Top Retail Trends for Fall 2021

2021 is all about e-commerce. The pandemic has resulted in people working and shopping from their home to stop further spreading of the dreadful disease. Online sales have witnessed a steep increase since 2020. According to estimates put by Shopify, US alone has contributed to $4.89 trillion sales in 2020. By 2024, it is expected to cross $6.39 trillion. When global retail sales market share is concerned, online sales in 2020 had climbed to 18% from 13.36% in 2019. It is expected to touch 21.8% by 2024. This data clearly shows that e-Commerce will only gain more importance in the future. 

What are the top retail trends to note in 2021?

The top trends of this year are as follows ranging from changing consumer attitudes to introduction of novel technologies. 

• Social commerce: Gen Z consumers can be found to a good amount of time on different social media platforms. They find selling products through platforms like Instagram and Facebook to be quite beneficial. It is possible to make product ads to resemble closely that of organic content. This helps engage consumers in huge numbers. Moreover, social commerce helps reduce consumer journeys. It allows them to make direct purchases over the platform without getting redirected to any other online store. 

• Omnichannel: Omnichannel offerings were made by majority of the retailers to their customers, thereby providing secure shopping experience. For example, one such trend noticed is click-&-collect services. This service allowed customers to buy their choice of products over the web. They could schedule its direct collection from the stores at their convenient time for free. 71% of shoppers prefer this shopping mode. 

• AR (Augmented Reality): While shopping, 66% consumers prefer using AR. Retailers can derive hug benefits from its implementation. They can now offer their potential customers with virtual try-ons, product demos and 3D visualizations. This did help to reduce significantly return rates. Employing AR in the retail industry also encouraged conversion rates by about 94%.

• Drive customization with Big Data: Personalization is not possible with ordinary data. Retailers have resorted to clustering. It is to capture vital visitor data as well as to divide consumers into easy to compare subgroup segments. Then entire customer base is divided by multidimensional analysis into small clusters exhibiting similar characteristics. It includes support request frequency, device, shopping cart value, etc. This way, retailers can optimize personalization during the customer’s shopping journey and provide an enjoyable experience. 

• Focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI): Products on several retail sites are suggested mostly based on past shopping experiences. Personalization has been made possible by implementing AI technology in retail business. It allows updating of product descriptions and enabling text in the landing page in real-time. This is done keeping in mind customer’s specific needs. It is also possible to reduce customer’s journey and improve online store navigation with personalized shortcuts. This means, based on consumer’s specific gender or requirements, displaying the products. 

• DTC (Direct-To-Consumer): Retail companies can now consider eliminating intermediaries and sell products directly to consumers by opting for DTC channel. The benefits derived are higher margins, favorable prices, higher market speed, responding quickly to consumer needs, etc. DTC sales in the U.S. alone grew about 45.5% between 2019 & 2020. This year also, the expected growth is approximately 15.9%. 

• Voice commerce: In this case, online sales get boosted with advanced speech recognition technology. Studies conducted have revealed that 60% consumers are already using devices that use voice control. 92% surveyed also responded positively of having knowledge of online search through voice. Voice recognition integration by retailers is suggested within all digital touchpoints. 

• Livestream e-Commerce: Customer representatives can now get in touch with potential customers through live interacting with Livestream shopping. This way, they are able to respond to customer requests, quickly and more efficiently. 

• Sustainability: This is another key trend to check out in 2021. 46% consumers do not feel ecommerce to be a sustainable shopping avenue. 73% feel that high returns rate faced by online retail companies make it unsustainable. 49% believe that shipping and transportation are major issues to sustainable practice. Hence, it becomes more important for online retailers to offer sustainable packaging and environmentally-friendly shipping. 

• Recommerce: It is also referred to as reverse commerce. It involves offline & online selling of various types of used products. This year, eBay has managed to publish its very first Recommerce report. It had surveyed 4,000+ sellers/buyers all over the U.S., France, Germany, Canada and the U.K. 2020 also saw German consumers comprising about 79% visiting eBay to buy used products.