eCommerce is an ever-rising industry witnessing a substantial rise every year. This has made more & more businesses shift to online platforms in a short span of time. But what has changed this time around? Of course, technology is growing at a fast pace. Almost every day we wake up to some updates, new launches, and more innovation. Technology growth has always been a constant, but this year, the growth of online platforms has particularly left the eCommerce industry surprised.
While 2020 brought many challenges, it also influenced our lifestyle. From health crisis to social distancing & strict lockdown, all the factors have made a majority of people shift to online platforms for making purchases. And as per the growing numbers, it is expected that the eCommerce industry will rise by almost $3 trillion in revenues. Nonetheless, it does not mean that you can get a share of this profit by simply creating an online store.
The profits are rising, and so is the competition & consumer awareness. Thus, it is essential to keep up with the latest trends to make the most out of online opportunities & gain success. In this blog post, we’ll be talking about the top eCommerce trends that are going to earn you success in 2021.
Voice Commerce
The future of the eCommerce industry is voice commerce. People are increasingly showing interest in voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, Google Home, or devices like Amazon Echo. It is predicted that by 2025, almost 75% of households in the US will have smart speakers, and voice sales will reach almost $40 billion in the next 2 years.
The striking growth of voice eCommerce owes to two primary factors, convenience and accuracy. Global platforms like Amazon & Google, both are striving to provide regional language voice assistance for online shopping. Thus, online businesses today need to optimize their top-level conversion funnel content to provide answers to frequently asked questions by consumers about your product or the industry. Such informative & targeted content engages your potential customers & boosts the chances of conversion. For instance, when a user-initiated a voice-based how-to content search, the browser will lead them to your page that has the solution which in turn will show them the way to your related product.
Omnichannel Shopping
It refers to creating a seamless shopping experience for your customers across devices & channels. With the growing use of voice shopping and mobile devices, the number of omnichannel users is definitely going to increase in the coming years.
To understand your customers’ behaviour, you can use analytic tools that help you in generating reports about their buying pattern, a device used and track cash flow, etc. With this, you can identify the product in demand, evaluate customer loyalty, and monitor profit & loss. These tools also fetch you reports on the functioning & use of key online business processes like add to cart, view items, checkout progress and success. You can thus precisely identify the glitches in your online business and make insightful decisions that can help you grow by any folds. Below are some ways to create a seamless omnichannel shopping experience for your customers:
Optimizing your website for the small screen to reach the growing smartphone users. You can also create a dedicated mobile app for your business.
Provide a personalized customer experience by analyzing their behaviour across platforms and providing them with exactly what they are looking for.
AI and AR
It is predicted that by 2022, online sellers will spend over $7.3 billion for AI and a majority of stores will be using AR to enrichen the customer experience.
AI works as a substitute for an online store associate by automating the process of providing customers with personalized guidance and buying recommendations. AI simply draws upon the customer’s purchase/search history and behaviour to recommend products that they are likely to purchase.
Augment Reality is another feature that is going to be highly beneficial for the eCommerce industry from both buyer & seller perspective. This is because like offline shopping a buyer cannot try a product while shopping online. AR is a great solution as it provides a virtual demo of how the product would look on the buyer. Thus, there are fewer chances of unsatisfactory purchases and more happy customers.
Implementation of AR & AI can drastically boost your conversion and bring down the return rate.
Payment Options
You need to provide your customers with a variety of payment options. These days, there are a variety of digital payment options available that include debit or credit cards, e-wallets like GooglePay, Paytm, Phonepe, and even Bitcoins. In fact, it’s predicted that more & more online businesses will adapt to cryptocurrency in the coming year.
While one user may prefer using a debit/credit card, there might be others who are more used to e-wallets. Availability of suitable payment options forms a crucial factor in their final buying decision.
Thus, it is important for all online businesses today to integrate their platforms with at least the most used and popular payment options. You need to keep a track of the latest trends to create a smooth user experience and provide customers with the ease of ordering online.
Mobile Commerce
All the above trends that we’ve listed in this blog post, from voice eCommerce to omnichannel shopping, somehow connect to one factor that is dominating the world today—use of smartphones. A majority of the audience today is using mobile phones, and if your business is compatible to reach the small screens, then it might as well never lead you to success.
Compatibility for smartphones is one of the basic necessities for survival of eCommerce platforms. If you have the budget & resources, you can even develop a mobile application for added features like push notifications, access to phone’s media, etc.
Conclusion
When you are competing in a dynamic world, the only thing that you should make note of is that change is the only constant. And if you are not adapting your business to the latest technology & demands, then you are running the chance of losing your loyal customers to your competitor. With these tips, you can make your way to success in 2021 and achieve great results for your business.
