Design, UI, UX, Web Development
Shopify Website Design Service – The Pocket Go-to Guide
Shopify website design made it possible for everyone to have access to this almost 4.9 trillion dollar industry. The revenue stream in 2021 is double what e-commerce businesses generated just four years ago and more than three times during this time in 2015. But with more money coming into the industry, more competition arises.
Standing out from the crowd requires you to be superb with your Shopify website and quite honestly, that’s not an easy feat. In this article, we’ll review what are the must-haves in your Shopify website design and how to find Shopify website design services to elevate your online store.
Article Overview
1. How Customizable is Shopify?
That’s the million-dollar question. Luckily, it can handle almost anything. On the other hand, the option to fully customize your Shopify storefront leaves you exposed to silly mistakes. Before you design the Shopify website, you should know that even if it ranks 10/10 for originality, that doesn’t guarantee sales. Amazon didn’t become the number one marketplace because of its unique designs. It focused on simplifying the buying process, reliability, and consistent innovations that eventually paid off.
Let’s see a few great tips that you can utilize to improve your Shopify website design:
1.1 If possible, use a template /and customize it/
It’s tempting to make something unique. While some people enjoy having Shopify website design templates, others find them irritating but still use them. Why?
It’s because of the familiarity effect. You’ll be surprised how many people (including you) are shopping from familiar brands. Even though almost everyone knows that they can purchase something which has a more excellent value for money, familiarity creates a sense of trust.
Same with Shopify templates. Because they have become so common, customers subconsciously recognize similarities between websites and are not bothered by that. Instead, it improves the customer experience, as the designs as intuitive and easy to use.
Wokiee is the most popular theme for Shopify, and although it allows customizations, it’s commonly seen on the Internet.
1.2 Improve loading times
BigCommerce’s report showed that a single-second delay in page load times causes a massive 7% drop in conversions. You cannot afford that. In case you make $10k daily from your store, you might have missed over $255,000 in revenue at the end of the year.
In general, your page load times will improve significantly if you reduce the excessive lines of code and use compressed media files. Get rid of old media files that aren’t used anymore or invalid email addresses. Everything that you don’t utilize today, you’re better off without it.
1.3 Customize products
Listings are there to be sold. It’s one thing to display your products attractive on your storefront. And another to make them easy to buy, add, remove, update, and list across many sales channels.
While every store has a unique interface, you should pay attention to your industry’s best practices. Usually, these practices are tried and tested and are made to ensure consumers will have a seamless experience when purchasing. Having multiple different listings with similar characteristics will distract clients who may not find the right fit.
However, if you have many filters in the listings, you might soon reach the ceiling of 100 variations. Because of this, you should avoid having multiple listings for similar types of products; it will only confuse your customers. Instead, you may want to offer a variety of different product sizes to help people find the product that is right for them.
1.4 Instead of coupons, use discounts
Desktop vs Mobile eCommerce by Statista
As we can see from the chart, mobile e-commerce is gaining traction. Coming into 2022, the question of how to design a Shopify website has only one answer: as mobile-friendly as possible! Is manually entering coupon codes convenient? As a matter of fact, it’s quite the opposite. Small letters and writing the wrong combination could ruin the customer’s experience. Automatically triggered discounts can be quite handy. They are activated, once the desired threshold is met, meaning customers will have to do one less thing.
1.5 Optimize your checkout stage
The checkout stage is critical to a successful e-commerce website. A key element of the checkout stage is the CTA button that draws the customer in. The button should be highlighted by itself and stand out against a low-contrast background.
The customer should also easily find the “check out” button, or the “buy” button, and shouldn’t have to search for it across multiple pages. The industry rule for any online store is to reach the option to buy items with as few clicks as possible.
Standard Shopify Plans allow you to customize your Shopify theme by using the visual editor, or by editing the source code yourself. The source code uses Liquid, a template language unique to Shopify and you can access variables from within any Liquid file, with a simple to use and readable syntax.
Shopify Plus users, however, get access to additional coding functionality: the checkout.liquid file, allowing them to customize most of your checkout process to personalize the whole experience as you feel like it.
1.6 Offer multiple payment options
The days of cash payments are numbered. But it also seems like cards seem less convenient than virtual cards (for online payments only), Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc. Not only do payment methods change, currency changes. The usual payments were in a few of the main fiat currencies – US dollar, Euro, or British pound. Nowadays, customers can order with cryptocurrencies! Shopify gives the option for Coinbase, CoinPayments, and BitPay users to purchase goods with their e-wallets.
1.7 Less is more
Payments usually create many problems for Shopify store owners. They have to offer multiple payment options to cover as many potential buyers as possible. Giving too much choice, however, might not be an optimal solution, as clients lose time. And, as we’ve disclosed earlier, more clicks usually equal fewer purchases.
Fortunately, Shopify’s payment app (Shop Pay) has made it easy for everybody. As a store owner, you would like to pay as few transaction fees as possible. For clients, the most important thing is the ability to purchase something quickly. Shop Pay does this well.
Here are the numbers by Statista:
2. How much does it cost to build a Custom Shopify website design?
Website design prices have always been a controversial topic. There is no such thing as a right or wrong answer. Everything depends on the project size, your budget, and expectations. In this paragraph, we will not discuss the pay-as-you-go themes, as they are one-size-fits-all. Your Shopify website design accounts for at least half of your brand value which is why customization which takes heed of all brand guidelines is a must.
Let’s start with the price tier lists:
Under $500
Freelancers usually accept smaller projects. Keep in mind that a decent theme starts from $50. On Themeforest, you can find some pretty good templates for less than $100. Original Shopify themes are in a totally different price category, as they might cost you between $200-$300. However, expensive templates also require hiring someone to set them up properly.
$500 to $2,000
In this category, you are able to find many new agencies, which can offer you Shopify website design services. They will be more than willing to add your website to their portfolio. Still, if your website is small-sized, you’d probably get a pretty decent value for money.
$5,000 to $20,000
If you’re wondering why the category $2,000 to $5,000 is missing, it’s simple. Most businesses who want Shopify website design either want it cheaper or they aim for the highest quality. Interestingly enough, the balanced option that can guarantee something from both models, isn’t very popular.
Over the years, $5,000 has become the lowest point you can get access to top-notch Shopify design agencies. Usually, prices vary between $10k and $20k, with some extensive projects going well above those rough estimates.
In this cost range, you can successfully take care of UX/UI designs, third-party integrations (APIs), mobile versions, visuals creation, and even platform migrations.
3. The Roadmap to a Successful Project
One of the most famous quotes of all time states that ”Every battle is won before it’s ever fought”. Sun Tzu’s wisdom can be applied to anything, including Shopify projects. It all comes down to preparation.
3.1 What is your goal?
Before you launch your Shopify store, you need to define your goals.
- Is more traffic the priority, or do you want to convert visitors into leads?
- Do you prefer to attract new clients with aggressive growth strategies, or reward existing customers with loyalty programs?
- How do you prefer to market your store – with targeted ads on social media, or with original blog content that engages readers and drives them back to your website?
All those things matter.
3.2 Clear brief
Once you’ve set a realistic goal, it’s time to put down everything you’d wish to be created. The number of pages, design of the pages, modules, options, integrations, etc. You will have to set the milestones for each part of the website.
3.3 Timeline
During this phase, you need to sit and talk with the developers and project managers about how much time it will take. While you may have raw estimates in your head, Shopify agencies are experienced in time estimates and can give you a more realistic picture of when your website will be ready.
3.4 Project costs
To accurately estimate the price of a Shopify website design development project, we need to consider multiple factors, including:
-
- Time required to research and analyze your niche
- Time to build the website
- Website testing and bug fixes
- Implementation of new features requested by you.
- Outstanding costs
3.5 Delivery
One of the last steps is to choose the delivery model – you can go with Waterfall, Iterative, RAD, Agile, or other depending on your goal. Usually, simpler models are associated with lower costs.
3.6 Constructive feedback
Once your website is complete, you should give your final words. Of course, if the website isn’t up to your standards, you can request a revision but in many cases, vague briefs are the main reasons for mistakes, misunderstandings, and project delays.
3.7 Support and maintenance
Once the store is active, you need to find who will provide the maintenance for the website. It can be you, the Shopify agencies that you hired, or another agency. It’s always safe to leave your website to the experts who created it since they are aware of every detail.
Have you decided which option is best for your business?
Whether you want some professional Shopify website design services, or you would like to learn more about what you have to do yourself, open discussion with our Shopify experts. We’d love to help you with a consultation, directions, or work with you.
Conclusion
Shopify website design is quite customizable. You can create anything you want. While no one can provide you with a single solution for all of your problems, if you manage to define your clear goals, create a bullet-proof plan, and work towards it, you might be able to find the right Shopify website design service for your business.
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