In Defense of Trends: Why Experimenting with Design is Crucial for E-commerce

Trends, despite being popular by definition, tend to carry something of a negative stigma. Especially in creative fields like design, trends are often disparaged as passing fads or shallow novelties backed by mindless hype and bandwagon mentality.

Certainly we can all think of a trend we mindlessly followed to embarrassing or frustrating consequences, be it in fashion or tech. But this kind of reflection is tinted with bias. When we think of trends of the past, we think of fads that lived fast and disappeared into oblivion. We don’t think of the developments that debuted as trends and went on to join the ranks of the tried-and-true.

It’s a shop-eat-shop world

If there is any field where it pays to keep a close eye on trends, it is e-commerce design. As an industry that is barely two decades old, the rapidly growing market for online retail is one whose conventions are still forming. This is an industry where competitors spring up overnight, slight tweaks to layout or copy can make or break conversions, and a dated appearance means commercial suicide.

Experimenting with trends can be crucial to the success of your online store. In an ever-changing market like e-commerce, design trends are a pretty good reflection of customers’ current tastes and needs. After all, it is the job of great design to meet customers where they are and take them where they didn’t even know they wanted to go. And not only do e-commerce design trends offer possible solutions to problems of UX and conversion, but they can actually shape consumer expectations for years to come.

Putting trends to the test

Any e-commerce business owner who has done their homework knows the mantra of conversion rate optimization: test, test, and test some more. Lucky for the overworked digital marketer, design trends that have already reached wide adoption can take a lot of the guesswork out of picking elements that are worthy of testing in the first place. Research-based testing is an industry norm in e-commerce, so if a trend is already picking up speed, you don’t need to fear that integrating it into your shop’s design would be like joining stampede of cliff-bound lemmings.

Of course, a design’s trendiness does not absolve you from performing your own testing. Nor does it mean you shouldn’t think critically about how a trend fits in with your brand, your products, and your customers. To be sure, some trends are laughably incompatible with the products for which they are adopted.

There is also a sense of urgency in e-commerce design trends. Once a trend has been adopted by a few key industry players, it ceases to be “just a trend” and becomes something that many consumers come to expect, even demand, from the businesses they patronize. Consider, to this point, that mobile friendly design is now all but compulsory for e-commerce businesses. Consumer behaviors, the competitive landscape, and design trends all evolve in relation with one another.

Bandwagons worth hopping onto

This interconnectedness is visible in many current trends in e-commerce design. Where a gap exists in the market, a design trend emerges to address it. A look at WhatsTheHost’s 2018 infographic on design trends in e-commerce shows how e-commerce businesses are using design to more effectively inform their customers and encourage them to buy more.

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Online shoppers do not always have the luxury of being able to physically interact with the product before they decide to buy it. Though 2018 trends haven’t brought us as far as shopping in augmented reality, many are working hard to shrink that gap. Design trends like scrolling product photos help customers see more images with less effort than a click-through gallery, and integrated videos show some of the less photogenic characteristics of a product such as consistency and movement. When well executed, these two design trends leave customers feeling more informed about the product without having to actively seek this information.

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You do, after all, want your e-commerce store to be informative. The vast majority of online shoppers do extensive research on a product before they make a purchase, and those who are left with lingering questions are less likely to buy. But disorganized product descriptions or a wall of text can be just as detrimental to your bounce rate. Here is where design trends like product landing pages and intersecting elements come in, offering layout solutions that find a sweet spot where informative, attractive, and organized all converge. The result are seamless and digestible product pages that convert visitors into confident purchasers.

When shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, many customers enjoy hunting for great finds, things they didn’t set out for but encounter by chance. This discovery element of offline shopping is often missing in e-commerce. But several of the current design trends are working to reintroduce a bit of this excitement to the online shopping experience.

Creative new spins on category pages transform what was once just a stop-over page into an opportunity to encourage customers to dig deeper. Rather than the traditional product grid, more companies are making over their category pages with interactive elements like animations, striking contrasts and curation, and offbeat structuring. And rather than use traditional product photography that suspends an item in white nothingness, edgy photography is also encouraging customers to try something new. Especially in more untapped markets like male grooming, bold photography that distinguishes a brand from sterile industry norms can be incredibly effective.

Conclusion

Design trends don’t come out of nowhere, but instead rise to popularity because they viably address current tastes, problems, and expectations. Of course, not every trend is a fit for every brand. But having a clear understanding of which trends are currently delighting consumers and why can give your online store an edge. Resolving to test out burgeoning design trends could end up boosting your conversions and giving you valuable insight into your customers’ behaviors. In an industry as new as e-commerce, the trends of today can become the tried-and-true methods of the future.

About the author

Alexandra North is the Content Editor of WhatsTheHost, a comparison platform for all things web hosting.