This list was written as the 2021 ecommerce trend roundup. In 2026 these ten practices are no longer predictions. They are the baseline for ecommerce marketing: experience, content, chat, influencers, augmented reality, mobile shopping, video, packaging, social commerce, and fast delivery.
Ecommerce and mobile shopping are no longer a 2021 bet. The basics of ecommerce marketing still apply, and ordering everyday goods online is normal.
You still have to invest in the work: strategy, measurement, and tests. What follows is the 2021 list, with the year-specific claims marked so they are not read as 2026 forecasts.
By business type I generally mean what you sell or the services you provide and your clientele range is the set of people your product/service caters to.
For example, if you produce/supply pampers, your clientele range will be majorly nursing mothers, so when picking your form of ecommerce marketing, you ask are nursing mothers spend their time on social media or going through emails?
People differ quite alright but there is always a place you are more likely to get them.
Demand for UX and UI work picked up through 2021, and it has stayed a requirement. UX is not just about having a pretty logo and cursive writing on your site, it is not about having colorful designs in complex shapes, UX encompasses end user’s entire interaction with a company and the goods/services it provides through its website.
Why is user experience important in ecommerce marketing? User Experience is the tech version of a customer’s in-store experience, you thrive to provide the best possible customer service and have them leave with the need to come back for more, that is the same thing with UX. You are thriving to make your customers’ experience on your site/app as smooth and seamless as possible.
You want your client to have a good time on your site and come back again because you are trying to build a strong steady clientele base. In UX you have to know that you are to give your clients the same seamless and smooth experience on whatever device size or brand they are using.
Imagine a situation where you have a site where you sell shoes and its UX on a desktop is amazing, then an impressed client goes on to tell her friends about it, one uses their phone to access it, let’s say an android, she opens the site and it is grainy, complicated and just plain ugly. Even if your product is good, the web experience is trash and you have lost a potential client.
In what ways can you then improve your website’s UX?
People have a knack for needing able to relate to something before they can genuinely be interested in it. This and the fact that direct marketing can be annoying are the reason why content marketing is so hot right now. Content marketing is the use of scenarios and stories to passively attract customers to make inquiries about the product/service.
Content marketing is not simply storytelling, it s a strategic inbound marketing tactic to create awareness and interest in a product or service. Basically, this form of marketing is quite deliberate. It is created in such a way that pushes for organic search while producing content that people legitimately want.
Best results are obtained when the content is evenly distributed on different channels. That is, via social media platforms as well as e-mails. This is where marketing strategies and campaign’s come in. They serve as drivers for whatever content is positioned to be put out there.
Also, with the use of different channels, there is a greater probability that your content reaches your target audience.
Virtual assistants are there for you, while chatbots are there for your customers. It is all in the programming, a virtual assistant is there to help you with organizing items, taking stock, keeping track of offers, orders, and even your roster for marketing and ad release.
Chatbots on the other hand are there for your client, to answer questions, quicker navigation, and even just to take their orders. A chatbot is the onscreen version of a salesperson in a store, they answer questions, offer directions, and even help you put your purchase together for checkout. This is a genuinely useful trend! To incorporate a chatbot to your site, you’re going to have to learn about chatbots
Influencer marketing was already widening by 2021, from celebrities alone to people with a relevant following. That wider definition is the normal one in 2026.
To be a successful influencer, you need to develop your personal brand. Fans or followers need to feel some level of attachment to you or the value you offer. Influencer marketing is yet another strategy that has to do with the masses’ needs to be able to relate to something.
As seen by the large number of followings and engagements on Twitter and Instagram, influencer marketing is a trend that is not about to fade anytime soon.
Augmented reality is a form of software that allows the potential client to place their proposed purchase where it would be to get a feel of how it would look if it were there. The issue a lot of people have with online shopping is that they don’t really know how their purchase would look and feel but augmented reality is the remedy for this problem. You can never go wrong with investing in augmented reality.
An example of AR in ecommerce would be, a client who wants to buy a couch from your site would like to know how it would look in their living room, with AR. They simply have to take a picture of the spot in the living room the couch would go, and the software would give a picture of what it would look like if place there in the right rations, in a 3D perspective.
We have reached the point where people want to sit in their rooms and get everything on their shopping list. Advertising online is great, but having a full store with flexible payment options and delivery services is what’s best.
You can decide to have an app developed to serve as your store or you can just develop your page to have the feel of an app store, with a checkout and billing options.
Developing a mobile shop is the best way to stay ahead of the game and create awareness for your business, with a mobile store your products can go to places that you haven’t. They do marketing and sales for you.
(Don’t forget to read our article 5 reasons why you should make mobile marketing your priority for more ideas about how to boost your online sales).
Video marketing is the use of video content to advertise your products. Video content is favored by a lot of people because the video gives you a chance to actually see the quality and texture of the product they want to procure.
Especially when mobile shopping is involved, a lot of people want to avoid what you ordered vs what you got situation but video content helps them see the product being handled and get and give them a thorough feel of the product. You can create video ads and also a source for video reviews to be done for your product.
People are now more aware of the effects of non-biodegradable materials on the earth, and sadly before now a lot of products were packaged with these materials like Styrofoam and plastic.
So in a move to save the earth, people are now sourcing for environmentally friendly items. Join the fight and gain more clients by moving your products into biodegradable packages. So when inquiries are being made for products with environmentally friendly product packaging, your product comes up.
Hopefully, this trend has come to stay.
Social commerce is a subdivision of ecommerce, that utilizes social media platforms and media that supports social interaction to encourage the purchase of a product.
Social commerce has taken a dominant stand in the world of business and advertisement as it is a powerful tool that can reach a lot of people at once. In social commerce, you can effectively use every other marketing strategy with little work and large results.
(Read more about cross channel integration for social commerce in our article: 10 Email Marketing Trends, updated for 2026).
Nobody wants to wait for months before receiving their products, that is so 20th century. This is the era of immediate service. If you don’t already deliver goods then you are 20 steps behind and if you don’t already deliver fast then you are 10 steps behind.
Yet another useful trend, fast delivery reduces the risk of a product getting damaged on the voyage, it improves customer satisfaction and cements the trust between the service provider and client.
The advantage in 2026 is doing these practices well, not waiting to see if they catch on.