The most important challenges for e-commerce in 2021

Vaccine ≠ return to the situation before 2020
Nearly half of internet users plan to shop online more frequently after the pandemic ends. While the increase in online sales today is mostly driven by consumers who have already started their e-commerce journey, 2021 becomes the final year for businesses that have decided not to explore the e-commerce opportunities.
One of the topics in 2021 may be the dilemma of whether to invest in the development of e-commerce or invest in the development of traditional stores? Many companies may think that thanks to the vaccine an investment in e-commerce in 2021 may not make sense. It is wrong! According to Euromonitor, by 2024, 22% of consumer spending will be spent on e-commerce. It is e-commerce that will be the main driver of a continued turnover and profit growth in the B2C Market.

Omni-Channel Client Experience and Client Behavior
Almost 25% of users in US / UK use price search engines to choose the right product. For brands, this means that in many markets, the so-called “price sensitivity” will be even more visible.
Consumers in the context of the economic crisis will become more sensitive to the choice of a product, given its price. It is also very strongly related to e-commerce and the way the brand iscommunicating across different channels, understanding the message of core values, benefits and USP will be extremely important. However, many consumers looking for the lowest price will have the opportunity to compare a more expensive product with one that is priced lower.
Their decision will probably not always be positive for the cheapest, some consumers may be convinced of the benefits of the more expensive with a better brand consistency. Therefore, content and personalized consumer multi-channel experience in e-commerce will be the main success factor in e-commerce businesses.

Scalability
Globally, the largest increases this year for e-commerce (excluding the Chinese market) were in the grocery category. In the US and UK markets, grocery store subscriptions have become more popular than music streaming subscriptions.
Consumers forced to buy their everyday items online have found that they can do it just as they would in traditional shops, sometimes with even greater convenience and, above all, security. The grocery trend (online grocery shopping) will stay with us longer, setting an even greater challenge for many businesses in terms of scaling their services.
The questions are already being asked: how to manage the entire supply chain of fresh products to small towns and villages? How to improve the availability of sales of everyday items with a high frequency of purchase?

Exporis eCommerce Team