The Changes in E-commerce Over the Years
The e-commerce industry is constantly growing. Brands and companies who have been longing to grow their business have started moving online. It becomes inevitable for brands to keep up with the latest trends at such crucial stages and try to inculcate them into their marketing strategies. With e-commerce on a global rise, companies have been exploring ways to yield them profitability and increase their sales and purchase. It was obvious that e-commerce as the industry is only expected to grow more and more in the coming future. The pandemic restrictionsmust have accelerated the process that begins with the advent of the internet. It went through massive changes and is only expected to grow by a sizable margin for different industries and categories. Has e-commerce changed direction because of the pandemic?
Impact of the Pandemic
on E-commerce
E-commerce during the pandemic witnessed both ups and downs. With the coronavirus hitting every little part of the world, people were worried about their personal finances, investments, and economic well-being. Different e-commerce stores saw varying sales. For some, it was an incredible time to boost customer loyalty and experience, while some suffered huge losses.
E-commerce was widely adopted by people and customers who were hesitant and avoided going out to crowded shopping complexes to meet their needs. People turned online to source their goods and services. With retail shops getting temporarily shut, it was crucial for e-commerce businesses to pick up the pace. Retailers had to adopt various ways to attract more organic trafficto their online stores and pay close attention to marketing and financial budgets. From creating online interactive 3-D content to replicate the experience of buying in stores, adapting a creative e-commerce web design for their page, to explaining the facets of a product in detail and addressing all the concerns of the consumers to make their online shopping experience a smooth sail — e-commerce stores went out of their way to ensure their customers had a satisfactory experience.
The impact of the pandemic on e-commerce trends, which from our perspective is the most crucial for this market:
- Online businesses faced huge uncertainties. Some faced a significant cut in demand, while for some, timely delivery of the products became an important issue.
- The amazing growth in food delivery services associated with restaurant closures will have a significant impact on the catering sector. The need to stay at home has changed consumer habits and this change is undeniably irreversible. Even after ‘return to normal’, consumers are projected to order significantly more from restaurants than before 2020.
- Businesses and stores providing daily door-to-door deliveries flourished and attracted a substantial amount of traffic.
- Breaking barriers to ordering products online. Many sectors trying to convince consumers to buy online previously had a problem persuading customers to order their items without seeing them live. If during a pandemic, we wanted to arrange our home office, we had to order an armchair online. And if we needed new sweatpants, we had to buy them before trying them on. This showed many unconvinced customers that a visit to a brick-and-mortar store is not necessary.
For relatively new and budding sellers and entrepreneurs, the pandemic posed many challenges in terms of generating more revenue, understanding the market ethics, stocking and shipping the products, and basically comprehending the global market.
E-commerce Trends to watch out for in 2021
Given the outcome of the pandemic on the online market, e-commerce successfully bloomed for the most part. The most critical concept for online shop building at this time was UX.
UX, also known as user experience, is how a customer feels while experiencing or coming across a product. UX designis how a product or a service has been designed for a customer who comes across it. It is not limited to the aspects of colours, designs, fonts, frames, or the app’s layout, but also how the product or service shall function.
For a user experience to be effective and provide a meaningful experience to the users, the companies need to research well, engage with their audience, improve on the aspects of accessibility and branding, and enhance the overall user experience.
If companies wish to change their business landscape, for the better, in the coming few years, here are a few UX trends and e-commerce trends they must look out for and implement:
1. Minimalism
No one likes to interact with a brand or a service that is overloaded with information, half of which is non-required and irrelevant. The more concise and to-the-point information the page or service delivers, the better the user experience. Brands should limit the number of elements they add to their page, be aware of the various app design trends prevalent, and try to go as minimalistic as possible. Simplified compositions and highlighting the crucial and best qualities of a product are some ways through which user experience can be improved.
2. Voice Command
With Alexa, Siri, and other virtual assistance services taking over our lives, it is pretty evident that voice command is headed for success in the e-commerce market. It is one of the best app design trends that took the e-commerce market by storm. The shopping experience became more convenient because of the accuracy that is provided by these voice commands. Customers can acquire the necessary information about a product, helping a brand build up its customer base. Another benefit is that voice command can be used hands-free, and therefore is preferred by people for being hassle-free.
3. UX Writing
To create a better UX, companies should opt for improved UX writing. Because customers cannot inspect a product physically, companies need to impart all the relevant information surrounding a product so that customers can know exactly what they are going for. Through brief yet effective UX writing, a brand would be able to communicate with its audience better. They should mention their page’s objective, share pertinent information about their e-shops, and find other attractive ways to promote and present their brand.
What you should know about building an Online Store
With so much diversity and options to explore, building an online store from scratch can be an overwhelming experience. It is not easy to make people feel confident about buying a product or availing themselves of service online unless they experience it physically. You can face various challenges such as:
- Failing to acquire the right traffic for your product or service.
- Lack of resources and online funds can facilitate the growth of the business.
- Gaining the trust of the customers at the beginning of the business.
- Irregular customer base.
- Cyber issues, etc.
However, if one follows the right set of rules and has an organized approach towards the strategies they want to implement, they can ensure long-term success.
More about the trends
“Software house 2021” report:
UX/UI design practices and web service costs