Shopify is currently the third most popular e-commerce platform in the world, and sites built on this platform take over $40 billion (about £30 billion) in sales each year. This convenient and intuitive e-commerce web design makes it easy to sell anything online, giving you a quick and straightforward way to design a site for your business.
But just because it’s simple, that doesn’t mean it takes no effort at all. In fact, Shopify experts such as ourselves here at Ctrl Alt Create know that there are plenty of aspects you need to keep in mind when designing your Shopify store.
Whether you’re a beginner designer or have more experience, here are some e-commerce design tips that will help you design a successful Shopify store.
Choose the Best Theme for Your Site
Before you work on anything, you need to pick your theme. It forms the backbone of your website and determines the overall look and feel of your online store.
Shopify has dozens of built-in themes, all of which have multiple style variations, allowing you to customise to your heart’s content. Most themes cost between £100 and £150 to purchase, but there are a couple of free themes if your budget is really tight.
When choosing a theme, start by fleshing out what you want it to accomplish. What experience are you creating for your customer? What features are non-negotiable? Are your competitors doing anything that’s caught your eye? Don’t worry about the font or colour scheme yet; focus on the vibe the layout gives you and make sure it matches your company vision.
Work On Improving Loading Times
When a customer clicks on a link that takes too long to load, they’ll bounce and move onto another site, losing you a potential sale. This study found that for every extra second that your page takes to load, your conversions drop by 7% your page views drop by 11%.
What’s more, Google rankings prioritise fast-loading pages. This means that reducing your loading time improves your customer experience and helps your SEO!
If you want to reduce the loading time of your site, follow these steps:
- Compress images
- Remove all non-essential widgets
- Limit the use of third-party plugins, add-ons, or extensions
- Avoid using carousel animations on your pages
Hone In On Conversions
Once your Shopify store layout is designed to your liking, the real work begins! To increase your conversion rate, you want to be continuously updating your site and optimising it to your target demographics’ preferences.
One way to gauge the future responses of your customers is to run A/B split testing. This form of testing involves taking two versions of the same page and monitoring how people behave on each variation. This process will help you understand which changes are helping you and highlight those hindering your site’s performance.
You can experiment with anything, including the location of your call-to-action buttons, how to display images of products, and the colours used throughout each page. Fine-tuning your e-commerce website can take some effort, but the rewards are always worth it!
Pair with the Right Web Designer
When it comes to the effectiveness of your site in terms of generating traffic and driving sales, hiring a professional web designer can sometimes be your best bet. They have in-depth knowledge of the latest web design trends and know exactly what an online store needs to be successful!
Some designers specialise in Shopify websites, so they’re familiar with the themes, plugins, and features. In addition to knowing your website is gorgeous and functional, hiring a designer saves you valuable time too. Instead of spending hours trying to design and then optimise your website, you can focus on other aspects of the business, such as outbound marketing or product development.
Let Ctrl Alt Create Design Your Shopify Store
If you’ve read the above tips and are feeling a little overwhelmed, don’t worry! With years of web design experience, Ctrl Alt Create can handle everything that comes with designing your Shopify store. From the creative elements to the technical aspects, we have worked on dozens of Shopify stores over the years, and we have an in-depth understanding of what it takes to gain online traction.
If you would like to talk to a member of our team about what we can do for your Shopify site, give us a call on 0793 9006 826 or pop your info in an email and send it to hello@ctrlaltcreate.co. We can’t wait to hear what you have planned for your store!