How to have a successful ecommerce strategy in 2021

Since Covid-19 and lockdowns made it difficult to get to a brick-and-mortar shop in 2020, more consumers turned to ecommerce stores to purchase their goods.

In fact, according to a study conducted by Alvarez & Marshal, 17.2 million UK consumers are expected to now make permanent changes to their spending habit, which is great news for those selling online.

This made ecommerce a hot topic worldwide in 2020. Since many countries are still in a lockdown (UK included), it is likely ecommerce will continue to be an important topic of conversation for the majority of 2021 as well. So, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon of ecommerce and have a successful year.

Here are our top tips on how to create a successful ecommerce strategy for 2021.

Consumer’s desire instant gratification – feed it

Consumers are impatient by nature, when they are used to picking something up in a brick-and-mortar store and having it there straight away it can be difficult to grasp the concept of waiting for a delivery.

Feed this need by trying to provide next day delivery, click and collect and any other fast delivery and dispatch methods. Consumers also love free delivery, so, if you can, offer this to your customers to increase sales.

Consumer’s need for instant gratification also means a simple, fast checkout procedure so that they can finish ordering and paying quickly.

According to Baymard’s Institute, 23% of consumers will abandon their shopping basket if the checkout procedure is long and complicated. This shows the importance of a simple checkout processes to avoid losing sales.

Personalisation is key

More and more, consumers love to see personalised content tailored to their needs. Whether this is in the shape of recommendations of products based on previous buying habits, or a simple Hello (first name) when they log in to their account with you.

Personalised content helps to make the consumer feel special and valued and will also help build the trust between and you and them. This will in turn help to increase their overall lifetime value when shopping with your brand, as well as form a connection that may encourage others to shop with you via referrals.

Look at your consumer shopping habits, are there common themes in searches? If so, you could consider creating a collection using these keywords.

According to a study carried out by Accenture, 91% of consumers stated they would buy from companies if they provided personalised content and offers. This links into nicely to our next ecommerce strategy for 2021; existing customer loyalty.

Focus on your existing customers

You may be tempted to focus your attention on attracting new, fresh leads to increase your customer base. But, did you know, it costs fives time as much to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one?

So, make sure you show some love to your existing customers. This could be in the form of a loyalty scheme, a discount code, or even more personalised content. Showing your existing customers your gratitude and that they are valued will help them feel special and encourage them to stick with your business.

Make sure you are ready for an increasingly mobile world

It is believed that by the end of the year, it is estimated that mobile purchases will make up a total of 73% of total ecommerce purchases. This means to have a successful ecommerce strategy in 2021, mobile must play an important part.

Mobile ecommerce has been a trend we have seen a gradual increase of in the last few years. However, with the help of Covid-19 and lockdowns this trend has risen much more rapidly during 2020.

Ensuring your ecommerce platform is optimised for mobile is a crucial step towards being successful in 2021. This means ensuring your images and videos are optimised, that your website pages have fast loading times amongst many other factors. Making sure your ecommerce platform is mobile friendly will help increase your sales no end.

Invest in AI

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is rapidly becoming a popular trend in ecommerce platforms and online in general. It can be used in a variety of different ways from customising content for the consumer based on their previous purchases to helping you automate more processes, making your life easier and helping you to cut costs.

AI is a natural next step in the world of ecommerce as it opens a variety of options for you and your consumer.

According to Juniper Research, it is expected that global retailers will increase AI spend to $7.3 billion by 2022. This means that now is the best time to invest in this technology if you haven’t already.  

AI isn’t just about implementing new processes, it can help you learn about your customer experience, what is the most common searches, what is the optimal time for product launches and sales and so much more.

You could also implement a chat bot so that your consumers can have their questions answered immediately, rather than waiting on the end of a phone line or for a response to their email.

Alternatively, you can add a feature which captures what consumers are searching for and spending the most time on.

From there the opportunities are endless; you can send push notifications to consumer’s phones with the latest offers, or you can customise their view when they next log on to your site, with their top searched for products. As you can see it is not only a great tool for processes and automation it can also be a great sales tool.

Make sure your ecommerce strategy is the strongest it can be in 2021. With our strategy development we can help you create and implement the most suitable and personalised ecommerce strategy for you.

We understand that strategies are not a “one size fits all” model which is why we look at each company as an individual and create a plan around their brand and their values.

To learn more about developing an ecommerce strategy for 2021, speak to our award-winning team.