You’ll need to know your hamburgers in 2018 if you sell online

As Christmas approaches, many of us will opt for a relaxed evening with a cup of tea or glass of wine in front of a screen as our preferred way to complete the Christmas shopping. In fact, an increasing number of us are choosing this option for all our retail requirements. Which is great news if you sell online. But let’s not get complacent. If there’s one thing we know about technology, it’s that it’s always developing; so you’ll definitely want to be up to speed with our top five trends for Ecommerce web sites in 2018.

1. Efficient loading

   We’ve become an impatient bunch and the consensus is that pages now need to load within just two seconds to avoid losing visitors. That’s pretty quick! So, make sure your site isn’t being tripped up by these speed sappers:

   • Is your server fit for purpose? An overloaded server means longer page load times, which translate to missed sales. And the more successful your site, the more you’re asking of your server so this is something to keep under constant review. Consider a Load Testing Service to assess whether your site is ready to handle spikes in traffic.
   • Only what they need – E-Commerce websites that only load the first 10 products initially, with subsequent items only appearing if the user scrolls to the bottom, give a much better loading time.
   • Cut the clutter – if you sell online then make it easy and quick for people to buy. Consider what you don’t need on the site – lose unnecessary images and widgets that could be impacting load times

2. Hamburger menus

   No side of fries available with these unfortunately! But they do provide businesses with a convenient way to hide and reveal a menu as and when necessary, making it easier for customers to navigate your website – especially on a smaller screen, such as a mobile device. Easily identifiable by its three horizontal lines, (similar looking to a hamburger – hence the name) users must click to reveal the menu hidden beneath. One more click and the menu will be hidden once more. A simple, effective and space-saving option for your website menu.

3. Visual appeal

   The trend without end. Filling your website with compelling titles, descriptions and enticing visuals is the first step in securing a sale. The web is a visual medium and although people do take time to read information once engaged, the first thing that will grab their attention is an image or a video. Colour also has an important part to play and we can expect to see a move towards more bright and bold attention-grabbing hues in 2018.

4. Mobile friendly

   We’re still not quite all there with this one. Whilst desktop is still marginally ahead of mobile as the preferred option for UK online shopping, 2018 could be the year when mobile steals the crown. Plus, Google will be introducing a new ‘mobile first index’, which puts more importance on the mobile version of your site. So make sure your site is optimized for mobile.

5. Voice activated search

   The use of voice searches is on the rise. And this will mean a change in SEO tactics to take account of the more conversational nature of the queries. So less key words and more key phrases (although these are commonly referred to as long tail keywords). Plus, when using voice people will often add ‘near me’ onto the end of their search, so local SEO is also important. And if you’d like more information about incorporating any of these trends into your Ecommerce site then you know what to do. Alexa, please call Alka at Critical Mission Computing…