Digital age is a phenomenal time to be alive, when everything is at your fingertips. People went from using yellow pages filled with telephone numbers to having every information one touch away. One of the major shifts was seen in the e-commerce sector. Ecommerce industry has shown significant progress over the past decade. Adapting to the current COVID-19 situations, Ecommerce revenue will be affected for a long time even after the pandemic is over.  

COVID-19 has made people more comfortable and open to online shopping ensuring major safety. The idea of online shopping made people more relaxed as it is easy and provides many advantages like contact-less payment.  

Such diverse and competitive requirements in the E-commerce industry require one to keep up with the latest developments of ecommerce in minute-to-minute updates, and not only ace the game of building a website.  

The USA has also seen major development in e-commerce over the past decade. The USA e-commerce market is predicted to rise over US$ 600 Billion by 2026 from US$ 38.5 billion in 2017.  

In 2019, the sales through online platforms amounted to 343.5 Billion USD. The increasing ease of purchasing through digital platforms has pushed the growth curve in the higher side. By 2024, the market share of Ecommerce is likely to reach 500 Billion USD. 

Here are some E-commerce web development trends that you should be updated with in 2021: 

1. Artificial Intelligence and Chat-Bots

AI has already been in use in e-commerce in the past few years. with emerging technology and better designed algorithms, AI has already become a dominant part in the E-commerce trend in 2020. Advancing in 2021, AI is a leading factor in E-commerce for evaluating the best price, position and many more.  

AI assists ecommerce development companies to process diverse patterns along with distributing channels and consumer actions, boosting the corporation’s sales and marketing activities.  

AI assists chat-bots that run and operate through machine learning to manage a wide variety of interactions and user learning, by understanding the language and comprehending to fulfill the needs of the user instead of just responding to basic queries.  

Chat-bots have been a huge part of AI configuration, helping out both retailers and customers. Over time, chat-bots have become like personal assistants to help you through every step of the way. The increase is much anticipated to hit $1.25 billion by 2025.  

An issue that usually arises while working with Chat-bots is that it can be super costly, but this won’t be an issue for long as chat-bots are getting cheaper, smarter and more popular. 

2. Voice Commerce and Social Commerce  

Walking in a world led with elements like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri has made life so much different and easier than ever before. They have changed and influenced our lives so much by making subtle transition changes such as from ‘typing in’ to ‘speaking out’.  

With such vast increase in use of smart speakers worldwide, voice commerce is expected to reach 18-20% more by 2021. 

Another major eCommerce development trend that you need in 2021 is social commerce, this shouldn’t be neglected to gain the max out of your online business. Proper integration of social media is a well-advised and far-sighted approach that ensures the success of eCommerce websites. 

Read Also: How to Create a Shopping App like Amazon?

Having proper algorithms for marketing and advertising the product with good frequency and engagement enhance the chance of the consumer understanding the entire product much more easily and follow through the steps to purchase the required product. 

Social and voice eCommerce will be one of the key developments to grow in the future of eCommerce by 2021. 

3. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

We live in a generation where almost everyone is aware of augmented reality and virtual reality. It isn’t too far-fetched to recognise them as the most advanced technologies at present time. Introduced just 2 years, AR and VR has now become a centralised part of the current eCommerce web development systems. 

AR/VR has been used all the time for the past 2 years to enhance the shopper’s experience in online store shopping. Going from augmented reality to visualisation and then going forward to 3D replicas. 

When conducted a survey, there were approximately 35% of people who shared that they would be more likely to buy products online, if they could try on a product before actually making the purchase transaction. 

Many businesses have been revolutionized by the evolution of AR/VR over the time, such as shoppers can now imagine how good and desirable the product will look in the real world with AR technology. On the other hand, we have digital reality, which helps in linking the reality/real world and virtual world for an amazing virtual experience. 

4. Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

The list of eCommerce development trends of 2021 will be incomplete without adding PWA, Progressive web apps are one of the key trends in website development. eCommerce stores are always looking for better ways to improve their sales, returns and to enhance the customer experience and service. 

Such criteria issues can be solved with PWA or progressive web apps, as they are generic and are compatible with different operating systems. Reports have concluded that PWA have welcomed 102% more new clients from all browsers and 82% more new clients from iOS. 

These special web applications are specially designed to be filled with incremental progression. PWA can be formed easily by following through the specific procedure, as PWA can also be resembled as a smartphone app. eCommerce development services haven’t used PWA much till its full potential for better user experience. PWA will be much better compared to creating and releasing high-cost native mobile apps. As a lot of money, time and efforts are saved and can be used in much better ways like better algorithms and development. 

5. Weighing Your Options

• Always keep a track of Industry influencers and publications 
• Keep a record of up-to-date analysis and trend reports from the industry 
• Analyse the purchase habits of your customers to achieve most out of digital resources and analytics 
• Get feedback from your customers to ensure better customer satisfaction for future 
• Regularly analyse customer attrition and focus on new customer experience 

Wrap Up 

The pace of digital transformation after the COVID era has been overwhelming. User-centric platforms are making the purchasing process easier for customers sitting at home.

Following the above listed eCommerce development trends in 2021, will take you and your company to new heights and have the leverage with the power of online business to boost your retail sales by opting to sell online.  ConsultingWhiz, As a custom eCommerce development company in USA, we have some of the best developers who are equipped with the latest technologies and they stay abreast to be updated and keep your business e-store updated and on the point all the time with the best eCommerce trends for future.