With so many changes to the world, it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve. As eCommerce became some of the only ways to purchase it’s imperative that marketers know the eCommerce trends for 2021
2020 was an unusual year, to say the least. We can use multiple monikers to describe 2020; it was a year of the pandemic, the year of financial loss, and the year of lockdowns. It is also true that 2020 was the year of digitization.
The pandemic and resulting social distancing rules forced businesses worldwide to go digital. Some businesses got completely digitized, while others are still in the phase of transformation. Every day, new retailers are entering the eCommerce arena. Similarly, entrepreneurs are considering eCommerce ventures as their new targets.
Experts are predicting an overall e-retail revenue for 2022 will be $6.54 trillion, which shows massive growth in the eCommerce industry. Therefore, online store owners need to stay well-aware of the upcoming eCommerce trends. During these uncertain times, you can’t afford to procrastinate and put off keeping informed with changes to industries like eCommerce. Likewise, if you’re looking to start a career in marketing like many of the apprentices on Acadium, these trends affect the marketing not just of eCommerce businesses.
Let us discuss the four key eCommerce trends for 2021:
Voice Commerce on the Rise
From buying online products and doing research to waking up in the morning and chatting with friends, people are using voice assistants everywhere. Alexa and Google Assistant have now become mandatory tools for all of us. Recent research regarding the use of voice assistants reveals that by 2025, almost 75% of households in the U.S will be using smart speakers.
The rapidly growing demand for voice assistants reveals that voice commerce sales will experience a hike in 2022 with total revenue of $40 billion. Amazon and Google are also introducing regional languages for added convenience and accuracy in online shopping because of the convenience that voice searches offer.
The increasing popularity of voice search makes it mandatory for online store owners to optimize their sites for voice search in 2021.
Following are a few ways to optimize your online store for voice searches:
- Content optimization for increasing the probability to show up in voice searches. Be sure that the content for voice searches is different from typed searches. In voice searches, people usually use detailed queries, so stick to your long-tail keywords. For instance, instead of just saying carpet cleaning in Australia, prospects are likely to say which is the best cleaning service for carpets in Australia?
- Easy navigation for voice searches on the app and website.
- Simple product purchasing process via voice commands.
The Dominance of Mobile Commerce
Since more and more customers are coming towards online shopping, consumer trust in online shopping is gradually increasing. Once they are comfortable with online purchasing, they will prefer using mobile devices for quick shopping. Therefore, websites that are not mobile-friendly are likely to get low conversions.
Due to the new remote working trend, every employee is working from home. This trend is expected to continue until the pandemic lasts. Some firms will continue adopting the work-from-home style even after the pandemic. It, therefore, proves a huge increase in the use of mobile devices in the future.
Experts believe that eCommerce sales via mobile will be 73% by the end of 2021, which makes it vital for every online seller to optimize the sites as per mobile devices. Effective ways to optimize your brand for mobile includes:
- See where your site is position through the Google Mobile-Friendly Test. You just need to enter the URL, and the result will come regarding responsiveness; loading issues will also be highlighted.
- Use Progressive Web App. Besides fast browsing, it will show up the previously visited pages without a working internet connection.
- Manually check your mobile site for responsiveness and ease of use.
Visual Commerce Will Increase
The use of imagery always provides an attractive appeal to visitors. Images, which were used only on the product pages, are now used on an entire store. Many big brands are now using y images on their websites for high conversions.
These images grab the visitor’s attention and let them research more about the product. Some brands also use a shortcut along with images to purchase the product directly. It is expected that this trend of focusing on visuals will keep growing in the coming year.
Though written content has its importance, people see it before they read it. Besides this, prospects want to see the product before making a final purchase. Short videos showing the product features, product reviews, and backstage scenes are also commonly used by several brands.
For boosting visual commerce, you can take the following steps:
- Be sure that the loading speed of your images is great. For this, you can change images to WebP format or JPEG 2000 from JPG.
- Show a clear picture of your products from all angles. Going for a 360-degree video or image is a great idea.
- Use a visual search tool. It will help visitors in searching for products through images.
Omnichannel Shopping will Rise
The term “Omnichannel shopping” refers to providing an excellent and unified shopping experience across various channels. Today, many consumers are using more than one channel for online shopping. This trend will increase in the coming years. It is evident with the increasing use of voice assistants and mobile devices.
You can use tools like Finteza for getting a comprehensive eCommerce analysis. The tool helps you in knowing the high demand for products, profits, consumer behaviour, and much more. You can even create reports for evaluating detailed consumer behaviour.
For offering a commendable Omnichannel experience in the future, you can take the following steps:
- Make your site mobile-friendly, create an app, and invest in PWA.
- Take every possible step for providing a personalized experience.
- Give multiple options in the purchasing process. Some common options include buy from the store and get home delivery, order online, and get home delivery, buy online, and pick up from the store.
- Showcase your product on Top4 and take the advantages of the product features
Wrapping it up – Ecommerce Trends for 2021
In short, the eCommerce world has experienced some great changes this year. With the increased traffic of consumers, retailers, and middlemen, the eCommerce industry is experiencing many new trends.
Some new trends, like voice commerce, visual commerce, mobile commerce, and Omnichannel shopping, are likely to grow this New Year. Besides this, other trends like the use of AI and more payment channel options should not be ignored.
Ecommerce businesses planning to enter the market in 2021 must fully understand these ongoing local eCommerce trends for competing well with the rivals. Do you have any eCommerce site? Which local trends of eCommerce do you follow, and what is the impact? Share some tips with us!
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Source: acadium.com