Top 5 trends in e-commerce for 2021

The year 2020 has certainly entered history when we talk about e-commerce businesses and their multiplication. Every day, more retailers are making the move to online selling, while entrepreneurs are getting their start through e-commerce ventures.

But, when we talk about technology automatically we assume that we talk about a continuous process of changes and upgrades. For the e-commerce field, these patterns apply too and in these times more than ever!

What to expect in 2021 in terms of trends and changes? Let's take a look at the Top 5 e-commerce trends in 2021.

1. Mobile e-commerce is the king

Shopping online became the new normality, people's behavior of buying almost everything online has increased significantly during the last year. What does that mean? If your website is not mobile-friendly, there is a huge chance that online shoppers will abandon their carts in the middle of shopping. The number never lies, and statistics also prove that in 2021, mobile as a share of total e-commerce will be 72.9%.

How can you prepare your website for a great quality user-experience? Here are some tips:

A. Test your website manually and check if it is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

B. Implement accelerated mobile pages (AMP) for shoppers who visit your site using smartphones.

C. Create a progressive web app (PWA) for your online store. PWA's load faster than a website and allow customers to view pages that they have previously browsed without the internet.

D. Improve the check-out process and ensure a fast and efficient method for this step.

2. Variety of Payment options

Customer decision of buying from a certain shop is influenced by the payment options offered by the e-commerce store. Up to this moment, a lot of online shops have implemented already different online payment methods and digital wallets, such as Google Pay, Samsung or Apple Pay, and PayPal and, of course, debit and credit cards.

What will be new in 2021 is the implementation of a new payment method: Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have many benefits for online shop owners, such as low transaction fees and no reverse transactions.

3. E-commerce has a voice

Voice assistant devices such as Google Home and Alexa have increased significantly in popularity trends, people starting to use them even for buying products online. Both Google and Amazon are pushing regional languages in their virtual assistant devices to help consumers shop more conveniently.

That's why it is a must to optimize your e-commerce store for voice search. Here are some tips for doing so:

1. Make your content easily readable and scannable

2. Claim your Google 'My Business' listing

3. Read the Official User Guides

4. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords

5. Create Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Pages

4. AI – More powerful and relevant

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been shaping eCommerce for some time. This trend will continue in 2021, with AI's impact being felt more dramatically.

As machine learning and chatbots become mainstream, more companies can leverage AI and generate real business impact. Today, most businesses use artificial intelligence for suggestion systems and optimization tasks, but as the technology has evolved and acceptance has grown, the number of use cases has doubled every year.

For online stores, innovations in artificial intelligence offer unique applications and capabilities that can be leveraged. One relevant example is the new augmented reality features – it helps people to see and make an overview about a certain product, seeing it 3D. In this way is eliminated the barriers of online shopping.

5. Omnichannel experiences wanted

Omnichannel commerce captures much of this idea in that it provides shoppers with a seamless experience across desktop, mobile, and other devices, and spans the customer journey, from the first click to fulfillment. With the increase in the adoption of mobile devices and voice assistants, I can only imagine that the number of omnichannel customers will increase even more in 2021.

What you can do to improve the omnichannel strategy?

• Make use of the behaviors and data of customers
• Identify the preferred channels of your target audience
• Optimize content for each channel
• Capitalize on new channels and technologies
• Focus on having a unified brand presence

Conclusions

In 2021, the e-commerce field continues to escalate, prevailing a series of innovations in technology, which have to be taken into consideration for a successful business. If you have an e-commerce shop, then it's time to adapt and adjust according to new trends in order the obtain the best of it.