How to Design an eCommerce Website That Sells

Did you know visitors judge your website in just 50 milliseconds?

Your first impression can make or break your eCommerce sales potential. This is important to know as you learn how to design an eCommerce website.

Your website’s structure drives conversions beyond looking good.

Research shows that adding 360-degree product photos can lift conversion rates by 13%. Mobile devices accounted for 40% of all holiday season eCommerce purchases.

Want to turn your online store into a sales powerhouse?

This piece guides you through the key elements of effective eCommerce website design.

You’ll learn everything from setting clear goals to creating a smooth checkout process.

By the end you’ll know how to design an eCommerce website for your business.

In need of an eCommerce website but don’t know where to start? Let us help.

Start With Clear Goals and Audience Research

Every business looking for how to design an eCommerce website needs a solid grasp of its objectives and target audience.

Research shows that companies with defined buyer personas exceed their revenue goals 71% more often than those without clear customer profiles.

Define your eCommerce goals

When thinking about how to design an eCommerce website, you need clear, measurable goals. These goals will guide your design and marketing choices.

Writing down detailed goals increases your chances of success. “I want more sales” won’t give you enough direction to create an effective website design.

Your revenue targets should focus on various channels. These include your eCommerce store, blog, social media, email marketing campaigns, and paid ads.

This strategy helps you spot which channels deliver the best results to optimize.

Your marketing budget’s effectiveness depends on tracking customer acquisition cost (CAC).

You can calculate CAC by dividing total marketing spend by new customers gained in that period. High CAC means you should break down more cost-effective marketing approaches.

Order metrics show your customers’ behavior patterns. Keep an eye on new orders from first-time buyers and returning orders from repeat customers. Your eCommerce business should grow in both areas.

Repeat customers suggest a strong product-market fit and loyalty.

The SMART framework makes your goals more effective:

• Specific: Target exact metrics like “increase average order value by 15%.”

• Measurable: Use analytics to track progress.

• Achievable: Set realistic targets based on industry standards.

• Relevant: Arrange with your broader business objectives.

• Time-bound: Create deadlines, like monthly or quarterly targets.

Create buyer personas

Buyer personas turn simple demographic data into useful insights about your ideal customers. These profiles show various parts of your target audience. They are based on market research and actual customer data.

Your audience’s understanding should go beyond simple demographics like age and location.

Studies show 89% of consumers worldwide read reviews before purchasing products. This buying behavior knowledge helps you design product pages that address key decision factors.

Your persona creation should start with customer interviews or surveys. Focus on these four vital questions:

1. Why did they buy your product?

2. What alternatives did they choose you over, and why?

3. Where did they look for information when making this decision?

4. Why did they buy now instead of earlier or later?

Strong personas combine demographic and psychographic information:

Demographic data has quantitative factors such as age, gender, education, income, and location. This information shapes your winning strategies and marketing channels.

Psychographic data reveals quality insights about values, interests, lifestyle choices, and buying motivations. An eco-conscious customer might prefer sustainable packaging over faster shipping options.

Detailed personas help you find friction points in the buyer’s experience.

Each barrier reduces satisfaction and increases cart abandonment. Identifying customer pain points allows you to make navigation easier, enhance product discovery, and boost conversion rates.

Personas do more than guide design decisions. They uncover new business opportunities in product development, subscription offerings, cross-border sales potential, or new business models.

Choose the Right Platform and Tools

When thinking about how to design an eCommerce website, there are a few things to consider. You need a solid foundation for starters.

The right eCommerce platform and tools will help you reach your business goals and connect with your target audience better.

What features to prioritize

Every successful eCommerce website needs specific core features. You should think about a secure, reliable checkout system first.

Your platform must offer multiple payment options. This directly affects your sales because customers expect to pay through credit cards, PayPal, and mobile wallets.

Security features are non-negotiable.

Look for platforms that give SSL certificates to encrypt your customers’ data and protect it from cyber threats. This builds customer trust and protects your business from legal issues.

Easy navigation with logical categories helps customers find products.

A platform with breadcrumb navigation shows visitors where they are on your site. A good internal search function lets customers skip navigation and find what they want quickly.

Product filters help customers narrow down their choices based on what they want. This feature works great for stores with lots of products.

Customers find relevant items faster, which makes shopping easier.

The backend needs simple inventory tools, automated order processing, and live analytics.

These tools save time and show you how to make your store better.

Here are some platforms to think about:

Hosted (SaaS) Platforms:

• Shopify: Easy to use with many apps, but it charges fees if you do not use Shopify Payments.

• BigCommerce: Comes with many features built-in and no extra transaction fees on standard plans

• Squarespace: Known for beautiful templates that work with eCommerce.

Open-Source Platforms:

• WooCommerce: A flexible WordPress plugin that requires more technical knowledge.

• Magento Open Source: Powerful and flexible, but it requires significant technical resources.

Look at all costs carefully.

Monthly fees, transaction charges, apps, and themes all add up. Some platforms add extra costs. Shopify raised its transaction fee by 33% for merchants not using Shopify Payments.

In contrast, BigCommerce does not charge extra transaction fees.

Scalability and integrations

Your platform must grow with your business. It should work well even during busy times. Integrations connect your store to other business systems and create one data ecosystem.

Data flows both ways, so information entered anywhere updates everywhere. This makes everything more efficient, reduces mistakes, and saves time.

When learning how to design an eCommerce website, these are some integrations to look out for:

Payment gateways that make checkout smooth and accept different payment types worldwide. Shipping integrations speed up delivery, reduce mistakes, and let customers track orders.

Inventory systems update stock levels live across all sales channels. This stops customers from ordering out-of-stock items.

CRM integration helps track customer history and interactions. This improves service and encourages customer loyalty.

ERP integration brings workflows and data together for better business management.

You can also add custom integrations for loyalty programs, analytics, or Product Information Management (PIM) based on what you need.

Pick a platform that works for you now but can grow through new features, sales channels, and market expansion.

Want to get a custom website for your brand but don’t have any time? We can help.

Optimize Your eCommerce Website Structure

A well-designed website serves as a clear guide. It leads visitors to their goals and helps search engines grasp your content.

Your eCommerce store’s architecture is a vital part of user experience and search visibility.

Logical page hierarchy

Your website structure should use a pyramid model. The homepage sits at the top, with main categories, subcategories, and product pages below. This setup makes your site accessible for customers to browse and for search engines to crawl.

Research shows that a simple website structure creates a better shopping experience. Poor navigation leads to a high 60% abandonment rate.

Map your entire website before you start building. This planning helps you see the customer’s journey from beginning to end. Group your pages in a logical way.

Put important pages like the homepage, About Us, and Contact up front while keeping category and product pages together. This overview stops users from getting lost in scattered pages.

Large inventories need clear category differences. Each product should fit in your taxonomy system, though some products might belong in multiple categories.

Products should be no more than 3-4 clicks away from the homepage.

Internal linking and breadcrumbs

Internal links connect related pages and create paths for visitors and search engines to follow. These links help you distribute “authority” across your site. They signal to Google which pages have valuable content.

Breadcrumbs help users navigate by showing their location in your site hierarchy. Studies show websites need both hierarchy-based and history-based breadcrumbs.

Yet, 68% of major eCommerce sites fall short—45% use just one type, while 23% have none.

Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs show the site’s category structure: Home > Clothing > Women’s > Dresses.

History-based breadcrumbs work like a “back button.” Users return to their previous view with all filters and sorting options intact. Users most often click on breadcrumbs to return to categories after viewing products. This lets them browse similar items easily.

Put breadcrumbs near the top of each page. Make them smaller than the main navigation elements.

Each link should be clickable and follow a horizontal layout with familiar separators like “>” or “/”.

URL structure and SEO alignment

Clean, descriptive URLs help users and search engines understand your content.

Add relevant keywords to your URLs. Use hyphens to separate words instead of underscores or spaces.

Google says: “Add descriptive words in URL paths. The words in URLs may help Google better understand the page.”

Avoid URL elements that confuse search engines. These include fragment identifiers (#), session IDs, tracking codes, and timestamp parameters. These create duplicate content problems or make Google think your site has infinite pages.

Keep URLs the same across your site—in menus, text links, sitemaps, and social media.

This consistency helps browsers and crawlers load pages quickly. This boosts your site’s performance and visibility in search results.

Focus on Checkout and Performance

Your eCommerce business’s checkout page makes or breaks the sale. Statistics show 70% of shoppers abandon their carts after adding items due to checkout design issues. A well-designed checkout can boost conversion rates by 35%, making this final step vital.

Simplify the checkout process

The checkout experience can make or break your conversion funnel. Customers leave quickly—17% abandon their carts because of complex processes.

A one-page checkout unites the entire payment process in a single space. Customers can review orders and complete purchases without jumping between pages.

Research proves that single-page checkouts reduce cart abandonment compared to multi-page versions.

Multi-page checkouts need clear progress indicators that show customers their exact position. This clarity helps buyers know how much time they will spend finishing their purchase.

Guest checkout options should stand out.

Half of all sites fail to highlight guest checkout as the primary option. This vital feature often stays hidden from view. The guest option should be the first choice customers see at account selection.

All costs should appear upfront; taxes, shipping fees, and extra charges included. Early display of these costs prevents surprises later.

About 55% of shoppers leave their carts because of unexpected fees.

Offer multiple payment options

When learning how to design an eCommerce website, it’s important to understand the different types of payment options. Payment options directly boost your revenue. About 9% of buyers leave their carts if they cannot use their preferred payment method. Today’s shoppers want more choices beyond standard credit cards.

Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay keep growing. These options let customers check out with one click by reducing form fields.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services have become essential.

Almost 60% of Americans have used BNPL—a 50% increase from last year.

Companies using BNPL through Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay saw 27% higher sales.

Traditional payment methods still matter. Credit and debit cards remain essential, especially in North America and the UK, where card usage stays high.

Improve site speed and load times

Load time affects conversion rates directly. Sites loading in 1 second convert 2.5 times better than those taking 5 seconds. Each extra second between 0-5 seconds drops conversion rates by 4.42%.

Google suggests eCommerce sites should load within two seconds. Pages taking more than three seconds see triple the bounce rate.

Site optimization needs compressed images and videos that maintain quality. WebP format cuts file sizes by 30% without losing visual appeal. Smaller CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files can shrink by half or more.

Browser caching stores elements on users’ devices to speed up future visits. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) shares content on servers around the world. It sends assets from places near customers.

Mobile optimization remains key since over 50% of online shopping happens on mobile devices. Sites that ignore mobile optimization miss out on many potential customers.

Get a Successful eCommerce Website That Converts With Blacksmith

A successful eCommerce website needs more than just attractive visuals. The success of your online store relies on planning, tech optimization, and design that puts users first.

But doing all this while managing your business can be difficult.

Don’t worry, here at Blacksmith we’re experts at creating eCommerce websites that sell and perform at their best.

We are an eCommerce web development agency with a group of seasoned web designers and developers ready to build the perfect eCommerce website for your business.

Your website will have all the modern features and functionalities that big eCommerce companies use on their websites.

Best of all? You’ll get to see the whole creation process from start to finish without having to do any work at all.

This means that you’ll be able to focus on running your business while we work on getting your brand-new eCommerce website looking its best.

Still not convinced if an eCommerce website is what your business needs? Click here to schedule a call with us and we’ll show you how much more your brand could be selling with an online shop.