How to design an online shop

So you want to move your shop online? Maybe you want to update your current e-commerce. Or you woke up one day and had an epiphany!

Okay, so let’s assume you have a thought-through idea or product and you’re ready to create your shop. Let me provide you with a quick cheat sheet of terms and definitions so you know what I’m talking about, and what others are talking about online. (This will also help if at the end of this, you decide you want us to build your e-commerce.)

E-Commerce – Electronic commerce. An online shop.

UI – User interface. The design that a user interacts with. For example icons. Users will find that if similar-looking icons are used they will be able to use prior knowledge to connect the dots and figure out what it means without labels. If a design will have icons that are hard for a user to understand, they will have a hard time interacting with your website.

UX – User experience. The way the user interacts with a designed product. In terms of icons again, this could be placement of icons and how they work. A design has to think about whether something needs to be an icon to save space or whether it’s important to provide a label, based on its location and what its job is. 

Bespoke – An original design created specifically for its purpose.

Template – A design that was created to be used and reused for multiple projects and purposes. Templates can sometimes be created for people with 0 experience to use on their own or for agencies that have clients that may want to save time and money.

RWD / Responsive Web Design – Web design that creates web pages that ‘respond’ to the user’s device. If the user is using a mobile device, the website will change to show the mobile design. If the user is using a tablet, the website will change to show the tablet design. Etc.

Mobile first web design – A design that prioritizes mobile users. If your target audience is people primarily using mobiles, this may be something you may want to consider. The design will focus on mobile, then further designs will be created based on the mobile design. 

User Journey – Does what it says on the tin. Knowing how users journey through your website, what they look at first and what they skip, helps you optimize your website. Analyzing your website and reworking sections can help your website stay consistently competitive over the years. 

CMS / Content Management System – A web application that allows the owners of the website to manage the content without needing to have any coding knowledge. 

CTA / Call to action – A section or element on your website that will ‘call the user to action’. This could be a ‘Call now’ button, or ‘Quote’ button that will redirect the user to a quote form. It’s something that will simply tell the user to go make an action that will allow them to make contact with you. 

Mockup – A model of how your finished product may look. It’s a way to be shown the finished product, without sinking in hours into something that you might not like. You will usually receive a mockup before the coding stage. This will allow the designer to put in any feedback you have, as changing a design is usually a lot easier then re-writing code. But this doesn’t mean designing is easy.

Okay there are hundreds more terms I could add. But you’re not here for that. These are just the most important ones in my opinion. 

“So why is UI and UX important?”

UI and UX has become more and more important every year. There are more and more of us using the internet for more. 10 years ago there were significantly less e-commerce websites, and it was impressive to just have a pretty looking e-commerce site. But just last year (2023) there were 67 thousand new e-commerce companies created. In 2022 there were 42 thousand. In 2021 there were 32 thousand. So now having just a pretty website is not enough. Each year you have more and more e-commerce sites to compete with. If a user can’t use your website, they’re gone, and they’re onto the next. With 67 thousand (and counting) shops to look through, there’s no time to waste. If they can’t find what they need they are gone. 

So UI and UX helps users navigate through your website, build trust, and in the end keep them. I could give you a mini lesson on UX and UI, but it’s such a big topic I would need 5 more blog posts to get even the basics. Just know it’s important.

“Why can’t I just use a template then?”

You can! You definitely can use templates!

Templates are cheap(er) and usually easy to use. They are good if you are just freshly starting out and don’t yet have the money to invest. If you find a good template it will have good UX and UI too. Buuuuuut. But. Templates have a lot of room for error. If you yourself are editing a template, they can easily break. You might remove something important, and after hours of hard work, you might find that it’s not what you’re looking for and you have just wasted your time.

A website is always going to be an investment. The bigger the investment, the better the results. (Usually.) A bespoke e-commerce created specifically for you and your product is always going to have better results than a website created on template. A template is created with no specific product in mind. Or sometimes it is created with a specific product in mind, but not your product. A bespoke website will always have exactly what you need to give your product the most room for success. 

“So a bespoke website then..”

A bespoke website will always be tailored to your product. It will be created with your target audience in mind. We want you to succeed as much as you do! Be prepared for lots of questions!

Does your product and target audience need a mobile-first web design? 

Does your product and website need an age restriction?

Do you want different payment methods on your website?

Do you need to separate your products into different categories?

Do you need professional images?

Do you need to outshine your competitor?

Do you need special plugins for special functions?

I can guarantee that a template will not ask you any of these questions. If you choose to build your e-commerce with us, Damian (our very skilled colleague), will talk you through the process and you won’t even realise you’ve been asked these questions. 

A template will also not give you advice. It will just let you do what you want to do, even if those things aren’t worth your time. Our team will always try to give you the best advice and share our experience. We have created hundreds of e-commerce sites, and we have dedicated over 10 years to learning what will be best for you. 

Remember: We want you to succeed as much as you do!

“You mentioned RWD is important. Why?”

Responsive Web Design. If your e-commerce is not responsive, I’m sorry but your business is stuck back in 2012.

If a user can’t access your website on a mobile. You stop becoming their option. We live in a world where more and more people use mobile devices to view things on the go.

‘So why can’t my website be created just for mobile devices?’ you may ask. It can. It definitely can. There’s a lot of websites, and mobile apps that are just created for mobile and can’t be accessed on a laptop or computer. Which is technically better than being able to access on desktop and not mobile. But.. is this something good for your target audience? And do you want to cut off your reach to people who may prefer to browse on desktops?

Keeping your e-commerce accessible to as many people as possible is the best way to keep as many people as possible. If you show your website to 10 people and only 1 person buys a single product for £10 that’s £10. If you show your website to 300 people and 3 people buy a product each for £10 that’s £30. 

So do what you can to not limit the amount of people visiting your e-commerce website.

“But I like the traditional style/ my old website”

But do your users? Again back to the target audience. Does your target audience enjoy an outdated website? Do they like struggling to find a product? Do they like waiting forever for something on your e-commerce website to load? Is your old e-commerce accessible for people with disabilities? 

Here’s a little market research. If your target audience is a 26 year old female who buys online all the time (me), here is an opinion from a less technical side. Because after all I am still a consumer, even if I am a little more educated on e-commerce.

If I am browsing the internet and come across an e-commerce site that looks outdated and old, I will feel reluctant to make a purchase. If a company can’t invest in a strong and reliable looking website, how cheap are their products, are they investing in their products at all? Are they going to break on me as soon as I buy them? Or, will they even arrive? Is the business still working? Is the shop still active? Will my money just go into the abyss and whoever is operating (or not) on the other side of that website won’t receive my order? I often find a visually unappealing shop and struggle to trust it. I will often gravitate towards the shops that are more current and up to date, even if their products are more expensive, because I feel like I’m purchasing a higher quality product. A product someone invested time and money into, and isn’t just trying to make money. 

Your e-commerce website is essentially your sales associate. If you hire terrible staff, you won’t get much sales. If you make a terrible e-commerce website, don’t expect great results. 

Don’t expect that your product alone will sell. It needs to be seen and it needs to be sold. 

“I’ve invested and I have a great e-commerce website, now what?”

So your shop is created, it’s running. Time to analyze. Time to continue to research the market. Time to continue evolving.

Just having an e-commerce won’t mean people will find it. Now is your time to spread the word. Focus on creating advertisements for your website. Make sure your social media is active. Big bonus points to online shops I find with active social media, personally makes me feel safe – especially when I am adventuring into less popular websites (away from amazon, etsy, etc). An active brand is a more trustworthy brand. Stay active and continue to evolve. You won’t win a marathon without being consistent in working on your fitness. And you won’t win your first 100,000 sales without putting in consistent work. 


But unlike a marathon, you can get help! Delegate some work, free your time to focus on things only you can do. Let’s work together!

Don’t be shy! Get in touch!

damian@sltmedia.com

Tel. 07462 052 200

Even if you’re just looking for advice we’re always happy to help!

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