E-Commerce Trends: 2020 and Beyond

As the world of e-commerce grows ever larger and becomes ever more competitive, it's essential to keep a close eye on e-commerce trends. It doesn't matter how mature and well-established your e-commerce website is at the present time: failing to take note of how e-commerce is developing could put you at risk of falling behind your competitors.

Here are some of the e-commerce trends to watch out for as we prepare to move into 2021...

Accelerating Sales Growth

Shopping is one of the most popular online activities. Statista has projected that, by 2021, online sales will have increased to a massive £4.5 TRILLION, up from just £1.3tn in 2014. That represents a threefold growth over a span of just seven years.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most influential factors of the growth of e-commerce. With governments all over the world imposing lockdowns and closing stores, more and more people are turning to the internet to fulfill their purchasing needs. This looks set to be a trend that continues well after the pandemic is over, as people make a lasting behavioural shift to digital purchases, becoming more comfortable with online shopping and contact-free payments. Marketwatch has predicted that penetration rates will increase from the current 15% to 25% by 2025, a 67% increase in just five years.

Mobile Growth

Mobile commerce has risen by 15% since 2019. According to Statista, no less than 73% of e-commerce sales will happen on a mobile device by the end of 2021. It's essential that the e-commerce experience is as good on a mobile device as it is when accessed from a desktop.

Voice Shopping

At the end of 2017, 13% of smart-speaker owners were making purchases by voice alone. This figure is predicted by OC&C Strategy Consultants to grow to 55% by 2022. As voice shopping is of course a purely non-visual experience, online retailers will have to provide customers with the tools they need to use this method.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Augmented Reality (AR)

BusinessWire has predicted that global retailer spending will reach over £7bn per year by 2022, a rise of over £5bn in 2018. Prnewswire projected that over 120,000 retail stores will be using AR technology by the start of 2022. E-commerce retailers should start investing in this technology now in order to be ready for the growing requirements of modern internet shoppers.

Brickweb is, as it has always been for over twenty years, at the cutting-edge of developments in e-commerce technology. Find out more about our services on our website and get in touch with our team to prepare your e-commerce strategy for the future.