The 7 Biggest eCommerce Trends in 2021
In retail, the age-old rhetoric goes: the customer comes first. And 2021 is no different.
This year’s eCommerce trends are heavily fueled by the consumer’s newfound desires and expectations surrounding online shopping. Your beautiful product and slick eCommerce website won’t cut through the noise for your customer, without an immersive, personalised, and interactive experience - every time they shop.
Your beautiful product and slick eCommerce website won’t cut through the noise for your customer, without an immersive, personalised, and interactive experience - every time they shop.
According to Shopify’s Fashion and Apparel Industry Report, the worldwide eCommerce revenue is estimated to rise from $481.2 billion in 2018 to $712.9 billion by 2022. A figure that has only emerged post-pandemic.
As well as increasing online access through smartphone technologies, emerging markets outside the West, and, Millennials being the majority of eCommerce fashion brand customers - there are 10 key themes that are influencing the apparel industry and driving 2021’s trends.
McKinsey’s State of Fashion Report, states these are:
Continued disruption of the pandemic on the global economy
Diminished demand
Further increases in digital shoppers
Customer-driving ethics and sustainability
Reduced travel
Decreases in production as there is a shift from fast to slow fashion
Opportunistic investment
Deeper supply chain partnerships
Improved store-level retail ROIs
Continued evolution to remote work
So, how can you weather the storm of the burgeoning eCommerce space, maintain brand integrity and bolster your bottom line? By keeping up with the times, of course. Here, we break down the seven biggest eCommerce trends to keep across now, and well into the future.
1. Headless Commerce
If you’re tired of hearing “omnichannel” as you explore new ways to reach that monthly budget, well, get ready to hear a lot more of it.
The omnichannel customer is here to stay.
Omnichannel selling is not new, particularly to bricks-and-mortar stores, but online eCommerce brands should consider shifting significantly to become an omnichannel brand in 2021. That doesn’t just mean selling offline, it means varying your channels online with a customer-centric mindset.
That doesn’t just mean selling offline, it means varying your channels online with a customer-centric mindset.
Before you point out that all your marketing efforts are customer-centric, consider if you hang out where your customer hangs out. Are you amalgamating your customer and product data to create a personalised shopping experience? Are you offering efficient, fuss-free mobile shopping? Are you visible on third-party marketplaces?
“Headless commerce” is designed to offer brands the flexibility that allows them to extend shopping into any customer experience.
Notice how they interact with your campaigns and how they’re already shopping with you - then meet them where they are. Be where they like to be, sell their favourite products where they like to buy them.
Having a robust omnichannel strategy will enable you to seamlessly respond and interact with your customers, with the brand message that resonates best.
2. AI & AR
ICYMI, AI (artificial intelligence) is the future of your product being discovered online. The trend is rapidly gaining traction, along with AR (augmented reality) mainly through the following areas:
personalisation (and hyper-personalisation),
segmentation, and
chatbots
Most businesses, especially fashion retailers, already use product recommendations and emails that are delivered by machine learning.
Consider the cut-through you can gain from the combination of hyper-personalisation and AR. In the step-up from eComm video, Gucci lets you take a look at how their sneakers will look on your feet from your very own home, and ASOS brings you the complete collection with Avatars to model for you. Wonder what Cher Horowitz would think of that one?
It’s no surprise that 46% of customers prefer live chat to email or phone for support. So, using a chatbot to help facilitate your live chat provides instant answers without overloading your support team.
Despite the big budgets some brands are lucky enough to work with, you can also harness this power to create personalized PPC campaigns, or opt into programs like LimeSpot and Optimonk which hit your customers at every touchpoint.
3. Flexible Payments For All
Even luxury sites are getting in on the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) model because at the end of the business day the more ways your customers can pay for your product, the better. Once perfect for at-home Millennials scrounging their pocket money, BNPL is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 13.23%, reaching $680 billion of transaction volume worldwide by 2025.
And guess what? Millennials have jobs now, and there has been a significant increase in luxury brands and luxury resellers offering delayed payment options to consumers. More customers prefer the BNPL option over credit cards for making luxury goods more affordable. And most of the customers probably have never had a credit card before. And, why would they need one?
Newer, more popular payment options are key to improving your online store’s abandoned cart rates
Newer, more popular payment options are key to improving your online store’