10 Tips for Creating the Perfect Shopify Web Design

Shopping from the comfort of your own home has never been easier and more available. In the past decade, eCommerce has managed to become a fundamental and prerequisite part of global retailing. Thanks to the never-ending digitalization and fast-paced modern life, in 2021 an estimated 2.14 billion people used eCommerce as their means to buy goods or services, according to a statistics report by Statista.

That being said, as a seller or dropshipper, creating an online store for your own business, can be extremely overwhelming. Especially if you’re a beginner and you’re starting from scratch. For that matter, one of the easiest ways to go about web design is to use Shopify.

As you certainly know, Shopify is an online eCommerce platform that offers store owners the possibility to create both dropshipping and traditional eCommerce stores and is used equally as much by both rookies and expert retailers. This eCommerce platform is the third most dominant, currently hosting over 500,000 stores which collectively have garnered over $40 billion in sales. This is why many suppliers choose to collaborate with the platform in order to offer their clients smooth integration either via a plugin, or, for example, like fashion supplier BrandsGateway, via a Shopify App.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that a successful online business means you must provide your shoppers an excellent user experience through your Shopify web design. That process will definitely not be linear, but to make things easier, here are some tips that can help you along the way.

Pick a theme that best reflects your aesthetic

First impressions are essential. This means that setting the right tone and atmosphere for your online store is going to make a huge difference to the UX of your shoppers. When it comes to web design, Shopify offers their clients a plethora of ready-to-use templates and the best Shopify themes. You can choose from dozens of free ones or purchase a theme that costs between $140-180. When picking out your theme it is important to think about what kind of ambiance you want to create.

Additionally, how you would like your products to be displayed? And what is the desired layout for your images, as well as font styles and sizes? If you find yourself stuck, you can draw inspiration from similar businesses and make it your own. If you have a looser budget you can always hire a professional designer too. And remember, whatever you decide make sure ‘you do you’.

Keep it clean and simple

Once you start browsing through the themes and their features you might feel compelled to use numerous components. But remember the following. Instead of them contributing to the user experience, they could create a negative effect. An extremely busy website design will easily distract your potential shoppers and overwhelm them with too much information.

This, among designers, is also known as a “cognitive overload”. Steve Krug, UX expert and author of Don’t Make Me Think, explains that people dislike complex designs and are all about a smooth experience.

Don’t scatter – categorize!

Another significant aspect when creating the perfect Shopify web design is categorization. When building an online store, navigating through it should not be rocket science. Especially when looking for specific products. In order to have a tidy-looking, well-organized website that will not only be visually appealing but also highly functional and easy to navigate, it’s important to place your products into specific categories and optionally subcategories where needed. Provide a filtering option so your customers can find what they’re looking for – faster and more time-efficiently. Additionally, you can create a section for your best-selling items, as well as your sales. A good shop will cater to the majority of the shoppers, even those who are not as tech-savvy!

Transparency is the best policy

This tip may either seem ridiculously obvious or it may come as a surprise. Numerous store owners underestimate the importance of product information. Having a clear and concise product description is valuable. Customers know exactly what to expect and that cuts the time they have to spend looking for additional information from your customer support service. Additionally provide explicit information on the total cost of the product, including shipping, taxes, fees, etc. as well as return policies and cost around those. Roughly 18% of customers have said they have abandoned a shopping cart during checkout due to unexpected additional costs.

Offer deals and shout them from the rooftops

How do you plan on attracting more customers? What is it that makes your online store stand out? Why is your store better than the rest? Creating a marketing strategy is essential, and there are a few moments you need to take to convince your potential shoppers not to click off the web-shop. One of the strategies you can apply is by adding succinct headlines, or even sub-headlines on your home page for the value proposition of your products. This is typically done in a bolder font or a different color to draw more attention. Additionally, you can mention some extras such as “special discount” or “weekly deals”.

Create captivating visuals

Regardless of what you are selling or dropshipping, the visual presentation of what you’re trying to sell should definitely be appealing. A beautifully presented item will never be overlooked. When creating your campaign, try to set a scene, almost like a narrative, place products in specific environments, and make use of fashion image editing apps. This way the shopper can see the product in scale, but they can also visualize using it in their lives.

Optimize the website’s loading time

One thing is certain, in this day and age we don’t have a lack of online shopping websites. And one of the main reasons we choose online shopping is to make it quick and easy. A customer’s satisfaction drops by 16% with just a one-second delay. Moreover, statistics have shown that an online store that makes a profit of roughly $50,000 will most likely lose around $1 million in one year due to page load delays. In order to turn those clicks into sales, try to avoid unnecessary widgets and unessential carousel menus. The reason for this is that they will anchor your page loading time. Check out the free PageSpeed Insights tool by Google to get more details on how to optimize your page loading time.

Make the checkout process easy and simple

Nothing is more annoying than finding everything you need and proceeding to checkout only to find a bunch of unnecessary steps to complete your shopping. Therefore, to make the Shopify web design even better, create two options for your customers. One could be for your customers to create their account and one where they can shop with a guest account. Don’t forget to display your payment options in a more clear and unambiguous way as well. A large-scale checkout testing at Baymard Institute has shown that a web-store can gain up to 35,26% higher conversion rates just by improving the checkout experience for their customers.

Test, test, test!

Before making it public make sure you test your web-shop and see how everything looks on both desktop and mobile, as well as on different operating systems. A/B testing, which among designers and software engineers is also known as split testing, will optimize the UX in the most effective way possible. Using A/B testing you take two screens and compare them by monitoring how people behave on each. The comparison is made under equal conditions, which include the amount of traffic, timing, etc.

Build trust through testimonials

It’s essential to integrate testimonials of your satisfied customers as this builds trust and creates reassurance. One of the advantages of creating the perfect Shopify web design is that the platform already has a default SSL (secure checkout) for shipping, but as an addition it allows shoppers to leave a review. As much as 19% of online shoppers have left a website while browsing for items, solely based on a lack of reviews.

You can use the Schema markup to integrate ratings into the search results, as well as link your store’s official social media accounts where you can upload or re-share images of customers. This way not only do you create reassurance but you also build your own community.

In a nutshell

All things considered, achieving your perfect Shopify web design will definitely not be a linear nor an easy process. That being said, it’s not unachievable too. However, your work does not end with the Shopify web design. Once your store is all set up and ready to go, you will still likely need to make more adjustments and upgrades. This will provide your customers with the best possible user experience.

Apart from following these tips, always make sure to do plenty of research so you can base your decisions on hard evidence. All of the points above can still vary depending on the target group and although there is never one right recipe, one thing is true: the possibilities of design are endless. With the help of these 10 tips and some enthusiasm and spirit, you can achieve wonders.