With time and progress, technology today is leading the entire world, it helps the business sector to stay ahead within this competitive world.
While we all are aware of the ongoing pandemic and we understand that 2020 and 2021 as well did not turn out as planned. And this pandemic has affected us on every level, whether it is the way that how we communicate with clients or how we manage user research.
Also, COVID-19 considerably accelerated trends that we were already experiencing, it pushed a decade of eCommerce growth inside a single year.
Isolated home-arrest customers drastically changed their purchasing behavior, and millions of businesses were constrained to spend more intensely in their current eCommerce channels or operate online for the first time.
The trends in the eCommerce industry are also getting influenced by these technological advancements, as these developments have changed the way consumers connect with different brands.
With the help of this progressive path, new business opportunities are developing automatically. Now, consumers can get the most desirable deals, trace their orders, and much more.
These modern eCommerce trends have a significant impact on online shopping, influencing new technology, advanced customer demands, and the continuous transformation from desktop to mobile devices.
Furthermore, eCommerce is also offering delivery at the doorstep now, it has grown to be an essential part of our everyday life.
The importance of eCommerce development and its customers evolved to the forefront during this pandemic.
Customers are frequently adopting different online channels to manage the business and meet their requirements. Demand is proceeding to shift, and eCommerce is expected to reach tremendous sales in the year 2021.
Brands now essentially need to adapt to these modern technologies, if they want to survive and establish themselves apart from the competition.
Now, customers can achieve anything just with a single click. So, strategic planning, competitive marketing, and a skilled workforce, all should work with the most advanced technologies.
Technology Trends Shaping eCommerce in 2021
The eCommerce trends have always been changing, retailers are creating and improving their eCommerce businesses to meet customers wherever they are. Everything in eCommerce is developing, and defined below are some of the biggest trends in the eCommerce industry that will influence businesses during 2021 and the upcoming years.
1) Mobile Rules Online Sales
The mobile marketing strategy has undergone a huge change during the past years and covers a wide range of marketing tools, techniques, and processes.
Consumers today use smartphones to research products they are considering buying and continue accordingly.
An effective mobile marketing strategy can help you reach and engage with potential customers by connecting with the help of SMS, social media, email, content marketing, via a mobile app, and more.
Mobile works as an instant medium, you can engage with people in real-time. Whether at home, at work, out and about, or anywhere else.
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2) Growing Use of Voice Search
E-commerce has completely changed the way customers shop, and the internet is witnessing an accelerated increase in transactions.
Voice-controlled searches are growing as the next big thing in this modern world, making digital shopping easier with voice-enabled searches that are becoming popular and are being widely used for shopping online.
Virtual assistants and software like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung’s Bixby, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana are a few examples of some wonderful platforms that are extremely successful with voice search and queries.
3) Product Customization
Advancements in manufacturing and digital technology are now empowering brands to offer customers the capability to customize or personalize items online or in-store and then instantly take delivery of them.
Product customization further strengthens the user experience for the customer by asking them to become partners in the product creation process.
The more satisfying will be the user experience, the greater would be the opportunity for conversions.
A satisfactory shopping experience, with impressive revenue, can be accomplished by enabling online visitors to engage actively in the product development process.
4) Emerging Role of Social Media Platforms in Ecommerce
Social media plays a very vital role in the world of eCommerce by promoting businesses to establish a more powerful web presence, generate leads, and boost traffic.
As social media today continues to gain popularity owing to its commercial success, and different advertisement campaigns take place through social media websites.
Additionally, on platforms like Shopify, businesses can simply link their online stores with social media sites to make people buy from them instantly through social media.
Consider the example of Instagram and Facebook, which are regularly updating their features to satisfy the requirements of online buyers.
5) Use of Video and Interactive Content
Videos and interactive content can bring big business benefits inside the online world of marketing. Today 7 out of 10 people respond positively to a brand after viewing a brand-appropriate video.
Also, you will notice that several brands are putting new types of ads within interactive videos to reduce the gap between the customer and product by utilizing engagement as a tool.
Interactivity not only improves conversions to 40-50%, but people also love to share great, unique interactive content. Hence, we can say that interactive videos and shoppable photos are becoming the new trend in eCommerce.
6) Omnichannel Ad Spends
Omni-channel commerce or omnichannel retail is a multichannel strategy for sales that mainly focuses on providing a seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping online from a mobile device, using a laptop, or in any store or somewhere else.
Omnichannel processes concentrate on the entire customer experience rather than on the customer’s individual experiences on different channels.
The main purpose of this omnichannel strategy is to keep consumers moving along the buyer journey no matter where they are.
7) Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
Retail businesses today are exploring new and innovative technology trends to stay ahead in the competition.
By combining current e-commerce stores with immersive technologies like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, retailers are looking to make shopping experiences more friendly, intuitive, and satisfying.
These technologies are helping eCommerce trends give ideas to retailers to defeat some of their biggest challenges, bringing about a breakthrough in the e-commerce industry and transforming the way businesses function. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) apps cut down the time customers spend picking the right item.
8) AI and Chatbots are Personalizing eCommerce
Artificial intelligence in the eCommerce industry trends can play a vital role. AI can be utilized by online retailers for providing product recommendations, chatbot services, analyzing customer comments, and giving personalized services to online shoppers.
E-commerce retailers are constantly shifting towards chatbots or digital assistants to give 24×7 support to their online customers.
These chatbots help in identifying customer intent and responding accordingly. They recommend products or activities in real-time utilizing customer feedback on social media platforms, messenger apps on websites, and ads.
9) Use of Big data in Creating Personalized Experiences
Big data empowers e-commerce businesses to enhance decision making, gain a competitive advantage, and improve their performance, operational processes, and products.
It also provides consumer behavior analysis and actionable insights. Different Big data-enabled tools can help businesses generate coupons and identify any fraudulent behaviors in real-time.
Lead scoring, predictive analysis, and targeted personalization are also some concepts closely linked to big data. It also helps in streamlining supply chain management.
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10) Use of eWallet Technology and Other More Ways to Pay
The use of a digital wallet or e-wallet or mobile wallet can now be observed in various apps on the smartphone. The digital payment system here keeps a track of the buyer’s payment information.
Whenever a customer enters the payment page on any site or an app, this e-wallet can provide the payment information for quick and straightforward transactions. This saves the customer from bringing their physical wallet and cards.
Consumers have different requirements when it comes to payment methods, and they might drop a possible sale if they can’t pay how they want. So, allowing different ways to pay is a good way to improve conversion rates on mobile devices.
Conclusion
Soon, the eCommerce industry is going to observe several new and exciting changes.
We can say that future of eCommerce is mobile platforms and in this e-commerce sector, several exciting technologies are yet to evolve. Subscription services are expected to achieve a higher percentage of the digital market.
Also, showcasing and marketing of these products is expected to take a major jump ahead. So, you must learn the ecommerce trends and make sure the website is ready for the future by integrating these technological trends within it.
