The year 2020 was a black year for businesses around the world but, for eCommerce; it turned out to be a year of fame as online shopping was the only ray of hope due to COVID-19. So, will the trend continue in 2021? What to expect? Let’s peek-a-boo.
The speed with which the online retail space became a household name is unbelievable. It has come pretty far in the last decade or two and is skyrocketing ever since, breaking records of the customer shopping compared to offline shopping as it is more convenient and easier. Today, with the invasion of the deadly virus, the eCommerce became, even more, demanding and the experts believe that it is undoubtedly going to cross$4.13 trillion by the time we bid goodbye to 2020 and may reach a whopping $5879.1 billion by 2022, according to the global eCommerce market.
As the demand for online shopping increased due to coronavirus, many trends started surfacing that are so helpful and are believed to be evolving more in 2021. Therefore, to serve them, online retailers must keep up with the trends as it is such trends that will help them gain more traffic and conversions. So, it’s time to check out the hottest eCommerce trends that one can expect in 2021.
The fear of COVID-19 has changed consumer behaviour, and people are preferring to shop online more than offline stores but, the only drawback is that they cannot get a real-life experience as shopping offline. Well, since technology has advanced so much, the solution to that is already here – Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, the use of which is going to expand further due to the pandemic.
VR and AR are overcoming the biggest challenge of customers i.e., now they can touch or try out the product virtually before making the purchase. With a well-developed app, you can allow your customers to experience the product almost as if the customer was right there in a store. Thus, AR and VR can not only improve customer experience, but it will also enhance a brand’s image, boosts its sales, improve brand popularity, and increase product value.
The trend of hands-free shopping is increasing day by day. With Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, and Cortana in our lives; shopping with voice search is becoming popular which is why as per the survey of PwC, it was found that50% online users prefer using voice assistants to buy products and another 25% of users are likely to use voice assistants in the future. Therefore, it is now becoming mandatory to make your online store voice search-friendly with more and more households using smart speakers to shop or search product.
Mobile shopping is going to explode further as they are going to account for approximately$2.91 trillion in sales in 2021. As COVID-19 fueled mobile commerce, we can see more of it in the coming year due to the convenience and easier accessibility that people are getting in it more than any other mode of shopping. So, if you aregoing to createonline grocery store or any other; don’t forget to make it a responsive site or better create a progressive web app to serve better and all anywhere, anytime.
On the other hand, with 3.5 billion social media users in the world, nothing can beat the traffic volume one can get from social media. So, step up your social media game to make to most out of it.
Also Read:5 Best App Development Ideas to Consider Amidst COVID-19
Personalization is what customers love today in everything be it the content or shopping experience as it makes them feel more valued and connected. With personalization, online sales revenue can be boosted by 10% as customers often shop more than planned when they find some product or content that connects them personally in some way. Even communication like personalized content, emails, messages, push notifications, create more impact than the general style of connecting with customers.
Artificial Intelligence is no more a fantasy but reality today. We are already using AI in our daily life like voice search, smart replies in emails, social media etc. and in the coming year; we can definitely see more of it especially, in eCommerce. AI can assist both; shoppers, by helping them make smart purchase decision and sellers by assisting them in learning about shoppers as well as in various branches like analytics, inventory management, automation, etc.
Customers are becoming conscious about the environment, and hence; green consumerism is rising. With one after another disaster happening in this unfortunate year, people are embracing sustainability in as many ways as possible. Some of the environmentally-friendly initiatives are biodegradable packaging, sourcing products from fair-trade organizations, going paperless, using recyclable supplies, etc. which today’s consumers are taking interest in than the current ones.
Greeting customers and addressing their queries never was so easy until chatbots appeared. The conversational agents with AI capabilities – chatbots; are making headlines already and will continue to rise to fame in 2021 as well. The personal attention and thoughtful recommendations by chatbots are loved and enjoyed by customers which are also helping sellers a lot in reducing cost and saving their time and resources, improving brand image and sales, and in enhancing customer experience.
Frontend, backend, running a marketplace or eCommerce is not as easy as it sounds. However, now it’s possible to decouple frontend from the backend that is the latest eCommerce technology trend called headless eCommerce incorporating which will make your system more agile and you need not wait a lot to update interfaces or roll out changes.
Wrapping up
Like coronavirus, eCommerce is showing no signs of slow down, and looking at the turbulent times we are going through at present; online shopping will soon become the new normal for which it is important to keep up with the trends.
Although trends come and go, including the above-mentioned ones in your ongoing practices and strategies won’t cause you any loss. So, if you are looking for more sales, higher traffic, improved customer satisfaction, more sophisticated infrastructure systems, and so on, staying in trend is the only way out.
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