Smaller ecommerce businesses have a lot of flexibility when it comes to site design.
As a result, there are hundreds of niche businesses that are redefining ecommerce web design right now — innovating and adopting looks that help them to stand out and drive sales.
Modern design trends are some of the best ways to make a site feel fresh, engaging and innovative. These four sites are some of the best examples of modern ecommerce web design trends in action. Studying them can help any business owner improve their ecommerce site.
1. Bold and Descriptive Product Images: WAC Lighting
For some niches, how a product looks and feels in a real-world environment may be a key factor in a buyer’s decision.
While high-quality product images are always a great idea, for some industries, the type of image may be especially important.
For example, see this page from lighting provider WAC lighting, which shows off how the business’s products may look in real life.
These bold graphics both demonstrate how the company’s lights may look in a real-world setting while also directing customers to product categories. These product images do more than just describe what the product looks like, helping to inform and potentially inspire customers.
Businesses that sell lighting, home decor, furniture or consumer goods should pay close attention to their product image design. Clever or descriptive images that tell a story about your product or demonstrate what it may look like in a customer’s home can make a major difference.
2. Clean Design With Personality: Bite Toothpaste Bits
Minimalism and clean design are great design strategies for websites, especially for ecommerce businesses that want their sites as simple and easy-to-understand as possible. Taken too far, it can get a little bland, however. Stylish minimalism can be tricky to pull off — but you can make sure your site has personality by adding back in a little bit of color and some playful design elements.
For example, check out the homepage for Bite Toothpaste Bits.
Most of the site’s text is in Calibre, an understated sans-serif typeface. Site colors are almost exclusively white and black with shades of pastel blues and pinks. The navigation header is simple and pops out of the page as a user scrolls down, keeping it obviously divided from the rest of the content.
Small touches add detail to the site. Wiggly lines are used to underline important phrases in the site copy — “plastic free” and “clean ingredients.”
Other playful site features include vibrant photos that animate as a user scrolls up and down the page — illustrating the interiors of the business’s sustainable packaging design.
Embracing this level of detail is a great way to create a site that’s not too cluttered and not too empty. While there’s plenty of white space and padding that keeps text and images easy to understand, there’s also a lot going on with this website.
3. Powerful Filter Options: Shwood Sunglasses
Finding exactly the product you need can be a major challenge, even on modern ecommerce sites. Many businesses stock a massive number of products, and even if you know the exact category of the item you want, it’s still easy to be overwhelmed by the options available.
Filtering options help customers narrow down their range of choices. The right filter can be essential in finding exactly the item that a customer is looking for.
A wide variety of filtering strategies exist. The Shwood Sunglasses site uses some of the most important.
This filtering menu is simple but powerful. It allows customers to quickly sort the business’s product pool by color, material, shape and size. This helps customers pick out the perfect item based on potential concerns they may have — like style, sustainability and fit.
Some additional filters could provide visitors with even more control over the items they see, but these filters are perfect for the size and variety of Shwood’s catalog.
Adding similar filters to a site can make it much easier to navigate. Depending on your business’s niche, you may also want to consider options that allow customers to filter for product features, collection, season or price. These filters will be especially useful if your catalog has significant variety in these areas — like a wide range of price points.
4. A Clear CTA: Krave Jerky
Visitors have come to your site looking for more information on your products and to potentially make a purchase. You want to guide potential customers to these products as quickly as you can.
A clear CTA will get them there. This homepage, from the website for Krave Jerky, shows how most modern ecommerce businesses use CTAs to direct customers.
The CTA button stands out from the rest of the page and is one of the largest visible elements apart from the hero image to the button’s right. The button text, “Discover the Flavor,” does a good job of describing to customers where the link will take them — in this case, to the main product page.
A clear CTA with an obvious end-point like this one can help a site designer steer customers toward a storefront from the homepage.
Essential Modern Web Design Trends for Ecommerce Sites
These sites are excellent examples of how modern ecommerce design trends can improve a site’s look and feel. Strong product images, clean design, effective filters and good CTAs all help guide customers towards a purchase.
Applying these design trends will allow any ecommerce business to streamline their site design and potential draw in more customers.
