9 Website Design Tips to Improve Your Shopify Store

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For any e-commerce merchant, the website is always the backbone of their online business. For Shopify store owners, it is one of the most crucial factors in determining the success of their business.

However, having just a website alone is not enough for a Shopify store to grow, and it certainly does not guarantee you will get more customers. The design of your website also plays a big role in attracting customers. This is why most Shopify store owners set a high priority when it comes to website design, as it can greatly aid them in boosting conversions and generating sales.

So how can you utilize the website design to really make your business grow? In this article, we will look into 9 Website Design Tips to Improve Your Shopify Store.

Why is website design important for your Shopify store?

The website design of your Shopify store is highly important and can affect your business in many ways. Here are some of the benefits that the website design can bring to your Shopify business:

• Increase brand awareness of your current and potential customers.
• Convey the impression of your products and overall brand.
• Build an online presence of your brand.
• Show the core value and credibility of your business.
• Influence the way customers perceive and interact with your store.
• And many more.

So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at how you can improve your Shopify store with website design.

9 Website Design Tips to Improve Your Shopify Store

1. Choose the perfect theme for your Shopify store

When you are just starting out with designing your Shopify store, the first thing to bear in mind has the proper theme for your store. The theme will affect how your site appears to the customers and therefore also determine the success of your business.

Research has shown that 94% of first impressions are related to the design of the website. Because of this, you would want to make sure that your Shopify store deploys the perfect theme to really appeal to your customers. Luckily, there are many Shopify templates for you to choose from.

Many free themes are available on the market, but most themes are premium and usually cost around $100 to $180 per template.

But how can we know whether it is the perfect theme for the store? Well, here are some criteria you can consider when choosing the theme for your Shopify business:

• Well-defined features: Take into consideration all the features you want to utilize on the site. Does your shop need infinite scrolling to create a seamless browsing experience? Or does your shop need to integrate Instagram to promote social media engagement?
• Proper product display and layout: Make sure the theme is tailored to your products. For example, fashion items need to be showcased using large images, while other products, such as books, need more focus on the description of the product.
• Optimized user experience: Keep in mind that in addition to a user interface, user experience is also a vital factor in determining the success of your website. Think about the design layout, the text placement, the sizes of the images, and other factors. And don’t forget to select a theme that is mobile-friendly too.
• Budget of website design: Plugins and apps can save you a great deal of effort and time since they can personalize your website design with ease. However, some of them might be a bit pricey, especially if you are just starting out. Fortunately, there are many free themes for you to choose from on the market.

See more: 72+ Best Shopify One Page Themes 2022

2. Set up your website using apps

The next tip we have to offer is to use apps to set up your website. There are many apps that seamlessly integrate with Shopify. Therefore, they can help you greatly in setting up the website for your Shopify store without much effort.

With the help of apps to build the website, you can easily customize your store’s interface with a wide range of elements. Most apps will also ensure the smooth functioning of many features such as responsive design, search engine optimization, data tracking, etc. And for premium apps, you can also get professional assistance when building and managing your site.

There are many ways to select the right app for your business. But one of the best ways to do so is to search according to your app categories, which include the following:

• Apps for store design, finding products, and places to sell.
• Apps focusing on marketing, sales, and conversion.
• Apps made for inventory management, orders, and shipping.
• Apps that have customer support, data tracking, and reporting.

Then, what should you look for when you want to deploy apps for building websites? These are some factors you should consider for your Shopify store’s website:

• Drag-and-drop page building option is available
• Wide range of themes to choose from
• Various professional and functional elements
• Able to edit theme with code

One thing that most apps and plug-ins have in common is that they are built to enhance user experience. According to statistics, websites that focus on user experience can increase their conversion rates up to 400%.

So, if you are not sure you can pull off designing a website that optimizes user experience, do not hesitate to deploy one of the most premium website-building apps on the market.

Or, another alternative is to ask for the help of the professionals. You can always look for website designers and ask for advice from them or even have them design your website.

3. Improve the loading speed of your website

One of the biggest elements in determining the conversion rate of your business has to do with the loading speed of your website. With a quick loading website, the customer shopping experience will be enhanced, whereas a slow loading website can severely undermine the success of your Shopify store.

Statistics have shown that with each extra second your website takes to load, the conversion rate is reduced by 7% and website views are decreased by 11%. Customers will not wait for slow websites to load. Because of this, it is estimated that businesses lose $2.6 billion revenue per year due to slow loading websites.

Customer experience aside, websites with a fast loading speed can be ranked higher by Google. Therefore, improving the loading speed of your Shopify store website can not only enhance the user experience but also improve search engine optimization.

There are many reasons why your website might be slow, but there are a few strategies you can try out to help reduce the loading speed:

• Compress the size of your photos: A higher resolution photo will surely help visualize your products better. But it also comes with a downside, which is slowing down your website. Therefore, you should try reducing the file size of the photo by compressing them. There are many free online tools to compress photos, such as TinyJPG, which can greatly reduce the file size without damaging the photo quality.
• Take off unnecessary features: It goes without saying that many features are excellent in ensuring the customer’s shopping experience. However, certain features, widgets, and plug-ins are rarely used, and they just take up a lot of the loading speed. Because of this, try to remove all the excess features and just keep the most important ones.
• Try not to use third-party themes: Most of the time, it is okay to have third-party themes for your website. However, if Shopify does not directly create the themes, then they can seriously take up a lot of the loading time of your store’s website. But if the third-party themes made by Shopify slow down your website, you can always get in touch with the developer to fix the problem.

When you are designing the website for your Shopify store, make sure to check the loading time of your website. You can use tools such as PageSpeed Insights by Google to view the current speed of your website. The tool can analyze the loading time of your website, as well as provide you with some advice on how you can improve the speed.

Another alternative option is to get help from website speed optimization services, which can be of great help to you. But keep in mind that most services are premium.

You might see: 9+ Best Shopify Speed Optimization Apps in 2022

4. Utilize visuals on your website

Another great tip you should take into consideration when building your Shopify website is to utilize the visuals on site. Because you are running your business virtually, it is important to let your customers have as much information as possible about your products. And one way to do this is by using visuals in your Shopify store.

According to statistics, the elements that appeal to customers the most are photos (40%), color (39%), and videos (21%). So it is advisable that you prioritize your time, effort, and budget for each element accordingly.

About photos of your products, you should try using the best quality photos to showcase the products and appeal to your customers. You can also deploy carousels to help customers see the products from different angles and environments. However, you should also pay attention to the size of the photos, as we have mentioned earlier that photos with too large sizes can affect the loading speed of your website.

Make sure that the visuals on your website go well with the design of the Shopify store. Your visuals should not drastically contrast the overall design of the website in terms of the layout, color palette, font typeface, and other components.

Statistics have indicated that the most popular colors that appeal to customers and increase website traffic are blue (46%) and green (30%). And, deploying a red purchase button can help you seal the deal with your customers since it is reported that 39% of customers are attracted to red purchase buttons, which can boost conversions up to 34%.

In addition to photos, you can also add some videos to showcase your products in a more appealing way. Statistics have shown that customers tend to spend 88% more viewing time on websites that have videos.

5. Showcase the business’s value proposition

In case you want to attract more customers, then keep in mind that you need to show the business proposition of your business when you design the website. So what exactly is the value proposition?

Your business’s value proposition is the text or image that your customers see first at the top of your website. This means that it is the most important factor in determining whether or not your customers spark interest and continue scrolling down.

About the content of the value proposition, make sure that you include all the necessary information in the most succinct and concise way possible. You can put in a simple but meaningful headline to showcase the brand of your Shopify business. Then you can briefly mention the strengths and key features of your products, such as safe, reliability, professional approval, etc.

Some Shopify businesses even have a longer than usual section about their messages. It can be about the business’s support to the customer, or some statistics to highlight the brand and products.

As for the design of your business’s value proposition, it also goes hand in hand with the content. The website’s mood and tone can also say a lot about your business. You can check out our tips about visuals from the previous sections.

The way you manage the design all depends on the content and your business type. If your Shopify business focuses on fashion, then your design should be chic and colorful. For interior design stores that aim to convey simplicity and a modern look, then the value proposition should be minimalistic too.

6. Focus on features supporting conversions

Another factor you ought to take into consideration when designing the website for your Shopify store is boosting conversion rates.

There are many elements that will affect your business’s conversion rate, such as website loading time, website design, content, visuals, and more. Most of them have been mentioned earlier, so we will go over some other features that can help increase your conversion rates.

The first thing you ought to do to get higher conversions is to include a strong call to action (CTA). You can do this by inserting an imperative into your CTA. You should choose action verbs, such as “Join” or “Click”, to direct your customers. Remember to use persuasive language to direct the customers.

You can also create a feeling of urgency, such as “Buy the limited edition before it’s too late!”, to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). This is a common marketing strategy that is deployed by many businesses, including both offline stores and e-commerce businesses such as Shopify stores.

The second element you need to pay attention to is having a mobile-friendly website. Statistics have shown that there are 4.32 billion mobile internet users. This means that around 90% of the global population uses mobile devices to go online, which of course, includes many e-commerce customers.

In addition, mobile-friendly websites also get ranked higher on search engines than those that are not. So make sure your Shopify store is fully compatible with mobile devices when you design the website. You can check the mobile responsiveness of your website with some online tools such as Mobile-Friendly Test by Google Search Console.

The third thing you can try is to deploy A/B Testing or Split Test. With the help of A/B Testing, you can compare two versions of your website to figure out which has the advantage over boosting conversion rates.

When using A/B Testing, you have the freedom to try out different components. You can test the location of the CTA to see their effectiveness, the color palette of the website to see which one is more attractive, or the images to see which can appeal to the customers.

7. Showcase the uniqueness of your Shopify store

The next tip we have to offer is to showcase the individuality of your Shopify store. When you reflect your uniqueness through your website, it is more likely to attract your customers.

In addition, statistics have shown that 73% of businesses invest in making their brand stand out from their fellow competitors. This means that you will have to pay extra attention just to get ahead of the competition if you want to boost the conversion rate and generate more sales.

When you rely too much on Shopify themes, especially free ones, you risk making your website look too generic. In other words, your Shopify store may look too like other businesses’ websites. However, you can still count on the help of premium templates, as they are much simpler to customize. You can easily personalize your website and make it stand out from the crowd.

That said, most of the time, Shopify themes will have many factors in common too, even if they are highly customizable. Because of this, it is advisable that you should change some other components of your website to make it truly unique. There are many aspects you can look into in order to make your website stand out, but the two most important components are photography and copy.

In terms of photography, your business’s photography style will greatly influence the overall look of the website. The way businesses photograph their products will vary.

Some Shopify stores opt for photos with simple backgrounds to let the products do all the talking. Other stores allow models to interact with the products to make them more lively. Some shops even put the products in realistic environments to let customers know their actual functionality.

And as for copy, it is one of the most important details that can really set your business apart from the other competitors. Statistics have indicated that 34% of customers tend to make an unplanned purchase after reading personalized content. Therefore, you need to have high-quality content to truly communicate with your customers. You should also pay attention to the language you use.

8. Add features to connect with your customers

Another great tip you should consider when building the website for your Shopify is to include features that can help you connect with your customers. There are many ways a business can connect with the customers, but it’s best to stay in contact with the customers before, during, and after their purchase.

Before customers make their buying decisions, it is natural that they have a lot of questions. They may want to know more about your products, warranty, and many other problems.

Because of this, it is a good idea to connect with them to seal the deal. One way to do this is to deploy chatbots to help answer some of the customers’ frequently asked questions. Or you can also choose to link your social media or other forms of contact, such as email, to let the customers ask you directly. Make sure you have a contact section on your website.

When customers are on the point of buying the products, they may also have some additional questions that need to be answered immediately. For example, they may ask about payment and shipping, or about other available sizes and colors (if your Shopify shop specializes in fashion).

Therefore, you should include a chat section so as to connect with the customers and answer their questions quickly.

And after the customers have bought the products, you should emphasize customer retention. One way to do that is to add an email sign-up section so that customers can receive newsletters and get updated on your most recent products or your biggest sales.

Once you have the customers’ contact information, there are other tactics you can use to increase customer loyalty too. Apart from newsletters, you can also send them occasional discount codes and vouchers to attract your customers and encourage them to make purchases from your store again.

It is a good idea to also have a section to showcase the customers’ reviews. Doing so will help boost the credibility of your products and, consequently, your Shopify business.

9. Keep your website simple

When you are just starting out, you may feel like you need to include everything on your website to make it highly functional. However, doing so will only overload the cognition of your customers and overwhelm them.

Most of the time, less is more, so do not be tempted to showcase every feature you can think of. Keep it simple and up to a point. When designing your website, you should only keep the most critical features and remove unnecessary or rarely used ones, as stated in the above sections. Ensure that you don’t overload your customers with too much information.

In addition, it is advisable that you hone in on your visuals and only showcase the best photos or videos, not include everything. You should also keep your typeface simple by using from 2 to 4 fonts only.

Another important thing to pay attention to is whitespace. Whitespace is also known as a negative space, which is all of the areas that are intentionally left blank on a website. It is usually used to balance out the elements of your website by creating a smoother flow for your customers to navigate through your shop.

Although it is called whitespace, it does not necessarily mean that you will have to design a white background for your website. You can use whatever colors or images you want for the background. It just means that you should keep a certain amount of space on your website empty to deliver the best user shopping experience.

The Bottom Line

In summary, it is crucial for Shopify store owners to pay attention to their website design, especially those just starting out. There are many ways to utilize website design to make your business grow. It all depends on your customer group and business type, so there can be various approaches for different Shopify stores.

We have gone over the 9 Website Design Tips to Improve Your Shopify Store. We hope these tips can be of great help to you and can help you generate more sales and grow your business.