The pandemic had drastically introduced several trends and changes in Amazon’s 2021 marketplace landscape. As an eCommerce seller on the Amazon platform, it’s important that you keep up with the latest trends and news in the industry.
Without further ado, here are Amazon’s 2021 top 8 trends.
There’s an increased online shopping activity since the COVID-19 pandemic
The pandemic made a lot of us stay in the safety of our homes, forcing us to do things, including shopping remotely. In a survey, e-commerce sales increased by 10%. This trend is expected to persist throughout 2021. What does this mean for you as an e-commerce seller? This means an opportunity for you to try new product ventures and to, ultimately, profit well.
More people are shopping on their mobile phones
This is a consistent trend since the advent of smartphones. Smartphones are one of the preferred ways of surfing the internet (thus, shopping) because of their convenient features.
Sales made through mobile devices take over a quarter of all e-commerce related sales. Business Insider sees the use of mobile devices as a shopping tool to rise over the next few years. Common sense tells us that it’s just a matter of time before most online purchases would be made through smartphones.
Sellers are discovering the “dynamic pricing” strategy
Before the digital age of commerce, it would take months or even a year before prices are changed. Now, customer behavior and habits change pretty fast. Some sellers often find themselves changing prices every other week.
As a consequence, e-commerce sellers are adapting the “dynamic pricing” attitude. Dynamic pricing allows sellers to change their products’ prices according to a metric that shows the rate of changing supplies and demand. Amazon itself is changing its prices every 10 minutes in lieu of following customer behavior patterns and other price-deciding factors.
Take advantage of this strategy by using tools available online.
Messaging and chat apps
The anxiety-driven generation today prefers texting or messaging over phone calls. Therefore, incorporating chat apps/chat applications as part of an e-commerce’s customer service is becoming a thing. Chat apps are seen as a flexible type of online communication, handles tickets better, and are low-cost.
Aside from built-in chat apps, sellers are taking advantage of free communication tools like WeChat, WhatsApp, Telegram, and the famous app of them all, Facebook Messenger.
Chatbots
In relation to the AI and chat app trends, e-commerce sellers are also starting to discover the immense benefit of chatbots.
Chatbot, short for chatterbot, is an AI technology embedded through messaging applications. While it has its disadvantages (like some people would want to speak with a real person), sellers agree that chatbots can save them money and time. With that said, chatbots do not exist to replace real, thinking people. They’re more helpful at the forefront, that is, completing simple tasks like answering FAQs or booking appointments.
Fulfillment capabilities
Amazon has been working on its fulfillment capabilities since its launch. Although Amazon’s logistics aren’t perfect, the company was able to increase its fulfillment capacity by at least 50%. This isn’t an invite to immediately engage with Amazon’s fulfillment services, but it warrants a double-take.
Amazon ads are becoming increasingly important
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a nice way of increasing a product page’s online presence or visibility. But to take it up a notch, sellers are starting to engage in sponsoring ads which can be expensive, sometimes.
However, expensive ads won’t mean anything if your reputation as a seller and your services are not as good.