Fun fact, up to 95% of all sales are expected to be conducted via ecommerce by 2040. The pandemic was, of course, a huge push toward this number. However, despite the new health-conscious changes we now live with, offline shopping will never be the same.
What does this look like in numbers? There are over two billion people shopping online today, and nearly half of those American shoppers are shopping from their beds! The way we shop today is comfortable exceptionally comfortable.
Ecommerce businesses are rapidly adapting to cater to the numerous new shopping personas browsing their online stores. It’s led to new online shopping trends emerging in 2022 and affecting the web design of ecommerce brands. In this article, we’ll explore those web design trends and how you can ensure your business can prepare to stay on top of them.
Buckle up, we’re about to dive right in.
4 Ecommerce trends and how to cater to them in 2022
1. Personalized end-to-end store experiences
If you’re not already personalizing your shopper’s experience end-to-end then here are a few stats that will change that.
70% of millennials feel frustrated when they receive unpersonalized newsletters or other emails from brands they’re registered with. A study by Accenture found that over 90% of respondents are likely to shop with a brand that offers a better personalized experience than competitors despite the product!
If you’re not personalizing your ecommerce end-to-end then you’re losing customers, you’re disgruntling customers, and you’re ultimately doing long-term brand damage. Ecommerce stores need to be personalizing experiences from ‘hello.’
How can they do this? It’s not a light task, and certainly not something that most SaaS products can truly help to do. It means, for those that can, many ecommerce businesses are taking web development into their own hands and building out niche products, processes, and customer flows that are unique to their business.
Hire Magento developers
One way you can go about knocking this trend out of the park is by hiring Magento developers. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done, and if you’ve ever had to hire tech talent in the past you’ll know the pain.
Consider using an assessment for hiring Magento devs in your hiring processes. This way you can qualify talent early on, and support hiring managers in their work by only sending their candidates that are qualified to do the job. With Magento 2 developers you can build an ecommerce website as flexible, diverse, and unique as you need it to be.
2. Out of shop brand building
For as much as you rely on the actions of customers ‘in-store,’ you’ll need them just as much ‘out of store.’
Brand building doesn’t stop at your ecommerce site, and neither should your relationship-building strategy. In 2022, we’re expecting to see web designs follow through across all branding communications and for brands to be doubling down on reasons to land in their customers’ inboxes.
Expect a lift in email communications, but with quality and relevant content for customers that are based on their in-store actions. Emails will get exceptionally personal, gently reminding them of your brand and nudging them back into your online store.
How can you cater to this growing email branding effort?
Build an email cadence for new customers
We hate to say it, but, it may be too late with your current customers. You’ve set up a communication culture with them, and if you didn’t open the doors for regular communication from day one, they’re more likely to hit unsubscribe and abandon your business altogether not just their cart.
However, all is not lost! Consider a welcome email for new customers to introduce them to a high-level communication culture from day one.
Take this communication invite everywhere you can and flood your web design with CTAs for people to join your mailing lists. Tell them what they’ll get out of it that goes beyond discounts and let them pick their email cadence.
People are precious with their emails today, but, if you can win an email from a customer or potential customer, it will be well worth the lift further down the line.
3. Leading with sustainability goals
A BBC study found that nearly 60% of young people are worried or extremely worried about climate change. Further studies found that almost half of all young people say that worries surrounding climate change affect their daily lives. What’s more, their looking at brands to help solve these problems not governments.
The pressure is on for corporate stores to be leading the way with sustainability goals and best practices. These need to be fleshed out in product sourcing, production, and overall business operations.
Yet, how does this specifically affect ecommerce stores? How can web developers support brand communications of sustainability efforts?
Go green where it’s seen
Ecommerce stores will constantly need to be showcasing their green efforts where it counts. With the advancement of tech, there’s no hiding behind yearly reports on CSR initiatives. Customers want live updates, or as close to that as possible.
This demand from customers means that ecommerce web designs will be as much about their positive impact as they are about their product.
Ecommerce web designers and developers will need to keep this in mind as they map out nav bars and key pages to ensure the ecommerce store’s positive initiatives are running hand-in-hand with brand messaging and product positioning.
Already have your team assembled and are looking to upskill your current developers? No problem. Consider introducing a qualified mentor to your team’s programming journey. Mentors are a great resource for your workforce as they can help you upskill a team that is already proving they’ve got what it takes to help lift your business to success.
4. Gestalt grouping principles
Working in web design and ecommerce, there’s a high chance you’re already familiar with the Gestalt grouping principles. However, if you’re not, a quick recap for you: they’re a series of psychology laws describing how the human brain perceives multiple different elements.
Today, these laws are the fundamentals of good UX design, and with the vast amount of new online shoppers flooding their digital carts, there’s never been a more pressing time to deliver smoother user experiences.
Done right, Gestalt principles can use human psychology to help your ecommerce shoppers navigate your site without actually needing to tell them a thing.
The seven gestalt principles are:
- Continuity principle: following the simplest line pattern despite color or distance.
- Similarity principle: assuming matching elements serve the same function.
- Proximity principle: assuming elements close together serve the same function.
- Closure principle: completing an object, even if it’s incomplete, to make a whole image.
- Common region principle: grouping elements that are within the same barrier.
- Figure-ground principle: placing smaller images in the foreground, and negative space in the background.
- Focal point principle: processing a standout element before anything else.
So, how can you ensure you’re making the most of these seven Gestalt principles in your web design?
Hire UX designers
These Gestalt principles are often the fundamentals of any UX design degree. If you can find UX designers and product catalog managers to come on board for 2022, then we’d highly recommend doing so. This talent will instinctively use Gestalt psychology methods to build more human-friendly websites for your business.
If you’re looking for UX/UI design talent, then Dribble is a great place to find UX/UI designers. The platform allows you to browse through a wealth of portfolios, search for professionals based on keywords, and can also inspire your own web design projects.
Wrapping up on ecommerce trends
That’s all on ecommerce trends and how to cater to them in 2022. We’re in a world that’s rapidly changing, and web developers have never been more in demand than they have been today. At the same time, they are scarce. Great talent is hard to find, and it’s even more difficult to retain.
Take time to source your dream team of web developers and designers. Ensure your business is offering them exactly what they need to feel fulfilled with their workplace. Once you’ve got your talent, hold on to them. Listen to them. Give people a reason to stay.
Your talent is just as valuable as your customers; upskill, reskill, and cherish each team member that jumps on board. Your dev talent are business-critical drivers to your ecommerce store and greater success.