6 Top Trends for E-Commerce in 2021
E-Commerce is an ever-evolving industry within itself. There are so many companies jumping on the bandwagon to sell digital and physical products to expand their businesses and revenue. Here in 2021, there are also many new trends to consider when it comes to running successful e-commerce initiatives. In this blog post, we are discussing some of the 2021 e-commerce trends that you should know about. Keep reading to learn more!
Trend #1: Voice Commerce
The first trend that is upcoming in 2021 is that voice commerce is becoming more and more popular. Voice commerce means that e-commerce companies are using voice assistant devices including Amazon Echo and Google Home to help drive sales. This is because people have become reliant on these devices to do their daily tasks for them, such as creating a to-do list, searching something on the internet, or playing music. The advantage of using voice assistant devices to shop is that there is an added level of convenience, especially for those who use Amazon or are familiar with a particular e-commerce website.
For those stores who plan on using voice commerce, they should look into researching how they can optimize their website and store for voice commerce so their consumers can easily purchase online. To optimize your site to use devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, you want to optimize your content to appear n voice searches on those devices, add a new skill on these devices, offer voice navigation on your website, and optimize your site to allow consumers to purchase your products using voice commands.
Trend #2: Dynamic Pricing
In e-commerce, dynamic pricing is important because it allows business owners to stay competitive in their niche and marketplace. How you price your products are important to the success of your business, which is where dynamic pricing comes in.
Dynamic pricing is finding the optimal price point that your ideal customers are searching for to reach the maximum amount of sales. It’s also important to note that you want to offer the payment method your ideal customer wants because if your competitor offers it and you do not, then they most likely purchase from your competitor.
Trend #3: New Payment Options
There are new payment methods evolving and you want to ensure you stay up to date on those trends. Most e-commerce businesses accept digital wallet payment options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, in addition to the traditional method of using a Visa or MasterCard. With those already in play, many businesses are considering expanding their payment options using cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin.
Trend #4: Mobile Commerce
As with voice commerce, mobile commerce is another trend that is up and coming! Many people are searching to purchase items online, but they are not always near a computer to shop online. Using your smartphone is a popular way to online shop nowadays because people are commonly purchasing things on the go, especially when it comes to Amazon. Website design has always been important, but many businesses do not dedicate time to
improve their mobile design — and they should, because many people are shopping on their phone and need a positive user experience. As an e-commerce business owner, you want your users to go to your website on their mobile devices and have an experience that is really easy to navigate, and offers a simple checkout process with as many payment options as possible.
Trend #5: Visual Commerce
The website you design is important because that is what your audience members will be attracted to and in addition to the content and user experience, it is what will get them to want to stay on site and ultimately purchase your products. Your visual commerce includes all of the visual imagery featured on your website, such as your product imagery, marketing imagery, and more. Your visual imagery is what will help draw your consumers in to convert them or to drive traffic to a specific page on your website.
A focal point of your visual content could be your most popular products, inventory you are trying to push, or new arrivals. In addition to your website, you can create visual shopping advertisements with Pinterest. This is a fantastic way to grow your social media exposure, build brand awareness, and attract new consumers to purchase your products.
Trend #6: Omnichannel Shopping
Omnichannel shopping is when you provide your shoppers a seamless and consistent experience across channels and devices, such as if you were to access a website on a laptop or desktop versus a mobile device. While every individual has their own shopping experience, many people use multiple channels throughout their shopping journey. As mobile shopping and shopping using devices such as Amazon Echo have increased, there is no doubt that omnichannel shopping is going to expand even further as time goes on. You want to ensure your website is optimized for different channels to help make the process go as smooth as possible.
Even more, adding a human touch to your marketing is important. As an example, we created a case study where we built an inventory management process for search campaigns. This scenario is relevant to each of the aforementioned trends because you want to ensure you have a system in place to manage your stock and inventory to ensure the process from start to finish goes smoothly. Per that case study our client, PerfumesWorld, did not have a solidified process to manage their in-stock and out-of-stock inventory for search, resulting in having ads for out of stock items still showing up and hence wasting ad spend. This negatively impacted their overall results beyond just the wasted spend, as Google and other platforms will ultimately penalize you for presenting page experience issues as we touch upon in this related blog post on SEO.
