UI-UX Web Design Trends That Will Influence Businesses in 2017

The web has measured a long distance in the past decade, probably much more than anything else that counts. Internet users have multiplied over the years, surfing the web for shopping, banking, reading, communicating, socializing, and what not? And with the number of increasing users, websites have been mushrooming at a jet speed, making the web more competitive than ever before. ‘Basic’ is no more an acceptable norm when it comes to online stores and other websites. To be on the top and excel, you need to keep up with the latest trends. These trends are based on latest additions to the web market taking it further on the road to progress.

The ultimate motive of these digital design trends is to provide enhanced User Experience (UX) by providing a modernized User Interface (UI). As the web is changing rapidly, these trends are quite dynamic. In this blog, we have jotted down the ongoing UI-UX Web Design Trends based on recent market research and user reviews.

Smart Personalization

Till now, it was pretty much enough to add stock images from the internet to your website but now even older and already popular websites are getting a makeover by adopting creative design solutions to make their websites a better view to visitors. Everything from icons and illustrations to product pictures and website promotions needs smart personalization to enhance user experience. The idea is to create a brand of one’s own by customizing every aspect of the business on the line of thought of the brand.

Personalization not only increases the appearance of the website, but also augments user interface by offering an attractive and smarter site to the user. Website owners must consider designing personalized icons which are compelling enough for the visitors/customers to explore the site further. Product images and videos even though from same brands are now being manually shot in the store’s dedicated studio to present the product from a different perspective than competitive stores are displaying. And the results are visibly rewarding.

Time Controlled Designs

For a considerable time, UX was being estimated on the basis of how much time a customer spends on the site. This perspective is eventually getting outdated. Now, the UX depends on how swift your website is and how quickly it can cater to the requirements of the customer. The customer shouldn’t be forever lost surfing through the products and service they don’t require. Websites are now expected to be designed in smarter way. Filters and smart find options are the new UI-UX trends.

Time controlled designs appreciably help in achieving UX by providing the customer what they want in no time. The world is moving more rapid than ever and an ecommerce store isn’t where a user wants to wander off exploiting their crucial time. Faster services significantly facilitate UI of the website further leading to a great UX as well.

Advanced Animations

The web market is developing at such a rapid pace that trends alter even before the previous one settles in. While we were just witnessing a changing trend of showcasing high definition designer pictures as product images instead of the boring white background workable images, there are already animations and videos emerging up as the latest addition to progressing UI of websites.

Animations are a funky way to present your idea in front of your customers. Moreover, creating animations for your store is comparatively budgetary for your website than shooting new videos every other day. But one important thing that websites need to consider is that the animations shouldn’t be forced. At the end of the day, they aren’t for entertainment but serve a purpose and should be designed accordingly.

Focus on smaller devices

Till now the focus of website designs was on computers and laptop screens. Later on, a workable version for small screens like mobiles and tabs was launched to ease navigation through multiple devices. But now, the trends are altering. Graphics design is now prioritized for mobile devices as the user ship has significantly moved from laptops to smaller screens.

A logical explanation of focusing on mobile devices as primary source of customer interaction is the number of devices people own. Computers and laptops are common these days but not as much as mobile devices. Almost every person who qualifies as a customer owns at least one mobile device with internet connection and spends much more time on their phone than on comparatively cumbersome devices like computers and laptops. Therefore, the latest UI-UX trend demands a responsive website design developed primarily for such devices.

Long Scroll Websites

Though scrolling is more of a basic function of a website than style, but the way websites utilize at a particular point of time can easily be acknowledged as the trends of those times. Presently, we can often spot websites adopting the long-scroll option for displaying content rather than increasing the number of pages. It is aimed to enhance the design of the website and also adds notably to the user experience.

This fashion of long scroll websites has also a direct connection to the trend of mobile websites. Mobile users tend to scroll through the whole page if the content seems relevant rather than clicking and moving to different links for content. This also facilitates a quick look over large volume of content without interruption. The long scroll method forms a linear narrative and imparts seamless content which directly affects the UI and UX of the website.

Flamboyant Color Palettes

The minimalistic website design is still an ongoing trend as was a year ago but the aspects of the design are changing. Keeping the websites too simple was hindering UI and UX to an extent as all websites were unconsciously getting a similar look, providing monotonous UI. The solution to this was derived by adopting attractive color palettes for websites which helped to keep a minimalist design which was far from ordinary.

The use of vibrant colors is intended to gain customer attention and at the same time increase the appeal of the websites, which flat colors fail to provide. You can choose contrasting colors or a themed website with different shades of colors from a particular group. The options are limitless but the test lies in choosing the right option at the right time and for the right thing.

Conclusion

UI-UX trends aren’t only aimed at increasing the aesthetic appeal of the website but greatly affect your visibility on the internet. The competition to survive within the online market is cutthroat and to make a mark is getting trickier by the day. You don’t get to wait and watch if something works for others, to decide it for yourself.

It all happens instantly and the only option you can consider is a bit of market research before adopting something for your website. The rule applies to web designs much more than anything else because it immediately forms the first impression on your visitors. So essentially, either you adopt something straight away and be the trend setter or get the tag of just being a follower. The decision is up to you!

Magento Vs. Shopify: Which is a Better Ecommerce Platform?

Magento and Shopify – you definitely must have heard of these two terms if have researched about ecommerce platforms or have had an experience with mid market online retail. These are two of the most popular and accessible platforms in the market and widely preferred options for several small business owners and entrepreneurs who are willing to have their online store.
Ever wondered what makes Shopify and Magento the most sought after options? What are the pros and cons of both the platforms? If you are confused as to which one to choose out of the two, the following insights will help you decide better.

Shopify is a fast growing ecommerce platform which is mostly used by retailers who want to sell online but don’t have any technical knowhow. It was launched in the year 2006 and provides different packages including a new version. The best part about a Shopify store is that it takes a few minutes to set it up. As soon as you choose one of the packages, sign up for a trial and set up a payment gateway, you can start selling your products online.
Shopify provides a lot of ease for anyone and everyone who is willing to sell things online. It also has ‘buy’ buttons for campaigns, effortless POS integration and Facebook stores.

 

Magento is one the largest ecommerce platforms in the world. Currently, it is used by more than 240,000 retailers. The platform is powerful enough to handle small business as well as huge retail stores like Hermes, Paul Smith, Ford, Nike etc. It was launched in the year 2007, and provides a free (Community Edition) as well as a paid (Enterprise Edition) version for building an online store. Magento has remained unbeaten due to its community which has contributed towards its growth and has published a lot of documentation online. Moreover there are thousands of Magento extensions and modules which help the Magento merchants to save significant development hours.

Shopify Vs Magento: A Comparison

1. Hosting Environment

• Shopify is a hosted platform. So you don’t have to worry about hosting the store, maintaining it and updating the modules from time to time. It is just right for the small business owners who don’t know how to deal with technology and software related issues. There are other platforms like Demandware, Bigcommerce, Volusion etc. However, Shopify remains to be the favourite one. It enables merchants to focus on running their ecommerce store rather than mulling over the technology and software related glitches.
• Magento, on the other hand, is self-hosted. This means that retailers have to manage their own servers and keep themselves updated about the software. You can also seek professional help from your hosting partners or ask Magento development agencies to help. However, all this asks for a lot of effort on the part of retailers. One of the biggest advantages of Magento is that you can have complete control over your store and make changes according to your requirements. For eg, If you want to host a WordPress blog on the same server, you can easily do it with the help of Magento as you are managing the server on your own. This kind of customization is difficult to implement on Shopify.

2. Software Functionalities

If you are starting with your one-man venture, you must know about the way you can traverse around both the ecommerce platforms. So here’s how you can work on both these platforms.

• Shopify has an intuitive and simple interface which can make it easy for the retailers to understand. You just need to add your products, create and manage categories, add different modules etc. Also, even if you have a team of different administrative members handling your store, there are hardly any features which can cause major problems with your estore. It also provides you with control over advanced areas like order confirmation emails, tax settings, delivery options, front end editing etc.
• Magento is a little complex for small business owners as it has been designed to aid larger businesses. The admin interface of Magento requires the store managers to be well-acquainted with the system to be able to use it. And as it is a flexible platform, there are several modules in the admin section which can prove to be helpful and overwhelming at the same time. However, the Admin interface in Magento 2.0 is quite similar to Shopify making it intuitive for someone who is not used to working around Magento.

In short, Magento is perfect for large ecommerce retailers whereas Shopify serves a good purpose for small business.

3. Themes and Templates

• Magento might have some edge over Shopify when it comes to themes and templates. Retailers who have chosen Magento, can make use of several themes and templates available on Magento Connect marketplace and other websites like UberTheme, ThemeForest, etc.
• Shopify provides more than 100 themes and templates at themes.shopify.com, and several other ones like Theme Forest and Template Monster. You will come across several agencies as well as developer & designer teams who often come up with new themes for Magento stores, as there is more demand for custom themes for Magento stores.

Both Shopify and Magento provide premium and free themes. But there are more cost-effective options in Magento. If you opt for Shopify’s premium themes, they start with a much higher range as compared to the ones offered by Magento Connect.
But beware of the fact that there are a many off-shore developers who create vulnerable and poorly coded themes and coax people in other countries to buy them. It is better to stay away from such themes. Conduct proper research as to which theme/templates are useful for your business and whether or not they will fulfill your business requirements.

4. Costs involved

• Shopify has 3 major plans:

Apart from the above they also have a Lite Plan ($9 per month) for those just testing the waters and an unlimited plan for large business with enterprise grade requirements.

• As Magento is an open source platform, you can download and install the CE software for free. But it is important for you to consider the hosting expense which can cost anything from $64 to $129 every month for shared hosting and much higher for cloud hosting, especially if you go for leading cloud hosting providers like Amazon Web Services. There are several Magento hosting companies like UKfast, Nexcess, Peer1, Sonassi etc. However, it is better to seek advice from an expert to decide on a hosting company as it isn’t as easy as you think.

If you are hiring a Magento development company to build your ecommerce store, you also have to count their fees. This can cost you around $1200 if you outsource. If you get it done from within your areas, it can cost more. Especially, if your website is complex and involves a lot of integrations. A basic Magento store must have the following features and modules:

1. Merchandising module
2. Search solution
3. Solution for product reviews
4. One page checkout
5. Payment gateway
6. SEO module

However, as mentioned above, you can have more requirements based on your business and get modules added accordingly. Needless to say, it will require you to shell out some money.

5. Who Helps You Make Better Sales?

Shopify might lag behind in this matter. This is because the basic plan of Shopify doesn’t support sales, discount codes and coupons. With Magento’s basic version, you can do a lot with a purchasing process which includes cross-selling, up-selling and making product comparisons without installing any extensions. There are settings to provide discount from the entire purchase amount when certain products are added to the cart, providing cheap deliveries on the first buy and offering a free gift along with the purchase. This freedom to play with the settings comes as easy as writing your offers on a blackboard at a brick-and-mortar shop.
Although the advanced plans in Shopify provide you with the facility to make promotions and offers and you can take care of it without getting any help from a developer, it is nothing compared to the personalized experience you can provide to your customers on Magento.

6. What About Marketing?

Both Magento and Shopify have the potential to boost the visibility and conversion of your ecommerce store. They are also brilliant with SEO related activities which isn’t the case with other platforms.

• You can extend Magento with extensions that enable you to make the most out of hreflang, have control over dynamic pages, and canonical URLs, get structured data, redirect management, etc.
• Shopify doesn’t help you achieve most of these features. This might prove to be problematic for larger stores.

Magento Connect has different modules for personalisation, social integration, landing page creation, etc. And Shopify is popular for its social capabilities which include shoppable pins, social sign on etc. These features cannot be achieved with Magento. However, you are always free to add extensions.

7. Support and Maintenance

• Shopify provides both dedicated as well as community based support. Retailers can obtain 24/7 support and also look through discussion forums. This kind of support proves to be quite valuable for merchants who take care of the store on their own.
• With Magento, you have to rely on community based support. This means that you will not find any customer service representatives to resolve your issues. So in case there are issues on your Magento store, you have to search on Magento forums and handle problems on your own. And in case you cannot resolve the problem, you can always partner with a Magento agency that can offer you with all the support you need.

To Conclude

Shopify is a good option if you are just starting out in ecommerce and don’t understand much about ecommerce technology. With Shopify you can just focus on merchandising and retailing and leave the technology part to the Shopify folks. This approach works well for many. If you are one of them, Shopify is the way to go.
However, if you are confident about the technology part and are serious about growing your store into a big ecommerce business or want complete control over your store, then Magento is the perfect option for you. It would require a one time investment on server infrastructure and store development. But once that is taken care of, you can spend all your money on marketing your store and growing your business without sharing the proceeds with anyone.
At Biztech we provide both Magento development solutions and Shopify development solutions. If you need to make your store on any of the two platforms, you can always get in touch with us.

Challenges That B2C Ecommerce Businesses Must Overcome in 2017

If you are one of the ecommerce business owners who think that there is no need to provide an exceptional and exclusive shopping experience to your customers; you need to wake up. Customers are the nucleus of ecommerce universe. And right from researching about the brand to ordering it online, they are keen on making the most out of omnichannel experience. It goes without saying that people love to use new gadgets and various shopping options being provided to them by the retailers.

Through this article, we intend to acquaint you with some of the challenges ecommerce store owners must overcome if they want to boost their sales and attain success in today’s highly competitive market. We will also provide you with some ecommerce development solutions and how you can improve the value of your brand.

The Navigators of Online Retail 2017

The year 2017 is all about challenging the old, mundane and stereotype business models. Businesses that have gone beyond conventional models have achieved much more success as compared to others. Number of Millennials is growing in the US and the generation is utilizing mobile and wearable technologies to the fullest. Such technologies have given birth to other customer-friendly channels. Moreover, a new innovation is introduced daily, pushing retail businesses to meet with the expectation of customers who one-of-a-kind need experience while fidgeting around with their devices.

People that indulge into shopping while surfing on their devices are known as connected spenders. A Harvard Business review has revealed that the connected spenders contribute to 19% of global population. And this percentage is likely to grow by 37% by the year 2025. So if you want to be one of the frontrunners in alluring your target audience, you need to render some ultra-modern services and build the reliability for your brand.

Millennials – Spearheading the Consumer Movement

As compared to other connected spenders, Millennials spend much more and are leading the consumer movement. They are quite different compared to the former generation as they expect a customized look and feel to the products, indulge into last minute shopping, want same day delivery and seek instant customer support. And to the core of these buying habits, lies the word “convenience”.

So if you want the high percentage of consumers to buy from you, you need to innovate as much as you can and enhance the buying experience by addressing all the pain points. While choosing e-commerce web solutions for your brand, make sure you speak with the professionals and create a website that offers a good buying experience for your customers.

Rendering mobile oriented experiences

Quite clearly, desktop usage has become a passé and mobiles have taken over. It’s time for retailers to create new opportunities by adapting mobile commerce solutions and win the hearts of their customer base. Vendors can partner with reliable fintechs and provide single-tap payment options to the customers. They can also come up with special discounts and mobile-exclusive offers from time to time so that the number of customers buying through mobile devices phone goes up. For the retailers who are unaware, the mobile payment volume is expected to reach $274 billion by the year 2021.

However, there are certain cyber security concerns when it comes to making mobile payments which need to be dealt with. Ecommerce business owners should integrate only those solutions that are reliable and credible. Some if these mobile wallets are Samsung Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay. These companies have secured pins and fingerprint verification so that scams can be kept at bay.

Embracing digital currencies

The term ‘Bitcoin’ is a very well known form of digital currency and isn’t new to hear these days. Right now, it might be difficult to decipher how it works but some years down the line, it might become one of the most majorly accepted ways of payment by millennials. Once bitcoin, and the technology it works on (blockchain) is understood, it might get accepted by ecommerce platforms who intend to cater to a particular audience.

Voice Ordering through Virtual Assistants

Imagine not having to even touch or tap a device in order to shop for the required product! When Amazon’s Alexa was introduced in November 2014, it created quite a stir in the market. The voice operated virtual assistants are always ready to serve and can order for what customers want in no time. Looking into this fad, internet retail brands have to be alert and reachable for their customers as and when they want.

Although, marketing professionals know how to attract potential customers, don’t be surprised if retailers partner with Amazon, Google and Apple to create voice oriented and algorithmic marketing campaigns to promote their brand.

How can ecommerce business owners keep up with the trends?

It might get overwhelming and challenging for the ecommerce brands to cope with the ever-changing demands and trends. But the first and the most crucial step that you must take as a retailer is to study the behavior of customers and connected spenders. A detailed study involving buyers’ shopping patterns will provide you with an understanding of what leads them to buy, what results into abandoned ecommerce shopping carts and what factors influence their purchase decisions.

In a nutshell, today’s ecommerce asks you to strike a perfect balance between digital payments, artificial intelligence, mobile application development, cybersecurity and other aspects. If you want to make this a possibility, you should get in touch with a professional and hardworking ecommerce web design & development team. Hiring marketing professionals, who implement technological collaborations, establish valuable customer relationships and drive the change for your brand is also a good idea. What are your thoughts on innovations that influence the field of ecommerce? How open are you to adapt to these changes? Feel free to share with us.