Looking for eCommerce shopping trends in 2021?
Due to convenience and the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic, expect a slope jagging sharply upward.
Think Like a Consumer
Would you rather shop on a device that fits in your pocket from anywhere and not have to leave your home to receive the goods? Or would you rather brave a crowded store, wait in line, have to endure masking up or not masking up depending on the public health situation and then trudge your loot back to the parking lot where you may or may not have forgotten where you parked your car?
Convenience Is King
ECommerce, or the ability to shop online away from a brick-and-mortar store, exploded in the year before the pandemic. In the five years previous to 2019, worldwide e-comm sales grew 169%.
The pandemic turbocharged that trend with global e-comm sales expected to climb to $6.4 trillion. The situation in the United States is similarly stratospheric, according to eMarketer:
“We forecast that total US holiday retail sales in 2021 will rise 2.7% to $1.093 trillion, while the season’s ecommerce sales will rise 11.3% to $206.88 billion. Ecommerce will account for a record 18.9% of total holiday season retail sales.”
You probably knew the eComm rocket was ascending. Here are three notable trends for 2021 and suggestions on how to exploit these market forces.
2021 E-Commerce Trend #1: Mobile Continues to Dominate
More and more companies will focus their efforts on providing a great mobile experience for shoppers to make purchases from anywhere, anytime.
Statista summarizes this phenomenon:
Worldwide, e-commerce growth is primarily being driven by consumers using their mobile devices, phones and tablets, to acquire goods and services. According to eMarketer estimates, retail e-commerce sales reached $2.3 trillion in 2017, a 23.2 percent increase over the previous year. The mobile share of this stood at 58.9 percent, or $1.4 trillion. In 2021, mobile e-commerce could rake in some $3.5 trillion and then make up almost three quarters (72.9 percent) of e-commerce sales.
What Does This Mean?
Optimize your site for mobile with a fast load time. According to the SEO consultant shop Hobo, your site should load on mobile in 1-2 seconds. The consequences of poor loading times are grave. 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load. A 2-second delay in load time resulted in abandonment rates of up to 87%.
To speed up your mobile site, use AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages, choose a fast caching platform, adopt responsive design and improve your site’s backend.
Make your site available away from WiFi or offline. Make it a PWA, an acronym for “progressive web app”. It’s also referred to as a “web app”, and is an umbrella term for any site that works offline as well.
Scandiweb nicely defined PWAs and their benefits:
“PWAs can do most things that native apps can do, such as operate offline, access your camera and microphone if necessary, GPS, and more. Imagine a user browsing your online store with instant page loading speeds whilst flying at 35,000ft or using the subway—and knowing once they get back online their order will be processed automatically!”
2021 EComm Trend #2: Easy Checkout
When shopping online, consumers expect easy checkout with multiple payment methods.
Payment methods such as Apple Pay and PayPal continue to gain momentum. People expect fast shipping options or even same day delivery depending where they live, so that is another trend you should keep an eye out for.
What This Means
Stock up on shipping supplies and make sure they are at the ready when you need them most! You don’t necessarily have to offer overnight delivery or same-day delivery but figure out what is best for your company based on sales volume and specialty items that may be hard for you to get quickly. Also, keep cost in mind with quick deliveries because, if it’s too costly, it might not be worth offering this service.
Offer more ways to pay than cards with the ability to offer alternative credit and the ability to buy now, pay later (BNPL). For example, PayPal Credit gives shoppers up to six months of interest-free payment options. You can also access BNPL via other platforms such as Afterpay and ZipPay where you get the product immediately and pay it off in four equal payments over a month or two.
2021 Ecomm Trend #3: Free Shipping & Easy Returns
Amazon Prime has conditioned consumers to expect free or low-cost shipping.
Shopify summarizes the trend in a blog post:
“And according to a 2021 Consumer Trends Report, 80% of consumers expect free shipping when ordering a certain dollar amount of products, and 66% of consumers expect free shipping for all online orders. And if it’s not offered? They’re happy to walk away.”
When a purchase is made, consumers expect easy returns if they don’t like the product or if it doesn’t fit.
What Does This Mean?
If you can, offer free shipping. Consider a threshold of $50. If the purchase is below that amount, charge for shipping or offer low-cost or free pickup in store.
Technology has facilitated easy returns. Several apps have been developed over the past few years like iReturn that make returning items easier across many different platforms including social media channels like Facebook Messenger or Twitter direct messages. Brands no longer need an integrated platform where customers can chat about purchases; they just need to be able to respond quickly.
The Online Shopping Cart Dominates
According to Statista, mobile payments are expected to rise from $503 million in 2016 to over $805 billion by 2021.
The huge growth of online markets is seen in Shopify, the eCommerce platform. Its revenue grew 86% year over year in 2020 and 46% so far this year.
Whether you are using Shopify or WooCommerce, a WordPress cart, you should prioritize your site for eCommerce trends in 2021 where mobile readiness is paramount and it is critical to facilitate easy checkout with hassle-free shipping and returns.
By optimizing your site for mobile and ensuring a sterling customer experience, you are poised to strike gold in 2021 and years to come for your online and brick-and-mortar shop.