Heading into 2021, the Ecommerce industry is certainly on the rise. Despite a difficult year for many sectors, the Ecommerce industry has managed to find solutions to aid their businesses, whilst providing consumers with better services and experience. The technology and devices at the disposal of users is enabling them to interact and purchase goods from wherever, whenever. We'll be looking at some of the Ecommerce trends making noise in the industry in 2021. 

Ecommerce giants such as Amazon have provided consumers in recent times with the ultimate experience. Enabling them to one-touch purchase, receive next day delivery whilst offering them on-demand services such as Prime Video and Prime Music. 

Ecommerce is looking to develop something quicker than a one-touch purchase, which opens up a range of possibilities going into the new year. 

Advanced Customisation 

What better way to add your very own touch to products you buy? Customise them! From trainers, to outerwear to accessories, there are many ways you can customise the products you purchase. 

The option to customise your product isn't a new trend, but your ability to provide last-minute personalisation at an decent cost is. 3D customisation and printing is changing manufacturing and fulfilment processes to provide quick customisations at the end of the product journey. With more and more 3D printers becoming available, could we see 3D printing as the norm in 2021?

Omnichannel Shopping To Become The New Normal? 

The channels available to consumers to conduct their shopping activity has increased, as you can now shop via social media channels. With the rise in voice assistants, it is likely that the number of omnichannel customers is likely to rise in 2021. 

Analytics tools will help brands to keep on track of customer behaviours. Being able to identify the current products on demand, the most active channels, profits and evaluate customer loyalty. By gathering the necessary insights, it will help brands know exactly what their customers are looking for and provide the right shopping experience. 

Optimising websites for mobile is a good way to engage customers, perhaps through an app. Giving consumers purchase options is also another good way to offer a seamless omnichannel experience. 

• Buy online, pick up in-store 
• Buy in-store, choose home delivery 
• Buy online, get doorstep delivery 

Smart Home Assistants 

Smart home devices are playing the role of ‘helper’ across many households in the UK. They’re convenient and playing a key role in getting through day-to-day duties. 

Smart home devices such as Alexa and Google Home have proved a popular option in recent times for calling a friend, playing your favourite song and providing a weather update. They're quietly being used in Ecommerce too. Instead of going to the store and purchasing your chosen items, or purchasing through a click, we could be seeing the start of voice related purchases. 

According to research, around 20% of smart speaker owners use them for shopping-related activities. This figure is expected to jump to 52% within the next four years.

TV Shopping To Emerge?

We’ve all seen adverts where we just wish we could purchase that product on our screens at that moment exactly. We could be seeing the regular introduction of shoppable TV ads emerging in 2021. 

Smart televisions have provided viewers with endless options to enhance their viewing experience. Just like consumers can shop from a tablet or their mobile phone, we could be shopping from our televisions soon. If you're watching a sport and like the look of your favourite athlete, you could purchase their gear there and then! NBC rolled out a shoppable TV ad in 2019.

Offline Ecommerce To Surge? 

What if eBay or boohoo had a shop on the high-street? That’s starting to become a reality! 

The Ecommerce industry is booming currently and this is rapidly catching up with traditional retail sales on the high street. There’s a growing trend of Ecommerce stores having a physical store. Amazon is an example of this as they have a chain of physical stores. Amazon Go Grocery have physical stores which customers can visit and pick up their groceries. 

In 2021, we could see real emergence of Ecommerce brands on the high street, bringing the internet to life. 

Artificial Intelligence Retaining Customers

Artificial Intelligence is already being used to enhance the customer experience and gain insight into buying habits. AI has also helped greatly when dealing with customer queries; with the introduction of Chatbots. 

With the intelligent algorithms, this will enable brands to analyse current trends alongside their  products, sales channels and buyer behaviours to identify the best channels, time and price to list  their products. This in result, could  save hours of creating graphs and writing reports, and will help brands to accelerate sales and boost profits.

2020 has been a year of difficulties, but the Ecommerce industry and those involved in it are excited to see what the future holds. As we have seen the beginning of various trends starting to unfold, 2020 has taught us to expect the unexpected. Some of these trends may be arriving in 2021 or maybe later, but preparing for them and aligning strategies in line with them, will ensure businesses are on track and not left behind. 

2020 has been a tough year for all, however, by adopting change and quickly, ensured that businesses saw growth and results. We’ve seen some of these trends slowly emerge in 2020 and 2021 may prove to be the year of transformation for the world. 

With the likes of Artificial Intelligence likely to provide an even more unique and efficient customer journey, the limits seem endless!