Transform Your Online Store: 5 Design Strategies for Maximum Conversions

In the competitive world of online shopping, delivering a great user experience is crucial for boosting conversions and fostering long-term customer relationships. While it might be tempting to load your site with complex features, remember that sometimes less is more. Here are five essential tips to consider when designing your web store:

Tip #1: Simple and Effective Product Photography

Organize your product displays with clear, simple backgrounds. Using a white or muted backdrop allows your products to shine. While lifestyle photos can enhance product pages, keep collection pages uniform and professional. If featuring models, ensure the backgrounds are consistent and not overly busy.

Tip #2: Clear and Concise Navigation

A straightforward header is key to helping shoppers find what they need quickly. Limit your menu items to avoid overwhelming visitors. For example, a "Shop" button with dropdown options for different collections simplifies navigation. Place links to policies and contact information in the footer to keep the header clean.

Simple & Effective

The Linen Gallery features a menu that offers two easy to navigate dropdown menus to simplify the shoppers experience.

Tip #3: Eye-Friendly Fonts and Colors

Choose a cohesive color palette and legible fonts. Using varying tints of a single color can add depth while maintaining a clean look. Remember, the right font can convey your brand’s character—select options that enhance readability. For instance, a minimal font works well for professional products, while a cursive font may suit a boutique.

Ashley Winchester from Oberlo has a wonderful blog illustrating the different types of color combinations, and even outlines a few good examples. Ultimately, each brand represents something different, and it is ok to experiment to find what feels right to you.

Tip #4: Streamlined Product Pages

Make your product pages intuitive. Use clear buttons for adding items to the cart and ensure the checkout process is smooth. Avoid clutter by employing dropdowns for descriptions and specifications. If you offer multiple variants, like colors, ensure the images change automatically when a variant is selected.

Keep It Organized

Aaron Carlson Homes offers a simple product page with the option to click a dropdown for a description of the product, specs, shipping information, and more.

Tip #5: Create a design that translates across platforms

Typically, website designers are creating everything from a computer, and constantly testing things out on a desktop view. It is important to not forget the mobile side of things, as studies show well over half of the users shopping are doing so right from their mobile device. Let’s face it, we are all using our phones quite a bit throughout the day. Marketing schemes are designed to target social media followings, therefore a lot of the intrigue that you gain will direct users to either research products on their mobile devices or click the mobile version of your store to look around. Creating a seamless design goes well beyond the desktop view, and it is arguably more important to have a clean mobile store with great loading speed. When creating your mobile view, there are a few important aspects to consider. First, be sure your content, writing, buttons, etc. are all large enough. A user should never have to zoom in to read something. or have too much trouble clicking a button because it’s too small. Additionally, it is a good practice to keep the menu sticky at the top of your screen. If the user is scrolling down to view your page, it can be inconvenient to have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the page for navigation. When creating your desktop layout on Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, or another platform, be sure to toggle back and forth between the desktop and mobile views before adding something. Certain sections don’t translate well, and while they may look great on desktop, they can appear cluttery on mobile.

Does your new store need some design direction, or do you have an existing store that could use a clean re-design? Contact us below, we’d love to help.