Designer's take on 2024: Five trends you don’t want to miss for your eCommerce brand

With the very eventful year 2023 in the books, we’re looking ahead to some trends we expect to see in 2024. Early in 2023, post-covid life officially began and all the tech that was brewing during lockdown began to flow in a very pronounced fashion. An outpouring of excitement has already begun with some truly unbelievable AI-powered technologies. Other, more subtle, indicators of excitement and optimism can also be seen when we look at some emerging trends at the tail end of 2023.

So, we’ve compiled 5 trends we believe will continue to enjoy popularity and gain more traction through 2024.

AI backgrounds

Easy background removal

When it comes to e-commerce product visuals, few tasks take up more time than cutting out product images out of original photography. Cutting out furry pillows or curly-haired models will no longer ruin your day! Object detection and background removal services have been getting better and better while also getting cheaper and cheaper.

Easy background generation

Couple clean and pristine backgrounds with AI-generated backgrounds. Virtually every major player in the design game has implemented AI-generated content functionality. Simply punch in some keywords, or prompts as they’re called, and immediately get artificially generated backgrounds for your AI-cleaned product background.

Complimentary colors

Bright & saturated

Complimentary colors are visually stimulating for the human eye and brain. A stimulated and excited brain is eager to make decisions, and for e-commerce that typically means a decision to make a purchase. Use opposite colors like red and greens, orange and blue or yellow and purple to add excitement to your visuals.

Calm & pastel

While complimentary color harmonies are indeed stimulating, they can be executed with subtelty. Brands with restrained brand voice can still create excitement without being loud. Pastel and calm colors in complimentary harmonies will see a large-scale adoption in the coming year.

Bold typography

Short headline

With keywords, prompts and searchability dominating the digital airwaves, expect short precision to make it into everyday e-commerce copy. Short attention-grabbing headlines will trump long copy at the discovery stage when being scannable and recognizable is key.

Clarity above all

Couple keyword and prompt-inspired copy with bold and clean typography, and your brand will find clarity. With consistent messaging and typography treatment, your brand has a very low chance of getting lost and mistaken for another brand.

Retro & MS Paint

As, quite literally, incredible as AI’s offerings have become, there are those of us who are not quite ready to make the plunge into the early adopter pool. And for those of us waiting for the early adopters to work out the kinks, we’re going back to when computer graphics programs could create basic shapes and make simple repeat patterns.

Colors & textures

Multi-colored art directions and a variety of textures will see a rebirth. We can finally depart from the minimalism and, quite frankly boredom of, that’s been dominating the web over the past few years. Remember, a brand image does not have a sterile and controlled experience. Unexpected moves like an occasional off-brand color and real-world textures can add a sensory touch to your brand image.

Conclusion

As we say goodbye to 2023 and kick off 2024, we want to remind ourselves that although things may not go back to how they were before, we can look forward to elements of the past making an appearance in the coming year.

And as for practical advice, we’d say:

• Use modern tech to eliminate boring and repetitive tasks

• Make strong and deliberate color and typography choices to make a statement

• Reach into the analog past to bring a sensory and tactile feel to your campaigns (in moderation of course )

• Lastly, as the late and great Wim Crouwel once said, “Keep your radar turning … and make your own choice.”