In the face of an ever-evolving retail landscape, retailers must leverage the capabilities of digital transformation to address the constantly shifting needs and expectations of today’s consumers. The advancement of technology has made the evolution of the eCommerce retail landscape thrive and these significant changes have also benefitted businesses. As trends and tech come and go, there have been persistent digital transformation trends that have solidified their place in the eCommerce and digital product realm such as web design and UI/UX design.
Personalization Can Elevate the User Experience
Modern-day expectations of the average consumer consist of a shopping experience that feels personalized to their needs. Quick, convenient, and accurate are just three pillars of eCommerce shoppers expect online. With access to information at their fingertips, there is no question why that expectation should hold immense validation and value for stakeholders. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has placed a heavier emphasis on human-centric ways of structuring retail, whether online or in person, to hone in on the consumer and the overall experience.
Conversational UI is Key
Conversational UI is often connotated with simulating the same feeling of a digital experience conversing with a user as if it were human. This replication of human interactions and the tone that is evocative of human conversation has become a powerful tool in eCommerce experiences and across many websites. When the tone feels much more conversational and less corporate, there is a higher chance that your users will trust and interact much more frequently with an eCommerce platform or brand.
This can be achieved in a myriad of ways such as through messaging and copy, but also through the microinteractions of UI elements. Interactions that allow for a greater level of simplicity are a component of conversational UI that can make a user much more comfortable navigating a platform. Chatbots and AI tools are often associated as the main tools of conversational UI, but they can be applied to the different layers of design that make it easier for a user. It can be understood, rather, as a framework that shapes human and technology interactions for the better.
Social eCommerce Has Changed
Social media has caused a paradigm shift in not only the way people from all over the world interact with each other but also how they shop. To think of eCommerce without considering the impact of social media would be doing it a disservice, and social commerce, especially. Social commerce is the act of reinventing the way a consumer shops by turning typical scrolling into gateways for transactions. Forging relationships with consumers with a more casual approach versus traditional advertising is just one of the ways it has reinvented eCommerce.
This can look like your favorite celebrity utilizing a product on their social media and the company of that product then utilizing that post on their website/socials in place of traditional advertising. It can also look like influencers or brands live streaming on TikTok to utilize a product while simultaneously answering users’ questions in the chat, or when scrolling through Instagram posts, with links to purchase a product directly embedded in the photo for easier access to conversions. These interactions are a form of eCommerce, as they engage the consumer to interact with a brand or become swayed into purchasing a product.
Ensuring Your Website is Up-to-Par
With the myriad of ways in which eCommerce has opened its doors to new conversion pathways, it is key that your website or digital platform is also up-to-par with its ease of use. You want to ensure that your website, both desktop and responsive on mobile, encourage user friendly experience such as ease of adding items to a cart, or flexibility in check out. This can often include allowing for guest check-out, allowing for adequate payment methods, and more. Social eCommerce allows new pathways into your site, therefore you don’t want your website to then reflect a poor user experience that will drive your potential users away.
eCommerce has completely shifted and modernized itself into the practices of today’s audience, therefore ensuring that your brand has all its bases covered in evolving with these changes is essential. Users expect what they are looking for to come at a rapid pace and using your channels to meet them where they’re at, and predict where they’ll go, is a best practice that has a great impact.