{"id":2139,"date":"2021-08-12T11:20:28","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T11:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prelive-new.opus.ee\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:12:16","slug":"the-5-e-commerce-trends-that-will-make-or-break-your-store-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/journal\/the-5-e-commerce-trends-that-will-make-or-break-your-store-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 e-commerce trends that will make or break your store in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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The e-commerce space is changing rapidly \u2013 blink and you might miss the next big thing that customers are looking for. Trust us \u2013 we build e-commerce solutions on a daily basis and even we are sometimes taken by surprise by just how fast this space is evolving.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Things that seemed unimportant, unimaginable, or just plain unnecessary just a few years ago are now the things that your customers expect and what drive revenue. So, what are the 5 big things that you should keep in mind when speaking of the near- to long-term future of e-commerce?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Personalization<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

People like to feel important, there\u2019s no question about that. This means that marketers have realized that utilizing a personalized approach to e-commerce is something that can really boost a business. There are a million different ways to personalize a shopping experience for a customer, so it\u2019s important to figure out what works with your client base.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Personalization can be quite simple: marketing automation is the first step in that direction. Sending your customers offers that are tailor-made with their needs in mind is a lot more effective than just sending the same offer to your entire mailing list. However, to truly create well-functioning marketing automation solutions you need data and systems to make sense of that data, so do keep that in mind.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But personalization is not just about sending newsletters that are addressed to the customer, it is so much more. Many large brands have taken the approach to offer tailor-made websites based on their customers\u2019 attributes: if you are a 30-year-old male visiting a clothing retailer\u2019s web store then you\u2019ll see products modeled by other 30-year-old males. If you are a 23-year-old female, then you\u2019ll see products and models that best resemble you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And then there\u2019s also the middle-ground: the webstore the customer is visiting tries to understand who they are and show them the products they are most interested in. However, keep in mind that it\u2019s not as simple as showing the person who has previously bought a frying pan more frying pans \u2013 they already bought one, so probably they\u2019d now like to buy a spatula or some olive oil.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Payments<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Some years ago, it was totally fine to offer your customers the option to pay either via credit card or via bank link. Today, however, the customer expects a lot more. With Apple, Google, and several other technology companies actively developing payment solutions, more and more people expect to be able to use them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As such, it\u2019s worth keeping in mind that the easier you make the payment process for your customers, the higher the chance that they will complete the purchase and not abandon their cart. Today, you should consider adding options for both Apple Pay and Android Pay, but in a year or two, you should also consider the possibility of accepting payments in cryptocurrencies. Today the crypto space is still evolving, but at this moment it seems that it\u2019s not disappearing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Headless<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Headless CMS and headless e-commerce are some of the biggest buzzwords of the 2020s. In essence, it means that that the front-end and back-end are decoupled from one another, and information is relayed between the two via APIs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The headless approach enables some unique options that standard e-commerce solutions just cannot offer. For example, it makes becoming an omnichannel solution a lot easier, it allows bigger freedoms with front-end development, and it opens new avenues for marketing and personalization.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But to be honest, headless e-commerce is a whole separate can of worms that would take a few too many words to accurately describe within this blog post. So, stay tuned!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

VR and AR<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

VR and AR were the big buzzwords of 2015-2018 but have died down a little for now. However, the biggest players on the market haven\u2019t given up on the concept so it\u2019s highly likely that we will see a resurgence, and for good reason. VR and AR offer e-commerce operations unique options to offer their customers the same experience they\u2019d get by visiting an actual brick-and-mortar location.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Do you like these glasses? Try them on with AR! Want those shoes? See how they\u2019d look on you. That\u2019s a nice couch \u2013 let\u2019s see with AR how it\u2019d look in my living room.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, for now, we\u2019d recommend keeping your eyes open. Poorly executed VR and AR solutions are dreadful and scare the customer away, but once it really hits the mainstream, it\u2019s worth to hop on the hype train.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Influencers<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You heard that right, influencers are still around, and they aren\u2019t going anywhere, so it\u2019s about time to include them in your marketing plans and create the technical solutions needed to maximize your gains from affiliate and influencer marketing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The bare minimum you should have is a system for tracking inbound traffic from influencers (e.g., with specialized links) and a system to attribute sales to them (e.g., discount codes), but it can be so much more than that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Nothing\u2019s stopping you from creating nearly fully automated analytics tools to analyze the profitability of your campaigns, systems to administer the payments to your influencers automatically, and basically whatever else you can imagine to make your life easier.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bonus: foldable phones<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Foldable phones are coming, so it\u2019s now time to start thinking about how to use this trend with your store \u2013 what information to show, how to display various elements, and what kind of custom experiences you could create with this additional screen real estate.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Need some help? We\u2019d love to work with you. <\/strong>Opus creates engaging online stores that enable you to sell your products and services online. Using intuitive design and easy-to-navigate functionality not only increases customer purchases within your web store but expands your revenue and customer base. Contact us<\/a>, we\u2019re waiting to hear from you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The e-commerce space is changing rapidly \u2013 blink and you might miss the next big thing that customers are looking for. Trust us \u2013 we build e-commerce solutions on a daily basis and even we are sometimes taken by surprise by just how fast this space is evolving. Things that seemed unimportant, unimaginable, or just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4096,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions\/4096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}