E-commerce, far from deflating, will continue to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years. New design trends are also muting through time.
In 2018 there were around 1.79 billion online shoppers internationally, but this figure will exceed 2.14 billion in 2021, according to Statista data.
However, only the best e-commerce stores will be able to take advantage of the increased demand for goods and services online. Competition is already fierce and promises to be even fiercer!
2019 promises to be a year full of opportunities for the best-adapted and innovative business players.
The return of flat design with minimalist touches is already a reality, but other e-commerce design trends in 2019 still need to mature, such as the use of improved chatbots with machine learning or 360º views on product cards.
If you want to take a look at these trends and understand why they will be imposed in the coming months, don’t miss the following lines:
What are the main e-commerce design trends in 2019?
Goodbye carousels, hello 360º views of products!
Product cards occupy a very important place in e-commerce, and therefore in 2019 will live a small revolution: the galleries or carousels of images will lose importance in favor of 360-degree views.
Do you think this is a futuristic trend? You should know that Zalando, Nike and other companies with an online presence have already started to implement these views.
As if that weren’t enough, 360-degree product views promise to agree on sales cycles by accelerating consumer decision making. Rebound percentages should also be reduced. These views would provide them with a great deal more information than static images of galleries or carousels.
In the absence of a technology that allows you to feel, smell or taste the products, 360º views are an excellent substitute.
Microinteractions to improve UX
Microinteractions have increased in popularity in recent years, and in 2019 they promise to break with everything. They can be defined as a set of animations or reactions in texts, icons, and other elements.
Their purpose is to help users during navigation, either by responding to their actions or by facilitating the identification of CTAs. Let’s look at some examples of micro-interactions:
● Bells of notifications that performs some action to warn users.
● Certain buttons (I like, likes, etc.) that react to clicks.
● Certain animations in CTAs of interest (‘Subscribe’, ‘Contact’, etc.) to focus on users’ attention.
● Error messages in incomplete forms or other elements.
As is evident, micro-interactions are not intended to revolutionize UX. But they do add value to their professional and attractive appearance. Of course, one of those trends in e-commerce web design that will not go unnoticed in the coming months.
Mobile first, for a better responsive finish
Another one of the e-commerce design trends in 2019 is, in fact, a fairly well-known one from previous years. And it’s not surprising at all, considering that 40% of online traffic comes from mobiles (2019, Cisco).
We are talking about mobile first, which unlike responsive design, bets on developing e-commerce stores starting from the mobile version instead of the desktop. Although not all web designers are using this methodology, over the next few months it will be generalized.
Why? Because it works! It is a more efficient, comfortable and fast web development technique.
The mobile version is more demanding from the point of view of UX than the versions for computers. It requires a greater economy of resources, simplicity, and navigability.
The issue is not to underestimate the desktop version. The use of mobile design first seeks to reverse the traditional way of developing e-commerce stores: instead of simplifying the complex, it bets on enriching the simple.
Chatbots with ‘steroids’ thanks to machine learning
Another trend that rings a bell (and a lot of it), won’t there be any news in 2019? Quiet! Chatbots will once again help consumers during their shopping experience, but they will become smarter and smarter.
Thanks to advances in AI and machine learning, these digital assistants will contribute more actively to improving conversions and reducing rebound percentages.
Although they were created to respond to user inquiries, today their autonomy is much greater. In the coming months, machine learning could be generalized in chatbots, so that they offer discount codes and other incentives to customers who are about to leave, for example.
Flat design’s revival
But among the new design trends in e-commerce, we also recognize a revival, the flat design.
This design experienced moments of great popularity during the beginnings of responsive design when developers began to realize the need to unify their mobile and desktop versions.
Back then, Google Play and its flat design were a paradigm for ecommerces. For some reason, the number of online stores with minimalist designs has grown like foam. And flat design continues to be an excellent resource for those who seek to offer more for less.
The mobile first methodology and the flat design have one thing in common: the economy of resources: to offer a simple, fluid and fast navigation, it is necessary to simplify.
And this need results in most of the templates offered by Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce combining minimalism and flat design.
Although not all of these ecommerce design trends will crystallize in 2019, it is important not to lose sight of them. Those who ignored the chatboat boom in the past are now lagging behind their competitors.
Do you want to be the lagging gazelle of the herd or the lion leading its herd? Take note of these trends and bet on the one that best suits your business model!
