If there is any indication that the point of sale is the most important part of ecommerce, it is the fact that 67.44 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned, according to Baymard Institute. Customers will browse, pick items and then fall just shy of checking out. 

There are a number of reasons this happens. Sometimes, it might be as simple as the shopper adding a product by accident. But many times, customers may question whether they want an item or have questions that are not easily answered while they are browsing. 

Whatever their reasons, online retailer Land of Nod was able to increase its cart recovery rate by 22 percent by delivering custom messages to consumers, Retail Touch Points reported. When a cart is abandoned, Land of Nod immediately sends customers an email reminding them about one of the items in their cart. Should this not prompt the shopper to buy the item, the merchant follows up 24 hours later, and then again in a week with an offer of free shipping.

This strategy overcame the company's problem with emailing customers up to a week after a cart was abandoned, after shoppers may have forgotten about the item or already changed their mind and bought it. By tailoring messages to what consumers are shopping for, and in a timely manner, online retailers can improve their ecommerce initiatives. 

For many retailers, Cyber Monday represents one of the most significant sales days during the year, particularly for ecommerce sites. According to a study from RSA and the Ponemon Institute, the average amount of online retail revenue rises 55 percent on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday. The increase in customer traffic can potentially cause performance issues, but as long as capable ecommerce software and server preparations have been made, merchants can facilitate a stress-free shopping experience.

However, retail industry professionals should be aware of one problem associated with Cyber Monday: cyberattacks. The Ponemon and RSA study noted that the holiday shopping date invites malicious parties to assault ecommerce sites. Even as merchants experience unprecedented online sales, they may also be losing as much as $8,000 per minute due to hackers. As customer churn and brand damage are both potential risks when services go offline, the study suggested that larger retailers might lose up to $3.4 million from an hour-long disruption. 

Minimizing damage
Because of this issue, retailers should ensure that all levels of their online operations are prepared for cyberattacks before Cyber Monday's arrival. Just as measures should be in place to handle the increased volume of Web traffic on that date, similar protections should exist for hacking attempts. 

"Forward-thinking organizations that have the agility to break from the status quo and embrace innovation can not only better protect their business, but also gain a massive advantage," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute. "Reducing losses from fraud and increasing trust in the brand can propel a business ahead of its competitors."

The study highlighted that tracking and understanding Web traffic can let retailers recognize the source of an attack and react appropriately. As is, only 23 percent of IT retail staff respondents to the study felt that they were adequately prepared to quickly detect and react to disruptions. In many instances, these incidents involve distributed denial of service attempts, app store fraud, eCoupon abuse, account hijacking and other types of hacking. Some of these can be avoided with a secure point of sale system, but others require working with IT and web masters to ensure everything runs smoothly on the most intensive day for online shopping. With Cyber Monday taking place in December this year, merchants still have time to prepare their systems before the sales date. 

In the past few years, retailers have had to adjust their business strategies to account for the latest technology that shapes the way customers shop. Mobile point of sale systems, omnichannel advertising and branded apps are just some of the industry's responses to the latest mercantile landscape. 

All the while, consumer shopping habits are continuing to evolve. While smartphone and tablet ownership is widespread, many individuals still do not own these devices and are only now growing accustomed to how they assist in product research. Google and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) recently revealed that the total retail search volume increased by 12 percent in the third quarter of 2013 in comparison to the same time last year.

Smartphone-based searches grew by 58 percent, while those on tablets rose 100 percent. As mobile devices become more popular, this also means that fewer people will rely on their desktops, and Google and the BRC's data backs this up with a 10 percent decrease in searches from personal computers between the third quarter of 2012 and 2013. Figures also showed that international interest in U.K. retailers rose, with search volume increasing by 23 percent, compared to only 16 percent during the second quarter. Overseas consumers were particularly interested in clothing and beauty brands. Much of this also originated with mobile devices. As portable devices proliferate, consumers will be able to enhance their research efforts and businesses should be ready for an uptick in curious customers, both international and domestic. 

"Retailers are continuing to invest significantly in their multichannel offer, so that they can provide customers fast and user-friendly ways to browse and buy whether in-store, at home or on the move," said Helen Dickinson, director general at BRC.

More information for a wider audience
While ecommerce is often a convenient way for customers to shop online, a Web presence can also improve sales by reaching new audiences or providing consumers with more information. Some shoppers will always prefer to buy in person because it gives them the opportunity to try on apparel, test the quality of an item or otherwise get a feel for what they are buying. However, being able to look at products online can drive their initial interest.

As for international buyers, merchants must offer a versatile system that details products to customer satisfaction, and that has a streamlined POS solution to create a simple purchasing experience. By using the right retail management software, businesses can handle an ever-diversified customer-base, regardless of whether they are interested in research alone or a more involved delivery process. 

In the 13 years that IMRG and Capgemini have tracked online sales in their e-Retail Sales Index, the research has never discovered as much sales growth between August and September as it did this year. The index found that online purchases rose by 13 percent in that period, and by 20 percent between 2012 and 2013. 

This record was set strongly in part by mobile devices. Smartphone and tablet adoption has continued steadily, and m-commerce has expanded with the trend. Notably, consumers appear to be increasingly comfortable buying products on their smartphones, as as these gadgets accounted for 23 percent of all mobile sales in September, up from 15 percent in August. 

"The fact that e-retail has seen its sharpest period of growth for September suggests that consumers are shopping with confidence," said Chris Webster, Vice President and Head of Retail Consulting and Technology at Capgemini. 

As mobile devices achieve a larger share of online sales, retail industry professionals will want to adapt to changing consumer habits and ensure that their point of sale software is set up for smartphone- and tablet-based purchases. 

Innovations in the past few years have changed the face of ecommerce, as mobile device ownership rises and more people buy items from their phones. Beyond just evolving, the market has also been expanding, with Retail Customer Experience recently reporting that total ecommerce sales are up by 19 percent worldwide from 2012, having reached $1.2 trillion before 2013 even ended. 

Despite the burgeoning sector, there remains considerable room for growth. The source noted that brick-and-mortar sales still represent about 90 percent of the market, and some regions of the world are only just developing the infrastructure to process Internet-based sales. As consumer comfort with ecommerce increases, the number of sales through it will rise accordingly. 

Trends indicate that ecommerce will also evolve as it expands. Retail Customer Experience highlighted that social networks and new technology like smartwatches and biometric payment security will change how customers shop. Because of this, merchants will need to deploy versatile point of sale systems that can handle the range of hardware and software that their customers will use. 

Additional drivers to ecommerce
Other innovations that do not seem directly relevant to retail may also have a considerable effect on it. Driverless, electronic vehicles could change delivery and potentially create a more efficient, cost-effective way for customers to receive their goods. Last year, Amazon acquired Kiva Solutions to automate part of its packaging process, according to The Wall Street Journal. With the assistance of an employee, Amazon's robots can perform up to four times as much packaging per hour as a human might. 

Features like in-store delivery will also drive more customers to shop online, while augmented reality may encourage consumers to purchase items they typically want to see in person, such as apparel. The ability for consumers to see how they look in an outfit or how a piece of furniture will fit in their home adds to the chance that they will purchase from an online retailer. 

Rather than ecommerce stabilizing, Retail Customer Experience suggested that it will only continue to rise. Millennials are already well acquainted with ecommerce and it is more of an expectation than an innovation to them. A more tech-savvy consumer base will increasingly use their devices for everyday tasks like shopping. The more ways there are for them to purchase items online, the more likely they will be to do so. 

At the point of sale in a brick-and-mortar retail location, staff members can review a number of data points to avoid online fraud. They can check a card's signature against the one placed on a receipt, verify that the name on the card matches the individual holding it or otherwise reduce the chance of an illegitimate sale. They can also note the quality of goods before a customer leaves the store. 

With ecommerce, though, merchants can experience an increased risk of fraud. Unauthorized cardholders may purchase items, resulting in lost profit when the actual account holder reports the theft. In the United States alone, $54 billion is lost every year to this crime both on the Internet and off, and according to a recent study from Kount Volumatic, credit cards are responsible for 83 percent of all online fraud. 

Potential preventative tools
There have been some advances made to reduce the chance of online fraud, though. Internet Retailer recently reported on the launch of Signifyd's fraud prevention software, which uses social media to help verify someone's identity. A 1,000 point scale gauges the risk involved in each transaction, and gives retailers the ability to deny suspicious looking sales.

The source explained the technology, noting that if an online purchase was made from a San Francisco IP address on a card with a French billing address, Signifyd will then analyze social media data. It would check for geolocation tagged Twitter or Facebook posts to verify that the card holder was in San Francisco, and if the risk scale were too low, the transaction could automatically be denied. 

"We know that people leave a lot of footprints behind," Raj Ramanand, co-founder and CEO of Signifyd, told Internet Retailer. "We're using those footprints to try to stop the people looking to commit fraud."

Despite this technology, though, not all retail industry professionals are adequately safeguarding against fraud. Kount Volumatic noted that many merchants fail to implement prevention strategies for mobile sales, regardless of the fact that 34 percent of them offer m-commerce shopping options. As more stores move to include smartphone- and tablet-capable POS systems, and as more customers shop on their personal devices, additional security measures may be necessary to save millions of dollars and reduce the chance of shrinkage. 

Shopping habits vary based on a number of factors, and gender may be a key differentiator for mobile commerce. A recent study from SeeWhy discovered that 22.2 percent of men have completed a purchase on their smartphone, in comparison to 18.2 percent of women. A similar difference was found with tablets, with more men (20.4 percent) buying items on the device than women (16.9 percent). 

However, SeeWhy revealed that generation also factors strongly into how different genders shop on these devices. Among 18 to 24 year olds, men and women shop on smartphones roughly the similar amount of time, while five percent more women (19.8 percent) are likely to buy products through their tablets than men (14 percent). 

The study also revealed that during tablet-based transactions, the indecision of female shoppers led to about twice as many incomplete transactions as men. 

As m-commerce becomes a more critical component of the retail industry, merchants should consider what devices their customers will be shopping on and the audience they are trying to reach. Rather than considering mobile optimization as a single channel, industry professionals may better target potential customers by separating mobile commerce into smartphone- and tablet-based sales avenues.