E-commerce and Design Trends to Watch (and Try) in 2023

Online shopping used to be the choice of only a few. But with the boom of e-commerce—and the ease with which it is now integrated into many online platforms—buying things online is more commonplace than ever before.

If you sell products and services online, we want to be sure you have a strong sales year in 2023. That means making sure you’re reaching the design trends setting you up for success.

Here are a few e-commerce and design trends our marketing pros are keeping an eye on this year:

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

One of the biggest reasons for the e-commerce boom is the ability for people to do business and make purchases from their mobile phone. [It’s already led e-commerce— and broken records at that!] And it’s still on the rise. With things like Apple Pay, where customers can buy with their smartphone using fingerprint recognition, we can expect mobile purchases to go through the roof.?

What that means for you: if you do business online and your site is not mobile-responsive, you’re missing out on a huge pool of customers. Making the adjustments necessary to have a mobile-responsive site (including being able to accept payment through mobile) will give your brand—and your online business—a big boost. Following these design trends of 2023 will increase your consumer experience and ultimately increase their options to convert.?

Load times will be crucial

Fast load times (across devices) are critical if you want to do business effectively online. Why? You literally only have a couple of seconds once someone lands on your site to make a good impression. If load times take more than that, odds are not good that person is going to stay on your site at all, much less make a purchase.

What this means for you: Make sure your site runs on mobile, tablet, and desktop. And make sure your load times (especially your landing pages and e-commerce functions) are fast.

You may need to consider some design tweaks

Although we can’t tell you what type of design to use for your website (because different layouts work for different, there are a few design trends that may be worth looking into as you try to optimize your site across devices (especially mobile).

Vibrant Colors: They tend to be associated with positive emotions. As long as they fit in your style guide, you may consider a color refresher on your website.

Animation/GIFs: In moderation, animation and GIFs may help boost engagement and promote interactivity with your e-commerce platform. Just keep it subtle, otherwise, it may negatively affect your load times.

“Hamburger” and Bootstrap Menus: These menu styles may be easier for some brands when trying to optimize for mobile e-commerce.

Voice Search

People use voice search all the time (think Siri, Cortana, and Alexa). The sooner you are able to equip your e-commerce site to be voice-search-responsive, the faster your customers will be able to summon your products and services straight to their device with the right words.

What that means for you: You may not be able to implement this immediately, but it might be a good thing to work in.

Delivery and Shipping Perks

This isn’t directly related to marketing or tech, but offering shipping and delivery perks will help you compete—- and enhancing your Customer Experience never hurts!

Doing business online effectively should be a goal for every business, but especially if you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store and rely exclusively on e-commerce. We have no doubt that trying even one of these strategies in the new year will help you take your brand, and your business, to the next level. How are you hoping to ramp up your e-commerce this year?