E-Commerce in 2021: Planning For The Future

E-Commerce has been catapulted into a new light in 2020. What was once a luxury is now a necessity.

The COVID-19 pandemic impact has led to enormous profit losses for any bricks-and-mortar company that doesn’t have an accompanying website.

Meanwhile, those that were already established on the web have seen huge improvements to their bottom line.

The reality is, the world isn’t going to quickly move away from the ‘stay at home’ attitude that’s engulfed the entire year, which is great for anyone solely trading online. But what will happen to the E-Commerce market in 2021, and how can we prepare ourselves for it?

COVID-19’s Impact on E-Commerce

Coronavirus has transformed our everyday lives. With the high streets closing, with very little notice, E-Commerce had to adapt pretty much overnight.

One research estimates that over the initial 8-week period of the pandemic, the online retail sales share was up by 13%.
And in May, Adobe reported that total online revenue was up 77% year on year, reaching $82.5billion.

These are figures that can’t be ignored.

With the shift to online, studies estimate that online sales will count for at least 40% of all retail sales by 2028. So if you’re already set up online, you’re at a huge advantage. For anyone lagging behind, the time to act is now: 2021 could be your best year yet.

Futureproofing Your Business for 2021 & Beyond

If you want to survive in the post-pandemic world, it’s not just your social lives, shopping habits, and the ability to keep the kids entertained at home that need to be improved.

Your business will quickly be left behind if you don’t start planning for the future right now.

There’s no knowing when the pandemic will be over, and this isn’t the only reason people turn to online shopping: Bad weather conditions, busy schedules, and even bargain prices are all factors customers will look at when choosing to shop online or in-store.

So what can you do to future proof your business?

Focus on Customer Loyalty

Rather than spending the majority of your marketing budget on lead generation and new customers, start focusing on Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). It costs five times more to find a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. By focusing on your current customers, you can actually increase profits by anywhere from 25–95%. And who wouldn’t want that?

It would be best if you gave your customers a reason to buy more and shop more frequently. You can easily do this by creating a loyalty scheme. This will help you keep your customers for longer while rewarding them for sticking around.

Create a Brand & Community

For a business to succeed online, you need more than just a ‘sell, sell, sell’ approach: You need to build a community. As we mentioned in our guide for marketing to millennials, people are looking at much more than your products’ prices.

The best way to sell your brand or product in today’s climate is to sell an experience: How does your product positively impact their life?

And, once you’re over the first purchase hurdle, you’ll need to keep your customer loyal by matching their values. If your business is working to be more sustainable or already uses only certified vegan ingredients, shout about it! The easiest way to build your community is by providing a fully transparent business that taps into current trends. Customers are looking for a brand that matches their own values and will be more than happy to recommend your business to their friends and family if they’re impressed.

By showing who your company is, you’ll gain a nice group of brand ambassadors that will shout about your great work for you, for free!

Don’t Forget About Newbies

Customer retention isn’t all about keeping the customers you’ve already got, either. You still need to have a great acquisition plan in place to attract new business.

Unfortunately, the competition online is becoming incredibly saturated. Using paid media on social threads is likely to be much more expensive than it used to be. That’s why you need to get smarter with your money and only put your budget behind ads you know will work. You can easily figure out the best options for your business using A/B Testing.

Continue the Customer Journey Post-Purchase

As we mentioned in our Online Shopping Journey guide, your relationship with a customer does not end at the ‘order delivered’ phase. By continuing the journey, you can add in some cross-selling, enhance your customer retention and gain a much better customer satisfaction rate.

You can utilize a number of tools to retain customers by offering personalized recommendations to them, replenishment notifications (for when they’re nearing the end of their previous purchase) and even enhancing your returns process.

Uh oh, returns.

Returns are inevitably part of the customer journey, no matter how much you want to avoid it. That being said, more Return solution software is coming into the market to help you manage returns in a positive and seamless way. Rather than spending all your time refunding returns, restocking items and feeling pretty deflated, software like ReturnGO can provide your customer with a self-service return process that benefits both your bottom line and their customer experience.

ReturnGO will ask your customer a series of questions to understand why they’d like to return their order. Using this data, the software will provide the customer with store credits if they cancel their return request. They can also choose to donate the item or send it back later.

All of this helps to keep your customers happy, while also encouraging them to come back and spend more at your store. Plus, as we know, younger customers hate having to email or call to process a return, so this self-service option will really appeal to the younger audience.

Analyze Your Customer Journey

In order to future proof your business, you need to understand your current downfalls. By analyzing data from each touchpoint within the customer journey, you can see where engagement is dropping and work to improve it.

Using the data in front of you will always work out better than going on ‘gut instinct’.

Make it Personal

Personalization has been a key phrase whizzing around the E-Commerce world for a few years now, and it’s only becoming more and more important. We’ve written about it here.

Shoppers are now open to shopping pretty much anywhere online. This means you’ll need to be available pretty much anywhere online…

The first part of personalization was mobile optimization. But now, almost every website can be viewed on both desktop and mobile without any issue. Now, the stakes are much higher.

Integrating your website into your social feeds is a quick and simple way of becoming omnipresent. From this, customers will be able to shop your products without even leaving their social feeds. By breaking down purchase barriers like re-directing them to your website, customers are more likely to tap away and make a purchase.

Similarly, customers are reported to be 75% more likely to buy from your business if your website is personalized to them on the welcome page. If you can have your website recognize the customer by name, or recommend new products based on their purchase history, you’ll need a huge increase in your profits and retention.

Reviews & User Generate Content

While Influencer marketing is still a huge trend that can work for businesses, we’ve already seen a decline in the use of mega influencers. Now, a new strain of ‘micro-influencers’ is taking charge because customers can easily tell the difference between a genuine review and a paid promotion. Customers are looking for authenticity and will actively search out reviews of brands before adding to their basket.

So, make sure your customers are reviewing your products: After they’ve completed their purchase and it’s been delivered, send them a quick email asking them for a review. It’s not going to work every time, but there will be some customers willing to give you a few minutes of their time to benefit other shoppers.

Similarly, encourage customers to take photos of their orders. Whether it’s on their own social media, or they send them to you in a review, user-generated content not only saves you a pretty penny in promotional assets but also makes your brand look more genuine and loved.

Improve Flexibility… If You Can

If there’s one trend the pandemic has brought back into the limelight, it’s Click and Collect. People are looking for fast and immediate delivery, which can be costly and difficult for smaller businesses to offer. But, Click & Collect is a really easy way to get around this issue.

By increasing flexibility, we don’t mean you have to include free 24-hour delivery. But, put the ball back in the customer’s court: If they want a faster delivery, they can choose to express options that cost more than standard shipping. Flexibility shouldn’t have to cost your business.

The Future Is Here: For Those That Are Ready

So, these are just a few of the ways you can get your business ready for 2021. For some, there will be a steep learning curve, while others are on their way to being future-proof already. The pandemic has certainly meant businesses have had to up their game in a very short space of time. And if you’ve managed to keep afloat, it’s time to keep going, keep innovating and keep doing what you do best.