The secret to building an ecommerce empire is constant change. If you’re an online entrepreneur, you must adapt to current ecommerce trends to meet future demands. As an online store owner, studying these trends is extremely essential to your business. You must learn how to analyze and apply them to make sure you don’t lag behind the competition.
Trends in ecommerce define online store features you must follow. Moreover, it also dictates how the online market would thrive in the following years. As mentioned, you need to concentrate on these trends to create a website in 2021 that sells. We curated this list of ecommerce trends to help you launch your business to greater success.
Here’s a quick look at ecommerce trends that will help empower your online business in 2021 and in the following years to come:
- Mobile Shopping
- Diversified Payment Channels
- Chatbots
- Social Media Integration
- Editorialized Content
- Performance Optimization
1. Mobile Shopping
Image taken from Strikingly user website
According to Grow Code, 50% of Americans shop online using their mobile device. Moreover, 55% of Europeans use their mobile phones to purchase online. Among these ecommerce trends in 2021, mobile shopping is one that is sure to stay.
Customers may shop on their phones from anywhere, which is essential in today's environment. You'll be losing out on huge chances if your ecommerce site isn't responsive on mobile or through web applications. Mobile shoppers desire the extra added benefit of being able to pay with their phones.
Fortunately, with Strikingly, you won’t miss out on the chance to launch your mobile shopping business. Strikingly makes retail ecommerce feel like a walk in the park due to various reasons. First, Strikingly offers a Simple Store section and optimization tools to launch your online retail shop. Second, all sites made with Strikingly as already designed to respond to mobile screens. This means that your online business can be accessed across multiple devices.
2. Diversified Payment Channels
Image taken from Strikingly product
Following ecommerce trends related to mobile shopping, online consumers are constantly looking for convenient ways to send payments. The best thing you can do for your retail shop is to add diversified payment options. Having a variety of payment methods allows customers to use an option that suits their lifestyle.
Customers have different payment preferences, but if they can't pay as they want on an ecommerce site, they may cancel a prospective sale. Providing a choice of payment options is an excellent approach to boost mobile conversion rates.
As you can see in the image above, Strikingly offers a dependable set of payment options. Through your website editor, you can go to your “Store Settings”, then click on “Accept Payments”. This allows you to enable payment channels such as Stripe, PayPal, Square, and even offline payment options.
Among this list of ecommerce trends, diversified payment options are one of the most crucial features to add. If your customers find it easy to send payments, they are more likely to buy in the future, thus increasing your sales.
3. Chatbots
Image taken from Strikingly user website
Another crucial thing to look at regarding ecommerce trends is customer service. The key to ecommerce growth is generating customer loyalty and maintaining it. But gone are the days of emails that take days before getting a reply. Chatbots are the next big thing in the ecommerce industry, and it’s something you shouldn’t miss out on.
Chatbots are software programs that simulate a conversation or contact with a real person by imitating written or spoken human communication. Chatbots are most often employed in customer support today, filling tasks that were formerly filled by humans.
Strikingly offers something similar (probably even better than chatbots) called live chat. The live chat feature allows you to respond to customer queries in real-time. This builds trust on their part, and you can slowly build rapport with your customers if you have this added to your online retail store. Moreover, it’s also a great way to get quality leads on your site.
If you take a look at the image above, you’ll see a sample of this live chat function. The website above was also made using Strikingly, so make sure that you use Strikingly tools to achieve something similar for your online store.
4. Social Media Integration
Imake taken from Strikingly user website
One of the most evident ecommerce trends we’ve witnessed this year is the integration of social media services. Social media has always played a pivotal role in marketing strategies. But its advantages extend beyond the limits of promotion. You can also integrate social media into your retail ecommerce store to boost your sales and customer loyalty.
Successful shops sell on any platform and through every channel, and they interact with customers where they spend the most time. For example, Facebook Shops allows companies to establish a personalized online storefront that allows users to search, explore, and buy items. Meanwhile, Instagram has been testing a live shopping feature that allows companies to showcase things in a live stream as users explore the highlighted items.
Apart from these benefits, social media integration is also great for producing dynamic content. Take a look at the image above. It’s a screencap of a website created using Strikingly. To generate dynamic content on their ecommerce website, they added an Instagram feature. This makes their site more appealing. In addition, it also gives their customers more idea about the products and/or services they offer.
5. Editorialized Content
Image taken from Strikingly user website
Recurring ecommerce trends continue to dominate ecommerce website practices. Going into blogging might be the most effective way to drive customers to your website. While it seems unlikely for an online retail shop to have a blog section, it’s absolutely great for your inbound marketing techniques. These practices drive more customers to your ecommerce website, making you more visible to the online market.
For example, Gear Patrol, an editorial marketplace, has carved out a niche for itself at the confluence of selected items, brand partnerships, and highly editorialized content. They've opened the door for other businesses to reach their followers through innovative collaborations and promotions as they've evolved from a product-focused blog to a comprehensive marketplace. If you want to be like them, consider editorializing your content too.
Strikingly allows users to add a blog section to your website. The best part is, you can customize this section any way you want. You can change the design, add images, and optimize the content for both SEO and human readers. Speaking of SEO, Strikingly also has an SEO Checklist. This checklist keeps you on track of SEO practices that you must apply to your ecommerce website. Take note that some functions on the SEO checklist are reserved for Strikingly Pro Users. So consider upgrading from your free account to unlock these features.
6. Performance Optimization
Image taken from Strikingly product
A list of ecommerce trends won’t be complete without functions to improve your online business’s performance. You must have access to analytics tools to measure your progress and compare it to our previous months’ performance. However, ensuring that your online store is fully optimized won’t be easy. Sometimes, you need to subscribe to data analytics services before you can get reliable figures to represent your store’s performance.
An example of a great tool to use is Google Analytics. You can also use Google Chrome to test page performance and mimic bad network situations, such as poor mobile network quality. But if you want to get secure data regarding your sales, Strikingly has a solution for you.
The built-in analytics tool in Strikingly is an entrepreneur’s dream come true. It’s easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to see. You can access your website’s analytics from your dashboard or on the Analytics Settings within the website editor.
Look at the image above as a sample. You can see your revenue and orders received from the past week or month. You can also get an all-time status of all the orders you’ve received and the revenue you’ve made from them. In addition, you can also get look at your sales funnel. This gives a comprehensive assessment of your stores, such as shopping cart abandonment and store page viewers.
Image taken from Striking product
Now that you’ve learned all the ecommerce trends you can use to make a successful retail shop, use Strikingly to add fantastic features to your ecommerce website. Strikingly is one of the best free website builders out there today. You can definitely enjoy it tools and features that both beginners and web professionals can enjoy,
Ecommerce trends define how the online market will transform at present and in the future. As an online store owner, you must keep up with these trends to ensure that you have an edge against the competition. More importantly, if you want to anticipate and apply these trends, you need to have a reliable website builder by your site. The best thing for you to do is to find a website builder that can make your ecommerce plans come to life. Create a Strikingly account today so you empower your business with ecommerce trends.
