5 Trends Impacting E-commerce Websites in 2021 By Ralph Tkatchuk 5 Trends Impacting E-commerce Websites in 2021 Photo: Pixabay The Covid-19 pandemic was a bonanza for e-commerce websites. Entrenched habits changed overnight as older people and other populations that were traditionally hesitant about shopping online were left with no alternative — e-commerce was the only way to get the things they needed while sheltering in place. The results were stunning. In the second quarter of 2020, e-commerce sales rose by 31.8% in the US as compared to the previous quarter, according to figures released by the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. In fact, e-commerce accounted for 16.1% of total retail sales in the US in the second quarter of 2020, up from 11.8% in Q1 of 2020 and 11.3% in Q4 2019.