Are you among those who believe that simply creating an ecommerce website will solve all your business-related issues?

If so, how’s it working out for you?

Not good, I suppose.

That's because there are several important factors you missed while starting out. Primary among these is good website design. And it’s not something to be taken lightly. Because web design is one thing that can single-handedly pull you above or push you below the competition. Simply put, it is a reflection of how you do business and what your customers feel about you.

Why good web design (UI/UX) matters? 

You must have heard the phrase, “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” 

The thing is, we all react to visuals, whether consciously or not. And people are naturally drawn to good design. Studies conducted again and again also claim that the majority of users judge your company’s credibility based on visual design alone.

Good design not only establishes your ecommerce website within the market but also helps build trust and spurs growth. It acts as a key differentiator between your online business and the competition. It is measurable and profitable.

Ok, now we know that customers care about good design. But what does it have to do with User Experience?

Well, almost everything. To begin with-

• It helps capture your audience’s attention.
• It breaks up the content thus guiding the reader’s eye.
• It helps create a professional presentation.
• It builds trust and an emotional connection with the brand.

The trick, however, is to find a design template that has features to help you customize your online store as per your business needs. 

What are ecommerce themes?

These are basically pre-made templates that can be fully customized to look unique and fresh. Think of it as a mould where you can easily form your website. 

And it gets even better if you get templates that can easily be customized to make your website building experience easy and fast. 

Not to mention the wide range of website templates (many of which you can get for free) that offer you a space to be creative. It even includes practical tools to help you out with your business. 

Things to look out for while choosing an ecommerce theme-

1. Should be easy to use

Always go for a design that is simple, elegant, and is easy to use. Your site’s navigation matters a lot when it comes to converting your visitors to customers, so make it count. 

Look for simple navigation that can help your customers easily locate the things they are looking for. And wherever possible, allow only a minimum level of the navigation menu. The drag and drop feature helps you customize and modify your design template by simply dragging and dropping components as needed.

StoreHippo offers a variety of design frameworks for your ecommerce website that is simple and easy to use. With the simple drag and drop features, you can mix-and-match and create a completely new design layout for your online store.

2. Should be easy to optimize on all devices

If you look at Google’s official statements, more than half of Google’s searches happen on mobiles. And the remaining? 

Well, they take place on desktop computers. So, you just need to create two separate sites for your business, right? Problem solved. 

But wait, there are tablets too, and phablets and God knows what else. 

Now you see why it is so crucial to build responsive ecommerce websites that are easily accessible from all devices and scale to every possible screen?

Luckily, all the themes powered by StoreHippo offer a tailored experience across all devices. Also, they are built on the mobile-first principle. StoreHippo design templates are created primarily for the small mobile screen but they easily resize, shrink, enlarge and adapt to any screen thus making the content look good, regardless of the device. 

Isn’t it amazing?

3. Should be affordable

And of course, you do not want to spend a huge amount on the ecommerce theme when you have got tons of other expenses to look out for.

So what should you do? 

Look for an affordable option without compromising its quality, one that leaves you with plenty of money to finance other related tasks associated with your business.

However, with StoreHippo, you do not need to worry about purchasing another template ever. This is because all our themes are FREE of cost. Plus, there is a wide range of ecommerce themes available for you to choose from.

Grab the one that justifies your business and start building your online presence right away!

4. Should be easily customizable

Choosing a good design template is closely related to your website branding. Because when you give your business personality, it reflects in the benefits you offer and in turn, allows your shoppers to identify with you. This is called customization which can easily be created through a careful selection of fonts, colours and a perfectly designed logo.

StoreHippo themes provide its users with countless theme customization options that are delivered through a custom control panel on the ecommerce website.And the best part, you don’t even need to learn any coding language to customize it. The secret lies in the easy-to-use tools that are integrated keeping non-programmers in mind. 

StoreHippo’s drag and drop feature give you the freedom to modify your website template as per the market demands. You can simply drag an element from one location and drop it to another. Easy. Isn’t it?

Likewise, it offers a rich set of design variables that can transform the entire layout of your ecommerce website without even breaking a sweat. You also get a translation support tool to help offer information to the users in their native language.

Furthermore, with StoreHippo, you can easily mix and match elements from different themes and create your very own version. Time to put that creativity of yours to use.

5. Should give you options to play around

An ideal ecommerce template should be of high-quality and one that practices all the latest trends and regulations. Also, make sure it offers you plenty of tools to work your way around while delivering a smooth and fulfilling experience to your customers. 

Our experts at StoreHippo design ecommerce themes that are not just skins but useful kits, thus giving you the opportunity to shape and mould your page so as to fit your specifications. It allows you to-

• Add and keep track of products with minimum effort.
• Give your customers the option of sign-in/guest checkout.
• Are easily compatible with a wide variety of payment gateways.
• Easily integrate marketing, promotional, and SEO functions.

What more could you want?

6. Should have all the elements of a good design

Every year, we see new elements and styles emerge in ecommerce website design which makes it difficult to keep track of. But what if you had a list of essential elements to look out for in a theme? Now,  won’t that make your job a lot easier?

I bet it will.

So, let’s see what design elements your ideal theme should provide

• Unique and large typography.
• Responsive and large hero images
• Background videos
• High-quality product images
• Short videos featuring products

Implementing these design elements with StoreHippo is easy. All our ecommerce themes are designed keeping typography and certain nuances in mind to enhance legibility. 

For instance, StoreHippo allows countless other font styles apart from the simple ‘Times New Roman’ to experiment with. It not only makes the act of reading effortless but fun too.

7. Should allow you to play with colours in the design theme

In web design, colours play a major role in the correct reflection of your brand. They create ideas, expresses messages, spark interest, and generate certain emotions for your ecommerce website.

For example, red is commonly understood as a colour for warning and green for go. But when put together, they are often perceived as Christmas. 

Isn’t it amazing?

While bright colours set a happy and positive mood, dark colours do the opposite. Understand the psychology of colours first and then choose your colours in the design. Just make sure they strengthen the website and branding of your business.

StoreHippo, as an online store builder always puts your audience first. Our experts choose colours and design ecommerce themes that appeal to your target audience so as to help you make a memorable connection and stand apart from the competition.

And that’s not all. You can bring in more customization options by tweaking the header, footer, etc. thus making the design even more compatible with your brand. 

How to stay updated and use the latest trends in design themes?

The thing is, design trends are always influenced by the fashion industry, media, technology, and lately usability. And if you look closely, you will realise that a design trend’s life is no longer than one or two years. What was a trend in 2018 might not be relevant today.

So, how do you stay updated amidst all this?

1. Read the latest web design blogs on StoreHippo website. We regularly post articles on our blog section covering a wide range of topics from design trends to design stories.

2. Follow industry leaders that excel in designing ecommerce websites on Twitter

3. Participate in design forums

4. Attend conferences or networking events

5. And lastly, browse websites for inspiration.

Seems a lot? Don’t worry, you are not without alternatives. When you join hands with industry experts such as StoreHippo, you need not worry about following the latest design trends yourself. StoreHippo does it for you. 

The templates you will find here are not only unique, distinct, and amazing but are thoroughly search engine optimized as well. Besides, they are highly responsive in nature, it means your users can access it through any device. What’s more, you can easily customize these ecommerce themes to make it look the way you want. 

Now, tell us if it isn’t a better alternative.

How to boost sales with a good design theme?

Let’s ask you a question. What is better than a beautifully designed website?

A beautifully designed website that converts.

And here you thought picking up a good design template will bring in sales on its own. How naive.

Getting back to the point, StoreHippo offers high-quality template for your ecommerce website that can boost your sales with the help of its inherent features.

StreHippo offers an impressive User Interface to impress your client pool and to nudge the competition aside. And as we have seen, only a top-notch ecommerce template can help you create a memorable interface that not only goes in line with your brand identity but can also distinguish your website from others.

To help boost the user experience, StoreHippo templates comes with easy customization options including mix and match options to take the shopping experience up a notch. Our ecommerce themes come with an extended catalogue filtering, sorting and categorization options. Moreover, it offers a 360° product view and smart product image zoom options to your users.

StoreHippo templates are conversion-optimized where the CTA buttons are smartly placed to help you drive more sales for your business. They are also SEO optimized as well to help your website get discovered by more online shoppers.

Conclusion:

There are many parts to store design that make your brand more trustworthy and your ecommerce website better optimized. In this article, we have tried covering a few of the important ones. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post and now have a better idea what ecommerce template would be an ideal choice for you. 

We at StoreHippo offers hundreds of designs to our users to choose from. Not only are these templates customizable but also free of cost. So, ready to choose yours?

Schedule a free demo with us today and get started!