A good designer needs to know how to spruce up their sites. An e-commerce site should not be the mediator between a buyer and the products. It has to facilitate the smooth navigation and buying process for each buyer. A good e-commerce site may have between hundred to a few thousand potential customers visiting each day. The aim of the owner should be to meet each visitor need and grease the sales funnel in a way that feels natural for all. The level of user-orientation determines the success of e-commerce sites.
This, of course, means constantly monitoring and A/B testing your site, design elements, and new functions to check how the users are interacting with them. It also means staying in tune with the year’s new trends to give the users a fresh and interesting website browsing experience each time. Changes to a well-performing website should be gradual and in sync with the users’ interests. A lot of generic design trends do not work for all websites, which makes testing the waters very necessary for each e-commerce site owner.
What is the aim of the 2018 design trends?
Brand Storytelling
Almost all these elements are becoming a part of the modern trends in website design due to the renewed importance of storytelling. In fact, to increase your user engagement, there is no way you can skip the new design trends. The inclusion of popular design elements in your e-commerce design will make your potential customers stop for a second and take a second look at your products. In the world of online commerce, that one second is all you need to push your products for sale successfully. In 2018, it is going to be all about introducing your brand in the right way. Therefore, your website should be your brand’s biography cum portfolio. Your visitor wants to know who you are and why they should buy from you. You should be able to give them more than one sound reason to spend their money on your brand rather than on your competition.
What are some of the must-try website design elements of 2018 for all e-commerce sites?
Here are a few design trends for 2018 that you must try out before the end of the year to offer better UX and experience higher sales.
- Introduction of boxes
E-commerce website design in 2018 has seen the introduction of boxes as a part of the website interface. They add new design elements to the websites, as well as add new functionality to them. They are currently playing a significant role in the placement of CTAs. They reserve the power to render a complex look to any simple store since they bring a subtle artistic element to the simplest of the designs. You should try the use of boxes in your website design adding more visibility to your products, offers, and CTAs.
- Custom scrolling
Website designers have been experimenting with scrolling for quite a long time now. Keeping important content “above the fold” has been of huge importance for many years now. Over the last few months, we have been observing the disappearance of the fold and prominence of different scrolling patterns. These are more powerful, responsive and more interesting than the previous year’s parallax scrolling trend. Customized scrolling options for each e-commerce site and business website include more interactive designs. This is riskier, but in 2018 there is no way you can make yourself more visible without taking a few risks.
- Custom illustrations
New websites are all about personalization and individualism. Therefore, it is not at all surprising to see most of the e-commerce sites and business websites leaning towards custom illustrations. Smarter businesses are using graphic designers to enhance their e-commerce web development process. Creation of friendly visual elements contributes to a better UX and aesthetics. The new elements of personalized illustrations include font designs, animation designs, and custom iconography. You will find several custom header images for leading e-commerce sites to catch their visitor’s attention quite effortlessly.
- Pastels and neons
The world of website design is becoming a brighter and a more colorful place. More website designers and e-commerce site owners are leaning towards brighter colors that pop right out of the devices and make an impact on the user. We are not talking about obnoxious color combinations that might blind the user, but a flurry of interesting and fresh color combinations that render a memorable look to your website. Studies show that startups are more likely to invest in brighter colors during their branding endeavors. Fresher colors command more attention and satisfaction. So, the farewell of the “web safe” colors is a leading design trend of 2018.
- Rule of the video
In addition to animation, almost all modern e-commerce sites are thinking about the introduction of video elements in their design. This does not include complete 2-3-minute videos, but more like interesting collaged snippets from their popular branding efforts, product features and brand storytelling. You will most likely find these small snippets of curated videos on the homepage of leading e-commerce stores and online brands. This encourages higher levels of user engagement. Google favors the use of video in marketing and branding efforts. Research from 2018, shows that people are more likely to engage with brands showing an effort to engage in video marketing and incorporating video elements in their website design.
Website design, especially e-commerce design should not be complex. It should always be as simple as possible and interesting too. The design trends of 2018 highlight the efficiency of new-age website design. Your e-commerce store should be the epitome of simple, clutter-free and utilitarian design elements that cater to the enhancement of user experience and user engagement for at least one coming year. It is very important to focus on the functions of your website and the needs of your users. Rely on customer surveys, stay in touch with customer feedbacks and pay attention to your competition, to be able to develop the best designs for your e-commerce site.
