Website design is a tricky thing to pin down.
For one thing, trends are continually changing. For another, you need to make sure the site design you choose helps you stand out among to vast sea of thousands and thousands of other websites on the web.
We can in part thank pandemic shut-downs, but the truth is the trend in online shopping has been steadily increasing for years. So, while COVID restrictions may have made the need for an online store in 2020 essential, there’s no slow down in the foreseeable future of online sales.
If your business is stuck with a clunky and outdated online store or rapidly threw together a digital shop after the first shutdowns, or maybe just has an e-commerce website that needs a design refresh, right now, it’s time to step up your design game.
One of our favorite ways to uncover what will work for your design and even structure is to browse designs that got it right. Successful e-commerce website design trends are not just stunning, but they showcase products in ways that inform, entice and ultimately capture the online shopper.
What’s the Host brings us the 9 latest 2021 E-Commerce Design Trends. Take a look and find inspiration from these trending looks. That way, you can browse through and pull together your own concept that will help not only attract customers to your site but keep them coming back for more.
Let’s analyze a few of the trendiest site design directions of 2021. Oh, and don’t forget to read to the end for an amazing infographic with examples of each trend on the list!
Modern Still Life
The Modern Still Life trend focuses on photography that showcases your product amid a collection of everyday items.
Using everyday items in contrast or conjunction with a product can showcase its size, color, and design. Just make sure it’s clear which product you’re featuring by contrasting colors or setting it apart in some way.
It feels familiar. It looks familiar. We think it’s because some of us at makeshift desks have seen a collision between work and home on our very own desks.
What does your modern still life look like? What does your customer’s still life look like? Where can your product fit in that image?
Product as Patterned Tiles
Patterns are reinforcing and add extra punch to imagery. Using your product as a reoccurring feature in a pattern can quickly and easily elevate it and pull together your website design.
There’s something reassuring in order. Patterns help to impart that confidence in your product to your customer.
There’s something reassuring in order. Patterns help to impart that confidence in your product to your customer.
Powerful Pastels
Usually associated with newborns and the delicate rebirth of springtime, power may not be the word you first think of when we say “pastel.” But add some power, and everything changes.
Power + pastel is an equalizer. It unites two seemingly polarized words. And if we need anything in these times, unity is definitely top of the list. This is the perfect combination of opposing styles that come together to communicate equality and balance.
To do it, combine traditionally “sweet” palettes of bold and bright pastel with masculine and strong elements like thick, stocky text, textured and bold imagery, and stunning swaths of saturated color.
Brutalist Grid
Grids of images help showcase products. Brutalist style keeps customers interested.
There’s something shockingly chaotic yet magnetic about the grating roughness of brutalist design that consumers can’t get enough of.
The best part about this trend is it can be employed for a wide range of products. Edgy accessories stacked in squares featuring structured bags, a series of funky photos of weird poses for clothing items, or bizarre and bare shots of bottles of perfume or goggles or even household items.
The options are limitless.
Product Anatomy
This one is our favorite.
What do customers want to know when they are shopping? They want to know what your product offers them, what makes it unique, and why they should buy it.
Showcasing the features upfront makes your product stand out. Done right, it is not only a stunning showcase of your product, but it can help your customers see the unique details offered and trust in your brand for clearly communicating what they need to know.
Real Textures
When shopping digitally, the biggest draw-back is the lack of touchability. This trend strives to bridge that gap.
Using beautiful photography that emphasizes and showcases various textures, your customer can better imagine and understand what your product feels like.
Sculpturesque Product Photography
A bit abstract and experimental, these modern sculptured shapes draw attention to form.
Drawing on cubist and minimal design, the product showcase becomes almost like a trip into a museum that’s been laced with incredibly clever product placement—an excellent fit for customers who may be missing out on vising museums IRL.
Ingredient Glossaries
More than ever, customers care about what is in their products. They aren’t fooled by flowery language and sneaky ways to spell out sugar. So, it’s best to get straight to the point.
Ingredient glossaries done right offer customers straight-up insight into what’s inside the product AND can even shine a light on the benefits of those ingredients.
Barely-There Geometry
Simple, elegant, and practically effortless, this subtle trend is a simple way to upgrade your e-commerce design. No over-the-top photography or big power-play is happening here.
Add just a little extra touch of sophistication, it’s like finding the perfect tie to complement an already handsome suit. It’s all in the details.
Please include attribution to Whatsthehost.com with this graphic.
Related posts:
- Versatile Ecommerce Website Design Trends 2021 - March 6, 2021
- 8 Immersive Experiential Marketing Concepts You Can Begin Planning Now - May 7, 2020
