News & Insights

7 E-commerce Web Design Trends in 2022

E-commerce has undoubtedly flourished in the past couple of years.

Following the rise in demand for online retail, companies are also starting to take note of the importance of interface design. An interactive, intuitive website design can make or break an e-commerce platform. An impressive interface can impress, attract, and successfully retain customers.

If brands want to stay ahead of the curve, they should start re-thinking the customer experience. This innovation begins from website design.

It’s one thing if you have a dedicated in-house team to design your website for you. Amazon, for example, one of the world’s largest e-commerce brands, features an organized, simple, yet efficient interface.

However, for entrepreneurs that run their own online shops on Shopify, Magento or even Webflow, figuring out how to design your e-commerce website can be quite a challenge. This is where keeping up to date with the latest trends comes in handy.

In this article, we take a look at the most popular e-commerce web design trends of 2022.

1. Mobile-First Approach

More than ever, consumers are shopping from their phones rather than their laptops. In fact, 79% of smartphone users have made some sort of online purchase using a mobile device.

Hence, web designers have to start designing with the mobile device as the starting pint. This means mobile-first interfaces that feature minimal clutter and can adapt to various screen sizes. Even if your brand does not have a dedicated mobile app, simply having a mobile-first website that is easy to navigate can make a world of difference.

2. Vertical Menus

Although many of us are accustomed to horizontal menus, vertically aligned menus don’t just make you stand out from the crowd — they are also a mobile-first option. In fact, horizontal menus do not work all that well on mobile screens.

On mobile, a vertical menu provides ease of scrolling and is much more intuitive than trying to zoom into a horizontal menu. On desktop, a vertical menu takes up less space, since it can be placed on either side of the page without interfering with the main content. This allows web designers to maximize the space available on the website while still adhering to a practical, intuitive design ethos.

3. Multidirectional Layouts

The popularity of unconventional layouts has been rising for a while and is only set to grow. Aside from scrolling up and down, users can move forward, backward, diagonally, left, and right. Aside from being plain fun, it’s also an intuitive experience that adds value to the customer’s time on your brand’s site.

This increases audience interaction with the site itself, which makes navigating the website an enjoyable and engaging experience that goes beyond making a purchase.

4. Smart Content Loading

A general rule of thumb: the more complicated your website design is, the longer it takes to load. No matter how visually appealing your site is, if it takes two minutes for the main product to show up, your customer is likely to click away.

In the past, we have seen designers get around this issue by leveraging techniques like lazy loading or infinite scrolling. This year, another trend that tackles this issue is the smart content load, which allows only graphics and images that can be quickly loaded to be uploaded to a website. This reduces waiting time for audiences while maintaining the integrity of the site structure and design.

5. Personalisation

Another trend we can expect to see is increased personalisation. Aside from creating an intuitive and practical interface, it is also important to create a personalised experience for potential customers that accounts for the diversity of your brand’s user base.

Personalisation can be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, you can allow customers to opt out from subscriptions or promotions related to specific topics. Even simple gestures like these showcase your brand’s thoughtfulness and helps create a more personalised customer journey.

6. Pastel Colours

While bold, contrasting colours can make your website stand out, so can a more neutral, pastel palette. Since last year, there has been a rising trend of using gentler colours that are easy on the eyes. This trend is set to continue this year as well.

Pastel colours go well with neutral backgrounds and they add a splash of warmth and nostalgia to any design. In fact, pastel tones are often found with other nostalgia-related design elements like retro fonts, blurriness, and grain to create more relatable experiences.

7. Sensory Experiences

Another way to elevate your e-commerce brand is by creating a truly multi-sensory experience for customers who access your website.

This can be done in a number of ways. While a more complex option like integrating virtual reality features into your site is an option, not everyone has the need nor budget for that. Instead, simply picking high-quality photos, stylised fonts, sound effects, and animated hover effects can create a unique user experience. For example, when a user clicks the “Make Payment” button, you can integrate a ‘ding’ sound which triggers satisfaction and mimics a real-life cashiering system. Small touches like these go a long way.