2020 was a trying year for the retail industry in many sense. Offline retail is one of the hardest pandemic-hit industries, yet at the same time, online retail has never been bigger as more consumers opt to have their shopping delivered.
If there is one thing that is guaranteed, it’s that change is inevitable, and those who want to keep their business competitive must learn to adapt to the new practices and technological trends. As the year draws to an end, it’s only fitting to anticipate the emerging retail trends in 2021.
Conversational Commerce
Conversational commerce has been talked about as one of the top retail experience trends for 2020 and beyond although the concept originated in 2015 when it was introduced by Uber’s Chris Messina. The gist of conversational commerce is to utilise technology (such as in the form of messaging apps) in order for business or brands to start and maintain conversation with customers.
Maintaining relationships with your target market is the heart and soul of social media marketing, but conversational commerce takes that to a whole new level. It works to deliver real-time conversation and customer service as a point of sale. This enables customers to make purchases through the app itself, shortening the buying journey for the customer while providing quality human experience that connects customers to the brand.
Some businesses also choose to employ advanced chatbots, which makes customers feel like they are talking to a human representative. See our blog here to learn more extensively about how conversational commerce works and why you need to integrate this to your business.
Social Commerce
Social Commerce is somewhat related to conversational commerce with the key difference that shopping is done straight from the social media platform. The protocols on limiting social movement has made online shopping formidable at this time and social commerce is one way to capitalise on this trend.
Rather than leaving social media to visit a third-party ecommerce site, users can make their purchase right in the social media site (or app) itself.
In 2019, Snapchat introduced the ‘shop’ button for publishers and the in-app stores for influencers, and expanded that with their Native Stores for brands; popular social media platform TikTok partnered with global ecommerce giant Shopify; and in early 2020, Facebook also introduced Facebook Shops, which cater brands and offer personalised shopping. Just recently, Instagram has also adapted the Social Commerce retail trend, as well, visible through to their addition of “Shoppable” posts.
Offline spaces with online stores
More and more digital native brands that started online opted to have a physical presence. While the pandemic slows the opening of physical stores, many consumers still want to physically check out the items they have seen online.
In September 2020, Amazon capitalised on this with their Fresh Grocery Store, which promises seamless grocery experience, both online and offline.
Offline stores with delivery services and in-store pickup
Traditional brick-and-mortar stores may be struggling, but many have found a way to stay relevant amid pandemic by offering delivery services of their goods.
The good thing about many major supermarkets and is that they offer common products in different locations. This allows them to offer grocery deliveries to every corner of any neighbourhood.
Such stores also offer in-store pickup, such as Walmart; the retailer started this trend even before the pandemic. Customers can place their orders online and then pick up their items from the stores.
New age of influencer marketing
For years, businesses have been partnering with influencers to market their brands. Most people’s concept of influencer marketing involves stylised images and curated captions. This will change this year as there has been a drastic shift on how brands and influencers work together.
Consumers now look for authentic and trustworthy brands. They want genuine, real, raw, and sometimes even relatable people. Thus, brands will need authentic content from genuine influencers that best represent their target audience.
Super-fast (same-day) delivery on the rise
There are many reasons why Amazon is winning in the online retail game, one of which is their Prime Free Same-Day Delivery. While this is far from a new concept, e-commerce websites have only realised its power in the last couple of years. It will only become more powerful as a retail trend in the coming year as customers’ expectations for brands are higher (and faster) than ever before. As a matter of fact, many companies are fulfilling this with new technologies, such as drone delivery.