eCommerce has earned a very high and respectable place in the business world over the past decade. It’s still growing, and it’s just a question of time when it will become equally popular as brick and mortar retail, if not even more. Having this in mind, it’s not a surprise that creating an eCommerce website is one of the most popular investments among businessmen. But proper Ecommerce website development is neither a simple nor a quick task - first, you need to put it all together and then you need to make sure it doesn’t become outdated.
Your business ideas might be top-notch, but if your website looks outdated it will imprint two words about your brand in consumer’s minds - low quality. There are many SEO techniques that could lead your visitors’ right to your sales funnel, but if your site looks old they’d presume you’re not doing very well and won’t even bother to click through it. They look at it this way - if your eCommerce business is a successful one, then you should be able to afford to implement the latest design trends. Of course, it’s not all about the money. In fact, it’s more about awareness - the trick is to know what trends need to be implemented and how to do it. It’s useful to know your Instagram, but it doesn’t mean much if your main site - your mother ship, so to say - doesn’t shine. There’s no need for some big alterations - it’s all about simple design tweaks and we’re about to show you which ones to make.
1. Adding a Little Something Extra With Micro-interactions
The most crucial thing when it comes to completing sales is without a doubt the user experience of your online store. The process of online shopping consists of many interactions, and since your user flow must be as smooth as possible you need to make sure you’re able to fill in all the cracks. Micro-interactions are certainly nothing new, but with latest tech advancements that have risen the capabilities and options for adding them, their popularity will surely increase in 2019. The reason is simple - although they serve secondary and minor purposes and therefore are not necessary for usability, they still have many practical benefits for user experience. They act as directions which help them accomplish certain tasks which are why users not only love them but they expect them.
We all know that micro-interactions come in the form of error and confirmation messages, hover and transition animations, sound effects, scrolling visuals, etc. This means they prevent errors by leading users through every step, provide them with important feedback and information, and simply help them stay engaged on your website. Therefore, their potential for adding a little something extra for your eCommerce business is obvious - you can use animations as a transition between checkout screens or pages, for adding products to cart, hovering ones when they scroll over product pictures, sound effects could verify changes in order, etc. The range of their applications is really wide, so it all comes down to your creativity and your ability to spot problematic areas in the shopping experience and fill in those gaps.
2. Boosting Shopping Assistance With Chatbots
Probably the biggest disadvantage of eCommerce business against brick-and-mortar stores lies in the lack of sales assistants. It is not just about answering all the shopper questions and overcoming obstacles, but people at the stores are able to increase the chances of a sale using quite artful sales tactics, whwreas eCommerce sites are incapable of offering this important service. It seems that the best solution for this inherent problem lies in chatbots. It’s true that communicating with them felt quite unnatural, cold and clunky, but they’ve drastically improved in recent years, thanks to the advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning. It’s still true that they’re not able to match a real person, not even a live operator, but they’re able to improve the communication between the buyer and the seller. Furthermore, with them answering the most common questions day and night, your sales team will have a chance to be more effective at creating those artful sales tactics. Enhancing interaction between your site and customers using chatbots will undoubtedly provide you with more opportunities to grow your brand further.
3. Changing Perception With Videos
Videos can still do wonders for your exposure and sales, the biggest proof being the fact that Youtube is still the place where people are trying to get rich and famous. And in 2019 video is heading to some unchartered territories full of opportunities. The biggest step ahead lies in the fact that more mobile-friendly video is on the rise. Vertical video has become a very popular form of promotion. We don’t need to mention what high-quality video can do for your SEO - since Google integrates video content into the first page of search results, it surely provides you with an extra chance to land right on the top spot.
For eCommerce, properly made video content means even more. Watching a video has a much more powerful impact on the consumers when it comes to their purchase decision. This makes a lot of sense since it’s all about changing their perception. They’re able to see your products from multiple angles, in motion, and in use, which answers a lot of their queries up front. Furthermore, not only you can change their perception - you can manipulate it using the artistic opportunity which video content offers.
4. Standing Out of The Crowd With Asymmetry
If you want to set your business apart from the competitors, you need to think out of the box. And the biggest boxes you need to get out from are the template-builder sites like Wix and Squarespace. This doesn’t mean you need to stop using template builders to differentiate yourself - we’ve already said trends are just little tweaks and one of the most powerful ones is the asymmetrical layout. There are so many online store owners who stick to a balanced and structured look, not realizing that precisely breaking that balance could make them stand out.
We know that using an ordinary layout seems like the best choice to keep the internal organization with all the product pages you need to make, but these heavily structured pages can actually do you harm if you wish to come off as unconventional and edgy, and you do. If you’ve done first two tweaks we’ve talked about properly, there should be no harm in spicing things up with a bit of asymmetry. If your product information is easy to find then that allows you to experiment with more visually stimulating and dynamic layouts. Of course, finding the right balance is entirely up to you. The only thing you need to keep in mind when using various grid layouts is the fact that your users have various devices at their disposal, so you don’t end up adding too much content for a smartphone.
These few design trend tweaks will definitely make your eCommerce website shine in 2019. You should always start with expected and practical, making your way to creative and unique.
