Updating your website involves more than just rearranging words and pictures on the homepage. Changing your website involves implementing new technology behind the scenes, eliminating dot-com domains and using research to optimize pages to capture your audience’s attention. Just think about your website two, five, 10 years ago. Chances are, it looked quite a bit different from the version you have today.
All businesses need to keep up with modern internet technology if they want to maintain their competitive edge. So it’s important to keep an eye on emerging website trends and anticipate how evolving tech will impact the creative direction of your website.
Attention spans are shortening and the amount of content living online is growing exponentially, so expect to see data influence the future of your website’s looks and operating systems. Not sure what trends you should be paying attention to? Here are some examples.
1. Virtual stores in virtual reality
When we think of ecommerce, we typically think of logging on to a website store or using a mobile app to do all of our shopping. But virtual reality could be changing how we shop in the very near future. Imagine putting on a VR headset and instead of browsing a flat website catalogue you could be walking through a virtual store or viewing things around a showroom.
EBay actually launched what it calls the world’s first virtual reality department store, partnering with an Australian-based retailer to bring shoppers an opportunity to shop from home. Though implementing virtual reality on an ecommerce site might take time and money, it could be the way of the future — and a new way for businesses to gather information on how their customers shop.
2. Clever website names
Finding the best domain name for your new business can be a major challenge. Luckily, website owners are no longer limited to just one or two options to the right of the dot. Businesses, brands and individuals have hundreds of new choices when selecting their digital identities, from “dot-clothing” (.clothing) to “dot-boutique” (.boutique) to “dot-style” (.style) and “dot-shopping” (.shopping).
“Businesses in all industries can pick a domain name that tells the world exactly who they are and what they do,” say Paul Stahura, co-founder and CEO of Donuts Inc., an internet domain…