Prominent E-commerce Website Trends To Rule In 2022

The paradigm of E-commerce has faced a significant shift in terms of demand and development. In comparison, there was overall growth in the business in terms of revenue, mainly because of the Covid 19 pandemic, which limited daily life to indoors. This has pushed new challenges for E-commerce websites to navigate through. Resultantly, new E-commerce integrations, methods for consumer engagement, tools to analyze consumer interest and traffic are some of the many technologies evolving in real-time. Hence, now that we have entered a new year, these E-commerce website developments and designing trends will continue to influence the E-commerce marketplace. This blog will delve deeper into the trends of E-commerce website development and design that will rule in 2022.

First, let us understand how Covid 19 plays a determinant factor in these developments.

How does Covid 19 continue to affect E-commerce websites?

The ripple effect created by Covid 19 is simply unavoidable and contagious across all industries. Some have collapsed, some have crippled, some survive, and some even thrive. E-commerce happens to lie in the latter most segment. With the pandemic limiting mobility and people having to set up their entire workspace and other elements of daily life entirely indoors, home delivery and online shopping seem like the safest option in tandem with the Covid protocols of isolation and distancing.

This pilots E-commerce towards skyrocketing boom that it has not envisioned post-pandemic and probably never would have. The figures give away all. In 2020, the E-commerce industry will incur over USD 431 billion. While in 2021, the overall revenue surpassed USD 469 billion. At the end of 2021’s Q2 alone, the E-commerce industry has incurred a gross earning of USD 220 billion.

Pulling High Returns 

Although Covid did become a catalyst for the E-commerce industry, retail operations ceased return rates in 2020, costing an estimated USD 1 out of every USD 10 of gross sales. Moreover, as per the National Retail Federation, E-commerce return rates doubled that year, and 2021 is likely to hold the same statistics. A survey conducted in the early half of 2021 showed that 44% of the respondents had returned something they purchased online in the previous year. Now some tools have been devised for this return challenge too.

Hampering Shipping and Supply Chain  

However, Covid affects shipping and supply chain management the most. The E-commerce industry would have reflected higher growth if it had not been the cumulative effects of Covid 19 hampering supply chains and shipping. A highly integrated or advanced supply chain works like complex machinery where they can achieve efficiency through specializing and optimized logistics, which again depends entirely on the successful integration of several components. However, when one particular component tramples down, the entire operation comes to a halt, and Covid 19 has thrown rocks multiple times on these wheels of supply-side integrations like,

• Factory shutdown.
• Shortage of labor.
• Record demand for shipping containers.
• Port unloading delays.

Hence, PWC’s 2021 Future of Consumer Markets Report has identified supply chain optimization technologies as a critical component for all businesses. E-commerce websites specifically with the help of Web Development Companies in Dubai will be able to leverage these technologies and the derived data to analyze, predict, strategize and accommodate demand, along with greater visibility of the supply chain (stock movement, inventory, etc.).

In response to PWC’s survey, advanced supply chain technologies improved around 7.7% across revenue benefits and 6.8% across cost benefits.

Change in Consumer Expectations

The pandemic has changed consumers’ preferences shoving E-commerce towards the same since more consumers now rely on online shopping for the inherent conveniences, ease, and accessibility it offers over a traditional brick-and-mortar shop. However, the E-commerce industry has to be ready with innovations to keep up with consumers’ changing behavior and expectations and increased cut-throat competition. Given the overall online shopping experience, meeting the consumers’ expectations in 2022 depends entirely on how you reach them, grab their attention, bring them to your brand and streamline the process of purchasing.

Attributes of the E-commerce Website that will change in 2022:-

(1) Multi-Channel Engagement 

The primary step of a successful E-commerce strategy is reaching your potential consumers. With more and more players entering this industry, the existing ones have to buckle up and devise ways to stand out in the crowd and prove themselves better than their competitors. One cannot afford to launch a quick and basic online storefront before waiting for sales.

(2) Social Media Engagement  

It is critically important for an E-commerce website to leverage the idea of having a face on social media. Statistically speaking, 84% of US consumers checked social media before purchasing online. Therefore, an effective social media strategy must be assembled to meet the potential customers based on where they belong, what could entice them, and integrate it with dynamic marketing strategies.

Integrating social media strategies with broader marketing efforts pays significant dividends. For instance, in our work with Whites services, we helped them establish a coordinated approach across social media, SEO, and pay-per-click advertising (PPC). This multi-channel strategy helped them achieve a 500% increase in sales and a 25x return on ad spend (ROAS). Similarly, our other client Sweet Violet Spa, incurred a 380% increase in sales and 29x return on ad spend.

(3) Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Practices

Today the consumer fraternity is well aware and conscious. It relates a lot to the values and culture of a business entity. Consumers support companies that reflect their beliefs and ethics and work on bonafide faith. Therefore, they consider the environmental, social, and corporate governance practices of the business they associate with as a consumer. These ESG efforts bring a unique type of consumer engagement and goodwill.

In the Consumer Intelligence survey conducted by PWC, 75% of the respondents shared that they would reward companies for positive ESG efforts. However, over 75% also claimed that they have stooped consuming goods from brands that practice poor ESG.

Especially for a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) entity like E-commerce websites, intense efforts to build an excellent social media presence and highlight ESG practices have helped them achieve brand loyalty.

E-commerce Website Trends that will rule in 2022:-

(a) Multi-Channel and Alternative Purchasing Processes

Besides multi-channel and diversifying their marketing strategies, E-commerce businesses must also enhance their purchasing processes to cater to new consumer preferences. As convenience remains the topmost priority of consumers in terms of the website, the means to achieve it have evolved.

(b) Mobile-Shopping

As per PWC’s 2021 reports, mobile commerce is the fastest-growing channel. The late 2021 estimates confirm this, and even now, M-Commerce activities comprise 72.9% of all the E-commerce transactions in the new year, which records a 14% jump over the previous year.

To cater the best experience to mobile shoppers, E-commerce businesses must ensure that their websites are optimized accordingly, which includes:-

• Engaging and fluid designing (for example, no cut-off layout elements, hard-to-click links, etc.)
• Simplified menu navigation (for example, prioritizing the most crucial pages).
• Rapid page loading.
• Checkout hurdles minimized.
• Non-evasive popups and advertisements.

A trend that must be mentioned here is ‘advanced adaptation.’ In the coming times, web pages will adapt not only screen size but also change layout based on age or whether a user is left-handed or right-handed. Unbelievable right? But we need to wait until this trend comes into the limelight in 2022.

(c) Voice Shopping 

To many E-commerce website owners, voice shopping seems a complicated term. They may wish to wait and watch others do it before pursuing the technology themselves. However, how voice assistants are changing the consumer’s approach to handling mobile phones and their functioning in daily life with smart speakers like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri will soon engulf even the E-commerce landscape. Back in 2017, the usage of voice assistants was recorded to jump to 21%, while in 2018, the voice shopping segment of E-commerce was predicted to surpass USD 40 billion this year.

(d) ‘One-Click’ Checkouts 

As mentioned earlier, convenience is the key to serving the best experience. For example, the consumer views a product. Then, they can place an order (some integration options require a second click for confirmation purposes).

(e) Lazy Loading & Long Scrolls

Furthermore, it is also believed that lazy loads and long scrolls will be arriving like a storm on the E-commerce sites. In the past, whenever a user was required to see more products, then they had to click on the next page every time, which was effortful and time-consuming in terms of page loading intervals. To achieve good website performance and better user experience, adding more products/ objects to the current page rather than loading a new page is getting popular. As a result, larger scrolling pages and lazy loading can be witnessed.

The product category page of a regular E-commerce website is an excellent example of this. Whenever end-users start seeing products on a product category page, typically, ten products are shown. Still, as you scroll downwards/vertically, new products will get to be added to the page. So now, any shopper can see 50 to 100 products effortlessly before loading a new page. Thus, long page scroll designs will dominate in 2022’s E-commerce web designing.

(f) Multifunctional Images

Recent studies indicate that 92.6% of online users believe that eye-catching visuals play a crucial part in purchasing. Therefore, multifunctional images will become the point of attraction for E-commerce websites to deliver a quality user experience. Irresistible pictures are visual treats for the users and essential for user engagement.

It’s evident that a “first impression is lasting one, so website owners only have 4 seconds to make a great first impression. We all know images are an immediate attention grabber for the people, so websites having high-quality and beautiful images to showcase their services, products, services, and brands will enjoy massive attention from the users rather than the websites mainly focusing on the text. There’s no doubt that content is vital for websites, but the unnecessary text makes the website dull and drives users away. Therefore, 2022 will see E-commerce websites clasping multifunctional images contributing more to the visual story to keep customers engaged.

(g) Augmented and Virtual Reality Assistance 

This trend has got all tech enthusiasts excited, and E-commerce websites will achieve great advantage from it in 2022 in terms of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). This cures the only problem physical stores pose on online stores, to show goods in person to the customers. For instance, consumers had to rely on their visualization of the furniture they wished to buy online in their homes or office. They had to visualize whether the style, color, texture, and dimension would suit their need or not. However, now AR and VR will allow them to see their potential purchase is suiting their needs or not. This negates consumers’ guesswork, increasing customer satisfaction and building strong brand loyalty. This works best in the present condition of the Covid 19 pandemic, where consumers cannot visit shops physically and touch, feel or wear their purchase.

All trends culminate to provide a consumer with one specific and critical objective: convenience or ease in shopping. Hence as long as the E-commerce website is developed or designed with all the tools, ingrained with those integrations that offer convenience in shopping, viewing products, and payment, the E-commerce website will never go out of style.

Incorporating trends like multi-channel operations, streamlining alternative purchasing processes, and making the website more mobile-friendly, handy with voice shopping, multifunctional images, and technologically innovative or unique with virtual reality, an E-commerce website can beat any odds in 2022 and the future.