyone who lives too far away from a store to go see a physical item. I just think it’s so wonderful to have augmented reality in virtual reality. It’s just so much fun too.
My goal is never ever to get rid of physical stores because I think having a physical store is still so much better than having a virtual store because you’re able to touch the item, you’re able to see it.
And I really do believe that people who work in retail like I think that’s amazing. It’s so much fun to go out and go talk to people and you know see whatever people are wearing and get out there and get out there in the community. So the goal is never ever to kill the stores. It’s just to make them more accessible to those who can’t actually get there in the first place.
Bhargava: Yeah and I didn’t know the distinction between virtual and augmented so that’s really interesting.
So another trend that I’ve noticed in terms of e-commerce is the concept of subscriptions. It feels like every other day I feel like I can subscribe to something that I just used to buy before. So there’s like subscription boxes. I’ve also seen where you can subscribe to an entire physical product. Like the other day I saw that you could subscribe to headphones and you have to pay a monthly fee to own a physical object which I thought was interesting.
So what are your thoughts on subscriptions and subscription boxes and do you think that this is like a good way to sell things online?
Blasco: I think that’s a really really good question. I think it really depends because you have subscription boxes like let’s see a popular one is IPSY where they send you five makeup products like small sizes of it or like boxy charm or you get food box subscriptions where you get like a ton of different food items in your box on a monthly basis or a weekly basis. I think it’s really really great for people who are adventurous and who want to try new things and they don’t really know where to start. I think that’s absolutely fun. It’s definitely not for someone who is I guess a little bit more timid about spending money.
I would say it’s definitely for someone who’s a little bit more like open about spending their money because you don’t really know what you’re going to get which you know goes back to kind of our conversation about you know gambling about getting excited because you don’t really know what’s going to happen and so you take a chance on it and you’re like oh this is awesome and I just think subscription boxes are fun but I think I’ve also heard of them failing a lot too which is kind of sad. So I think it really depends on the products. It depends on how you market it to your consumers too.
I think it’s fun and it’s fun for, for example, busy families who don’t have enough time to go food shopping so they get you know one of those subscription boxes where it sends you a full meal where you can create that together and you’re learning how to make a new meal which is awesome and or if you’re someone who’s starting the vegan lifestyle and you’re you don’t know where to start with vegan makeup you can order a vegan makeup subscription box to get started and that’s so much fun. I also think the use of subscriptions on Amazon and Walmart and Target where you can subscribe if you buy the same item over and over again.
Let’s say I’m buying laundry detergent and I just don’t want to have to worry about that. I just want to ship to my house. I think that’s the best use of subscriptions where you order an item that you need that you just kind of want to forget about but you need on a daily basis and that helps so much because that just takes a lot of the thought process like the thinking out of it so that’s where I would go with subscription subscriptions.
Instead of boxes I would go towards like single items that people need all the time. Basic things even like large companies use subscriptions like that so that they don’t ever have to think about it. They just know it’s going to show up at their doorstep on the first of every month so I think they’re super useful in that manner.
Bhargava: Yeah that’s perfect and then my last question for you is how do you think online shopping experiences will evolve? What will e-commerce look like maybe 10 years from now?
Blasco: Oh man um so I don’t know if you’ve seen this but if you look at the new iPhone things that are coming out like the new trends there’s this one feature on the iPhone that you can turn on where you’re only using your eyes to navigate through your whole phone so I’m guessing that e-commerce will be a lot like that.
Bhargava: It will be a lot of what are we looking at?
Blasco: Where are we directing our attention to and all of those things that we’re directing our attention to it will show up in our shopping feeds it will show up in our ads and it’s kind of scary to think of but it’s definitely going to be extremely attention focused. It’s going to be all about accessibility of like how useful is this actual product.
I would say I think our shopping is going to be a lot more minimal because these products will do a lot more than they used to so a lot of things will be combined into one, and it’s even as simple as you know your protein powder will not only have protein, it will have all of your carbs for the day, it will have all of your fats for the day, it will be like a single meal sort of deal where you’re shopping for that. And so it will be fun to see e-commerce grow into that because it’s going to be, I would say, a lot less physical things, it’s going to be more digital for sure. so you’re able to shop on the go whenever you need something. With a blink of an eye you can say yes purchase that or yes get that you know and a lot of e-commerce shopping will also have to do with upgrades.
For example, in your car, if you want your AC to work better, you can upgrade it with a subscription and as crazy as that sounds it’s going to be that’s going to do exactly that where maybe on your phone you’re upgrading your subscription to hear better or to have like more accessibility things or to have a better camera and those upgrades will be all run through apps and through e-commerce stores. So that’s kind of how I see it working because that’s kind of where I see our company’s heading right now and it’s going to be super interesting to see where it is in the next 10 years.
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This is the marketing edition of We Mean Business sponsored by the Reynolds Center at Arizona State University.
