Do you use Magento as a platform to design your e-commerce store? If so, then you may like to read this. Whether you use the open-source or commerce version of the software, there are some trends that you need to be aware of. The best thing about Magento is the fact that it’s scalable, which means you can expand your eCommerce website as your business grows.
As your web shop becomes popular, you won’t have to switch to another programming platform. Thankfully, these trends don’t interfere with this feature at all, so you’ll be able to utilize them in your e-commerce shop as you wish.
Are you ready to find out what the next wave of Magento-based shops will look like? Read on.
Personalized Shopping Experience
Personalized shopping experience is high in demand and Magento is surely taking this into consideration. With the entire e-commerce being a competitive one, if someone loses the race, they are down and out forever. Same is the case with a Magento e-commerce store.
A personalized shopping experience goes a long way in helping your store stand apart from the rest. But how does this work with Magento? The answer is easy – an algorithm is added that looks at the shopper’s browsing and purchase history and then suggests items for them to choose from.
For example, if a shopper is looking at t-shirts through an e-commerce shop, the algorithm will find some shoes that will look great with them and suggest them to the shopper. These suggestions usually appear either at the bottom of the page that the shopper was looking at, or even in the shopping cart. This provides a level of interactivity and customization that elevates the online shopping experience – and it entices shoppers to spend more in your store.
Push Notifications Will Draw Customers In
If you aren’t using push notifications to bring in customers, then you’re missing out on this important trend. What’s a push notification? It’s a series of updates that are often sent to smartphone users (or anyone will a cell phone, actually) in the form of a text message or other method of reaching them.
These push notifications can inform shoppers about sales, let them know when an item in their cart has been placed on clearance or more. This is a way of connecting with your customers outside of your e-commerce store, although, since they usually contain links to that store, they bring those shoppers in and tempt them to buy things.
As you can imagine, push notifications are better than traditional emails and banner ads, because they prompt the shopper (or subscriber, since people need to opt in to receiving them) to interact with them. While an email can be deleted without being opened, a push notification text must be opened before it can be deleted. This gives you a few extra seconds to capture the attention of the shopper.
Many sales are gained this way!
Mobile Responsiveness is Key
As per Statista, in 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic in the world was generated through smartphones. An estimated 80% of shoppers used a mobile phone inside of a physical store to either look up product reviews, compare prices, or find alternative store locations.
If your Magento-based shop isn’t set up for them, then you’re losing their business. This is why mobile responsiveness is another important trend. A responsive website is one that is designed specifically for mobile use. It contains code that makes it look one way on a traditional computer or laptop, and another on a smartphone or tablet.
Programmers can even test out the features, trying to choose which ones will look best when shrunken down to smartphone size. If your e-commerce shop is not following this trend, then you’re more than likely losing sales. You need a website that’s completely mobile responsive.
No one wants to shop at a site that looks strange when viewed from a smartphone. Imagine having to click and zoom on the page, only for it to not work right. That won’t do, not when there are dozens of other competitors out there. You need to adapt and grab ahold of this trend.
Tell a Story about Your Merchandise
This next trend is all about helping shop owners capture the attention of their shoppers. It involves going beyond the standard merchandise photos and telling a story about the products.
In some cases, this is done through the use of videos that show people wearing your items or using them in some way, often with other things that you sell. For example, if you sell shoes that are aimed at skateboarders, you can include a video on your platform of someone actually skating in them. The clothing that the person wears can be something that you offer for sale as well.
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However, you can go beyond this and get a little creative, telling a story about your merchandise in any way that you think appeals to your shopper. These tales make the merchandise more accessible and real – much more so than having the standard model standing there wearing the item in a static photo.
The more believable the story, the better off everything will be and the more you’ll sell. It’s all about showing how your items perform in everyday life, no matter what they are. This is what will appeal to buyers.
Show Your Clothing in Different Sizes
Gone are the days of showing an outfit on one single person. The best thing about Magento is that it’s very customizable. Magento gives you the freedom and flexibility to bring your brand to life and engage with your customers.
For example, if you sell clothes in small, medium, larger, extra-large, and double extra-large, you’ll need five models who fit into those sizes. Take pictures and videos of each of them, and then develop that into your e-commerce shop.
When someone clicks on a size large, for example, intending to put that item into their cart or just look at it more closely, set your site to automatically change the picture of the model to the one wearing the size large. This allows the shopper to get a better idea of what it will look like when they’re wearing it.
Not only does this make it more likely that they’ll buy the item, but it’s really one step below virtual reality-type shopping where the customer inputs their measurements into the system to see what those sizes will look like on them. Trust us, that one is coming, probably sooner rather than later!
Smart Organic Searches
Your target audience is getting smarter by the day and hence you need to keep that in mind while setting up your Magento online store. A Magento developer or a Magento service agency can help you overcome this hurdle by incorporating the latest techniques in smart user navigation like filtering options, breadcrumbs, schema, etc., to make the content easily accessible.
Smart search has been around for quite some time now and will continue to remain a prime focus for both the sellers and the buyers. However, companies will need to ensure that once a customer has visited a website, the smart search feature will keep them hooked and make them browse the website.
The Use of Parallax Scrolling
Parallax scrolling has been around for a few years, but it has only recently become a large trend with Magento-based shops. The best way to describe this scrolling system is by putting a picture into people's heads.
Picture this: you’re in a car that’s on the freeway. You aren’t driving. Instead, you’re looking out the window. Everything that’s up close to you – the items right outside the window – are whizzing by fairly quickly. The background, however, the trees, mountains, hills, fields, or whatever they are, aren’t going so fast. Sure, they move slightly, but not a lot. It looks as though they’re more stationary than anything else. This is parallax.
The background doesn’t move as much as the items that are placed on it. This interesting feature has recently been introduced to web stores, and it allows the owners of those shops to enhance shopping experience. You can use graphics in the background that will remain stationary, while everything that you sell in your shop scrolls over them.
Using parallax scrolling will make your webshop look very up to date, which will then translate into more sales. Everyone wants to sell more, right? You can use parallax to entice people into buying
Author Bio:
Sameer Panjwani is the Founder & CEO of Mondovo.com, an online marketing toolset that helps you track your rankings, monitor your site stats, and research your competitors. A man of many talents, Sameer is currently on a mission to help 1 million businesses grow organically through his products and services.