Now that we are fully into 2021, I wanted to take a few minutes and look at the state of ecommerce in 2021 and predictions for what is to come.
Let’s first look back at the year formerly named, 2020.
What we saw in 2020 is not likely to ever repeat itself. The thrust that many sites endured into ecommerce forced their hand. Why so many sites and businesses hadn’t recognized or accepted that ecommerce is here was unfortunate, but they now are all in. Whether they liked it or not.
Last year was the year of demand and fulfillment headaches. Since so many companies had under invested they were playing catch up all year.Â
Which brings us to 2021 and its predictions.
Ecommerce will continue to thrive but will come back down from the absurdly high levels. This isn’t very bold to many.
However, even as it comes back down, businesses will increase their investments in tools and technology. Since last year was not expected and reaction was all around getting online and figuring out procurement and fulfillment, this year will be about right sizing teams and technology. You cannot run on basic platforms and apps and expect to be different or better than your competitors.
We will see a very active job market as companies that had under invested now find themselves without the proper leadership to run their new channel. This started in 2020 where at one point there were over 100+ new Director or VP of ecommerce jobs posted in just one week.
As these roles are filled and these new leaders fill out their teams, we will see further investment in tools to optimize the shopping experience. In 2020, no one was trying to figure out how to optimize conversion rates, they were through the roof, you only start optimizing when things are coming down, which is wrong but we all do it.
By the end of 2021 we will have a new class of ecommerce sites that are best in class because they continued their investment. I will concede that many companies will go back and re-bury their head in the sand and fight off ecommerce, it’s inevitable but also why some companies prevail and others fail.
Embrace 2021, invest, be better!
Six other random predictions.
Prediction 1: Tampa Bay will win the Super Bowl.Â
Call me a Brady fanboy, that’s cool. He is the GOAT and he will confirm that this year.
Prediction 2: There will be a Covid-21.
But don’t worry, it will be like Covid-18 and any other coronavirus that has come before it.
Prediction 3: Bitcoin.
Bitcoin will continue it’s ascent.
Prediction 4: Marlins will not win the World Series.
As a matter of fact, they will come in dead last.
Prediction 5: Offices will make a comeback.
They won’t look the same and will be more hybrid but humans need interaction.
Prediction 6: Some company will actually make Edtech that works.
Remote learning was a disaster due to no/low investment, this will change and snow days will be a thing of the past and we won’t cringe about remote learning.
