What: Business of Fashion predictions for online shopping in 2021.

Why it is important: some of these predictions might be inspirations for department stores.

BoF predicts the following trends for online shopping:

• Live customer service is here to stay: During the pandemic, brands and retailers used their store staff to cater to the needs of customers by distance. Once things return to normal, it will be difficult to lose the personal, extremely efficient and human relationship and revert to bots. We believe at IADS that this will be a trend equally applicable to department stores,
• Deliveries in hours, not in days: BoF predicts that customers will be happy to pay more to get the product delivered within hours. We do not share this point of view, given the recent studies on the topic.
• Deployment of fit tech: scanners are to be deployed to help to provide the right size of the product considered by the customer. Although this might look a bit ‘gadget’, retail consultant Doug Stephens goes beyond by thinking that this will be a very efficient data acquisition tool for retailers.
• Commerce and content, together: shoppable posts, videos where you can purchase the products, immersive brand environment as shown by Balenciaga or Gucci: more than ever, shoppable content will go beyond simple advertising.
• Gaming as a marketing frontier; which is probably a point related only to brands,
• Transformation of online stores: it is to be expected to see a convergence between the physical experience and the online display, to extend “experience” to e-commerce too, which is very far from being the case today.

The Future of Online Shopping