Design an Outstanding eCommerce Website With These Top Tips

Designing a website can be a very fun but daunting task. Decisions around colour, layout, images and features all contribute to a website's look and feel and ultimately the customer's experience. Here are 11 eCommerce site design tips to help your website stand out from the rest.
Jon Cogan
August 16, 2021

If you're attempting to build your eCommerce website from scratch, it can feel like you've got a whole lot of work on your plate. But don't worry—we've done the hard part for you! eCommerce Quarterback scoured the internet and found 11 eCommerce site design tips that will help make your website stand out from the rest. These tips are designed to be easy to implement, so get ready to create an excellent eCommerce site with these top tips!

Keep it simple

The more features and other design elements you have on the page, the harder it becomes for customers to make a purchase decision—and they are likely to leave.

Branding is top Priority

Define your brand and bake that in. Soul-searching is your first step.

Be consistent with the presentation, colours, wording, and design. What the customers remember becomes the "brand" to them.

Imagine Your Audience

To connect with your audience, consider how your site appears to them.

Ultimately, a good eCommerce site should be user-friendly and offer customers flexibility in their shopping experience, as well as the ability to have an easy sale.

Colour Evokes Emotion

To make a successful eCommerce site, you need to know the importance of colour. Colours affect our emotions and thus our purchasing decisions; you can use this to your advantage.

Although colour is one of the most effective design tools in your box, you have to know how to use it if you want impressive results. Remember that some people cannot see colours as you do. Worldwide, 300 million people have some form of colour blindness.

Clear High-Quality Images

eCommerce websites offer a unique opportunity for you to market your brand and attract more customers. Include relevant images that boost conversion rates.

Begin with high-resolution images.

Easy to Scan

Research shows the majority of visitors scan through and see only 20% of the text on any given website. To capture their attention and drive sales, you need to make your content scannable.

Search engines also will "scan" your site. Make sure to get top spots in search results by providing the right amount of information.

Professional Look

Your website should not have misspellings or typos. All of your buttons will work on any given page, and the site shouldn't look like something out of 2005 MySpace.

To encourage a high conversion rate, you have to convince your customers that they're giving their information over to the right company—a professional company with excellent security measures in place.

Social Proof

eCommerce sites offer additional benefits for business owners looking to build a brand, connect with more customers, and sell more products. Appealing success stories are essential to help your site appear trustworthy and invite conversions.

Categorize for Ease of Navigation

Make your categories and product pages easy to navigate and to search for products by colour, size, or type. The easier the navigation, the greater chance there will be that customers can find what they are looking for—and make a purchase.

Responsive Design

Not capturing mobile browsers means you can't reach out to the customers who want to shop on their phones.

Checkout NEEDS to Be Simple

The checkout process is critical to an eCommerce site. If it's too complicated, complex, or painful, you will lose customers. The goal of any online retailer should be to make the process as painless and straightforward as possible for their customers to maximize sales.

Wrapping it All Up

If you sell products or services and don't have a website, it might be time to change that.

Designing for eCommerce websites can be tough, but now that you know the top web design tips, you have everything you need to get started on setting up the perfect website.


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