B2B ecommerce in 2016: 7 design trends

Trend 1 > Build pages in blocks

A few years ago, Pinterest introduced the so-called “boards” on which you could collect your pins. A lot of B2C webshops ran with this and started to divide home pages, landing pages and inspiration pages in rectangular blocks, also known as the “card  design”. B2B ecommerce is expected to start following this very user-friendly trend: blocks look good and you can adapt them easily to a range of screen formats, be it mobile, tablet or desktop.

Samsung is already using the “card design” (www.samsung.com)

Trend 2 > Long pages and scrolling

Because of mobile, we are getting very used to scrolling down long pages. So the long page is making a comeback through the backdoor, so to speak! We’ll be seeing this trend on B2B webshops this coming year. The result? Long product pages with more products, images and videos.

Trend 3 > Large photographs across the full screen

We’ve seen it in many B2C webshops: large images running across the full width of a page. It is a matter of time before B2B ecommerce starts to cotton on to this. It’s a great way to convey mood and inspire the visitor.

Trend 4 > Webshops will begin to look alike

Using the same layouts and structures in responsive themes, webshops will begin to look ever more alike. Often, they will have the same user interfaces with attributes positioned on the same spot.

Trend 5 > Greater use of video

B2B webshops will be making a greater use of video as this is an effective way to impress and thrill visitors and keep them informed about new products or assortments.

Kuppacoffee, a good example of parallax scrolling, uses large images and videos (www.kuppacoffee.uk)

Trend 6 > Parallax scrolling

What we’ll get more often are background videos or images that appear static as the user scrolls down, the so-called ‘parallax effects’. This is where a background video or image moves more slowly than the image in the foreground. Look at this great example at www.kuppacoffee.uk.

Trend 7 > Pop-ups are back

The hated pop-ups are making a comeback … Pop-ups with ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’ or ‘Especially for you: 25% off on this product’ will be making a frequent appearance on your screen. The difference with the traditional pop-up is that they won’t appear at every visit and that they will be customized for each unique visitor.