9 Important Ecommerce Trends to Watch

The e-commerce industry was always located in a growing periphery, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made its growth more enormous. Be it e-commerce sales or profitability, the transformation from physical to digital is massive.

Research by Statista indicates that the global e-commerce worldwide sales were $4.28 trillion in 2020, and retail e-commerce revenues are expected to grow up to $5.4 trillion in 2022.

Business owners are coming online with their websites and products to appease customers with competitive skills and prices. In contrast, established e-commerce giants like Amazon use their experiences and marketing strategies to expand their infrastructures by penetrating competition and taking over small e-commerce businesses and customers. 

The trends in the e-commerce industry have been ever-changing and have kept web owners on their toes, so they need to keep on monitoring them to stay in business and surpass the competition.

It's pivotal that these trends are analysed and implemented on a timely basis to stay at the top of the competition. So, let's check out some of the latest e-commerce trends.

The Best E-commerce Trends:

Trend 1 - Focus on M-commerce:

Online shopping via mobile devices is constantly increasing, which has led to the rise in the mobile e-commerce market.

Mobile shopping gives the advantage to shop from any place at any time, and if your website is not responsive to other devices, you may lose out on a massive customer base.

Ensure that your website is responsive and adaptable to all screens by adding responsive meta tags, responsive videos and images, small fonts, etc.

Trend 2 – SSL Security for Customer Trust:

Google loves HTTPS (hyper-text transfer protocol secure) sites and makes it a ranking signal for SEO.

Hence, it urges web owners to install an SSL certificate, which helps convert the URL from HTTP (hyper-text transfer protocol) to HTTPS. This ensures that the in-transit communication stays encrypted, and only the intended recipient can decrypt the message. A padlock also becomes visible in the address bar, which shows the presence of SSL certificate security on the website. In addition, SSL trust seals that come along with the cheap SSL certificate also portray the picture of a secure site.

Customers love these trust icons, and they are assured that the website is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. As a result, they become less hesitant while shopping from such secured sites.

There are types of SSL certificates available in the market which fulfil different needs. Like, if you have more than one website to secure then Multi-domain SSL is best to choose. Experts recommend comodo multi domain SSL to choose for its cheap price, brand value and ability to secure multiple sites in minutes.

Make your e-commerce website a trustworthy store with SSL encryption security and gain customer trust and loyalty.

Trend 3 – Rise of B2B E-commerce:

A few years back, e-commerce was all about B2C (business to customer), but now the B2B (business to business) market is also rising, with B2B digital advertising costing expected to reach $9 billion in 2021.

Customer's needs are not only restricted to clothing, fashion, and food, but they have also extended to furniture, electronics, groceries, etc., and this makes B2B more demanding since it offers ample opportunities for all.

Consider B2B parallel to B2C and consider this trend to penetrate a considerable market, reach out to more buyers, ensure better product deliveries, and gain better revenues while minimizing costs.

Trend 4 – Omnichannel Marketing:

Gone are the days when only marketing personnel and advertisements were used for increasing brand publicity. Nowadays, retailers are resorting to multi-channel advertisements for selling their products. Be it the retail channel, online, or social media platforms, each channel has its staff for publicizing the brand products.

Ensure that the main motto of omnichannel marketing is fulfilled by obtaining customers from any location of the buyer's journey.

Example: If a customer has abandoned your website's shopping cart, trace the customer on your Instagram account and entice him by offering a discount on products and keep on making additions to your customer list.

Omnichannel marketing gives a flawless experience across all the channels, thus enhancing customer experience, sales, web traffic, and customer loyalty, so ensure to incorporate this latest trend in your eCommerce journey.

Trend 5 – Sales via Social Media Platforms:

Social media platforms are not only restricted to viewing product feedback and customer reviews. The year 2021 has brought in social media marketing wherein you can sell your brand products on social media platforms.

Utilize the power and reach of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, etc., for directly selling your website products. Start tagging your products on these platforms and incorporate a "Buy" button so customers can easily purchase the same. This move helps increase leads and conversions with less cost.

Trend 6 – Customised Products:

People love to give unique gifts in unique ways, and this need can be fulfilled by offering them customized products of your brand.

Customers always thrive for more, so only portraying your products or their benefits is not enough. They need something extra to motivate them to choose you amongst their competitors. An intelligent and customized brand product and customized packaging give a personal touch to their shopping, thus creating a premium and memorable experience.

Product customization ranging from furniture to crockery and clothes to other fashion essentials, etc., makes the buyer's journey more convenient and more manageable, thus raising their brand loyalty to the next level.

Trend 7– Analytics will always be Pivotal:

Web owners focus on CTR's (click-through rates) and other metrics for knowing the flow of network traffic and conversions.

But in 2021, segmentation goes much beyond CTR's and sales figures.

Tips:

• Segmentation by age, location, buying patterns, total spending, etc. helps in getting a precise analysis
• Focus on the channels which bring incoming traffic to your eCommerce store
• Check out the most appealing content via A/B Testing Method.

Integrate all these segmentations for better analysis and to get a clear view of your business growth.

Trend 8 – Voice Shopping:

Why use fingers when you can use your voice to shop?

Ever heard of Shopping with Amazon Alexa?

The world is moving fast, and so is technology. With the increase in technology, customers are also becoming tech-savvy and love to shop online using voice commands. 

30% of the US web users resort to voice assistants for online shopping.

The ease of shopping while doing other tasks (cooking, driving, etc.) makes voice shopping more desirable. Just download and activate a device having a voice assistant and go on a shopping spree.

Optimize your website for voice searches by incorporating relevant keywords in your content to gain a large audience and a good SEO.

Trend 8 – Importance of AI (Artificial Intelligence):

Rather than being artificial, AI is now becoming beneficial to the e-commerce industry.

Advantages of AI:

• Reduces the time taken to finish a task
• It operates 24/7
• It helps in enhancing the buyer’s journey
• It recommends purchases based on customer history
• It optimizes inventory management

Use AI tools like Scikit Learn, Auto ML, etc., to provide a personalized experience to your customers by giving shopping recommendations and conveying positive and soothing emotions on negative remarks. It also helps in shifting your human resources to other creative areas.

Few More E-commerce Trends:

• Multiple Pay Options
• Headless & API-driven E-commerce
• Sustainability
• Optimization of Digital Strategies
• Focusing on Video Responses

Wrapping Up:

Don't forget; not all trends may suit your brand, so choose the correct one for your e-commerce store and invest accordingly. Ensure that the selected trend is in sync with your brand image, voice, and goals.

The future of e-commerce is relatively steady, and hence it's essential to know its latest trends, technological updates, and customer expectations to enhance customer loyalty and sales.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)