Where do the majority of consumers spend their time shopping? Stores? Malls? Well, neither. The reality is that most people nowadays do their shopping online. So if you want to reach them faster, that’s where your business needs to be.
By choosing to sell online, businesses can reach a wider audience, expand their brand, and take advantage of the growing trend of online shopping.
Not to mention, Nasdaq estimates that by 2040, eCommerce will facilitate 95% of all purchases.
Opening an e-commerce website (if you don’t already have one) is a good start, but it’s not where your efforts should stop. It’s crucial to have a solid eCommerce website design optimized for user convenience and conversion. A well-designed eCommerce website not only makes it easier to sell online but also helps attract new customers and build trust through features like customer reviews and trust signals.
Let’s discover all the must-knows of eCommerce website design to ensure your business ends up with a modern, functional, and affordable eCommerce website design. This guide will cover the key elements of eCommerce website design, focusing on the essential components needed to build a successful online store.
Introduction to eCommerce: What is an eCommerce Store
An eCommerce store, often referred to as an online store, is a website where businesses can showcase and sell their products or services directly to customers over the internet. Unlike traditional brick and mortar stores, eCommerce websites are accessible 24/7, allowing customers to browse product galleries, view high-quality product images, and make purchases from anywhere in the world.
A great eCommerce website is more than just a digital storefront—it’s a carefully designed platform that prioritizes user-friendly navigation, seamless checkout processes, and a visually appealing layout. The best eCommerce website examples set the standard for design and user experience, offering inspiration through their effective use of branding, features, and innovative layouts. The best eCommerce websites use intuitive website design and engaging product imagery to create a positive customer experience that encourages online sales.
Ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce make it easier than ever for businesses to launch their own eCommerce store. These platforms offer a variety of design templates and customization options, so even those without coding skills can create a professional-looking online store. Whether you’re selling physical products, digital downloads, or services, investing in your website’s design features—such as images, typography, and layout—is essential for attracting customers, building trust, and driving sales.
How Ecommerce Website Design Will Affect Your Business
As an online retailer, you’ll be doing most of your business through your eCommerce website. This means that your website is where users first land when they discover you, and it’s where they click the “Checkout” button to complete their purchase.
Optimizing the customer journey is essential in web design, ensuring a seamless experience from the moment a user discovers your site to the final checkout. By optimizing the design for online shoppers, you can directly impact website sales by making it easier for customers to find products and complete purchases. The quality of your web design depends on how well it can guide and support the customer through the entire purchase process. The simpler and more enjoyable the process is, the more sales your site will generate.
On the other hand, if some of the buttons don’t work, the menu is confusing, and the products aren’t presented well, the odds won’t be in your favor. Understanding online shoppers’ preferences is crucial to reducing friction and increasing conversions. Modern-day shoppers are pretty sensitive to minor web-browsing setbacks and will not spend their money on a site that’s anything short of excellent.
When building a top-notch eCommerce website, any component — from site architecture to the correct use of color for CTA buttons — can play a significant role. So without further ado, let’s uncover how you can create a well-performing eCommerce website for your business.
Choosing the Right eCommerce Platform
Selecting the right eCommerce platform is a foundational step in building a successful online store. With so many eCommerce platforms available, it’s important for businesses to evaluate their options based on their unique needs and goals. The best eCommerce website builder will offer features like ease of use, design customization, and integrated eCommerce tools. Popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce each offer different features, so consider what matters most for your business.
Key factors to consider include ease of use, the availability of fully customizable design templates, and the ability to integrate with payment gateways and third party apps. Some platforms also provide free hosting, which is a valuable feature for business owners looking to support high traffic and reduce costs. A great eCommerce platform should also offer robust website design tools, allowing you to create a great eCommerce website that reflects your brand and appeals to your target audience.
Scalability is another important consideration—choose a platform that can grow with your business and handle increased website traffic and sales. Security, customer support, and the ability to manage your customer base efficiently are also crucial. Additionally, consider ERP integration to streamline order management and backend business processes for more efficient operations. By carefully comparing eCommerce platforms and selecting the one that best fits your needs, you’ll set your online store up for long-term success and maximize your sales potential.
How to Create a Winning eCommerce Website Design
There are 12–24 million eCommerce websites on the internet as of now, and the number keeps increasing with each day. While each website is unique in its own way, some features stand out among all successful sites. Effective eCommerce design can set your website apart from the competition, driving business success through improved user experience and higher conversion rates.
Below, you’ll find the best eCommerce website design practices and features your eCommerce website needs.
1. Ensure Smooth Site Navigation
What most users expect from your eCommerce website is ease of use, browsing, and buying. They want to be able to swipe through your catalogue and quickly find the desired item. Incorporating intuitive navigation is essential, as it helps users locate products efficiently and significantly improves overall site usability. This will in turn positively reflect on your revenue.
First and foremost, your design needs a clearly defined path for the buyer’s journey. Where will your users land when they click on an ad or link? What path should they take from there? How will you guide them through the payment process?
Thought-out site architecture and well-chosen page layout will make all the difference in your site’s usability. Be sure to have an easily accessible navigation bar, separate your products into categories if necessary, have a search function, and add sidebars to show your visitors related items.
All the elements mentioned above will come together to make the conversion path as seamless as possible for your visitors. One of the leading causes why customers abandon an eCommerce website is that they cannot find what they are looking for. Good site navigation ensures visitors don’t struggle with finding what they want.
2. Make It Mobile-Friendly
Mobile is a device you can’t ignore if you want to amp up your eCommerce revenue. The best way to make your website fully compatible with mobile is to develop a responsive web design. It will ensure your site works perfectly fine regardless of the device in use. Optimizing for different screen sizes is essential to provide a consistent and user-friendly experience for all visitors.
You never know whether your visitor is browsing your site on a large desktop screen, a tablet, or a mobile phone. So it’s best to prepare your website for all scenarios, especially for mobile devices, to ensure seamless usability.
Besides making sure your text is easily readable and your images are well-cropped and positioned, you also need to check the load speed on your site across multiple device types. Most users tend to abandon slow-loading websites due to the inconvenience.
Providing your guests with a positive user experience starts with giving them the content they came for without making them wait. So, minimize your code, compress your images, and limit the number of heavy videos and animation on a single page. Once you’re done with that, you’ll have created a flexible website that’s adaptive to any device. Additionally, always test the transactional flow across all devices to ensure a seamless and efficient checkout process for every user.
3. Embrace Brand Aesthetics
The visual appeal of a website is what draws most people in, as they usually don’t give conscious thought to the site’s infrastructure. The strong infrastructure should still be there, but appealing visuals must enhance the experience. The design should also communicate your brand’s commitment to its core values, such as quality, innovation, or sustainability, helping to build an emotional connection with your audience.
Ideally, your eCommerce website design would display your brand elements, such as your logo, signature colours, typography, unique fonts, icons, etc. Incorporating unique fonts can enhance your brand personality and visual appeal, making your web design much more authentic and distinctive. Moreover, using brand elements throughout the pages will give your site visual consistency — an indicator of a professional website.
If you hire an eCommerce website design agency, you need to work together to create a design brief that highlights where and how to incorporate your brand elements and also consider which eCommerce platform—WordPress, Webflow, or Shopify—is the best choice for your business.
4. Photography Is King
Okay, hear us out: We’d never underestimate the value of great content, but content has to share its throne with photography when it comes to eCommerce website design. You’ve likely noticed that the main focus of eCommerce sites is photos.
Like Maybelline, many websites opt to open their home page with a large header image that showcases their latest or most popular product. And as you continue to browse the page, you see more photorealistic depictions of the products in various settings.
The reason that images are so crucial to eCommerce websites is, first and foremost, their ability to build trust. High-quality product photos are essential for showcasing items effectively and helping customers visualize using the products before purchase. Since buyers can’t touch and examine objects as they would in physical stores, photos are the only way to get to know the product. Thus, high-quality and professionally taken shots are integral to eCommerce website design.
Each product should portray a few images that expose it from multiple angles. It’s even better to give your visitors the option to zoom in as much as they wish to get a closer look at the item.
https://passionates.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/THAMES-CITY.mp4
5. Simple Goes a Long Way
Users prefer simple, intuitive websites over busy ones for one reason — it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for if the web design doesn’t overwhelm you with too much action.
Too many visual distractions, text boxes, and CTAs complicate the decision-making process for the guest. A cleaner page design with purpose-driven text, fewer graphics, plenty of white space, and one focus CTA will create a far more pleasant interaction.
You want to direct customers’ attention to your main message and offers, so make sure that’s where the spotlight falls. With fewer buttons to click and graphics to navigate through, your clients will comprehend your message much better.
A simpler layout will allow your products to shine through in a clutter-free space. In turn, your guests will have an easier time looking through your catalogue and viewing their preferred items.
Of course, you should aim to simplify not only your site’s user interface but also the whole checkout process. From navigating through product pages to completing purchase details, you need to make things as simplistic as possible.
Taking the buyer through unnecessary pages or asking them to disclose too much information will drive them away. So simplify where you can!
Your eCommerce Product Page Design Matters
With the essential practices out of the way, it’s time to tackle the next priority — your product page design. We like to think that a great product will sell itself, but the truth is that the product’s page does a lot of the hard work behind the scenes.
A key aspect of effective product page and site design is organizing your offerings into clear product categories. This structure helps users easily navigate your website and find exactly what they need.
The unique challenge online retailers face is to allow clients to experience a product as fully as possible without physically having it in front of them. Not the most straightforward task, but it’s one that many retailers have excelled at with their intelligent product pages. And that’s precisely what we want to help you accomplish.
1. Diversify Your Images
The dress looks nice, but what will it look like when it’s on? The lamp seems fine, but how large is it placed on a nightstand? These are questions people will ask themselves when browsing your eCommerce website.
So instead of giving them a long and detailed description they might not even read, show a picture instead. They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and it’s certainly true in this case.
Try to think like a customer and show the objects from varying angles and perspectives. Your clients will always appreciate a well-taken, thoughtful product image. Editing product images to remove unwanted objects ensures a clean, professional presentation that keeps the focus on your products.
2. Consider Video
Not all eCommerce websites need a video, but having one will be beneficial, especially if your products are rather complex. A short, informative video will reveal more about an item than plain images would. It’s also an excellent way to properly show how to use the product.
Keep in mind that users are looking for short videos 1–2 minutes in length. Anything longer than that might bore the viewer and drag down the page load speed.
https://passionates.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Mejuri.mp4
3. Provide the Right Product Information
If there’s an area where you can get technical and share all the impressive specs about your products, it’s the product description section. Now, this is not to say you need to spell out every tiny detail about the item. The information you provide should help the shopper make an informed decision and not confuse them.
Another great tip is to notify users when a given item, color, or size is low in stock. This will trigger the scarcity mindset and encourage shoppers to take action. Additionally, consider offering a pre order option for upcoming products. This not only generates anticipation but also informs customers about future availability, helping you engage your audience more effectively.
Keep in mind that users are looking for short videos 1–2 minutes in length. Anything longer than that might bore the viewer and drag down the page load speed.
4. Display Related Items
Showing related products similar to the ones being viewed will help guests find more items they might like, thus keeping them on your page longer. It’s a wonderful technique to keep shoppers engaged and increase the chances of purchase. Displaying related items can also help increase the average order value by encouraging customers to add more products to their cart.
Many eCommerce websites have a “Frequently Bought Together” section that recommends products that work well with the one the user has selected. Amazon is perhaps the most popular retailer that employs this technique.
Conversion Optimization: The Missing Piece Most eCommerce Sites Ignore
A beautiful website means nothing if it doesn’t convert visitors into customers. Yet most eCommerce businesses focus exclusively on design and development, neglecting the data-driven optimization that actually drives revenue.
Why Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Matters
The average eCommerce conversion rate is just 2-3%. That means 97-98% of your traffic leaves without buying. But top-performing sites convert at 5-10%—often selling the same products at similar prices.
The difference? Relentless testing and optimization.
Example: A 1% increase in conversion rate for a site with 100,000 monthly visitors and a $100 average order value = $100,000 additional monthly revenue. That’s $1.2M annually from optimization alone.
The CRO Process: How to Systematically Increase Conversions
1. Qualitative Research: Understand Why Users Don’t Convert
Before you test anything, you need to understand the problems:
- User interviews: Talk to customers who bought and those who didn’t
- Session recordings: Watch real users navigate your site (tools: Hotjar, FullStory)
- Heatmaps: See where users click, scroll, and get stuck
- Surveys: Ask visitors what’s preventing them from buying
- Usability testing: Observe users completing tasks on your site
- For marketing materials, consider working with a brochure design agency to ensure your branding and messaging are professionally crafted.
Key questions to answer:
- Where do users drop off in the funnel?
- What objections prevent purchase?
- Is the value proposition clear?
- Are there trust or security concerns?
2. Quantitative Analysis: Find the Data-Driven Opportunities
Numbers reveal what’s broken:
- Google Analytics (GA4): Track user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion paths
- Funnel analysis: Identify the biggest drop-off points (homepage → product page → cart → checkout)
- Form analytics: See which form fields cause abandonment
- Device/browser analysis: Find technical issues affecting specific segments
- Cohort analysis: Compare behavior across customer segments
Red flags to investigate:
- High bounce rates on key pages (>60%)
- Low add-to-cart rates (<5%)
- High cart abandonment (>70%)
- Poor mobile conversion vs. desktop
3. Hypothesis Generation: Prioritize What to Test
Based on research and data, create testable hypotheses:
Framework: “If we [change], then [metric] will improve because [insight from research].”
Example hypotheses:
- “If we add trust badges near the checkout button, conversion rate will increase because user interviews revealed security concerns.”
- “If we reduce checkout steps from 5 to 3, cart abandonment will decrease because funnel analysis shows 40% drop-off at step 3.”
- “If we add a size guide to product pages, return rates will decrease because customer support tickets show sizing confusion.”
Prioritization: Use the ICE framework:
- Impact: How much will this improve conversions?
- Confidence: How sure are you it will work?
- Ease: How quickly can you implement it?
4. A/B Testing: Validate Your Hypotheses
Never guess—test everything:
- A/B tests: Compare two versions (A vs. B)
- Multivariate tests: Test multiple elements simultaneously
- Split URL tests: Test entirely different page designs
What to test:
- Headlines and value propositions
- CTA button copy, color, and placement
- Product page layouts
- Checkout flow steps
- Pricing and discount displays
- Trust signals and social proof
- Navigation and filtering options
Tools: Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize, Convert
Best practices:
- Run tests for at least 2 weeks (account for weekly patterns)
- Ensure statistical significance (95%+ confidence)
- Test one variable at a time (unless multivariate testing)
- Document all tests and learnings
5. Implementation & Iteration: Build a Testing Culture
CRO is not a one-time project—it’s an ongoing process:
- Run 2-4 tests per month on high-impact pages
- Build a testing roadmap prioritized by potential revenue impact
- Create a knowledge base documenting all tests and learnings
- Celebrate wins and learn from losses (failed tests reveal valuable insights)
Passionate Agency’s Optimize Tier: CRO as a Service
Most businesses lack the in-house expertise to run a comprehensive CRO program. Hiring a full-time CRO specialist costs $100K-$150K annually, plus tools and analytics platforms.
Passionate Agency’s Optimize tier ($10,000/month) gives you unlimited access to senior UX researchers and CRO analysts who:
- Conduct qualitative and quantitative research
- Generate data-backed hypotheses
- Design and run A/B and multivariate tests
- Analyze results and provide actionable recommendations
- Build experimentation roadmaps aligned with business goals
- Integrate with your existing analytics stack (GA4, Hotjar, Optimizely, etc.)
Plus, you still get everything in the Grow tier: unlimited design, development, and video production—all from senior specialists with 1-3 day turnaround.
Introducing Crolytics.ai: Proprietary CRO Intelligence
Passionate Agency has developed Crolytics.ai, a proprietary platform that combines AI-powered analytics with human expertise to identify conversion opportunities faster.
What Crolytics.ai does:
- Automatically analyzes user behavior patterns across your site
- Identifies friction points and drop-off causes
- Generates prioritized test hypotheses based on revenue impact
- Tracks test performance and recommends next steps
Unlike third-party tools that just show you data, Crolytics.ai delivers actionable insights backed by our team’s CRO expertise.
Using AI in eCommerce to Increase Sales
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the eCommerce landscape by helping businesses deliver a more personalized and efficient customer experience. AI-powered tools can analyze customer behavior and preferences, allowing eCommerce websites to offer tailored product recommendations that increase the likelihood of a sale.
Chatbots and virtual assistants are now common features on great eCommerce websites, providing instant support and guiding customers through the shopping process. AI can also optimize pricing strategies, automate order fulfillment, and streamline inventory management, freeing up time for businesses to focus on growth.
By leveraging AI, eCommerce businesses can gain valuable insights into their customers, improve the overall shopping experience, and boost sales. Whether it’s through smarter product suggestions, faster customer service, or more efficient operations, AI is a powerful tool for any eCommerce store looking to stay ahead in a competitive market.
Ensuring eCommerce Website Security and Trust
Building trust is essential for any eCommerce website hoping to convert visitors into loyal customers. Security features like SSL certificates, secure payment gateways, and transparent privacy policies are non-negotiable for protecting customer data and ensuring safe transactions. For a small business, building trust is especially important to attract new customers who may be unfamiliar with your brand.
Fast website load times and reliable performance also play a key role in establishing trust—slow or unreliable eCommerce websites can quickly drive potential customers away. Social proof, such as customer reviews, ratings, and press mentions, further reassures new shoppers that your online store is reputable and delivers on its promises.
Ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce offer built-in security tools and features to help businesses safeguard their online stores. By prioritizing security and trust indicators, businesses can create a positive customer experience that encourages online sales and builds lasting relationships with their customers.
Optimizing eCommerce Website Performance and Speed
A fast, responsive eCommerce website is critical for maximizing online sales and delivering a great customer experience. Slow load times can lead to high bounce rates and shopping cart abandonment, costing your business valuable sales.
To optimize your eCommerce website’s performance, start by choosing a reliable hosting provider and using performance-optimized eCommerce platforms. Compress product images and videos to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality, and minimize the number of HTTP requests on each page. Implementing a content delivery network (CDN) and enabling caching can further improve website speed and ensure your site loads quickly for customers on different devices and in various locations.
Many eCommerce platforms provide built-in tools and analytics to help you monitor and enhance your website’s performance. By prioritizing speed and efficiency, you’ll create a seamless shopping experience that keeps customers engaged and drives more sales for your eCommerce business.
Regularly Updating and Maintaining Your eCommerce Website
Keeping your eCommerce website up to date is vital for delivering a top-notch customer experience and maximizing your online sales. Regular updates to product pages, product galleries, and product images ensure your site always looks fresh and relevant, helping to capture the attention of both new and returning customers.
Monitoring your site’s load times is equally important—slow websites can lead to shopping cart abandonment and lost sales. Make it a habit to review your website’s performance, update high quality images, and streamline your checkout process to reduce friction. Incorporating social proof, such as customer reviews and press mentions, and offering a variety of payment gateways like Amazon Pay, can further enhance trust and encourage purchases.
Stay informed about the latest eCommerce trends and best practices, and use analytics tools to track customer behavior and identify opportunities to improve your eCommerce site. By regularly maintaining your website, you’ll not only improve the customer experience but also increase your average order value and drive more sales for your business.
Choosing Your eCommerce Design Approach: Three Options Compared
As a business leader, you have three main options for building and optimizing your eCommerce website. Each comes with distinct trade-offs in cost, quality, speed, and scalability.
Option 1: DIY Platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce)
Best for: Very small businesses with limited budgets and simple product catalogs
Pros:
- Low upfront costs
- Quick setup with pre-built templates
- Basic functionality out of the box
Cons:
- Generic, template-based designs that look like competitors
- Limited customization without coding skills
- No optimization expertise (you’re on your own for CRO, UX research, A/B testing)
- Time-intensive—takes you away from running your business
- Difficult to scale as your needs grow
Typical cost: $29-$299/month platform fees + your time investment
Option 2: Traditional eCommerce Design Agencies
Best for: One-time projects with fixed scope and large budgets
Pros:
- Custom design tailored to your brand
- Professional quality
- Dedicated project team
Cons:
- High costs: $50,000-$150,000+ for initial build
- Slow delivery: 3-6 months for launch
- Ongoing costs unpredictable: $150-$250/hour for updates and changes
- Limited post-launch support: Maintenance and optimization sold separately
- Difficult to scale: Each new request requires new quotes, contracts, and timelines
- No flexibility: Locked into project scope; changes trigger expensive change orders
Typical cost: $50,000-$150,000 initial + $5,000-$15,000/month ongoing
Option 3: Subscription-Based Design, Development & Optimization
Best for: Growth-stage businesses needing continuous design, development, and conversion optimization
This is where Passionate Agency – Passionates operates differently. Instead of project-based pricing, you get unlimited access to senior specialists across design, development, CRO, and AI—all for a predictable monthly subscription.
How the Subscription Model Works:
Grow Tier ($8,000/month full-time | $5,000/month part-time)
- Unlimited requests for design, development, and video
- Senior designers, developers, and motion graphics artists (5+ years experience)
- Services include: graphic design, branding, website design, UI/UX, motion graphics, video production, 3D/AR/WebXR, WordPress/Shopify/Webflow development
- 1-3 day turnaround per request
- Pause or cancel anytime—no penalties
Optimize Tier ($10,000/month full-time | $6,000/month part-time)
Everything in Grow, plus:
- Senior UX researchers and CRO specialists
- Qualitative & quantitative UX research
- A/B and multivariate testing
- Advanced analytics & funnel optimization
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy
- Data-driven experimentation roadmaps
Innovate Tier ($12,500/month full-time | $7,250/month part-time)
Everything in Optimize, plus:
- AI analysts and engineers
- Custom AI chatbots and virtual assistants
- Dynamic content personalization
- Customer journey automation
- AI-powered marketing sequences
- Custom LLM fine-tuning
- Integration with your existing tech stack
Why This Model Wins for eCommerce:
- Predictable costs: No surprise invoices or scope creep
- Unlimited requests: Keep iterating until it’s perfect
- Rapid delivery: 1-3 days per request vs. weeks with traditional agencies
- Full-stack expertise: Design, development, CRO, and AI—all in one subscription
- Enterprise-grade quality: Senior specialists (top 0.5% of talent) with 5+ years experience
- Instant scalability: Stack multiple subscriptions for higher volume or faster delivery
- Seamless integration: Works with your existing tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, GA4, Shopify, etc.)
- No lock-in: Pause or cancel anytime with no penalties
Which Option Is Right for You?
Choose DIY if: You’re a solopreneur with under $10K/month revenue and can invest significant time learning platforms.
Choose a traditional agency if: You have a one-time project with a fixed scope, a large budget ($100K+), and don’t need ongoing optimization.
Choose a subscription model (Passionates) if: You’re a growth-stage business that needs continuous design, development, and optimization without the overhead of hiring a full in-house team or the unpredictability of agency retainers.
Ready to Build an eCommerce Site That Converts?
Whether you’re launching a new store or optimizing an existing one, Passionate Agency’s subscription model gives you the flexibility, speed, and expertise to compete with industry leaders—without the enterprise price tag.
Start with our Grow tier for design and development, upgrade to Optimize when you’re ready to maximize conversions, or go all-in with Innovate to leverage AI for personalization and automation.
Book a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your eCommerce goals and see which tier fits your needs.
