The balance of function and aesthetics is critical for an e-commerce site to deliver content that is viewed as credible, valued and trusted (Schaupp, Belanger, Fan, 2009). Content and its many forms from digital text to video, cannot exist just on its own on any website. Adding in the dimension of e-commerce only makes the role of function and aesthetics even more critical. Content itself is changing drastically, moving away from HTML-based text that is one-dimensional in design to pervasive use of video and interactive infographics. Content is progressing so rapidly that certain areas of it are blurring the lines between function and aesthetics, most notably in interactive e-commerce sites that rely heavily on video.

Conclusion

As a result of the rapid maturation of content, contextual structure as defined by function and aesthetics is indispensible for current and future generation...

What is going to emerge is a tightly integrated triad of contextual function, aesthetics and a rapidly maturing content stream. All three will need to integrate and support one another for e-commerce sites to reach their optimal level of performance and adoption. This triad-based model is already evident in the e-commerce sites that rely heavily on video of customer testimonials, recommendation engines that allow for video being uploaded as Amazon.com does for example, and the use of personalization engines that allow rich content.
References

Jeong, Y., & King, C.. (2010). Impacts of Website Context Relevance on Banner Advertisement Effectiveness. Journal of Promotion Management, 16(3), 247.

Schaupp, L., Belanger, F., & Fan, W.. (2009). Examining the success of Websites Beyond E-Commerce. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 49(4), 42-52.