2020. will be remembered by global pandemics, work at home, wearing masks. When it comes to marketers and e-commerce experts last year brought a huge increase in online purchases. Due to global circumstances and faced by an increased urge from the buyers to purchase online, many brands were forced to adjust their business to this trend and improve their sites and online shops
Constant changes are quite expected and normal since e-commerce industry is developing fast, literally every day something new pops up. 2021. brings even more interest related to online shopping, fast delivery, possibility to purchase on the website, and then take over the purchased products in a shop, paying by a credit card.
E-commerce is used to continuous changes, so let’s take a look at new trends for 2021. Some of them are of a global character, while some of them can be recognized in our local market.
#1 Voice commerce purchase will be growing
More people are relying on voice product search and terms, via Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri. According to the studies, Google assistant still gives the most precise info, 92,9%, Siri 83%, Alexa 79,8%. They are not the only voice assistants but certainly are the most famous ones. This type of purchase will be increasing by 2025, and some studies show 75% of American homes will have speakers connected with smart devices.
Google and Amazon started adding more local languages to their system, so more people can purchase or search products via voice commands. We sincerely hope our region will start using this type of purchase. But this needs website optimization for voice product search. Mobile apps as well so the buyers can use that purchase option without disruptions.
#2 Omnichannel purchase will become part of a regular everyday procedure
Omnichannel purchase presents a unique purchase experience and displaying products on many channels and devices. Potential buyers can see your product on Instagram, next, click on it via the shopping option, go to the website, find out more about the product and finally do the purchase online, but there is an option of personal taking over the order in a shop.
Buyers like this approach of presenting products and connecting more channels, as in this way they get more information, they can read reviews of past buyers, get a discount if they subscribe for newsletters.
More than 70% of buyers prefer this type of purchase.
Tips to apply this approach to your brand and online shop?
- Optimize site for searches on mobile devices. It is the cheapest option but if the budget allows you so, make your own app.
- Offer various purchasing options and taking over the purchased items: model shop online and take over in a shop, next, model purchase in a shop and option of home delivery, or online purchase and home delivery.
- Personalization at every step. Enable the best possible user experience for your buyers. After the purchase, send an email to confirm the purchase, offer a special code for discounts for the next purchases.
#3 New paying options to enable a good user experience
Regardless of how much the buyers like a brand or yet are learning about them via Instagram shopping, if they don’t find a paying option on the site that suits them – the purchase will not happen.
Many e-commerce businesses adopted digital wallets (Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal) besides the standard credit card payments. When it comes to credit cards, it is important to offer as many options as possible.
Credit cards are still dominant. In online shops paying upon receipt is still possible. It would be good to think about QR codes that can be a great option too.
This year cryptocurrencies are popping up as a payment means as well. The most known and used is Bitcoin. Tesla company announced the possibility of purchasing their cars with Bitcoins.
#4 Mobile shopping is growing
During pandemics we have spent more time on our phones, hence we did more online shopping too. Last year 65% of people did online shopping via mobile phones (mostly food), while a share of mobile purchases in e-commerce was 70%.
Due to this data analysis, you will easily come to the conclusion of how significant it is to focus on creating sites with online shops, with a responsive mobile version. If you haven’t optimized your site for smartphones or you are not even sure if the site is optimized or not, there is a way to check it on Google test for mobile-friendly sites.
The other way to improve the user experience for the visitors (on mobile phones) is to create a progressive web application (PWA) to enable the fast loading of a mobile site version.
#5 Artificial Intelligence will improve the overall online shopping experience
Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides the personalized type of purchase as if done by an assistant.
AI has the history of previous purchases, items the buyer browsed in order to offer the best and most precise selection of products. These are the most important characteristics allowing creating carousels with products that are in a price range of buyers’ previous purchases.
Some agencies rent AI software to connect them to their sites and buyers. This is an amazing option to increase sales, make your customers happy, as they got exactly what they needed.
If you like this blog post, feel free to check out our other blog posts. Also, share this post with your friends and colleagues, and if you find it valuable or have additional questions, contact us, in case you’re planning to create an online shop.
