UI/UX design for Shopify: What makes a good e-commerce website design

"It's not the looks that matter, it's the inner values that count". We have to vehemently disagree with this often-used phrase, at least when we think of e-commerce and well-designed online stores. Of course, the inner values count here too, first and foremost a good loading speed and SEO texts. However, an appealing design and clever user guidance are what convince potential buyers of a store in the first step.

The first impression counts!

So that you can make eyes at potential customers with your online store right from the start and thus stage your offer perfectly, you should pay attention to a few aspects. Learn how to turn your Shopify store into a design masterpiece in this post!

Store design - You should pay attention to this

Clear layout & intuitive navigation

A clear layout helps users to find products quickly and without frustration. Well-structured menu navigation, an easily accessible and intelligent search function and useful filter options make navigation easier and ensure an intuitive user experience. In addition, important categories should be clearly named and logically arranged so that visitors can find their way around immediately. A well thought-out information architecture reduces the bounce rate and increases the likelihood that users will stay longer in the store and ultimately make a purchase decision.

Appealing imagery & color scheme

High-quality product images, a consistent color scheme and well thought-out typography underline the brand identity and arouse emotions. Colors significantly influence customers' emotions and buying behavior: blue stands for trust and seriousness, which is why it is often used by banks or tech companies, while red generates attention and creates urgency, ideal for discount and buy buttons. Green conveys sustainability and health, while yellow radiates optimism and friendliness - important for a positive brand perception. The targeted use of colors can guide purchasing decisions and optimize the user experience.

Mobile optimization

As the majority of users shop via smartphones, the design must be responsive to ensure optimal display on all devices. Text, images and buttons should automatically adapt to different screen sizes so that no elements are cut off or illegible. Important call-to-action buttons must be clearly visible and easy to click, even on smaller displays. Navigation should also be mobile-friendly, for example with a clear burger menu and well-placed filter options. A smooth mobile shopping experience makes a decisive contribution to the conversion rate and customer satisfaction.Reading tip: Mobile commerce: How to sell via mobile devices.

Fast loading times

Long loading times lead to high bounce rates and can prevent potential customers from completing a purchase. To improve the performance of the store, images should be used in high quality but compressed form to reduce the loading time without compromising the visual appeal. In addition, lean, clean code helps to save resources and increase the speed of the site. Avoiding excessively large carousels, elaborate animations or too many external scripts also helps the page to load faster. A fast loading time not only ensures a better user experience, but also improves the ranking in search engines and thus increases the visibility of the store.

Confidence-building elements

Customer ratings, seals of approval, transparent payment options and a professional about us page strengthen the trust of potential buyers and significantly reduce abandoned purchases. Genuine customer reviews convey credibility and help new visitors to get a better idea of product quality and service. Certifications from well-known providers such as Trusted Shops or the Händlerbund signal security and reliability, which can be particularly important for new or unknown stores. Clear and comprehensible information on payment options, shipping costs and return rights create transparency and prevent customers from abandoning the purchase process because they fear unexpected costs or uncertainties. An authentic and well-designed about us page tells the story of the brand, highlights values and visions and thus builds a personal connection with customers, which strengthens customer loyalty in the long term.

Clear Calls to Action (CTAs)

Eye-catching and well-placed buttons such as “Buy now” or “Add to cart” guide the user through the purchasing process and ensure that important actions immediately catch the eye. The choice of color as well as the size and position of the buttons play a decisive role here - they should have a high-contrast design and be placed in intuitive locations so that they are easy to find and click. A sufficiently large display is particularly important on mobile devices to enable convenient operation with the finger. In addition, the right choice of words can increase the incentive to buy by using clear and action-oriented formulations such as “Order now” or “Save now”. Supporting elements such as small icons, micro-animation effects or a color change in the hover effect also help to draw attention to the buttons and motivate the user to make a quick decision.

A well thought-out store design not only makes shopping visually appealing, but also simple, efficient and trustworthy - and contributes significantly to the success of the online store.

Your E-commerce store design with Shopify: How it works

Step 1 - Shopify theme selection

Deciding on the right theme and thus the basic building block of the design is one of the most difficult ones. Therefore, in order to make it, you should ask yourself a few questions beforehand to find out what is important to you:

• What products do you offer and how should they be presented? Do these products require a lot of visualization through videos and large images?

• Who is your target audience? Are you selling B2B or B2C?

• What kind of experience do you want to create for your customers? - The layout, image sizes, placement of text, etc. all contribute to the atmosphere that ultimately shapes the overall user experience.

• What features do you want your store to have? Do you need a wide Instagram feed?

• How are your competitors performing? Keep an eye on their online stores to implement things better than they do.

• What's the budget for website design? - Additional plugins and apps can also cost more money, so plan your overall budget before committing to an expensive theme.

Step 2 - plan the structure of the page

The design and structure of your online store is essential, because what good is a pretty but dysfunctional page that few customers want to use (or can use) and drags down your conversion rate?

That's why you need to think about coherent navigation. This is an umbrella term for all the elements that allow users to reach specific information on your website. This includes the header navigation menu, product and category pages, filters, and the footer. Consider which elements and pages need to be in the main menu and which pages and links can be a little more hidden in the footer.

Keep one thing in mind: you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Let's be a little more drastic: You don't get to reinvent the wheel! Most users who shop online are used to certain placements. For example, no one would think to look for the main categories in the footer. Likewise, your visitors won't expect to see the T&Cs in the main menu. So take a look at how other successful stores divide their navigation and subdivision into main and sub categories and learn from it!

The following pages play an important role for your online store:

• Homepage, as the first touch point between your products and the visitor, this has great hero images (or videos), the main product or current offers, recommended products or special categories, as well as appealing offers for customer loyalty (e.g. newsletter, Instagram feed).

• Category pages, as a thematic organization of your individual products and for quick discovery by the customer, they should have descriptive texts and an SEO-friendly URL, and in the best case contain filters for sorting the products.

• Product pages are crucial for selling your products. Therefore, pay attention to good product photos in multiple perspectives, all features and specifications, possible buttons for saving to watch lists and related products (up-sell and cross-sell).

• Checkout page, here most visitors get out and leave your store without buying. Most often, this is due to sudden costs and complications. Therefore, enable the purchase as a guest, reduce the number of required fields to a minimum, show all accepted payment methods and inform through a banner, from which value free shipping is possible.

• About Us Page, one of the most important pages to build trust and pick up the customer on an emotional level. Here you should tell a story about your product, your team, how you came to be, your values and vision, and your partners and initiatives. This is not about sales platitudes, but a look into the heart of your brand!

• Contact page, give customers the opportunity to contact you! Just the fact that there is such a page creates trust.

Of course, you can integrate other pages into your store, such as a lookbook or FAQ page. However, these are primarily the pages that you must not neglect in any case.

Step 3 - Image and color world

According to the motto "show, don't tell" you should design your store. Of course, your texts must also be convincing, but it is your design that is most important for your store visitors. Without further ado, here is a checklist for images, colors and fonts of your online store:

• Use sharp, high-resolution but compressed images.

• Create product images from multiple perspectives - both atmospheric and cropped.

• Use consistent image sizes and formats.

• Enable a 360-degree photo tool on product pages so shoppers can see the entire view of a product.

• Enable a zoom feature on product photos so buyers can view your items in more detail.

• Use videos about your products or company when possible.

• Use your logo as a guide - both in terms of the colors you use and the fonts -> fonts and font weights used here should be picked up in the store design.

• Stick to the existing corporate design or existing design templates to create a consistent and coherent image on all channels.

• Ideally, use only two different fonts and no more than three different colors.

• Use color-contrasting call-to-action buttons to help customers navigate.

• Don't be afraid of white space! Feel free to place elements with spacing. The rule is: create spatial proximity, for what belongs together, and spacing for things that cover new content.

If you paint up a wireframe before you start your implementation so you can decide which element to place where, you'll save yourself from feeling overwhelmed once you get started. However, Shopify is a very flexible store system that allows quick changes in most cases without much effort.

Step 4 - User friendliness

A good navigation and structure of the page is half the battle in terms of user-friendliness. However, there are some other aspects you should consider. In any case, make sure that your online store is responsive. Most users access websites via smartphones these days. Elements, images and fonts must therefore not be cut off, but must automatically adapt to the mobile device.

Make sure the page loads quickly so potential buyers don't get frustrated and bounce. You can contribute to this by:

• Compress images - free online tools such as tinyPNG can reduce the file size by about 50% without noticeably affecting the image quality

• remove unneeded apps and code

• Avoid carousels with many large images

To increase user-friendliness, you should also integrate a search bar in your store. This should be easy to find, in the best case have an auto-complete feature and provide results even for misspelled words.

Step 5 - Integrate trust-building elements

What good is it if your store looks flawless, but users don't trust you enough to actually make purchases? A contact and about us page can save you a lot of trouble, as already mentioned. However, there are other elements that can help you secure the trust of online shoppers. Therefore, think about the following points:

• Customer ratings on your product pages

• Seals from Trusted Shops, the Händlerbund and Co. always visible in your footer

• A live chat function that works 24/7 and helps your customers with all their questions and problems

• Customer support by mail or phone

• The most common payment providers as well as a selection of popular shipping service providers

Conclusion

A key factor in creating an effective e-commerce site lies in the way your products and services are presented to visitors. Website design is incredibly important when it comes to visualizing and communicating brand messages. It can help meet users' expectations of your business and convey the story behind your brand.

Schlussendlich kommt es nicht nur auf Farben und Schriftarten an, sondern auf das Zusammenspiel mehrerer Faktoren. Haben Sie Ihren Shop fertiggestellt, sollten Sie Freunde und Kollegen zur Probe shoppen lassen, um herauszufinden, ob diese sich durch den Shop navigieren, wie von Ihnen erdacht und ob es irgendwelche Hindernisse gibt, die sie stört oder nicht verstehen.