Shaping Your Ecommerce Strategy in 2022: Key Industry Trends

The planetary ecommerce marketplace has experienced unprecedented maturation since the commencement of the pandemic. The alleged “pandemic effect” generated ample spikes successful online shoppers, and particularly first-timers, arsenic good arsenic the accelerated accomplishment of newer ecommerce concern formats similar online market buying and last-mile deliveries.

While the ecommerce roar continued done 2020, the satellite has adapted successful galore ways. We’re seeing softer restrictions to offline experiences, and continued disruptions to the planetary proviso concatenation and output. Have these issues impacted the expanding entreaty of online shopping? What trends person vanished into bladed air, and which ones are present with america to stay?

This study uses insights from the Semrush .Trends level to code these questions. We measure the extent of the ecommerce roar successful 2021 and item immoderate ecommerce trends that are present to stay—all to assistance you signifier a smarter, insight-driven integer selling strategy for your ecommerce concern successful years to come.

Ecommerce Industry’s Global Trends and Shifts: Traffic Slowdown, Diverse Geo, and…?

In dollars, the ecommerce manufacture has seen double-digit maturation rates for the past decade. Traffic-wise, we’ve seen a akin pattern—shoppers are progressively moving to online platforms to look up products for purchase.

COVID lone fueled this trend. Year-over-year (YoY) postulation trends crossed the full manufacture shows that from 2019 to 2020, e-tailers saw 27% much traffic. If we look astatine the hottest months for ecommerce—namely, pre- and wintertime vacation months—the November 2020 postulation reached an all-time high.

But has this maturation inclination continued successful 2021? Traffic information shows that portion involvement successful online buying platforms remains high, it hasn’t grown. To the contrary, it looks similar shoppers’ online craze cooled down—if we stack Q3 2020 stats up against the Q3 2021 numbers, we tin spot that 2021 ecommerce postulation went down by 2%.

What does this mean: As an ecommerce business, you tin nary longer conscionable trust connected the expanding marketplace to capitalize connected the wide growth. As the marketplace stops growing, you should refocus your selling strategy to marketplace stock expansion.

Online Shoppers’ User Behavior Shifts

When it comes to idiosyncratic behaviour changes, the pandemic was marked by an overwhelming summation successful desktop usage. As much radical stayed astatine home, on-the-go web surfing became little popular, truthful a batch of users turned to bully aged desktops whenever they needed to look up thing online.

Has this affected the instrumentality breakdown wrong ecommerce, though?

As of 2021, mobile postulation inactive dominates the ecommerce industry, with much than 56% of online shoppers inactive surfing ecommerce sites from their phones. 

Yet ever since the commencement of the pandemic, desktop usage has grown, and during November 2020, mobile-desktop breakdown did travel highly close. After that—just arsenic the satellite was dilatory rolling backmost connected immoderate pandemic restrictions—the spread widened erstwhile again.

Still, desktop’s maturation appears to person stuck for the agelong haul, and today’s desktop postulation exceeds that of pre-pandemic by astir 60%.

What does this mean:While we bash each run present successful the mobile-first epoch and mobile experiences are inactive the priority, don’t disregard desktop completely. In ecommerce, desktop postulation stock is comparable to that of mobile, truthful you person to tailor to some mobile and desktop users and supply an impeccable cross-device experience.

What Countries Are Online Shoppers Coming From?

The ecommerce roar has taken implicit the full world. But arsenic you’d expect, it’s the countries with immoderate of the highest GDP crossed the globe that bring successful the astir postulation to ecommerce sites. 

The US, the UK, and Germany apical the database of countries bringing the largest shares of online shoppers. The remainder of the database besides makes sense, with the apical 10 present astir perfectly synchronized with the apical 10 countries by GDP. 

What does this mean: The English-speaking satellite perfectly dominates the ecommerce landscape. Yet erstwhile reasoning astir increasing your marketplace share, you mightiness privation to see different markets similar France, Germany, and Japan and construe your website (or similar Amazon, really person a abstracted site) for non-English-speaking visitors.

Top Ecommerce Market Players (Global)

When it comes to apical ecommerce players, US-based businesses marque up the majority. Amazon, eBay, and Walmart person the largest postulation stock with the second showing a maturation complaint of 21%, the highest of 2021.

While Asian companies are decidedly a unit to reckon with, arsenic Asia (and particularly China) has immoderate of the astir digital-first population, the China-based Aliexpress saw the biggest -19% YoY postulation drop—we tin ‘blame’ the proviso concatenation oregon smarter selling tactics of different players, but the signifier is here.

Curiously, conscionable arsenic we saw successful our country-by-country postulation breakdown, Germany shows a batch of promising signs. Its section Amazon website has the 5th largest marketplace stock among the ecommerce industry, and it shows the second-fastest maturation trends.

Top Ecommerce Players by Region 

While large players similar Amazon predominate the ecommerce marketplace successful astir each country, determination are immoderate determination nuances.

Amazon is the #1 ecommerce marque crossed North America and Europe. The latter’s apical 3 features immoderate Europe-local brands— the Netherlands-based Bol.com and Сhina-based Aliexpress.com.

The biggest differences to the planetary ecommerce representation hap wrong the non-western regions—MEA (the Middle East and Africa), LATAM (Latin America), and APAC (Asia-Pacific).

The MEA region’s apical 3 brands are each Turkey-based—the state has seen 1 of the fastest maturation trends, with the ecommerce roar much than doubling from 2017 to 2021 and reaching much than $22 cardinal successful sales.

LATAM’s astir fashionable e-tailers are besides much local, with the Argentina-based MercadoLibre (MercadoLivre successful Brazil) and Brazil-based Americanas making up the top.

APAC’s apical features much acquainted names similar Rakuten and Flipkart—brands that are renowned connected a planetary scale.

Ecommerce Industry: Are US Trends Any Different?

As the bulk of online shoppers and apical brands each travel from the US, we’ve decided to spot however the trends from the erstwhile conception alteration for the top-performing ecommerce region.

Similar to its worldwide position, Amazon holds the #1 spot crossed the astir fashionable ecommerce sites successful the US. The marketplace has a whopping 40% marketplace share—more than its 5 closest competitors combined.

If we excavation into the YoY marketplace stock trend, though, we tin spot that successful 2021, the marketplace person has mislaid a important portion of the market, astir 10%. Among the apical 3 marketplace players, Walmart (+8%) was the lone 1 to spot its marketplace stock spell up successful 2021.

The fastest maturation rates beryllium to the smaller competitors—Lowe’s (+14%) and Etsy (+10%). 

In general, we’re seeing immoderate mixed trends successful the US—while immoderate players are inactive capitalizing connected the erstwhile year’s ecommerce boom, others, and particularly the bigger brands, are already seeing the effect of the market’s wide cooldown.

What does this mean: If you’re competing for the attraction of the US audience, the contention is lone getting tougher. The smaller players turn portion the large ones inactive clasp a significant—even ascendant successful Amazon’s case—market share. With this successful mind, you person to absorption connected competitory intel and make game-changing strategies that volition assistance you interruption done the competition. 

US Ecommerce Market Size (Dec 2020-Dec 2021)

Any marketplace has untapped maturation potential. But astir players don’t adjacent cognize the size of the existing market. So we combined imaginable audiences for the apical ecommerce players successful the US to measure the marketplace size for the country. 

We looked astatine the request stats for products the US e-tailers are offering (based connected keyword volumes and postulation to these keywords) and topped this disconnected with their existent audience. We discovered: 

• The full addressable marketplace (TAM) for ecommerce goods successful the US is astatine 6.7 billion. This, of course, doesn’t mean that if you had a 100% marketplace share, you’d get astir 7 cardinal visitors. This fig implies that if you were to merchantability each the products disposable connected the ecommerce marketplace successful the US, you could expect astir 7 cardinal involvement points successful these products, not needfully sales, though.

• The full serviceable marketplace (SAM) successful the US is astatine 5.8 billion. This fig is much sales-focused and shows however galore income you tin perchance spot if you held a 100% marketplace stock wrong the ecommerce abstraction successful the US.

What does this mean: Certainly nary 1 tin person a 100% marketplace stock successful immoderate industry, but this number, particularly if you look astatine it crossed time, gives a much realistic presumption of the online marketplace size than existent postulation numbers, hinting precisely astatine the unrealized marketplace potential.

Top US Ecommerce Players: Are Market Leaders Still successful the Lead, and Who Has the Potential to Change the Game?

How to work this image: each marque has 2 bubbles of the aforesaid color—the brighter 1 shows wherever the marque stands arsenic of December 2021, the paler 1 reflects wherever it was backmost successful December 2019. The dotted enactment showcases each brand’s marketplace presumption passim the 2 analyzed years, helping to pinpoint the cardinal shifts successful the wide competitory landscape.

Moving distant from an abstract presumption of the marketplace to existent figures, we’ll spot that the ecommerce manufacture successful the US was experiencing a batch of volatility passim the past year:

• The wide slowdown of marketplace maturation near its people connected the cardinal e-tailers’ marketplace positions—half of each the starring ecommerce brands saw their positions weakening successful 2021 compared to 2020.

• With nary beardown game-changers–aka brands that are seeing the fastest postulation maturation complaint but person little postulation share–we spot the bulk of players sticking to the presumption quo. For instance, Kohl’s and Etsy mislaid their game-changer presumption and person go niche players. BestBuy and Target besides dove adjacent deeper into the niche subordinate segment.

• The biggest shifts were seen wrong the Leaders and Established Players positions. Thanks to precocious postulation stock and comparatively precocious maturation rate, Walmart is the lone e-tailer that adjacent competes for the Leader presumption successful 2021. Amazon and eBay—2020’s Leaders—lost their positions successful 2021 and are present among Established Players, oregon brands with ample marketplace shares but a dilatory maturation pace.

How Do the Top Ecommerce Brands Generate Traffic?

As the US ecommerce players person ever led the mode erstwhile it comes to selling strategies, we’ll dissect their astir palmy postulation acquisition strategies. But bash the apical US marketplace players’ strategies disagree from the planetary postulation procreation trends?

Read connected to see.

E-tailers’ Traffic Generation Strategy (Global)

When we look astatine the wide postulation acquisition patterns among the starring ecommerce brands worldwide, we tin spot that nonstop postulation dominated the full industry.

This implies that marque consciousness is the astir almighty instrumentality successful ecommerce marketers' toolbox. Direct postulation has ever accounted for implicit 40% of postulation wrong the ecommerce space, and this inclination lone grew passim the pandemic and has continued to turn since. 

Paid and societal postulation stock has seen small to nary alteration for the past fewer years, which means that changes travel from elsewhere. 

It seems hunt has fixed mode to referral arsenic the 2nd astir important postulation root for e-commerce sites, meaning that beardown selling partnerships and link-building efforts tin spell a agelong mode arsenic a aboriginal postulation acquisition strategy. 

What does this mean: Ecommerce businesses person ever relied connected marque awareness, but successful 2021 this is progressively the case. So if you person to marque choices erstwhile investing successful selling campaigns, springiness precedence to marque consciousness and partnerships that tin bring referral traffic. 

The Leading US Ecommerce Players’ Traffic Acquisition Strategies 

To measure the US brands’ postulation procreation tactics, we looked astatine the apical 3 astir fashionable e-tailers—Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.

The wide representation is akin to the planetary one—the 3 brands get the bulk of their postulation from direct, and referral comes arsenic the 2nd astir important postulation source.

But if we look astatine the YoY postulation breakdown for the 3 ecommerce sites, we’ll get a much nuanced view:

• Amazon, the US marque that mislaid the astir marketplace stock successful 2021, has seen a important driblet (-13%) successful nonstop traffic. So if we see marque consciousness arsenic the cardinal postulation procreation strategy for ecommerce sites, Amazon’s nonaccomplishment of postulation comes arsenic nary surprise. Amazon besides saw a large diminution successful hunt (-23%) and paid (-8%) traffic, a pattern that goes on with the wide manufacture trends.
• The aforesaid communicative is existent for eBay, different marketplace person that saw its postulation spell down successful 2021. They saw a alteration successful nonstop postulation (-10%), arsenic good arsenic paid and hunt channels, but realized maturation successful referral postulation (+17%). This astir apt saved the marque from losing a higher marketplace stock successful the US.
• Now, Walmart, the lone US marque that has some precocious marketplace stock and saw its postulation lone spell up, has been doing thing close successful 2021. Unlike the different 2 marketplace leaders, each Walmart’s postulation sources brought successful higher numbers of visitors, with the lone objection being paid. Curiously, Walmart’s societal postulation expanded by 24%, truthful it’s worthy taking a look astatine its societal media strategy for immoderate inspiration.

What does this mean: It’s funny to spot specified a choky correlation betwixt the industry’s champion practices and changes successful the existent channel-by-channel postulation breakdown for prime e-tailers. As nonstop postulation appears to beryllium the astir invaluable postulation root for the industry, those that suffer immoderate assemblage numbers from that transmission are instantly showing slower maturation rates. 

Why People Turn to E-tailers: Most Wanted Products and Calls-to-Action

he starring question for immoderate ecommerce concern is, “What bash customers want?” From state to country, radical crook to e-commerce sites for assorted products. For the US, it’s chiefly high-tech products that entice users to store online:

• Amazon’s astir fashionable pages are dedicated to AirPods and the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote. Pandemic-related accelerated tests for COVID were besides apical three.

• eBay’s visitors besides emotion headphones, but similar Harman Kardon and JBL.

• Shoppers who crook to Walmart look to beryllium astir funny successful each things gaming, with Sony PlayStation 5 and Xbox topping the astir wanted list. Just to note, Sony’s console leafage attracts treble the fig of visitors compared to Xbox!

Amazon’s Most Popular Products successful 2021

While the cumulative presumption of the astir fashionable items for aggregate e-tailers typically featured electronics and pandemic-related products, Amazon’s astir trending interior searches were different. 

Thanks to Sellzone Keyword Wizard tool, we could pinpoint which products radical searched for the astir connected Amazon passim 2021.

*Sellzone is simply a Semrush-powered level designed to assistance turn anyone’s Amazon business. You tin larn much astir Sellzone’s tools for uncovering winning Amazon products, boosting Amazon visibility, increasing traffic, improving conversions, and making the astir of Amazon advertizing here.

What Actually Makes Online Shoppers Click?

Each marketplace has its ain triggers—words, oregon CTAs (calls-to-action), that entice surfers to click connected the merchandise advertisement and take 1 level implicit another.

We’ve analyzed hundreds of integer ads from the apical 10 e-tailers successful the US and pinpointed the astir fashionable CTAs wrong their advertisement copies:

Words similar “deal”, “free shipping”, and “free/easy returns” are contiguous crossed astir of the marketplaces’ ads. The cardinal messaging is built astir these 3 promises, with immoderate nuances:

• Pharma-related e-tailers similar CVS diagnostic health-related CTAs, with COVID investigating topping the database of astir fashionable trigger words.
• Kohl’s often emphasizes its merchantability alert work and hassle-free online shopping.
• BestBuy often promises a one-hour delivery, which implies that the marketplace puts a bigger stake connected the promptness of shipping. So does Target, lone its connection has a much extended timeframe—one day.
• eBay appeals to customers by focusing connected its offering of apical brands.
• Etsy, dissimilar the remainder of the e-tailers, underlines unafraid shopping.

Of course, we can’t assertion that these messages are the astir efficient, but if ecommerce businesses’ ads diagnostic definite words repeatedly, it implies they enactment the most. 

Insight-Driven Recommendations to Shaping Your 2022 Marketing Strategy for Ecommerce 

A batch of ecommerce marketers thought that the pandemic-induced maturation was present to stay. Pre-COVID forecasts besides suggested that 2020 would beryllium larger than 2019, and 2021 would beryllium greater still. 

But COVID reshuffled this dependable maturation and predictable marketplace patterns, driving an unthinkable postulation surge to e-tailers passim 2020. In 2021, however, arsenic the offline satellite started its dilatory but dependable reopening, marketplace enlargement slowed down and adjacent got overturned. 

This study tackled immoderate of the cardinal 2021 integer trends wrong the ecommerce manufacture specifically to assistance those who marque the calls wrong the ecommerce space. So present are immoderate of the astir important points to instrumentality distant for shaping your selling strategy successful the upcoming year:

• Market stock is back

2020’s ecommerce marketplace enlargement was promising an ever-growing assemblage basal and, hence, little competition. But the ecommerce roar has slowed down, truthful your selling strategies should present people competitors and marketplace stock expansion.

• Desktop experiences besides matter

As overmuch arsenic mobile inactive dominates the landscape, ecommerce sites pull a comparable stock of desktop users. So cross-device optimization is the lone mode to spell successful bid to connection a bump-free UX and UI acquisition to each users.

• Consider expanding your people market

While the English-speaking satellite is liable for the largest postulation stock for ecommerce sites, different geos tin assistance you grow your wide marketplace stock and bring successful an influx of caller shoppers, hence, much sales, and, arsenic a result, much currency travel to put successful much selling campaigns. 

France, Germany, and Japan person ample audiences funny successful online shopping, truthful you whitethorn privation to clasp them earlier your competitors do.

• The US ecommerce marketplace is getting harder to win

Bigger players are losing immoderate chunk of their marketplace stock to smaller players. Looks similar a promising trend, but you’ll person to vie against the biggest chips connected the planetary ecommerce market—Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.

It seems similar the lone winning strategy present is to larn astir the contention successful and retired and travel up with beardown originative strategies that volition assistance you bushed the stronger rivals. 

• Prioritize marque consciousness campaigns implicit everything else

The post-pandemic epoch of ecommerce is marked by the emergence of nonstop traffic. And dissimilar galore different trends that disappeared during 2021, this 1 appears to person stuck. So marque consciousness campaigns are the cardinal to helping you pull much visitors and grow your marketplace share. Anything that brings you referral traffic—co-marketing campaigns, assorted partnerships, and link-building—should besides beryllium wrong your focus.

• Regularly cheque your premises

While we’ve tried to item ecommerce trends that are present to enactment for the agelong haul, the manufacture changes precise fast. So you’ll ever beryllium navigating uncharted waters and trying caller things, caller platforms, and caller tactics. To bash that successfully, you request each the insights you tin get—from some the marketplace and the competition. Semrush .Trends does conscionable that.