Ecommerce is evolving every day. But this year is going to be special for sure. Who has ever thought that from just a smart alternative to physical shopping, ecommerce will be a lifeblood for us in these times? Now ecommerce is not just about mobility & ease of doing shopping, it is a necessity that will become an inseparable part of our lives.

Standing at around $ 3.5 Trillion in the end of 2019, the global ecommerce market is expected to reach more than $4.5 Trillion in this year alone, thus making upto 16% of total retail sales. This gives a clear picture of the rate at which ecommerce is transforming and, in this year, ‘experience’ will be a major driving force for the industry to innovate.

While it’s hard to pin-point a single thing since there are so many things happening in the sector, these 5 things will top the list of ecommerce trends in 2021.

Virtualization will grow exponentially, so will AR

Since people are now spending more time digitally, their preferences are shifting swiftly to value added experiences. Amidst the ongoing social distancing norms, customers are looking for the same kind of experience they used to get while shopping from a retail outlet. With the advent of virtual technologies, ecommerce has found a solution to address this. Now, virtual retail is the new reality where one can view a product in a realistic setting, see features in a 360-degree view, see variants, along with a lot of other possibilities. So now ecommerce is not just a portal where once can just see the product photos, they can now perceive the tangible values, virtually. Integrated AR will add up to the entire experience, making it highly futuristic.

With intuitive technologies becoming mainstream in our daily lives, voice search will dictate a considerable amount of traffic for the ecommerce industry. It will be an integral part of the entire experience game as people now will need the smartest way to filter the most relevant option in the quickest possible time. In an atmosphere where devices can be connected and communicate with each other, voice will literally popularize the concept of ‘digital mall hopping’.

AI and machine learning have been the two pillars on which ecommerce has embarked on the journey of future innovation. In the coming times AI and ML will take ecommerce to new exciting places by getting deep insights about buyers. This will help the retailers to design products and services, target a market precisely, enhance personalization and improve customer service. While this will help the ecommerce players to make smarter choices, it will offer customers with an improved shopping experience.

Chatbots will be the new Concierge

No matter how much we have progressed digitally, a large section still believes that ecommerce lacks the warmth of an in-person greeting of a salesman. With AI enabled chatbots, this problem will be a thing of the past. Playing the roles of a greeter, salesperson and a concierge, Chatbots will allow online stores to communicate with thousands of customers at a time, while offering them personal attention and thoughtful suggestions based on their interests and preferences.

There will be more ways to pay

Paytm, Google Pay, Debit Card, Net Banking, What’s Next? With everything going digital and contact-less a lot of ecommerce players are integrating more options like Apple Pay, PayPal etc so that there is no stone unturned. Another great possibility is the integration of local payment vendor so that a payment is seamless while buying from an overseas vendor.

While these are just some of the broad trends for ecommerce in 2021, a lot more is yet to be explored as the year unfolds itself. But for sure this evolution will be blessing for mankind as we have now started to see how technology can do wonders for us.