The Future of Ecommerce: Top Trends to Watch Out for in 2021
Articles on eCommerce trends for 2021 are popping up all over the internet. However, as an entrepreneur, you probably don’t have enough time to read them all and keep up to date. That’s why we’ve put together this recap of the 8 eCommerce trends and popular products for sale in 2021.
Without a shred of doubt, the Pandemic changed almost all activities for the entire planet. A number of these changes are here to continue for years forward. Businesses were good, and some of it obviously was not. I think some of the biggest changes for e-commerce this past year deals with consumer buying habits.
With that in mind, I want to review 8 eCommerce trends for 2021, not listed in a specific order, as we believe these wide-ranging trends are taking place with eCommerce stores.
Now, let’s start with our eCommerce trends for 2021…
Top eCommerce Trends for 2021
1. Green eCommerce
This trend is connected to different aspects. People are becoming more informed about how goods are obtained and manufactured as well as their outcomes on our planet.
Although there are automotive industries with cheap mass production around the globe. Surely, there is a leap in searching for environment-friendly projects. So, what could sustainability mean for your business?
The answer is simply: this boils down to three points:
- the product,
- the packaging,
- and the objective.
1. Product: It means that the product itself should be based on sustainable material and components.
💡 The Kind Market in Egypt and Bambaw are good examples of echo-wise products.
2. Package: Here, the aim would be on wrapping your goods by using the eco-friendly packing material. Also, you can make an option to send the buyer a receipt and packing slip via email, instead of handling printed paper documents.
3. Objective: You can achieve this by making your eCommerce, in general, a more sustainable-based business. Merchants can pledge to pay their co-workers a livelihood wage, carry part of their daily sale into a contribution to a charity, or modify their operations towards a noble purpose.
💡 A good example of this is Google, as the organization announced, in Sept 2020, that its carbon emissions reached zero throughout all of its services.
As you may have noticed, there are numerous procedures by which you will integrate your business with sustainability.
2. User Experience
According to our experience, success is strongly associated with the customer experience. It is unsurprisingly that 87% of our clients believe that customer reviews have become more significant since the outbreak.
One of the major negatives facing dropshipping businesses is the prolonged shipping times. Sometimes, buyers have to wait 2-6 weeks to receive their merchandise.
Shorter response and shipping time are growing to be the basic standard for online shoppers, and indeed affecting the general consumer experience.
If you have a product that takes a longer delivery time, then confirm that the shipping time is clarified on the product page.
In addition, make sure to install an automated email system to keep the buyer updated along the delivery process.
⚠️ Always remember: Your buyer experience is the leading factor to turn them into a recurrent customer, and make them recommend your products with their folks; make them feel unforgotten and exceptional.
💡 Examples to do this:
- Regular emails regarding their purchase order.
- Superior packaging.
- A personally written “Thank You” note inside.
This gesture would make them feel as if they received a gift by mail.
3. Personalization
Personalized marketing (or one-to-one marketing) is a strategy that uses marketing to identify different types of customers, and the way to interact with each of them, along with offering them products according to their personal interest (thanks to the Big-data science) based on their purchase history and the items that caught their attention.
In fact, customers are anticipating and purposely searching for it today.
Usually, we love ourselves and like to be addressed with our names, or choose our favorite colors…etc.
Accordingly, it is logical to add in personalization at your online store, because this would offer the purchaser more attachment to the product, at the same time, you may normally set higher prices, which can increase your profit margin.
💡 For example, health supplements and skincare products that have your name featured on them, personalized T-shirts with your face printed on them. Moreover, large organizations, such as Nike, are adopting this trend, by allowing the buyer to literally modify their new shoes.
Product personalization is an excellent choice whether for presents giving, or buying for ourselves. Therefore, this trend will certainly stay for an appreciable time. Besides, you may easily introduce print-on-demand products, to create customizable products at your eCommerce store.
4. Voice Search and Shopping
By 2022, sales made through Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Nest, and other voice-based personal assistance are estimated to amount to $40 billion in the U.S. alone; according to Statist. That means you have to prepare your store for improved voice search and accessibility features.
How can I do this?
Firstly, you have to understand how the customers will apply this function. Normally, we type two to three keywords when searching for something on Google. Something very concise like Chinese food in Cairo.
However, we habitually are more spontaneous if we use a voice assistant, and ask more questions like what are the best Chinese restaurants in the vicinity. Consequently, you should organize your content to be in a similar longer format to address definite questions from your customers.
An excellent place to install this reply is the FAQs page, where you can add a question similar to what your customers are expected to ask, and then write the typical answer.
You may also create articles about the repeatedly asked questions, this would enhance your site ranking, and your probability to appear in voice search listings too.
We recommend conducting a little research on the most searched requests pertinent to your product, also to review the frequent questions that your prospective clients are asking by email or on social platforms, then to start writing posts to respond to these questions specifically.
5. Payment Methods
You should offer your clients diverse payment methods for their orders. Some of my preferred services for Buy Now, Pay Later are Klarna, Affirm, and Sezzle. As you will have the ability to split the purchase order into smaller monthly or weekly payments, by installing Sezzle (or a similar app) to your online store.
The good news is that you will receive your full charge, and the consumer will continue to pay the interest-free installments over 6 weeks, or months as with Klarna since the platform will systematically deduct the payment from their bank account.
Additionally, some platforms, such as Klarna, have mobile apps to enable the customer to administer their payments with flexibility.
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6. High-quality Visuals
Doubtlessly, if you display low-quality pictures for your commodities, then mostly the prospective customers will not trust you, because they will not perceive you as being dependable.
Likewise, because design matters; you really need to provide your online store and social network profiles with the best-looking images to set the mind of your audience that you are not a fraud.
To do that, you may pick samples of the products and photograph them at home by yourself. Photos can be taken either as Flatlays on an artificial background or by displaying them in a pattern.
You can go to Placeit to put your designs on their library of Mockups, you may also opt to Canva.com (a free online design platform) to add in visual effects (VFX) and text layers over your photos, to make them ready for social media.
Another option is to purchase a rotatable platform and lightbox which enable you to take 360-degree photography for your merchandise, which is a great function to install at your online business to build up customer confidence.
7. Easier Order Returns
Another key eCommerce trend for 2021 is to offer a smooth Return and Refund Policy for your shoppers. Inevitably, the more visitors start ordering online, the more returns there will be. Particularly, with personal items like apparel products; this situation could entail considerable costs/losses, and exhaustion to your customer support team.
You should thus do your best to minimize this effect. Still, you have to provide a good buying experience for your clients.
Opinions to reduce the online shopping returns
Customer percentage in the USA and UK who expressed their opinions to help reduce the online returns they make. According to GlobalWebindex 2019.
| A detailed/accurate description of sizing e.g. dimensions | 48% |
| Images showing the product from different sides | 42% |
| A detailed/accurate description of the product e.g. defining the incorporated material | 42% |
| Videos of the product so that I can examine it visibly | 37% |
| An app or technology to help me find the exact size before I create an order. e.g. a sizing tool app. | 35% |
| If I could try the product before committing to a purchase e.g. trying different colors/sizing options | 34% |
| more merchants should include customer feedback | 32% |
| A video presentation revealing how to use the product | 27% |
💡 You may like to read:
Now to the last, but not least, of our main eCommerce trends for 2021
8. Mobile Marketing
Everyone realizes that more users are browsing the Internet on their mobile devices. And yet, most of the online purchases were launched from PCs, because the online merchants haven’t adequately optimized their store(s) for mobile devices, this makes navigation uneasy, or simply it is not displayed well on mobile.
Owing to the pandemic, most people are working from home, therefore the internet traffic witnessed an abnormal surge in time users spend on their mobile devices.
By the Q3 of 2021, almost 73% of all eCommerce purchase orders will be mobile generated. However, 30% of online buyers will probably abandon their shopping carts before the order is fulfilled, when they realize that your store is not mobile-ready.
To avoid that, make certain that your store is ready for mobile devices, even though you have used an expensive template to build your store. To do this, check that you can browse through your website on your own mobile device, to find out any glitches that must be repaired.
Furthermore, I would suggest going through the ordering process via your phone and measuring the time taken to create an order. Speed is vital here, as user’s concentration is shorter on mobile devices.
Also, you may apply the free mobile-ready tool from Google; just type your URL to give you the corrections needed for your store to be better optimized for mobile devices.
💡 You may like to read: Mobile Commerce Guide to the Future of eCommerce
Other Major eCommerce Trends for 2021
There are several other eCommerce trends for 2021 and beyond, such as:
- omnichannel retailing to enhance shopping consistency,
- artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will enhance the user experience,
- digital wallets and cryptocurrencies that will emerge as new payment methods.
I didn’t mean to overlook these major eCommerce trends, but actually, we shall address these in another article here at ExpanCart blog.
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In Conclusion to Top eCommerce Trends for 2021
In the world of eCommerce, a lot of new eCommerce trends for 2021 are taking place. Technology and users are always changing, and because e-commerce connects them all, we shall always be looking forward to the future.
There is one thing that always applies at all times: it’s never too late to delve into new trends, learn new ideas, and see if it is a good fit for your business. customers are in control for the time being, and e-commerce companies will tailor the process in advance for them.
