Choosing a provider
Online store design services
Many designers can make a store look attractive; fewer understand how design affects whether people buy. When choosing a store designer, look for someone who asks about your products, customers and fulfilment, designs with real content, and tests the result against the tasks shoppers actually perform.
This page explains how to choose an online store designer and what the engagement should involve.
Illustrative diagram
- Discovery
- Store map
- Real-content designs
- Task tests
- Implementation
- Launch checks
Questions to ask a store designer
Understanding
- What do you need to know about our customers?
- How will you plan categories and filters?
- How do you decide what goes on product pages?
Design
- Will you design with our real products?
- Is this a theme adaptation or custom design?
- How do you approach mobile layouts?
Proof
- How will designs be tested?
- Can we see stores you designed, live?
- What happens if conversion falls after launch?
Theme adaptation or custom design?
Adapt a quality theme
Suits you when
- Standard store layouts suit your products
- Budget and speed matter
Watch out for
- Distinctiveness comes from content, imagery and careful settings
Custom design
Suits you when
- Your products or brand need layouts themes cannot provide
- You have budget for design and development
Watch out for
- Higher cost; future updates may need a developer
Insist on real content
Designs made with placeholder images and perfect short product names often break when real products arrive: long names wrap awkwardly, photos have different proportions, variants overflow. Ask the designer to use a sample of your real products, with their actual names, photos, prices and variants, from the start. It reveals problems while they are cheap to fix and makes the designs easier to judge.
Shopper tasks to test
| Task | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| Find a specific product | Navigation and search |
| Find the cheapest option in a category | Sorting and filters |
| Check delivery cost and time | Visibility of delivery information |
| Choose a variant and add to cart | Product page usability |
| Complete checkout on a phone | Checkout friction |
A typical engagement
Discovery
Products, customers and current performance reviewed.
Output: Design brief
Structure
Navigation, categories and templates planned.
Output: Store map
Design
Mobile and desktop templates with real products.
Output: Approved designs
Test and build
Tasks tested; designs implemented and checked.
Output: Designed store
Judging past work
Look at stores the designer has worked on as a shopper would: on your phone, trying to find and buy something. Screenshots can hide slow pages, awkward filters or a fiddly checkout. Ask what the designer learned from those projects and what they would change, which shows whether they think about outcomes as well as appearance.
What to share with a designer
Share your best-selling products, your customers and how they usually find you, current store data if you have it, competitors you admire or want to stand apart from, and your brand guidelines. Mention operational details that affect design, such as made-to-order products, delivery restrictions or wholesale pricing. The better the brief, the less redesign later.
If you have analytics, pages with high exit rates are useful starting points.
Accessibility in store design
Ask how the designer approaches accessibility: colour contrast, image descriptions, form labels, keyboard navigation and tap target sizes. Accessible design helps more people buy and often improves usability for everyone.
Handover and guidelines
Ask for a short guide to keeping the store consistent: image sizes and styles, how to write product descriptions, which sections to use for promotions. This helps your team maintain the design as products and campaigns change.
Platform knowledge
A designer familiar with your platform will know what its themes can do, which customisations are easy and which need development. Designs that ignore platform constraints can be expensive to build or impossible to maintain. Ask which platforms the designer works with and how they hand designs over to whoever builds them.
Revisions and sign-off
Agree how many rounds of revisions are included and who signs off designs. One decision-maker, with input from colleagues gathered beforehand, keeps the project moving and avoids conflicting feedback.
Measuring the result
Agree how the redesign's effect will be judged: for example, add-to-cart rate, checkout completion or mobile conversion compared with before. Measuring for a few weeks after launch shows whether the design is helping, and points to further refinements. A designer who welcomes measurement is usually confident in their approach.
Questions about online store design services
How do we choose a store designer?
Look for ecommerce understanding, real-content design and task testing.
Should designs use our real products?
Yes, it reveals problems early.
Theme or custom design?
A quality theme suits many stores; custom suits special needs.
How are designs tested?
By trying shoppers' tasks, especially on phones.
Can we see past stores?
Ask for live examples and try them yourself.
Who builds the design?
Agree whether the designer also implements it or hands over to a developer.
What should we share with a store designer?
Products, customers, data, competitors, brand guidelines and operational details.
How do we know the design worked?
Compare measures such as add-to-cart and checkout completion before and after.
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