Keeping up with the latest eCommerce stats and trends is essential if you’re doing business digitally. Since the eCommerce industry booming and changing massively especially after when it was hit by a natural phenomena that stopped the whole world i.e. COVID-19.
In this article we’ll walk you through the latest eCommerce data and stats to deeply examine the impact of this pandemic on the eCommerce industry. From buying habits to cross-border online shopping, we’ll cover everything.
The bottom line : Everything that turned out to be great for the eCommerce industry in 2020 will not surely work for 2021 as well. However some tactics and trends will give more better results in 2021.
1. Impact of COVID-19 on the eCommerce industry
After the outbreak of Coronavirus everything came to pause. Educational institutes were closed, markets were shut down, and people were restricted to their homes.
Surprisingly, this deadly virus positively impacted the eCommerce industry. It fueled the growth of eCommerce. Companies who were doing business from their brick-and-mortar stores started moving on this digital platform to improve their sales conversion rate.
This online shopify google shopping feed trend will continue in 2021 as well since the pandemic is not over yet.
Furthermore, shoppers purchased from unknown brands.
According to Contact Pigeon, the average products/order increased up to 60%. Around 44% customers tried buying from new brands during the pandemic.
Before COVID-19 customers were quite skeptical about online shopping. However when they got trapped in their houses they were left with no option except shopping online. Today 43% of buyers are highly confident about online shopping.
Despite of COVID-19, 90% shoppers globally make online purchases in 2020 for occasions like Christmas.
Now it’s a really good time to take fullest benefit from this emerging trend to improve your sales conversion rate. Look out for those opportunities which can help you in generating extra sales.
We suggest you to consider cross-selling, up-selling and product bundling. For example instead of just selling plain t-shirts, sell personalized t-shirts along with a free gift or 10% flat off offer.
2. eCommerce advertising
Ranking on top on the most popular eCommerce marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay doesn’t bring sales anymore due to the increase in use of paid ads. Organic search results these days now either appear in the middle and sometimes at the very bottom.
Let’s take a real life example, if you visit eBay you’ll find over 50% search results of sponsored products. Out of which the top 5 get the most clicks.
To thrive in the digital market eCommerce marketers are spending a lot more than before on paid advertisements. But it also comes with plenty of benefits.
Putting ads of products and services on popular marketplaces leaves a positive impact on brand identity, customers, and sales conversion rates.
However, to run successful paid advertisement campaigns eCommerce marketers need an effective durable paid advertisement strategy. Sellers need to understand how much effort they need to put in it.
By effort we don’t only mean the hard work you put into but time and money you invest in it. There’s no need to excessively spend on paid advertisements. Make sure to maintain the balance between investments and obtained results.
3. Changing behaviour of online buyers
eCommerce shoppers are all grown up now. They belong to different age groups. eCommerce marketers should take this factor into consideration before planning campaigns, promotions or communication.
In the UK, people of age group 25-34 spend the most amount of money on online shopping. People over age 65 spent least on online shopping.
The largest group of shoppers in the US were millennials in 2020 according to Statista. Around 5% of people of age group 65+ make their first online purchase due to quarantine practices.
Even though millennials are leading the graph but older customers are now also becoming confident about online shopping because of its ease and comfort.
4. Cross-border purchases
International eCommerce businesses have projected a massive growth in 2020. eCommerce worldwide sales increased by 21% during in January 2020 if compared with 2019 results. According to a research, customers are now showing more interest in international shopping.
International eCommerce is highly effective when paid advertising has reached the pinnacles. Selling products on the international market improves your brand worth and your sales conversion rate.
However, if you are tapping on the international market make sure to use the right tools to make the customer experience good. Use reliable shipment tracking tools and easy return policy to help customers.
5. Payment methods
Online buyers expect convenience and speed when shopping online. It means online vendors need to make the payment procedure simple and easy. Till date, credit cards are most commonly used across the globe as a payment method.
However, there are numerous alternatives that are being found and utilized today. It’s essential to display logos of the popular payment methods at the checkout which you’re providing.
According to Experian, Americans use 4 credit cards for online shopping on average. Out of the 4, Mastercard and Visa are two most commonly used credit cards.
Moreover, 40% of online shoppers prefer using PayPal as a payment method and out of all the social proof, PayPal button captures the most attention of customers according to CLX Institute.
An increase in demand for digital wallets has been projected and 42% customers use digital wallets to pay for online shopping.
6. Free shipping
‘Free’ is certainly a powerful world and captures the attention of everyone. People overvalue things which they get for free. Amazon was quick enough to grab this idea and implement it on their eCommerce store. This tactic automatically brought in more sales.
Deloitte stated that around 85% of shoppers want free shipping. If you check the cart abandonment statistics, you’ll find most of the customers abandon their shopping carts because they didn’t want to pay shipping charges.
However not every eCommerce store can offer free shipping. Free shipping actually is a psychological phenomena, if you can’t afford it you can simply increase the price of your products to cover the shipping rates.
Either you can establish local order fulfillment centers to easily serve your customers.
What to expect from the eCommerce industry in 2021?
2021 has just started. Plenty of new opportunities are yet to be discovered. The eCommerce stats of 2020 clarifies one thing online shopping is here to stay. Online marketers need to stay prepared for upcoming challenges that will come in upcoming days.
The market will become highly competitive so it’s essential for online sellers to pull up their socks and start looking for the new trends that will dominate the eCommerce industry in 2021.
