As e-commerce continues to evolve, many of its principles do as well. A couple, however, have remained consistently atop the list for success year after year: eye-catching site design and simple yet memorable UX.
In the modern age of e-commerce it’s not enough to simply have good products available for purchase to earn the business of shoppers across the globe. No, it’s much deeper than that.
Not only are certain amenities, such as free shipping, typically expected, but shoppers’ attention to detail has become a driving force behind their purchase decisions.
And with an average of 76 out of every 100 visitors abandoning their shopping carts, e-commerce retailers must place extra emphasis on the design and User Experience (UX) on their website.
As these trends are ever changing, here are some of 2021s top trends for website design and UX.
Navigation As A Focal Point
Many retailers have begun to utilize the home-page to create a more pronounced navigation. The idea here is to bring the shoppers eye towards products/categories/pages you are pushing.
This can be a seasonal theme, like the above example, or you can center your entire site of content in a large block right in the front of the website rather than the traditional bar-style navigation.
Considering how important easy navigation of a website is, this trend makes complete sense. In the past, the typical plan was to keep these options present, but scarce.
Lately, more and more companies have been putting more focus than ever on the navigation.
This allows you to guide shoppers where you might prefer, or create a more personalized, engaging feel.
Incorporating Motion Graphics & Micro-Animations
Providing users with memorable experiences has become vital. And while many are still holding onto the classic simplistic layout, there’s been a recent wave of creative retailers incorporating subtle, yet attention grabbing motion graphics and micro-animations to their sites.
These elements encourage excitement and engagement while playing to multiple senses at once, which drives retention.
This is especially important with mobile shopping experiences considering an ever-growing share of consumers are doing their shopping online.
Additionally, retailers are incorporating these animations for page transitions and product feature overviews.
Not only are customers more engaged, but once again the retailer is able to guide them to through the features and important facts about products.
These implementations can increase the likelihood of initial conversion, with an added benefit of the customer sharing their positive and fun experience. And according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, if you build a great experience customers will tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
Neutral Background Colors
Color is an important element to any design, but in e-commerce your products need to be the focal point at the end of the day.
You can accomplish this by utilizing more neutral background colors, such as cool greys, soft browns, pale yellows and more, across your site. The advantage being that your shoppers focus remains sharply on your other visuals rather than the background.
Not only does it help your main imagery pop, but these colors encourage longer user engagement, as the more subtle colors are easier on the eyes.
Anything that can be done to keep shoppers browsing your site longer is going to ultimately benefit conversion rates and return rates as well. This one is a no brainer.
Focus On Your Mobile Experience
Speaking of no brainers, mobile-site experience has become so incredibly vital to e-commerce success.
In fact, mobile commerce sales now make up 72.9% of all retail sales, a truly staggering number.
With that in mind, there’s no ignoring the importance of an optimized and engaging mobile experience for your users.
Emphasize ease of navigation, as well as ease of checkout on mobile by including as many digital wallets as you can (i.e. ApplePay, Samsung Pay, Visa Checkout, Amazon Pay, etc.).
Additionally, you want your pages to load quickly. With nearly 70% of consumers claiming page speed impacts their willingness to buy, retailers should be sure to focus on not only engaging content, but quickly loading engaging content.
Wrapping Up
E-commerce success is about more than just having good products at a good price. Now more than ever, shoppers are looking for an experience not just a product.
So when it comes to designing your website, be sure to layout pages with this in mind. Utilize motion graphics and neutral colors to hold attention longer and engage more than one sense.
Focus heavily on your mobile website, since revenues there have never been higher.
And keep in mind that if one shopper has a great experience on your site, they are more likely to share their experience with others.