As 2017 comes to a close, it's only fitting to devote our last episode of the year to 2018 ecommerce predictions. Dave and I listed what we think will happen in the ecommerce world next year, from sales tax to Bitcoin. It's always fun to make these predictions and then revisit them by the end of 2018 to see how many of them actually happened.

It would've been great to have Dave on the episode as well, but he is still in China as of recording this, so I will just cover his predictions here. This will also be our last full-length episode for the year and we will resume with new episodes twice a week next year. I also recorded a short special for Christmas Day next week, stay tuned for that!

Here are our predictions for ecommerce next year:

• Amazon will start collecting sales tax for sellers in multiple states (it will begin collecting sales tax for merchants in Washington State early next year)
• Shopify will continue to dominate hosted ecommerce platforms but its stock will dive when investors realize there's a finite number of ecommerce store owners to grow their customer base with
• Facebook will start to monetize messaging near the end of 2018
• Amazon will continue to get bad press for counterfeits and knockoffs, do a major crackdown which will benefit brand owners but probably hurt sellers selling third party merchandise
• China will continue the crackdown on factories heavily contributing to pollution
• Facebook ads will continue to get more expensive - way more expensive
• Amazon will increase fees substantially (Amazon has just announced fee increases beginning February, probably with more increases to come)
• Amazon will actually do something about the review debacle
• More sites accepting Bitcoin in ecommerce--especially international
• Amazon will continue to grab market share
• Amazon will start or acquire a transportation network

Many of these predictions bring terror to us sellers--especially Amazon FBA fee increases and sales tax--but ecommerce in general is expected to grow over the next few years and we are hoping to ride along on that growth.

Resources mentioned:

Stamped.io AsiaInspection Amazon FBA's Largest Ever Fee Increase Coming in 2018 - How Will it Affect You? 2-Hour EcomCrew Q&A Webinar

Registration for our first-ever webinar is still open. You can ask us anything under the sun about ecommerce for 2 hours for FREE. Go here for more details.

Thanks as always for listening. Until next year, happy selling!