3 Trends Shaping E-Commerce in 2021

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping increased exponentially throughout 2020 and consumers became increasingly reliant on using their smartphones, tablets, and laptops to make purchases. Today, advancements in technology are allowing online retailers to make shopping and transactions easier than ever.

In order to ensure your small business’ e-commerce website is up to par, it’s important to be aware of consumer purchasing trends. Check out these three trends influencing e-commerce strategy in 2021.

1. Social Commerce

Social commerce is the entire process of purchasing a product through a social media platform. This began when social media apps like Instagram and Pinterest provided the option to link products inside content. Instagram allows users to browse and make purchases without leaving the app. You can tag your small business’ products with buy buttons inside Instagram stories and posts as you feature them to your audience. Facebook has a similar feature, where you can set up a Facebook Store and tag products in posts to your business' page. Social commerce can allow your small business to target your ideal customer right on their social media platform and allow for easy purchasing of your products, streamlining the purchase cycle for you and your customers.

2. Voice Commerce

By 2025, 75 percent of American households are predicted to have smart speakers. Smart devices with voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant can be asked to do increasingly complex things, making voice command an easy and fast way to search for products to buy online. According to Edison Research, 22 percent of smart speaker owners in the U.S. have purchased an item through their smart device. Creating content that answers relevant questions for your customers could help bring in voice commerce traffic to your small business website. E-commerce stores are adopting voice command functionality so that shoppers can search for products conveniently.

3. AI Tools

Artificial Intelligence (Al) is becoming more pervasive in the online shopping experience. Using past purchase history, browsing behavior, and other data, Al tools predict products consumers are most likely to buy and show them as personalized recommendations. According to a survey from Segment, 49 percent of shoppers surveyed purchased items they weren't intending to buy based on such recommendations. The survey also found that adding personalized recommendations to your customer's experience is shown to lead to more impulse purchases and increased customer loyalty.

Contact Us

At Igniting Business, our web design specialists are ready to help you improve your small business’ e-commerce website and boost sales. To learn more about our e-commerce design services, or to schedule a free consultation, contact us today!