Over the years, Magento has emerged as one of the most popular e-commerce development platforms. Today, it has hundreds and thousands of online stores running on it, with some of the world-leading brands relying on it. Launched in 2008, the open-source platform has come a long way, with extensive improvements coming over time. It has earned acclaim for its flexibility, scalability, and extensibility.
No wonder, new e-commerce merchants as well as the existing ones are making a beeline for Magento. The new ones are keen about investing in Magento e-commerce development while the ones already running their stores on some other platform want to migrate to this one. Whichever may be the case for you, it is best to be aware about the latest Magento trends before you start with a project. Here are some latest Magento development trends that are emerging strong right now.
Personalized experiences
Selling online is a challenge, considering the humongous competition that you have to face. It is not just about offering great products but exceptional experiences as a whole. The current Magento trend bends towards personalization of experiences according to the preference of the shoppers. The idea is to track and follow individual users to know identify patterns in their browsing behavior. Accordingly, you need to provide product recommendations and individualized offers and discounts for specific customers. Personalization is a powerful strategy that drives customer loyalty and keeps the shoppers engaged with your brand.
AI and chatbots
Another Magento development trend that you cannot ignore at present is the integration of Artificial Intelligence into your store. This revolutionary technology is capable of understanding the user behavior and inherent preferences. It makes a dependable alternative to human intelligence as you cannot expect to follow and analyze the behavior of hundreds of shoppers. Chatbots are another form in which AI becomes an element of Magento stores. These are the virtual assistants that offer a conversational interface for the shoppers. They become a smarter alternative to human support as they are capable of understanding human language and are available 24 by 7.
Voice technology
Perhaps the biggest breakthrough on the e-commerce landscape is voice technology and your Magento store needs to gear up for it. The growing popularity of voice assistants such as Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri indicates that shoppers are inclined towards hands-free voice searches rather than textual searches. After all, nothing matches the convenience of being able to sift through huge catalogs to locate your favorite products by just speaking a few words.
Responsive micro interactions
While personalization gets your shoppers impressed to a considerable extent, responsive micro interactions take the UX a notch higher. These are capable of engaging the prospective buyers and making them feel connected to the extent that they will probably convert. What more, they may even want to come back as repeat customers! If you are running a Magento store or plan to develop one, ensure that you have such responsive micro interactions with the user. Use animations, highlight the offerings, and create alluring calls-to-action for rendering engaging micro interactions.
Storytelling for selling
Right from the beginning of time, selling is all about storytelling and this applies for Magento websites as well. Create compelling story lines that create awareness and engagement with your brand and offering. A combination of good content and alluring images is the essence of good storytelling. Creative elements such as live videos and user generated content (customer reviews, testimonials, and stories) can add juice to storytelling and make it more powerful from the selling perspective.
Smart organic searches
Creating an e-commerce store is just half the work done. You need to make sure that it easy organic searches so that the users can easily search the products they want. The best approach would be to hire Magento developer with the right expertise. They can create thoroughly searchable websites with smart navigation and relevant features such as breadcrumbs, auto complete, and filtering options. Smart searches are mandatory for Magento stores because they ease the UX and keep the shoppers engaged enough to drive conversions for your store.
Push notifications
Push notifications and pop ups makes a great idea to increase customer outreach and engagement. In fact, customized push notifications have surfaced as a big trend for Magento merchants right now. They serve as a doorway for sending tailor-made messages for the selected customer segments. And the best part is that there is absolutely zero probability of push notifications being lost in the spam. The best approach would be to have them integrated into your store and decide the frequency and timing that would impress the users without irritating them.
Now that you know all about the prevailing trends in the Magento development landscape, it will be easier to align with them. Besides building a store that follows these trends, you need to focus on delivering the best experiences for the shoppers. After all, they are the most important link in the chain and you cannot imagine surviving and sustaining without them. With Magento, it is easy to create compelling experiences because of the awesome range of features that this platform offers. The key lies in knowing your customers and understanding their expectations, in addition to having a development partner you can trust.
