The Future Is Here. Say Hi To 2021 With These 4 New Ecommerce Trends
Businesses across the world felt the pinch of the global pandemic this year. While many shut down their businesses, a few chose to temporarily close their operations. In a midst of these unfortunate turn of events, many businesses managed to thrive by exploring new opportunities in the digital space. This also resulted in drastic changes in customers’ shopping behaviors and thus paving the way for a whole new unconventional business ecosystem.
Shopping online on eCommerce stores has become habitual and the word ‘eCommerce’ isn’t business jargon anymore. The entire eCommerce industry saw a massive increase this year in terms of the overall e-retail revenue, the number of stores, sellers, buyers, etc.
While 2020 was a rollercoaster ride for many eCommerce store owners, we are excited to welcome 2021 with this article that gives you a heads up on the future eCommerce trends. Staying in the know not only helps you prep your store but also lets you be ahead of your peers and outperform the competition.
Here is a glimpse of what 2021 has in store for eCommerce:
We have handpicked 4 important trends (in no particular order) that we believe will play a cord-cutting role in changing the way eCommerce businesses are run.
1) Personalization changes the game
Social commerce has become a thing of the past and generic conversations have become a huge turn-off to the customers. If technology can make anything and everything possible, the first and foremost thing that you need to do is to create more personal, real-like, and human-powered experiences in your eCommerce store.
Create a thoroughly personalized experience throughout the entire user journey. A chatbot is an effective tool to build personal and engaging conversations. Use chatbots on your store that are preprogrammed with intelligent logics and spot-on choices. Ensure that your chatbot has answers to the most frequently asked questions. You also need to redirect users with links to appropriate help and support pages as and when required. Also, the customer service team should be allowed to pick up the chat when human-intervention becomes absolutely necessary.
2) Subscription becomes the new norm
One-time buyers and single-time orders are huge obstacles to scaling your business rapidly especially in the B2C selling space. 2021 will have the lion’s share of eCommerce stores adapt to the subscription model that goes a long way in helping both customers and businesses get benefitted. Monthly payment options for larger purchases help customers and entice them more to subscribe to you.
Advantages of subscription eCommerce:
It helps retailers to have order forecasts and predict fulfillment needs accordingly.
It is a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers. Sellers have more frequent orders whereas buyers get additional discounts.
The lifetime customer value and the retention rate increases positively since the timed subscriptions help to keep customers coming back.
Regular customers who have largely benefitted from your subscriptions become your unpaid brand advocates who do all the talking for you.
PWA makes instantaneous app-like experience possible
Many eCommerce stores have dedicated mobile apps to facilitate uncompromised user experiences on mobile devices. When users are asked to install mobile apps for their purchases, it interrupts their journey and makes them bounce off. Progressive web apps often abbreviated as PWA come as a savior.
PWA is nothing but a website that provides the users with the exact app-like experience without having them to download the apps. This facilitates eCommerce stores to enhance their shopping experiences without investing huge chunks of time and money on developing expensive native mobile apps.
What comes along with PWAs
Apart from providing the best user experience, here are the side benefits of PWAs that together elevate the overall customer experience:
Speedy page loads
Easy push notifications
Focused user journeys
Hassle-free automated updates
Enhanced shopping experience
Uninterrupted offline access
Integration cuts all the hassles
Online selling involves several components. Multiple dependencies on different external platforms and legacy tools are not only laborious but also time-consuming. Various eCommerce businesses across the world have started exploring tools that make integrations seamless and more productive.
Integration with ERP systems: Using an effective ERP system helps you manage all your business processes in the comfort of a single and centralized platform. Choose an ERP solution, either on-premises or cloud, that has a full suite of business management applications and makes collaboration a cakewalk.
Integration of social media: The role of social media is integral in influencing a customer’s purchase decisions. Efficient and seamless integration with social media channels is an extremely important factor for businesses to attain optimal exposure.
While these are just a few of the major predictions, other trends like voice commerce, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, big data, etc. will also play an important role in the upcoming years. Follow this space for more resourceful information on eCommerce trends, development, and marketing strategies.
With over a decade of expertise in the eCommerce space, TheCommerceShop houses a team of expert strategists and growth hackers who have rich hands-on experiences in helping a broad spectrum of domestic and international clients grow their eCommerce sales. If you are looking for a free consultation with our eCommerce experts, feel free to get in touch with us.
