For any e-commerce seller, their website is a heart of their online business. Having a good website is of the utmost importance that can have a direct impact on the success of your business. However, having only a good website is not sufficient, the design of the website also plays a crucial role. In fact, a research says over 75% of the customers judge a business’ credibility based on its website design. Furthermore, if a website design is not attractive or responsive enough, your prospects may leave your site even before browsing. That is why it is essential to pay close attention to your website design as it can greatly help you in boosting conversions.
So, let’s dig in to know more about how you can improve your Shopify website design and generate more sales.
#1 Choose an appropriate theme for your store
The first thing to keep in mind before you design your Shopify store is to choose the right theme for your store. Your theme is the backbone of your website, and it can directly influence the user experience and all-around look of your website. If the aesthetics and design don’t stand out, you are likely to lose customers.
Fortunately, Shopify offers plenty of free as well as premium themes to choose from. While choosing the right theme for your site, think about how you wish to display products on your site, what features you need, what type of experience you plan to deliver to your audience and what is your budget for the theme. A good website design can help you create a great first impression and hold customer attention for longer.
#2 Work on improving the website loading speed
Another critical aspect of the Shopify site design is to ensure it loads quickly. Users dislike slow loading sites and they may move to your competitors. Every extra second your page takes to load, conversions are reduced by 7% and page views by 11%. If you don’t want to be the part of such losses, pay attention to improving page loading speed of your website.
Examine your website by checking it in the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. If it is too slow, try to optimize design elements of your website. Compress media content, remove unnecessary features or widgets, avoid third-party themes and skip carousels. Fast loading sites can dramatically improve user experiences. Moreover, search engines also favour fast loading pages.
#3 Use necessary apps to setup your store
While designing your Shopify website, you can use free and paid apps to cover all your store setup, configuration and management needs. These apps integrate seamlessly with Shopify and they can greatly help in extending functionality of your site without much effort.
You can find plenty of apps in different categories, such as store customisation, orders and shipping, inventory management, sales and conversion, marketing, customer support and many more. Using these apps, you can easily customise your store’s interface and ensure smooth functioning.
#4 Declutter elements on the website
Your website might seem like a blank canvas where you want to put anything and everything to make it look pretty. As a website owner, it is very common to be tempted to showcase everything you have to your users. However, you need to understand that users abandoned the website when there is too much information. Too many content confuses their brains on where to go.
While choosing what products to display, focus on only a handful of specific products at a time. Be it the bestsellers, discounted products or combo offers, showcase only what is important for that particular page. Also, don’t forget to highlight CTAs of your website.
#5 Showcase your products using visuals
Visuals can have a great impact on how visitors perceive your website. Since you are running a digital store, it is important to provide as much information as possible about your products to help them make an informed purchase. And, one way to do is by using visuals, such as photos and videos. That being said, not using appropriate visuals can increase the chances of visitors abandoning your site.
Therefore, use high-quality photos and videos to showcase your products. This way your customers will be able to enlarge and see the tiniest details. If possible add multiple images of a single product, so your customers can view it from different angles. However, pay attention to the size of the images as too large sizes can bog down your website speed. Make sure the visuals you use go well with your store design.
#6 Reflect your brand’s individuality
When you use Shopify’s pre-built themes, you risk of creating a website that may look like others who have used the same theme. With this growing competition, how do you distinguish yourself? It is essential to make your website stand out even among those who use the same theme. In other words, you must reflect your brand’s individuality.
There are many aspects of the website where you can make your website stand out. Use photography to add unique images to your site to enhance its appearance. Some shops opt for photos with plain backgrounds to let the products do all the talking. Use decent colour schemes that make the text around easy to read and appealing to your customers.
#7 Hire a professional Shopify designer
Although working with Shopify is pretty simple, but there may come a time when you realise your limitations. You want to customise the theme to your heart’s content, but that’s beyond your skills. In that case, you will need to seek professional help. The experience of a dedicated Shopify website designer could give you some new insights.
Specialist Shopify designers are well-versed in working with different plugins, themes and features. A skilled Shopify designer will help you create a perfect website design that takes the customers by the hand, walks with them throughout your store and guides them on how to complete making the purchase. A great website design means more conversions and more profits for you.
Conclusion
Keeping your customers at the heart is perhaps the most important practice that you can follow while designing a Shopify website. Before you begin designing, think about the functionalities required. Then, you can go ahead with choosing apps, themes and custom solutions that offer the best user experience. Every single element you use in your website, be it product images, search box or navigation menu, it should make the buying process smooth for your customers. This will eventually drive more sales for your business.
