The Internet has made our life easier in many respects. We chat online, study online, and have fun online. And now it’s becoming more common to shop online. Why not? After all, it’s super-fast, easy, and enjoyable!
Due to the popularity and accessibility of online shopping, ecommerce is growing by leaps and bounds. The number of online stores is quickly increasing, and so is their quality. Thanks to recent technological advancements, websites that offer products for sale are becoming more attractive, faster, and feature-rich. They are even extending their reach beyond their own online presence, promoting and selling products across social media.
However, online businesses are also becoming more competitive as new brands are constantly tapping into the market. This creates the need for ecommerce websites to stand out, particularly in the field of web design. That is why new ecommerce design trends spring up more often these days. Whether you are a seasoned online store owner or you are just planning to create an ecommerce site, you’re probably wondering: What kinds of innovations in the field of ecommerce design await us in 2021? We have the answers you’re seeking!
Animations are all the rage
What can be more convincing to your customers than bright and crisp pictures on your product page? Of course, animations! Even though static images are great at catching customers’ attention and generating engagement, animations do the job even better due to the dynamic they add to your pages. What’s more, they give your visitors a better idea about your product by showing it in action. More online stores are coming to realize the power of animation, giving up common product shots in favor of animated images and GIFs to showcase their products.
In addition to product animations, we are more often looking at:
- Product videos: Short video snippets that demonstrate products on ecommerce websites
- Cinemagraphs: Static images that feature an animated element or effect
- Microinteractions: Small visual effects that accompany different actions on websites, such as button clicks, swipes, scrolls, etc.
All these types of visuals can make your product pages look more vivid and professional, and they are steadily becoming the norm in the industry. This means you should hurry up and jump on the animation bandwagon while it’s still abuzz!
Interactive visuals are taking root
Technologies are moving forward, and photos or even animations are no longer the only way to show your products in all their glory. If you are ready to go the extra mile to provide a top-notch shopping experience to your website visitors, you may want to enable your customers to interact with your visuals, so they have a better idea of what to expect from your products.
When it comes to interactive product visuals, you have three major options:
- Augmented reality (AR): Let’s say you sell headwear. Imagine how happy your customers will be if they get an opportunity to see how your products look on them by simply using their phone camera!
- 3D visuals: A professionally made product photo is great. But when the user can look at your goods from any angle, spinning the 3D model around as if they were holding the thing in their own hands, your credibility gets a massive boost in the blink of an eye.
- Interactive customization tools: If you offer products that feature various customization options, it might be a good idea to make it possible for your customers to see how these options look in different combinations. For example, if you sell furniture, your clients may want to know how that sofa looks in different colors and fabrics, with different accessories, etc.
Of course, tools like those mentioned above entail greater investment, but if they make sense for your business, they may be well worth it.
Personalized offers are becoming a norm
The one-size-fits-all approach in online sales is steadily becoming obsolete. Fluffy marketing texts that infinitely praise your product are no longer effective in convincing people to buy. Today, consumers tend to favor the brands that manage to grasp their individual needs and requirements. Thus, online businesses are forced to find new ways to earn customers’ loyalty.
Personalized offers are one way to do this. How does it work? Imagine you’re browsing a new online store. You have no idea which products out of the entire range suit you best. Now think how convenient it would be if the website asked you a couple of simple questions and made an individual offer based on your answers! That would save you both time and trouble.
That is why it is becoming more common among online businesses to use such methods as guided navigation and quizzes:
- Guided navigation: This is a method of building a web store in a way that makes it easy for the user to find the required product. Thus, names of navigation tabs may often address the typical needs of specific customer groups (e.g., “For business,” “For private use,” etc.), landing pages may target customers’ specific pain points and redirect users to corresponding product pages with a single click of a button.
- Quizzes: Some websites may suggest you run through a quick quiz to identify your needs and preferences. This doesn’t take much time, but it ensures you get exactly what you are looking for.
Both methods require in-depth knowledge of your target audience and thorough UX optimization. But they will pay off as soon as your customers realize the benefits of the personalized treatment they get.
Products are getting their own landing pages
It is commonly believed that a homepage is the most important area of a website. Therefore, some website owners focus entirely on making their homepage impeccable while leaving product pages out of due attention. The truth is, most users never even make it to the company homepage. They arrive straight to the product page from Google and make their judgment about the whole site and the offer right there.
Taking this into account, many online businesses have decided to take their product pages to the next level, turning them into full-fledged landing pages with lots of visuals, animation effects, and multiple screens to scroll through. This approach not only makes the product more attractive to customers, but it also allows you to accompany your product description with the info about your brand, thus boosting customer trust.
Layout grids get broken
When you come across an online store and open its product list, you will most likely find a conventional, straight layout grid in which product thumbnails are arranged in strict rows or columns. However, a lot of online businesses are now starting to experiment with more diverse layouts.
One the one hand, this decision is debatable, as straight grids have already proven to be effective. They are clear and easy to scan through. But on the other hand, uneven or broken grids look more original and are more likely to catch and retain the user’s attention. In other words, they are more engaging. Plus, they allow you to arrange your products strategically by shaping your layout grid in a way that would bring more relevant products to the forefront.
Chatbots are invading the online space
Do you think there’s a real person on the other side each time you use that chat window on an ecommerce website? Think again! Thanks to modern AI technologies, more and more businesses realize it is more cost-effective to substitute human customer support representatives with robots. Yes, the future engulfed with cyborgs is apparently already here, you just can’t actually see them yet. But you can talk to them!
Using chatbots for customer support is becoming a common practice in ecommerce. Why? Well, for one, they have become incredibly smart! Modern chatbots are capable of learning and using accumulated knowledge to help website visitors find what they are looking for. They can reply to questions and even mimic human communicative patterns. So, if you don’t have a little robotic assistant on your online store yet, it’s high time you get yourself one.
Minimalist design is still going strong
It’s interesting how things gravitate toward simplicity these days. Simple UX, simple UI, simple web design, simple everything! Minimalism has become one of the top web design trends recently, and the same goes for ecommerce websites.
Just think of it! Overloaded interfaces and excessive design can easily distract your visitors from their main purpose – purchasing on your site. Minimalist design can solve this issue by removing distractions, clearing out the interface, simplifying layouts, and introducing lots of whitespace. This will not only make your online store look modern and professional, but it will also allow users to focus on your products instead of gimmicks.
Mobile experience above all
It’s no secret that people use their mobile devices to browse the web more than ever these days. This encourages ecommerce websites to adapt to mobile users’ needs. Smaller screens call for a more responsive design. This includes everything that influences mobile user experience, but among the newest and the most relevant trends are the following:
- Dark mode: It has become more common for ecommerce applications and websites to have a dark mode (or a dark theme) to facilitate mobile use in dark environments and relieve eye strain. Plus, one can’t deny that dark interfaces look quite stylish and sleek.
- Contextual logos: Every brand wants to be recognizable in any context, on any device. That is why contextual (a.k.a. responsive) logos have become a necessity. Such logos are scalable, and they remain clear and distinctive regardless of their size and the background they stand against.
- Thumb-friendly navigation: When it comes to effortless user experience on mobile devices, nothing is more important than making your website convenient to navigate with your thumb. Since mobile devices are deprived of a mouse cursor and the control finesse it grants, your buttons and other controls must be large and responsive in the mobile version of your site. Otherwise, your bounce rate among mobile users will increase dramatically. And you don’t want that, for sure.
Prepare your online store for 2021!
As you can see from our list, ecommerce web design never stops evolving, and new trends pop up regularly. Don’t forget to catch up with them every now and again, and your online store will keep bringing you more customers. But most importantly, remember that design must never get in the way of user experience. Ideally, both should not just coexist, but complement each other.