Design trends come and go. What’s popular right now may lose people’s interest in just a matter of months, rendering it useless. So for an industry that relies heavily on social proof and impact, keeping up with the attest design trends can help create a more fitting and timeless feel for consumers.
A bad-looking and poorly designed site can easily turn potential customers away. This can also apply to outdated design components and elements. Some people may find these features no longer appealing and annoying enough not to continue. Considering this, it is critical for online businesses to design a website that is fully functional, user-friendly, and easy to look at.
However, designing ecommerce websites is not as easy as people think, especially considering the numerous fads and trends in the industry. More than just aesthetics, it is important to look into critical website elements such as navigation trends, data security updates, optimization, and the like.
To give you a better idea, here’s a list of the top design trends to incorporate into your ecommerce website – from simple theme preferences to more advanced website features.
What Makes A Good Website?
Before we jump into the latest trends in website design, let’s first look into the factors that make a website good.
First things first, a good website is not all about aesthetics. Just because a website is pretty doesn’t guarantee visitors will have a good time. A good user experience relies on other design elements involved in building a website, such as navigation, purpose, security, and so on.
Ideally, these elements work cohesively together to create a seamless and enjoyable user experience. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when developing these elements. Regardless, here’s a quick run-through of the basic features that makes an ecommerce website good.
Online safety and security
There is still a lot of risks and danger when transacting online. According to the latest reports, security breaches in online transactions continue to harm the industry, totaling roughly $40 billion in loss due to online payment fraud.
Cybersecurity and fraud attacks are persistent risks for both customers and online business owners. Therefore, it is critical for ecommerce websites to have exceptional ecommerce fraud detection and prevention measures in place.
Beauty and accessibility
One of the biggest mistakes an online business can make when building its ecommerce website is to focus too much on look and aesthetics.
Beauty in ecommerce design is still subjective. Therefore, it is more important for brands to ensure that they are able to deliver their message effectively to their target market or audience. At this stage, more than pure aesthetics, online businesses should pay more attention to branding and how to build your store’s personality and identity.
However, a more important element revolves around the website’s accessibility to various users. A good ecommerce website should be easy to use, regardless of the device used or digital literacy.
This is where good user experience design plays an important role. A well-executed user experience (UX) design ensures that website visitors have an enjoyable experience. UX aims to solve frustration and provide a seamless encounter regardless of their goal or purpose.
User-centered and optimized content
Content is a powerful tool used by online businesses to draw attention and drive traffic to their websites. However, some brands make the critical mistake of creating content that is too company-centered instead of user-centered.
Good content for ecommerce websites aims to provide valuable information to their target audience while still working towards achieving a particular business goal or objective. Unfortunately, some businesses fail to find the balance between the two. They either create content that sounds like a sales pitch or completely forget their content goals and objectives.
The purpose of user-centered content is to bring your audience valuable and relevant to their needs, which helps build connections. Sales and other marketing efforts, such as inbound marketing campaigns and email marketing strategies, should only take up a notch once a strong foundation is established through the website’s content.
Aside from that, it is also crucial for ecommerce websites to be optimized for better visibility on online search engines. Ecommerce website optimization is not limited to content. It also involves other elements such as user interface design, user experience design, and the like. Incorporating technical SEO strategies can help boost the website’s search engine ranking and performance.
5 Ecommerce Website Design Trends For 2023
Dark Mode
Did you know that dark themes aren’t just a matter of aesthetic preference? Research shows that using dark mode has brought a number of benefits for users. According to studies, dark-mode web designs help reduce eye strain. Aside from that, it is less demanding in energy, lengthening the battery life of mobile devices.
On a more practical note, many say reading text on a dark background is easier. In addition, dark theme designs offer more creative freedom and opportunities for web designers. While the dark mode is not totally new, having this feature in your ecommerce website can provide users with a better experience.
Minimalism and Text-only Formats
Minimalism has become a popular design option in recent years. Gone are the days when websites were cluttered with numerous images and contrasting colors. Instead, people prefer clean, simple, and direct-to-the-pint designs that make web browsing easier.
Minimalist websites use as few design elements. It also incorporates limited color pallets, which are often nude, pastel, or muted. This is to get their message across directly and effectively, as well as prevent web visitors from getting distracted.
However, another design trend came out from the minimalist movement. The text-only format removes other web elements, such as images and other navigational tools. Instead, it displays a text headliner to catch people’s attention while also delivering their message directly.
This works much like a billboard or newspaper that effectively grabs people’s attention with just a few lines. However, effective copywriting is critical to make text-only formats successful.
Micro Animations
Another up-and-coming trend in web design aims to revolutionize user interface by incorporating animations into small features of the website. Micro animations are used to create a more engaging and interactive display.
However, micro animations can also help improve and guide users when navigating a website. This feature can be used as a supporting element to direct customers to the next steps of their transactions. It can also be added to show snippets of digital products, goods, or services in action, offering customers a glimpse of what you have to offer in real circumstances.
Thumb-friendly Navigation
Online shopping is particularly popular among mobile device users. Considering this, website designers have adapted and created a responsive UI and UX design suited for smaller devices such as mobile phones and tablets
Thumb-friendly web designs aim to simplify browsing and navigation by keeping features and functions within the thumb’s reach. This includes placing the likes of the navigation bar, drop-down menu, checkout button, and more right along the center of the screen so that mobile users can comfortably navigate without having to use a different hand or finger.
Voice-compatible Interface
Accessibility has become a primary focus for web designers to accommodate more people and provide a suitable user interface and user experience for web users with different needs. Voice assistant technology, such as Apple’s Siri and Android’s Google Assistant, allows people to access features with just voice input. This feature is particularly helpful for people with disabilities that prevent them from navigating websites using other interfaces.
Artificial Intelligence (integrate or protect from ai)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably one of the most controversial technological development in recent years. Some fear that AI will take over every aspect of the digital world, while others are excited and optimistic about what this powerful tool can bring to the table. Despite this, many are looking forward to what AI can do to improve users’ experience online.
Considering this, AI is slowly giving web designers brand-new opportunities to improve and develop new technologies and features for better UI and UX designs. An example of this is the integration of AI chatbots used to set up an initial interaction with website visitors and provide preliminary customer service and support.
However, some online businesses are also looking into protecting their websites from artificial intelligence’s potential risks and dangers. This is an extremely responsible thing to do, as no one can really say what AI’s future is going to be like and how it can affect ecommerce businesses.
Bottomline
Ecommerce websites play a critical role in the success of an online business. It is where people primarily interact with a brand and, hopefully, purchase a product. Considering this, it is essential for businesses to stay up to date with the latest trends revolving around website designs before starting a business online.
Doing so allows them to incorporate the latest design trends into their business plan and create an ecommerce website that fits today’s modern audience’s wants, needs, and preferences.
Want to know more about designing the best ecommerce website? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company, and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.
