Quite expectedly, the growing niche of e-commerce got only larger due to the 2020 lockdown. The total revenues of e-retailers worldwide were $3.53 trillion, and the prediction for the end of 2021 is $6.54 trillion, as Statista reports. However, every year brings new trends and challenges for retailers to face. It’s high time to think about them as 2021 is coming, or have even already come by the time you find this article by cs-cart.com experts. It doesn’t matter if you are running an online software store, a grocery delivery, or are only planning to start – you should get ready!
Trend 1 – Voice Commerce
According to Edison Research, 22% of Americans have bought at least 1 item via their smart home speakers. Users also reveal the wish to receive information about discounts, deals, and promotions from their voice assistants. Moffett Natanson’s research predicts the growth of voice commerce up to 50% by 2022, so it’s a good solution at least to start testing such technology into your online marketplace. One of the most effective ways to catch leads is to adjust your SEO so that Google and other search machines could lead people to your store through blog posts and other informative pages.
Trend 2 – Omnichannel Shopping
In 2016, Harvard Business Review research showed that 73% of respondents use different channels for shopping. It means that the aim of every online business is to provide a consistent experience to all visitors, independently of the device they are using to shop. Use analytics tools to figure out which channels are most preferred by your customers and invest more into them.
Trend 3 – AI & AR Integration
As Juniper Research reports, online marketplaces will invest around $7 billion in AI development. Besides, over 120,000 retailers are expected to integrate AR by the end of 2021. AI is needed to provide personalized recommendations and guidance to customers based on their past experience and browsing behavior. At the same time, augmented reality makes it possible to let customers try on the outfits and see other items on or around them. Even vehicle brands let you use AR to see how your future car looks like in reality.
Trend 4 – New Payments Options
In many cases, particular payment options are the main reason for a customer to choose a brand. Customers can adopt a new payment method only if you sell something extremely useful and unique. Otherwise, you need to offer all the most popular options. In 2021, offering digital wallets as payment options is an obligatory minimum. But the new trend is to start accepting cryptocurrencies. Not only will customers benefit, but you will have lower or no commissions for transactions!
Trend 5 – Dynamic Pricing Adoption
Proper pricing politics are highly important for sales generation. Even the greatest product may fail to sell if the prices are irrational. In 2020, dynamic pricing software solutions have proved their efficiency by boosting sales. AI algorithms can determine the best price tag by analyzing your competitors and real prices for your goods. This will help you keep the prices high enough to keep generating income and increase the number of sales at the same time.
Trend 6 – Mobile Commerce Domination
Statista analytics expects the sector of mobile commerce to make 73% of sales in 2021. Further investigation by SEO Sandwitch figured out that 30% of clients stop exploring the store if it doesn’t have a friendly mobile website or app. It’s necessary to create a mobile version of your marketplace using PWA (progressive web app) and AMP (accelerated mobile pages). Both technologies will make the store work faster than an average website and can provide a more stable experience.
Trend 7 – Green Consumerism
Harvard Business Review says that 65% of online buyers trust green brands more than average manufacturers, which means that “going green” will lead more customers to your brand. For instance, Amazon has already promised to reduce the carbon emissions of the entire company to 0 by 2040.
Trend 8 – Attractive Visualization
The requirements for the visualization of products in 2021 will be much higher. You need to reduce the loading speed of images and videos by converting everything into JPEG2000 and WebP, provide 360° visualizations, integrate a visual search engine to make the search more versatile, use Pinterest for visual ads and make use of user-generated content to gain more interest in your products.
Adopt These Trends
The e-commerce competition in 2021 will get tougher than before as the industry growth rates are whopping. However, you can start adopting new trends better than other players in your niche and excel. Some of the tricks will cost a lot to implement, but the experience of the previous years shows that quick trends adoption is what defines the leaders.
