As the numbers show, the eCommerce market has grown tremendously over the years. Also, it is a fast growing market with faster changing trends, which one must adapt to for maximum results.

E-commerce, which once started with selling a handful of products, now encompasses any and all products imaginable. From books to electrical equipment, everything can be purchased online. Until a few years ago, e-commerce was something that was done on laptops and desktop computers, but recent years have seen an increase in the use of mobile devices to make purchases on e-commerce sites. This has made it necessary for online businesses to have a mobile friendly version of their site, as a result mobile friendly commerce website development is on the rise. In addition to the use of mobile sites, there has also been a rapid increase in the use of mobile applications. All of these factors have contributed to e-commerce becoming an important part of the retail landscape.

With the growing importance of eCommerce, let’s take a look at the top 7 eCommerce website design trends for this year.

Mobile friendly design

Considering how important mobile devices have become, it’s no surprise that mobile-optimized website design is one of the biggest eCommerce trends this year. As stated above, the rise of mobile commerce has made it critical for business owners to create a responsive design for their site. A responsive design adapts to different mobile devices and eliminates the need to develop x not. of designs for x no. of mobile devices.

Use of templates

In the year 2014, Google released its “Material Design” motif, which is a template used to develop Android apps. An increasing number of e-commerce websites now use the same design principles that “Material Design” is based on. Using the “Material Design” motif does not mean that your website will be identical to others, as there are many possibilities for customization.

Efficient loading and disposal

Efficient site layout and loading, especially for mobile devices, should be a major concern among developers. This means that when a user opens the website, the important stuff needs to load first. For e-commerce websites, this is the product listing. So instead of loading 100 products on one page, developers should focus on loading 10 products per page and loading subsequent sets of 10 if the user scrolls down. It should be noted that e-commerce websites that load easily on mobile devices will attract more users than ones that take a long time to load.

Use of hamburger menus

Another trend this year would be the increased use of hamburger menus. Hamburger menus are typically defined by three horizontal lines and offer a convenient way to hide or show the menu as needed. This essential hamburger menu feature makes the site easier to navigate. The easier the site is to navigate, the more attractive it is to users.

cinemagraphs

This year will also see increased use of cinematographers on e-commerce websites. Cinematographers is a happy medium between an animated GIF and a static image. It usually consists of an image with animated text over it, although in some cases a part of the image may be animated. Cinematographers are easier to load on mobile compared to gifs. This is because when a series of GIFs is added to a page, the data requirement or load time increases significantly.

Adaptation

The adaptation of websites to different devices is not new, but in the future the websites can be adapted to the user. For example, depending on the user’s age or web activity, the website may display some items more prominently than others. In other words, the website could reorder itself.

Site elements would also scroll left or right depending on whether the user is left or right handed. For color blind people, the site can also alter your color palette.

Using the grid layout

Using grids on ecommerce websites is one of the simplest yet effective forms of design. The grids use the available space efficiently and are also easy to navigate. A growing trend this year would be for eCommerce sites to embrace the grid layout but remove the borders, allowing the grid to blend in with the rest of the page.

With these top 7 trends in mind, it’s high time you began the exciting journey of developing your ecommerce website.