The Top 6 E-Commerce Trends for 2021

August 22, 2022

Flixmedia

A Walker study found that, at the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.

E-commerce is a rapidly changing industry with new players and technologies constantly being introduced to help scale and elevate brands and retailers. The customer experience (CX) sits at the heart of all the key trends we have listed in this blog, showing that the overall CX of a website is crucial to boosting conversion and generating sales.

From CGI content creation to sustainability, immersive experiences to video and animation, we have covered the top trends you should consider when planning your e-commerce strategy for 2021.

1. Sustainability is more important than ever

The last two years have seen enormous natural disasters from hurricanes to forest fires that have displaced many around the world. The continuous reporting of this has created a society that is much more eco-conscious than ever before. The average shopper will understand the environmental impact of their behaviour and will consider this awhen making purchasing decisions.

Due to this, it has become increasingly important for retailers and brands to put a focus on sustainability within their operations and show customers that they share similar values.

According to Yocuda, product returns cost UK retailers around £60bn a year! Product returns can be incredibly draining on margins and are not a contributing factor in a brand’s sustainability endeavours. Brands and retailers can look to reduce their return rates by offering rich content on product pages such as immersive Augmented Reality experience or engaging branded product information.

On a more practical level, being able to offer customers a way to explore products without having to drive a car, i.e through Augmented Reality, is one-way brands and retailers can be more eco-conscious.


2. AR enhances the reality of online shopping

Customer returns cost the UK economy £60bn every year! Over 51% of online retailers state that processing ‘free’ returns is squeezing their margins like never before. Using Augmented Reality to create a digital ‘try before you buy’ immersive experience for customers is proven to drastically reduce return rates.

This, however, is not the only use for AR in e-commerce. As many of the world’s biggest brands who use Flixmedia AR have experienced, utilising Augmented Reality to create a unique experience for customers that increases dwell time and gives an ‘offline’ experience online can significantly boost conversions and aid growth.

We expect to see more brands and retailers use AR creatively to help engage customers and generate sales.

3. Video is here to stay

Whether you are marketing on social media or through paid channels, video has long been a well used and engaged media. This trend is definitely not going to slow down in 2021. In fact, the quality of videos we are seeing on product pages and landing pages is constantly improving.

Videos are a great way to inform the customer about your product benefits, explain the production process and boost dwell time too. You can syndicate your product videos across our network of over 1,600 retailers across the world and ensure that wherever your product might be, customers are enjoying the fully immersive experience of your brand.

4. Digital strategy should be optimised for conversion

What is a digital strategy without conversion, right? With an overall increase in Internet traffic due to us all browsing more in lockdown, ensuring that your traffic is turning into revenue is key for 2021.

Whether you are driving traffic to your website from social media, search results or other websites, being able to understand where your traffic is coming from is crucial. Products such as Flixmedia’s traffic source dashboard can help you identify the source of your traffic to help inform your strategy.

Once on-site, making sure your customers dwell on content that is informative and engaging is critical to helping customers convert. Flixmedia’s Hotspots and INpages give retailers and brands great tools to pull customers in, educate them on a product and reduce the time spent in the consideration stage of the buying cycle.

5. CGI content creation

Did you know that 75% of Ikea’s product imagery is made on a computer? Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) offers a cost-effective way to create stunning product images through 3D renders that engage your customer without faff.

Very popular within the furniture and beauty industry, CGI product images offer unlimited options to show your products in the best possible surroundings, whether thry be a fridge, TV or sofa!

6. On-site personalisation

According to Kibo, ‘Marketers see an average increase of 20% in sales when using personalised experiences.’ As brands grow, they start to amass a wealth of data, from browsing behaviour and purchasing history to demographics and personal data. Brands and retailers can now use this data alongside AI technology to recommend specific products to customers, which helps make the shopping experience feel very personalised. Individual customers feel as though the brand or retailer is taking the time and effort to create a unique shopping experience, soon to be a reality as the usage of AI increases; this in turn helps boost conversions and brand loyalty.

Whether you are looking to integrate immersive AR experiences for your products pages or want to utilise insights to create informative and engaging shopping journeys, we at Flixmedia can help.

Trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands and retailers, we help turn browsers into buyers by enriching customer experiences across retailers.

Discover our product suite today!

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