5 Top Trends-Future of e-commerce 2021

E-commerce has earnestly strengthened its position in 2021. Because businesses began to transfer their work online massively and the main reason is known to all. But even after the pandemic restrictions are over, online trading will not return to its previous positions. People have learned the benefits of delivery, online shopping, and outlying life. Their purchasing behavior has changed for good.

In this article, I'll share how COVID-19 has changed customer priorities and consider improving for their better engagement with your brand. Demand continues to evolve. According to BCG Consumer Sentiment research, eСommerce sales will reach a staggering $ 5 trillion in 2021. Brands are in urgent need of adaptation.

The winner in business would be a person who can competently analyze the situation, adapt to it in time, keep up with deadlines and be in trend.

The future of e-commerce are:

  1. AI and AR.
  2. Shoppable video ads.
  3. Voice Assistants.
  4. Omnichannel retail.
  5. Efficient logistics.

So let's take a closer look at these e-commerce trends and highlight what you should pay attention to in 2021.

Artificial intelligence and Artificial reality

Artificial intelligence will improve the e-commerce experience. As expected, more and more organizations have already implemented an artificial intelligence strategy or plan to use the technology in the future and make changes to many of their functions.

Many companies already depend on algorithms to accomplish their tasks and determine market patterns based on clients' browsers' history.

According to BUSINESSWEAR, by 2022, online merchants will spend $ 7.3 billion on AI. By 2022, more than 120,000 stores will use augmented reality technologies to offer shoppers a rich shopping experience.

For example, you can create a 3D model of brand products that in great request and place a QR code in the product card for their detailed study with AR technologies help.

You can expand the capabilities of AR technologies by introducing artificial intelligence. For example, chatbots act as an online consultant and offer individual recommendations to customers based on their online behavior, past purchase history, and user experience. Also, they can notify about the status of the order and accept customer reviews.

With the help of AR, your customers will understand the size and scale of goods better, "try them on." Customers can see what they will look like when wearing a specific item. Or how their home will look when painted in a particular color. It is all before clicking the "Buy Now" button.

Shoppable video ads on social media

Videos are the perfect channel to reach a curious young target audience. Do you know the secret to the video popularity? All ingenious is simple; it evokes emotions. Video advertising allows you to show the uniqueness of the product, create positive, warm associations, and arouse interest in the brand.

Emotional connection with the client is the company's advantage over its competitors. It's how the business becomes famous. The remembered product stands out against its analogs thanks to the plot, the viewer's attraction to it, and positive emotions. Buzzers spend hours scrolling through TikTok and Instagram feeds. So that merchants are in seventh heaven. In addition to this, Generation Z can make purchasing decisions from their social media feed.

Voice assistants

Voice Assistant is an artificial intelligence that recognizes human speech. By introducing an assistant into their products, brands make the service more convenient. People increasingly rely on voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana. Loop Ventures predicts that 75% of U.S. households will own smart speakers by 2025. The functionality of these assistants is growing significantly. So that people don't need to take unnecessary actions. Voice Assistants do pretty much everything from checking the weather to shopping online.

You can follow some steps to adapt your website for voice search:

  • Above all, develop voice navigation for your website and mobile app.
  • Then, optimize your content with a focus on improving the chances of appearing in voice search results. Use LSI and Long Tail Keyphrases from search suggestions.
  • After that, make sure that clients can buy your products easily purchased with a voice command.

Omnichannel retail

Omnichannel retail customer engagement loops continue to evolve, embracing new customer involvement and order fulfillment models. More recently, the term "multichannel" was on the crest of the wave, implying the use of several channels of interaction with the target audience. But the concept of omnichannel is a bit deeper concept. It's not a simple application of all available communication methods. Because all sales channels interact with each other in real-time, providing customers with access to goods, services, and information about them anywhere, anytime.

Besides, omnichannel allows stores and brands to bridge the gap between online and offline. That is important for other approaches and building sales channels because they complement each other and give the buyer full control over choosing a product and buying it.

Efficient logistics (Delivery in 1 day)

No matter how multifunctional and modern an online store is. It won't last long without a developed and fast delivery service. Therefore, an essential task of an online store is intelligent logistics. It improves customer service and ensures their loyalty. Delivery should be fast just because no one likes to wait for a package for too long. For example, even one day of delay will be critical for a person who wants to give someone a gift.

Think about how you can optimize logistics, how you can save and minimize delivery time.

Final thoughts

While not everything that works for one business would necessarily work for you, consider why a particular trend is relevant. Does this increase customer demand? Does this lead to conversions? Is the number of regular customers increasing, and is there a new audience coming?

It is vital to apply all relevant innovations as accurately and efficiently as possible and adapt them to your audience's needs. With this in mind, e-commerce businesses that want to dominate the market should prepare themselves to embrace the latest trends. Thus the winner will be the one who knows how to reasonably allocate resources and bet on choosing the right digital transformation strategy for their business processes.

Here you can see how e-commerce trends change over time: