2021 E-Commerce Trends

After 2020’s significant boost to e-commerce, what are some of the key factors to keep in mind in 2021 for businesses to keep succeeding digitally? 

Data-Driven Business

Companies must keep their eyes open regarding the data generated on their websites. That way, forecasting demand and planning innovation, product strategies and sales channels become much easier. By keeping track of every product view and sale, products and offers can drive the wanted sales results, said America Retail.  

Retaining Customers

Client retention has become a challenge. Now, they are one click away from finding another product because of an ad that popped up. To maintain a captive audience, it is recommended to use "Viral Growth Loops," which according to IEBS School are ways to generate traffic that at the same time encourage the user to share the product or the content with other users, thus obtaining a prolonged interaction with the website. 

Sustainability and Circular Commerce

According to American Retail, 43 percent of consumers prefer buying products from a company committed to social and environmental issues. This trend is becoming more and more powerful and gradually, people have become more interested in second-hand trade. There are other strategies as well, like using old garments and turning them into raw material for new items, which becomes interesting for the customer. This also means up to 30 percent less waste can be generated.

Personalizing the Product

One would think it is no new trend to customize products but doing this at an affordable price is. Customers are looking more and more for an individualized experience and seeing themselves in what they bought makes them have a bigger connection with the company, making them more likely to come back, America Retail reports.  

Using Social Networks

Apps and social platforms are also becoming part of the e-commerce reality. A perfect example of this is TikTok, which has shown how visual experiences are increasingly driving social media. In short videos, users are not only generating the sort of entertainment we know. Watching how a product is made and getting to know the creator is part of the entertainment, as mentioned by a Later article. 

Logistics and Spaces

A previous MBN article mentions how e-commerce started to boom while physical stores started to wind down. When the transition to digital commerce started, companies were not prepared in terms of logistics, making them lose some of the opportunities being given to them. The stock at physical stores now requires another type of space that can be accessed by delivery services so it does not remain in a store that will hardly receive customers.