Designing an eCommerce Website: The Ultimate Guide

You want to set up an online store, eh? Smart move! Ecommerce is blowing up more significantly than a hippo in a ballet studio.

These days, more and more shoppers are ditching malls and making purchases from the comfort of their couches (or toilets—no judgment here). An eCommerce website is necessary for any business wanting to keep up with the times.

But here's the catch: not just any old website will do the trick. You need an absolute barnstormer of a digital storefront that grabs customers by the eyeballs and never lets go.

That's where this guide comes in. I'll take you through every nook and cranny of crafting an eCommerce site with online shoppers whipping out their wallets faster than a Vegas card shark. Let's dive in!

Why Good Design Matters for eCommerce

Looks aren't everything, but when it comes to eCommerce, design is hugely important. Think about it: your website is the virtual face of your brand. It's the first thing potential customers will see and interact with.

A slick, user-friendly design doesn't just make your business look legit and trustworthy. It also keeps people engaged and eager to browse your products or services.

Conversely, a crummy, outdated design screams “amateur hour” and can drive visitors away before they even see what you're selling.

Good eCommerce design enhances the entire customer experience from initial impression to Checkout. We're talking about easy navigation, fast load times, mobile friendliness, and eye-catching visuals—the whole shebang.

Plus, an optimised eCommerce site ranks higher on search engines like Google. That increased visibility means more virtual storefront traffic and potential sales. It's a total win-win!

The Harsh Reality of Bad eCommerce Design

Let me paint a tragic picture for you:

You've put countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears into your brilliant business idea and product lineup. Your inventory is stocked with must-have items ready to ship globally.

You chuck up an essential website, figuring that's all you need to get the orders rolling in. And then…crickets. No customers, no sales, just your fantastic goods collecting dust in the warehouse.

What gives? Those products could be the second coming of Tickle Me Elmo, but with a poorly designed eCommerce site, no one will ever know.

Harsh but true: your website is the gateway to eCommerce success. Neglect the design; you might as well hang an “Out of Business” sign on the virtual door.

On the other hand, getting the design right is like waving a magic wand that beckons online shoppers, boosts conversions, and cha-chings your cash registers.

The lesson? Don't settle for a bargain bin eCommerce site. Put in the work (or hire a pro) to create a design that makes customers “take my money!”

Planning Your eCommerce Site Design

Designing a fantastic eCommerce website doesn't happen by accident. It all starts with a solid game plan and some fundamental strategic decisions.

You'll need to think through important factors like:

• Your specific business niche, products/services, and target customers
• Brand identity (name, logo, colour palette, overall vibe)
• Must-have features and functionality (more on this later)
• Technical requirements like hosting and eCommerce platform
• Content strategy (product info, marketing copy, media, etc.)
• Integration with other business systems (POS, CRM, inventory, etc.)

While it may seem tedious, proper upfront planning prevents many headaches. Trust me, you don't want to get halfway through the design process only to realise you need a total direction change.

I recommend creating a detailed sitemap and wireframes before the design work starts. This provides a clear visual roadmap and aligns everyone with site structure, navigation, layouts, etc.

Are you still feeling a bit lost? Don't worry; we'll dive deeper into each planning aspect in this guide. The key is simply not rushing into the design phase blind.

Choosing an eCommerce Platform

For most businesses, the eCommerce design process starts with one critical decision: which platform to build the site on.

This is a big deal since your eCommerce platform choices will impact everything from website functionality and ease of setup to design flexibility and long-term maintenance.

The good news? Online merchants today can choose between tons of robust, affordable eCommerce solutions. The bad news? Picking the perfect platform for your needs isn't always easy.

The Main eCommerce Platform Options

At the highest level, your choices come down to these significant platform types:

Self-Hosted Open-Source Platforms

Examples: WooCommerce, PrestaShop, OpenCart

These free, open-source platforms offer maximum control and customisation for eCommerce sites. The catch? You're responsible for hosting, setup, design, updates, security, and all other tech requirements.

Hosted SaaS Platforms

Examples: Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) eCommerce platforms are hosted, maintained, and continuously updated by the service provider. They're generally quicker to launch and easier to manage but lack advanced functionality.

Headless Commerce Solutions

Examples: Shogun Frontend, Fabric.inc, Nacelle

Still a relatively new breed, headless commerce decouples the frontend presentation layer from backend eCommerce functionality. This unlocks ultimate design freedom but also introduces extra management complexity.

Of course, the “best” platform depends on your technical skills, budget, scalability needs, and design requirements. Let's dig into some key considerations.

Choosing an eCommerce Platform: Key Considerations

Budget

Some eCommerce platforms are free, while others come with monthly/annual fees ranging from $20 to $500+ per month. Consider both upfront and recurring costs.

Technical Skills

Hosted SaaS solutions are most straightforward for non-techies to launch and manage. Open-source platforms like WooCommerce require more coding/development chops.

Scalability & Growth

Look for a platform with the bandwidth to handle projected sales volume, product catalogues, and future expansion plans.

Design Flexibility

Hosted platforms often restrict design customisation, while open-source options offer total control over the front and back end. Headless is the most flexible.

3rd-Party Integration

Popular platforms typically offer more plug-and-play integrations for payment gateways, shipping carriers, marketing/analytics tools, etc.

Mobile Experience

Having a responsive, mobile-friendly design is critical. Prioritise platforms that optimise for mobile shoppers who are out of the box.

The right eCommerce platform decision is pivotal. I recommend checking out detailed comparisons between the top platforms to weigh the pros and cons before committing.

Optimising for the Ideal User Experience (UX)

Excellent eCommerce website design is about more than just looking pretty. It should enhance the entire shopping experience from start to finish.

What exactly does great eCommerce UX (user experience) design entail? In short, it's all about prioritising convenient, intuitive functionality that helps customers find and buy what they want with minimal effort or frustration.

Think beyond just sleek visual aesthetics. An optimised UX carefully guides visitors through each touchpoint:

• Homepage experience (branding, clear CTAs, product highlights)
• Navigation and search functionality to explore offerings
• Product pages with informative details, media, and add-to-cart
• Shopping cart and secure checkout flow
• Customer account creation and order tracking
• Post-purchase follow-up (shipping, reviews, upsells)

Getting these UX elements right requires extensive user research, testing, and optimisation. Even tiny friction points like confusing navigation or multi-page checkouts can drive up cart abandonment and kill sales.

That's why the best eCommerce sites obsess over UX factors like:

Fast Load Times

Optimise image sizes, minimise HTTP requests, leverage a CDN, and more to ensure lightning-fast page loads across all devices.

Mobile-Friendly Design

Over 58% of online traffic now comes from mobile. Prioritise responsive layouts, streamlined navigation, tap-friendly UIs, etc.

Clear Navigation & Search

Don't make visitors hunt and peck for what they want. Intuitive menus, product filters, and intelligent search are musts.

Immersive Product Experiences

Entice shoppers with high-quality lifestyle imagery, product videos, 360-degree views, augmented reality demos, and more.

Guest Checkout Options

Don't force customers to register an account just to buy. Fast guest checkout reduces abandonment.

Trust & Security Signals

Reassure users with security badges, customer reviews, satisfaction guarantees, and clear shipping/return policies.

Cross-Selling & Recommendations

Use psychology to your advantage! Smart product suggestions and bundles encourage more giant carts and average order values.

Nailing the UX is equal parts art and science. The most successful eCommerce sites constantly A/B test and fine-tune each customer touchpoint based on accurate user behaviour data. We have got to keep those conversion rates cranking!

Content is King…For Successful eCommerce Too

I'm sure you've heard the phrase “content is king” a million times. But that trusted mantra applies doubly to eCommerce websites.

Here's the reality: no matter how flashy your product pages or shoppable lookbook may appear, your eCommerce site content is the secret sauce that genuinely moves the needle on sales and conversions.

Let's take a quick peek at some of the critical content ingredients you'll need:

Detailed Product Descriptions

Bland, lifeless product descriptions written by someone who's never seen the item are conversion killers. Instead, craft benefit-focused copy that speaks to your target buyer's pains and desires.

Product Reviews & Testimonials

Hard facts and numbers are great, but few things breed consumer confidence more than positive reviews from happy buyers who've “been there, bought that.”

Blog, Guides & Thought Leadership

Beyond sales copy, an active blog or knowledge hub packed with practical, relevant information establishes authority and keeps customers engaged with your brand.

Immersive Visual Content

Inventory photos are necessary, but they also leverage lifestyle imagery, detailed product videos, 360-degree spins, customer photo galleries, augmented reality visualisers, and other “wow” visuals.

FAQs & Knowledgebase

From sizing guides to return policies, anticipating and preemptively answering customer questions makes shopping smoother.

The list could go on, but the main lesson is this: Content isn't just filler for your website—it's at the core of persuading visitors to purchase or bounce. A meagre time and content commitment just won't cut it.

Successful eCommerce brands dedicate severe resources to crafting a steady cadence of fresh, relevant, multi-media content tailored for their audience—and optimise that content constantly for maximum impact.

The Right Tone & Voice is Crucial for eCommerce

Of course, great eCommerce content is about more than just what's said but how.

Your website copy's tone of voice should reflect your brand's overall personality and resonate with your ideal customer base.

Are you punchy and humorous? Aspirational and inspirational? Elite and sophisticated? Subject-matter experts, who educate? Finding the perfect tone will help forge deeper emotional connections with audiences.

It's also wise to leverage the persuasive power of storytelling throughout as you craft website content. Guide visitors through compelling narratives that position your products as much-needed solutions to their problems or desires.

Most importantly, your site should have an overwhelmingly conversational, human-like cadence. Nothing chases shoppers away faster than stuffy corporate jargon and robotic product descriptions.

Do you want a pro tip? Record yourself speaking product details or marketing copy aloud as if you were pitching customers face-to-face. Reading the content back will expose places where your tone falls flat or gets too weighed down with unnatural vocabulary.

With the right mix of compelling stories, on-brand voice, and readable flow, you can transform visitors from casual browsers into loyal brand ambassadors hungry to buy.

Ecommerce Design: The Aesthetic & Visual Experience

Until now, I've been harping on functionality… but you can't forget the visual aesthetic when designing an eCommerce site that lures clicks and captivates.

Here's where your brand identity, colour palette, typography, imagery, multimedia assets, and overall vibe truly shine (or fall flat). You need captivating visuals that effortlessly bring your brand's personality and value proposition into focus.

However, visuals for eCommerce design need to be as strategic as they are aesthetically pleasing. They aren't just garnish. Every visual element should work harmoniously to:

• Quickly establish a cohesive brand identity and designed experience
• Guide the customer's attention toward priority CTAs and conversion goals
• Provide an immersive, true-to-life preview of products and inventory
• Spark emotion, engagement, and genuine desire for what you're selling

From bold colour overlays and eye-catching in-layout animations to model photography, 360-degree product spins, augmented reality demos, and slick lookbook designs, it must blend seamlessly to create desire and drive action.

The specifics of the visual aesthetic will depend on your brand's unique identity. You may exude trendy lifestyle vibes with upbeat motion graphics and embedded influencer media. Or your edge could be moody, prestige imagery that makes visitors feel elite and “arrived”.

Just be mindful of not sacrificing performance for visual flair—image optimisation, load times, and proper responsive layouts across devices also play vital roles.

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

You've probably noticed a pattern in this guide: designing a stellar eCommerce site is about way more than pixel-perfect aesthetics.

While visuals certainly pack a punch, the end goal should always be maximum conversions from your site traffic—i.e., completed purchases, email signups, etc.

That's where the art of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) enters the arena. CRO is about meticulously tuning every nook and cranny of your user experience, content, and shopping flow to prioritise desired actions.

Like building great software products, clever eCommerce design treats websites as perpetual works-in-progress. You map out user journeys, establish benchmarks, run tests, gather data, and iterate for continuous improvement. It's a cycle that never really ends.

Some key CRO tactics for boosting your eCommerce conversions:

Entrance & Heatmap Analytics

Track user behaviour flow, mouse movements, clicks, etc., to pinpoint hangups and make data-driven UX optimisations.

Strategic CTAs & Personalisation

Guide customers towards conversion goals with strategic CTA placement, exit-intent popups, personalisation, and product recommendations.

Smart Cart & Checkout Design

Churn rates skyrocket from clunky multi-page checkouts. Streamline with one-page carts, single-click purchasing, and smart address/payment autofill.

A/B & Multivariate Testing

Never assume you know what performs best. Always run controlled A/B split tests on layouts, content, flows, CTAs, and more—then iterate!

Cart Abandonment Recovery

Win back customers who ditch their carts with trigger email campaigns offering promos, free shipping, and remarketing reminders.

The beauty of modern eCommerce platforms is how easy they make it to run CRO tests on your live site—even for technically non-savvy merchants. Those tiny iterative gains can compound massively to boost revenue, profit margins, and the all-important bottom line.

Optimising for the ‘Gram: Social Media Integration

These days, simply building a slick eCommerce site isn't enough. You need to be where your buyers spend their time- social media- all but umbilically attached.

Each popular platform, like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, etc., presents a massive opportunity to show off your eCommerce inventory and convert passive scrollers into customers.

That's why embedding social shopping features seamlessly into your eCommerce experience is pivotal in today's landscape.

Imagine browsing Instagram and seeing a customer's envy-inducing shot rocking one of your new sneakers. With just a few taps, you can score product info, review, and buy directly without leaving the app.

Or you're an eCommerce seller on Pinterest sharing captivating shots of your latest bedroom furniture pieces. Built-in checkout allows customers to purchase on-platform without being bounced to a separate checkout flow.

It's a blissfully frictionless social commerce experience that aligns perfectly with how shoppers discover and consume products today. Setup is a breeze with tools that integrate your eCommerce data across platforms.

You'll also want two-way integration for features like:

• Shoppable product tags to drive social traffic to your site
• Letting customers log into their eCommerce accounts through social
• Auto-publishing “new product” social posts
• Dynamic pricing and inventory syncing across platforms
• Native on-platform checkout capabilities
• Product reviews and “social proof” integrations
• Retargeting via social ads to win back bounces

Strategic social commerce integration differentiates average eCommerce sites from wildly successful, buzzworthy brands that become veritable culture icons.

The Need for Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Design

Raise your hand if you've ever tried purchasing something on an eCommerce site from your phone…only to ragequit in frustration thanks to tiny text, microscopic buttons, and an overall cringe-worthy mobile experience.

We've all been there. And it's yet another bitter reminder that mobile-friendly, responsive design is an absolute must for any eCommerce site wanting to thrive today (and tomorrow).

Think about it: over half of all website traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. Mobile accounted for nearly 40% of all 2022 eCommerce sales in the US alone!

The moral of the story? Treat mobile phones as an afterthought, leaving serious money on the table.

Truly optimised mobile eCommerce design requires more than just making things “look” good squished down onto a smaller screen.

It's a comprehensive strategy centred around:

• Streamlined navigation & search designed for “fat fingers.”
• Faster page load speeds to compensate for mobile data constraints
• Slimmed down media and image sizes to minimise bloat
• Reduced text fields and simplified checkout flows
• Touch and gesture-friendly layouts and UX elements
• Mobile wallets, Apple Pay and contactless payment integration
• Testing, testing, and more testing across all devices/OS

Ultimately, the experience must be tailored specifically for the mobile context, where shoppers browse on the go with tiny screens and frequent distractions.

No more zooming and pinching. No more multi-page checkouts from Hell. It is a breezy, intuitive shopping process that reduces friction at every step.

Frankly, mobile optimisation only grows more critical each day. With “near me” searches and mobile wallet use rapidly climbing, the winners of eCommerce will be the brands that deliver stellar mobile-first customer experiences.

Perfecting the Need for Speed (Page Load Times)

Slow site speeds are an eCommerce conversion killer—no ifs, ands or buts about it.

The stats are pretty staggering:

• 47% of shoppers expect websites to load within two seconds or less
• A 100ms delay in load time can hurt conversion rates by 7%
• 1 out of 4 visitors will abandon a site that fails to load within 4 seconds
• The average mobile website loads at a sluggish 19 seconds (yikes)!

While there's no shortage of reasons behind sluggish page load speeds, often the culprits are unoptimised images or media, bulky code, lack of browser-caching, poor quality web hosting, and tons of on-site bells and whistles hogging resources.

No matter the cause, the effects are apparent: Slow load times leave shoppers feeling impatient, frustrated, and more apt to bounce without converting. You're leaving money on the table due to lagging website performance.

So, what's the speed fix? A holistic strategy of technical optimisations:

• Compressing/minifying code, stylesheets, and scripts
• Leveraging browser caching to reduce network requests
• Using a content delivery network (CDN) for faster global page delivery
• Optimising media file sizes (images, videos, PDFs, etc.)
• Minimising HTTP requests by combining files where possible
• Limiting third-party scripts and plugins to only mission-critical
• Upgrading to better hosting/infrastructure as needed

In addition to all those backend optimisations, builders should embrace speed-centric design principles, too:

• Prioritise above-the-fold content to load first
• Use lazy loading (waiting to fetch offscreen elements)
• Utilise high-performance caching solutions
• Split longer pages across multiple steps or clicks
• Embrace minimalist design to eliminate excess assets

But testing is arguably the most critical piece of the speed pie. Constantly audit your site with free tools like PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest. Then, rinse and repeat to make incremental improvements over time.

Speed may not be sexy, but optimising your eCommerce site to load lightning fast is the gift that keeps giving in the form of higher engagement, conversion rates, sales, and revenue.

Making Checkout a Seamless, Painless Experience

Getting shoppers to visit your eCommerce site—and even add items to their cart—is only half the battle. The real litmus test is whether or not they complete their purchases.

Too many eCommerce brands shoot themselves by neglecting the checkout experience. Tedious forms, unexpected costs, forced account creation, and multi-page checkouts have all been proven to spike shopping cart abandonment rates.

A simplified, streamlined checkout flow is crucial for slashing abandonment and maximising conversion rates. Here's a quick checklist to ensure your digital checkout lane runs as smoothly as Kerry Butter:

Go One-Page, Accordion-Style

Condense the entire checkout process to a single page with collapsible sections—no more multi-page headaches.

Guest Checkout

Don't force shoppers to register and create accounts before buying. Allow guest checkout for first-time customers.

Enable Single-Click Purchasing

Load previously saved payment details and provide 1-click options for ultra-speedy checkouts.

Persistent Shopping Cart

Keep the customer's cart contents visible during checkout to prevent confusion.

Transparent Costs

Show the final total cost, including all taxes and fees from the start—no hit-or-miss pricing games.

Automatic Address & Payment Autofill

Save shoppers time and hassle by auto-populating address and payment details.

Mobile Optimised

Design, design, design for those mobile checkout flows! No microscopic text or fiddly finger-tapping is required.

Offer Guest Accounts

Allow customers to check out quickly as guests but save their details if they become brand loyalists.

Save User Info

Ask to save user payment and address info after an initial purchase for faster re-ordering.

Minimising clicks, eliminating surprises, and reducing as many friction points as possible are crucial to slashing checkout abandonment and ensuring maximum revenue capture.

You can even take things a step further by personalising offers, coupons, or incentives directly within the checkout flow to motivate those still-hesitant shoppers over the finish line.

The Importance of Security & Trust Signals

Let's face facts: online shopping still has legitimate anxieties around payment security, privacy, and identity theft for many consumers.

There will naturally be some hesitation when people can't physically hand over cash and instead have to enter sensitive info on an eCommerce checkout page. Stories about data breaches and hackers only elevate those fears.

That's why projecting a rock-solid sense of security and trustworthiness throughout your site's design and shopping experience is downright critical. Otherwise, you'll leave doubt and drive skittish buyers right into the arms of risk-averse competitors.

Security trust signals and social proof cues to weave into your eCommerce design:

• Security badges & trust seals (Norton, McAfee, TRUSTe)
• SSL certificates & HTTPS encrypted connections
• Guest checkout options (no forced account creation)
• Privacy guarantees and clear policy transparency
• Reputation-building customer reviews & testimonials
• Association with reputable third-party brands or partners
• “As seen on” logos and major media name-drops
• Social media validation and influencer marketing
• Money-back and satisfaction guarantees
• Customer support channels advertised

Beyond implementing these trust signals, you'll want to make them prominent and visible sitewide—especially on high-anxiety pages like checkout and account creation.

Strike the right balance on product pages, too. Weave testimonials and authority proof naturally alongside persuasive, benefits-driven copy and purchase motivators.

Few consumers will unquestioningly hand over their payment details without clearly established trust. If your eCommerce design fails that vibe check, they'll take their business elsewhere without batting an eyelash.

It's up to you to instil confidence and create an airtight purchasing experience that shoppers intuit is 100% legit from start to finish. Anything less leaves money on the table.

The Power of A/B Testing and Data-Driven Optimisation

Even the most well-meaning eCommerce website design falls short if it's based purely on assumptions or personal preferences rather than accurate user data and behaviours.

That's why constant A/B testing, heatmap tracking, and incremental optimisation need to become hardwired into your eCommerce site philosophy.

Think of your website as a living, breathing organism that requires continuous micro-adjustments to thrive and peak performance over time. You track how users engage, assess conversion bottlenecks, tweak elements, and run controlled tests to validate which variations win more conversions.

Modern heat mapping and tracking tools can reveal fascinating (and counterintuitive) insights:

• Where users lose interest and drop off
• Navigation paths that get tangled or confusing
• UI elements that visitors completely ignore
• Psychological hesitations and hangups at checkout
• The actual “attention grabbers” that drive engagement

From there, you isolate those friction points through A/B testing alternate versions against your control pages. Whatever designs increase key conversion metrics like purchases, sign-ups, and engagement by statistically significant margins become the new baseline.

Then the cycle simply repeats…and again…and again.

The most successful eCommerce brands treat CRO (conversion rate optimisation) as an ongoing practice rather than a one-and-done endeavour. Continuous iteration based on data—not assumptions!

Don't be afraid to rethink and re-envision your entire site architecture, homepage flows, category navigation, checkout processes and more through this lens of rigorous testing and enhancement over time.

Optimising an eCommerce site is far from a “set it and forget it” scenario. But staying attuned to customer signals, behaviour trends, and micro-tweaks' power can unlock exponential growth and tangible revenue gains.

Frequently Asked Questions

The post Designing an eCommerce Website: The Ultimate Guide is by Stuart Crawford and appeared first on Inkbot Design.