Ecommerce brings a number of advantages to simple, boring businesses and allows them to make a mark even with meagre resources. Can you believe the projection that by the year 2040, 95% of purchases, no matter what kind of, will be made online?
Moreover, statistics show that in just about 4 years, that is from 2017 to the end-2020 the online purchases of different services and products doubled. They went from $2.3 trillion to a staggering $4.5 trillion, and that’s not it because it is expected to rise 15% every year.
Therefore, striking at the right time and the right place will give you better chances of seeing a boom in your business life as well. The article is going to address this very problem and will help you to tackle it efficiently.
The article will talk about 13 must-know eCommerce statistics for 2021.
Let’s get started!
Number of global digital buyers
As per the estimates, the world will have 2.05 billion online buyers by the end of 2020. That is more than 25% of the whole world’s population which is currently around 7.7 billion.
Moreover, things are not going to stop there yet! The number is expected to touch 2.14 billion in 2021. Now, this sounds like a market you don’t want to miss.
Therefore, it is the right time to start an online business and learn eCommerce strategies. The online shopping trend is on the ever-increasing trend and you should not miss this opportunity.
Share in total retail sales worldwide
The German E-commerce business is, already, slowly taking over the retail businesses. Although right now there is a mix of stores that are retailing services or products completely online and those which are not relying even a bit on online platforms, things are changing fast.
E-commerce has already taken a big portion of retail sales. In 2020, 15.5% of the retail sales made worldwide were via eCommerce platforms and this number is going to skyrocket in the coming years.
It is expected that in 2021 this share is going to rise to 17.5% or more, offering opportunities to especially new entrepreneurs.
What percentage of German businesses have an eCommerce footprint?
Do you know, Ecommerce in Germany is expected to be worth 103.4 billion euros at the end of 2020. With this much number of reluctant businessmen, it is an opportunity for newcomers and existing eCommerce entrepreneurs to capitalize on this situation.
Moreover, there are so many easy-to-use tools to get you going. Therefore, the field is wide open and is ideal for stepping into. Looking at the current situation, stepping in doesn’t require you to invest a lot of resources into the eCommerce presence of your business.
Available 24/7
Among so many reasons to shop online for services and products, the top most reason is that you can shop 24/7. According to a survey, this reason was chosen by the highest number of customers.
Other reasons included lower prices, shopping more in less time, multiple digital wallets, and the convenience of not having to leave your bed. Therefore, the ease provided by the eCommerce platform is a major factor in attracting an audience.
Moreover, there are a number of ways to offer this convenience. For instance, one way is that you can approach your customers directly, instead of waiting for them to visit your eCommerce store, by utilizing the social media platforms.
Easy price comparisons
This is one of the major things to look out for because a significant amount of visitors will resort to price comparisons before finally making a payment. A whopping 65% of shoppers visit multiple platforms before making up their minds.
Now eCommerce has just made things simpler for both the retailers and the customers. Retailers don’t have to maintain large inventories or supporting staff, hence allowing them to cut down the price. On the other hand, the customers can easily compare two services or products (e.g. portable monitors) by just using their smartphone or PC.
Tip: Try to get your services or products visible on pages that compare different products because an overwhelming majority of customers are visiting these pages.
Online research habits
This is another key reason why someone uses an eCommerce platform to search for required services or products. A staggering 81 percent of customers have a habit of researching products online before finalizing anything.
E-commerce platforms provide this clear edge over conventional physical stores. Even the visitors of conventional physical stores most of the time consult online platforms while standing in the store to decide the matters.
Therefore, your products and services on the eCommerce platform should be properly managed with high-quality images, good descriptions, and catchy titles.
Customer relation is another key factor to keep an eye on while initiating any business. E-commerce platforms provide easy opportunities to build better customer relations through multiple interaction opportunities.
Customers tend to believe and trust not businesses but a group of people running that business and hence the brand name and logo become a symbol of trust.
As per the surveys, people tend to trust businesses that are open to criticism and negative reviews and deal with such situations in a positive manner. Therefore, establishing a positive and smooth customer relation is going to develop trust in the customers, which will in-turn have multiple benefits for you.
For example, if you run some local and offline services, e.g. professional clearing services in Munich, you still should go online with its promotion.
Consumer experience
Can you believe, 80% of the customers will not do business with a company just because of a poor customer experience? Customer experience includes everything ranging from the first thing that a customer sees when he opens your website till the last correspondence even after the purchase process has ended.
Investing in a better business hosting platform, and visual outlook of your eCommerce store would be the first thing to consider in this domain. Moreover, the ease of placing orders, checking back on things, user-friendly layout and options, are all things that can enhance the user experience.
Low conversion rate
Even though the number of online buyers has increased more than ever in the last 4 years, do you know who much potential is still there? This can be well understood by a statistic related to the conversion of the eCommerce visit into a successful purchase.
You would be surprised to know that only 2.86 percent of visits on the eCommerce platforms are actually converted into a successful purchase. This means 97.14% percent of visits are there for you to work on.
In simple words increasing this conversion from 2% to even 4% will literally double your sales and that is a huge improvement. You should be on a constant lookout for the factors that are hindering a rise in your conversion rate and should address them on a priority basis.
Abandoned shopping carts
Related to low conversion rate is another statistic and that is of abandoned shopping carts. Of the 97.14% visits that were not converted into successful purchases, around 70% went too far to be missed by you. 70% of visits had added things to the cart but for some reason didn’t press the final buzzer.
You can work on optimizing your checkout process to reduce the cart abandonment percentage. Most probably if someone has added things in their cart then it means they like the product, its price, and other things associated with it. But why didn’t they make the purchase?
May the checkout process have issues, they might not have enough payment options or you failed to instill trust in their hearts allowing them to back away.
However, you can still follow-up the customers via emails or any other way of notifications, reminding them of their cart, with a hope that they will return one day.
Omnichannel capabilities
It is common for eCommerce businesses to have a presence on more than one channel to communicate and advertise to the customers. However, the future is one step ahead of this, that is instead of one or two channels, your eCommerce business has to have an omnichannel presence.
As per the surveys right now 52% of the eCommerce platforms have omnichannel capabilities, that is they are utilizing every kind of social media, eCommerce SEO, streaming services, mobile, and web channel to advertise and communicate with their customers.
Therefore, the integration of newer trends and ways to establish communication are vital for your eCommerce business and must be used to the full extent.
Large eCommerce marketplaces
Large marketplaces are already established and have great customer attention. eCommerce businesses can make use of their wide reach to establish their own brands before launching a standalone platform.
Customers tend to trust and know these large marketplaces, so you don’t have to work on that for starters. As per the statistics, nearly half (48%) of the customers head towards large marketplaces right away.
Therefore, you can utilize the brand appeal these large marketplaces have and work on other aspects without worrying about customer trust and reach. Some of the famous such places are Facebook, Alibaba, Amazon, and many more.
Mobile eCommerce
It is expected that by the end of 2021, 72.9% of eCommerce or digital sales will be made on smartphones. So, are you prepared or have you made necessary arrangements for your presence on mobile platforms?
Android, iOS, ChromeOS, HuaweiOS are the most famous smartphone platforms used by almost 98% of smartphone users in the world. Therefore, to reach them you need to make sure that your eCommerce business is present on these platforms as well.
You just have to intelligently modify your website store to fit the small smartphone screen. Moreover, an app is also a must-have item for smartphones.
The age group that make use of eCommerce platforms
Although it is listed in the end this is not something that should be ignored even for a bit. Before starting your eCommerce business you should learn about the potential age group that uses eCommerce platforms the most.
Not surprisingly, the Millennials and the Gen X age group spends the highest time on eCommerce platforms as compared to more younger and older customers.
Millennials and Gen X age groups range from 20 years up to 50 years. Therefore, select products and services for your products to suit the needs and demands of this age group.
More concretely, this age group spends around 6 hours per week on eCommerce platforms as compared to 4 hours per week by younger ones. Whereas seniors spend about 2.5 hours per week on eCommerce platforms.
Summary
All in all, eCommerce is the future of the business and has so many opportunities for everyone. However, you should carefully plan your entry into this area and thoroughly review the statistics that we have presented in this article to better plan things.
There are a number of factors to consider and multiple options of the niches that can be targeted via eCommerce business. Therefore, it is highly recommended to review the article to get complete knowledge about the statistics and ideas which are blooming right now.
Moreover, you have to broaden your vision and see beyond the current trends. Using the given statistics you should be able to look into the future and come up with strategies that would be useful not even today but 3 to 5 years from now as well.
