Trends in ecommerce for 2021

Leveraging ecommerce SEO and other tips

Did you know that global ecommerce sales are forecasted to top $4.9 trillion USD in 2021? Depending on the conversion rates, that’s nearly 7.0 trillion AUD! In this highly competitive market space, if you want your ecommerce store to be successful it needs to not only engage your customers but it also needs to be relevant. One of the best ways to be relevant is to keep your site up to date with the latest ecommerce trends, so let’s take a look at what’s on the horizon for 2021.

Leveraging online shopping platforms

While your ecommerce SEO might be top notch, meaning that your site is receiving plenty of organic traffic from Google, Bing or one of the other search engines, it’s important to consider shopping platforms as part of your marketing strategy too. Google Shopping and Bing Shopping are powerful shopping platforms that can be used to increase traffic to your site very quickly and boost conversions.

Using all your ecommerce SEO knowledge to optimise these campaigns, you can target specific groups of consumers who are interested in your products. Google even states that one company has seen a 188% increase in revenue with their Smart Shopping campaigns.

These shopping ads are shown at the top of a consumer’s browser when they are searching online for your products and are a great way to get to the top of page one without even trying to compete with your competitors for keywords. They are one of the best ways to get your products in front of interested consumers and increase revenue. Google has even introduced free ads for retailers who meet certain criteria!

Other popular shopping platforms are social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Consumers actively purchase products from influencers and brands that either advertise their own products or recommend another brand’s products. A study last year found that nearly 75% of consumers base their purchasing decisions on social media content. Another report found that more than 70% of consumers are more likely to buy products that are recommended on social media.

In fact, selling products via social media is so popular that consumers can click a link in a post and go directly to your ecommerce page and buy the item. This is a great way to leverage impulse buying when people are simply surfing their social media sites.

If you’re not sure how to do SEO for your website, check your website SEO here. The team at GO Creative are a Brisbane based ecommerce SEO company that can assist you in improving your organic traffic.

Customisable products are on the rise

With the popularity of social media sites, consumers are increasingly being drawn towards personalised services and customisable products. Last year, Deloitte research indicated that more than 50% of consumers demonstrated a preference for purchasing customisable products in some categories.

Apparently, price isn’t a barrier and consumers are willing to pay more and wait longer for products that can be personalised. Deloitte found that 25% of consumers had already purchased a holiday that could be customised, 19% had purchased clothing and 18% furniture, hardware and DIY products.

All of this means that you can use your own data about your customers to offer customisable products and take advantage of this rising trend. If you haven’t already collected data on your customers, the simplest strategy is to ask them to complete a survey on your website and social media sites. After all, offering customisable products to your customers shows that you are up to date with this trend, as well as being a very cost effective way to engage your customers and build your brand.

Website optimisation tips: Buy now, pay later

“Buy now, pay later” has always been a popular method of payment, which is why credit cards are so popular. Over the past year or so, however, we have seen a rapid increase in the use of payment offerings, such as Afterpay. This type of payment option is ideal for expensive items because they break down the payments into smaller chunks over several months (usually four or five months). It doesn’t really make sense for cheaper items but given that consumers are often wary of spending a lot of money on expensive items, it makes sense for costly products.

These flexible payment options are a good option for consumers, compared to credit cards, as the payments are interest free. In fact, earlier in the year nearly 5 million consumers in Australia and NZ used either Afterpay or Zip to buy products. Afterpay reported that their figures were up by 26% from its half year results the previous year and Zip reported an 80% increase from December 2018 to December 2019. Of course, there are plenty of other players in the market, for example LatitudePay or Laybuy.

Increase conversions with AR and VR technology

One of the biggest, if not the only, disadvantages of an ecommerce store is that customers can’t hold the products in their hands before they buy. This can result in lower sales and increasing returns. However, with the rapid increase in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology, customers can now hold and feel the products in their hands, delivering a user experience that’s not only authentic, but also very effective. Ecommerce stores can use AR and VR as a brand extension to drive more revenue. The IKEA Place app is a good example of how customers can experience their products before they purchase. According to Goldman & Sachs, the use of AR and VR in retail will reach $1.6 billion USD by 2025, so whilst it’s still in its infancy, ecommerce stores that jump on this technology will be riding the wave towards increased conversions and revenue.

Reducing your carbon footprint

With more and more consumers becoming very environmentally minded, ecommerce stores are in a good position to take advantage of this movement. With no physical store, you’re already ahead of the curve, but the one area where you can make big inroads is with your packaging. An increasing number of ecommerce stores are using recycled or biodegradable materials for their packaging. This approach appeals to consumers who are environmentally aware and specifically looking for this type of behaviour from brands.

Whilst ecommerce SEO is still key to organic traffic, staying on top of current trends is a very effective way to increase traffic, conversions and revenue.

If you are after a free search engine optimization review from the GO Creative team click here to get started, or if you want to learn more about SEO you can view our Google SEO tutorial to see how you can improve your website today.