The year 2021 will be even bigger for e-commerce. Data garnered by the BCG Consumer Sentiment survey predicts e-commerce growth to reach $5 trillion this year. There are many triggers for this continued industry expansion. For one thing, more businesses will go the digital route as their main point of sale. If in the past, brands used online selling to supplement sales from brick-and-mortar shops, this time around, e-commerce takes center stage.
This transition from physical to digital markets has something to do with the current global pandemic. Although 68.1 million vaccines have already been administered to citizens of 56 countries, the plague is far from over. People still need to social distance and stay in their homes’ comforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus. If there’s any silver lining to this situation, that has to be how e-commerce businesses benefit from people purchasing the stuff they need online.
Yes, your business is bound to make a profit online. But it pays to know that the digital market’s quite competitive too. You need e-commerce SEO to reach your target audience, which is but one component of an ideally robust marketing strategy supported by reliable technology. For 2021, here are the tech trends that will factor into online selling.
Omnichannel shopping
The more options you provide your customers in terms of purchasing your products, the better. This is what omnichannel shopping is about. Make sure that customers can buy products straight from your website. That’s on top of brand presence in online selling platforms. Some of the most popular platforms that will give your products the exposure they need include Shopify, Bonanza, and Amazon, to name a few.
Another thing to consider is how user-friendly your site is across all devices. This is where responsive web design comes in. The key is to provide the best customer experience regardless of what gadget they are using to access your website.
Increased payment options
The most basic payment options out there include debit and credit cards. Next in line are digital wallets such as PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. Expect the emergence of other payment opportunities in the next months.
For instance, cryptocurrencies will increasingly factor into the equation. If you want to tap your market segment that values discretion when making digital transactions, it pays to explore this trend. Consider the partnership between the Bitcoin platform Coinbase and Overstock. Now the online market accepts Bitcoin instead of digital currencies.
Dynamic pricing software
There’s no such thing as an original product online. You’re probably competing with similar products that you’ll be hard-pressed to count all of them. This means you have to be extra competitive. And one way to compete is via dynamic pricing.
You have dynamic pricing software at your disposal. This technology affords you real-time insights into vital market factors like demand and competitors’ prices. This data will then recommend specific prices in which you have a better shot at selling your products without compromising your profit margin.
Voice commerce
Amazon Echo’s Alexa is now a household name. And quite literally, too. That’s because an increasing number of people are using voice assistant devices.
Expect this trend to inform e-commerce in the coming months. After all, if Alexa’s reliable enough to do Google searches or play music from Spotify, there’s no reason why she can’t pull off online shopping.
To maximize the financial opportunity of this trend, have your website optimized for voice product searches. Voice-based website navigation is worth exploring.
AI and AR technology
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will allow you to provide personalized services to your customers. That will be based on consumer data gathered from online searches. Thanks to AI, you can predict what products customers will likely purchase. You won’t be wasting marketing resources.
Meanwhile, Augmented Reality will let your customers feel how valuable a purchase your product is. One downside of online shopping is how customers have to rely on product images to decide whether to purchase or not. If the delivered product does not meet the customer’s standards, it is often returned to the seller. With AR, customers can virtually try products. That’s a win-win scenario for both seller and shopper.
It will take time before the global economy can recover from the effects of the pandemic. If you’re in business, off or online, you are doing the world a favor. You’re contributing to global gross domestic product. That’s something to take pride in. So be in to win it. Be as competitive as you can be. Don’t just wing it.