While browsing through the discussions on the Shopify Community website, I came across a few posts from people requesting feedback on their new stores and felt inclined to offer some helpful advice.
But, there’s only so much advice you can provide when most of these users are building their stores using readily available themes and have little to no coding experience.
Yes, you can design your store yourself, but don’t.
A few free readymade themes are available with Shopify, making it easy to build your store without spending any money. But the problem that comes with this is that all these websites look the same.
They lack personality.
I get it, most users are setting their stores up as a side hustle whilst they have a full-time job, but some have developed their products and are making this their full-time business. These startups, entrepreneurs are the people who need designers.
So, how can a designer help?
Having your store professionally designed and built ensures you:
- Have a unique professional brand that can be carried through to your promotional material, from product packaging to social media.
- Have a personality. The colours, typography and layout are all characteristics that give your site personality. It is this that will define your style and make you stand out.
- Display your product imagery as if it is part of the website’s design. Too often, I see pixelated or blurry images because the theme wants a nice big picture. In reality, it is not easy to get decent product photography unless you have your own photo studio. A designer will take this into account when working on layouts. They will want to see what your product images look like before they begin any design work.
- Think ahead. With a custom design, you have more flexibility in adding features in the future. With readymade themes, it’s often difficult to make changes to the codebase because they are not designed to be.
- Have a cleaner codebase. Many of these readymade themes give different layout options and features you don’t necessarily need, but having these options means more code, leading to slow website performance.
- Have a website that is easy to read, use and works on multiple devices.
There’s much more to design.
There is a common misconception that having a great looking website will automatically bring in sales. Design is subjective, and what might look fantastic to you may get the opposite reaction from somebody else.
So, although important, it’s not just about how your website looks. Professionals like myself look at user experience, usability, and accessibility and constantly improve design features. All these components make a difference in sales, conversions and how your store generally functions.
Most often than not, the designer will come up with a design suited to your product and brand – something a standard Shopify theme can not provide.
Progress is a process.
Ecommerce is continually evolving with new features, promotions and ideas. I’ve worked on ideas for the same client on their Shopify store over the last year, some of which have been really useful in increasing business and some not so much. But, progress is a process and having a successful online business can only be done by trying new ideas out.
If you are serious about selling online and have great products that you know will sell, team up with a good designer and Shopify developer (ideally the same person) to help you push your brand and business ideas forward.
I have designed and built stores for all my clients, and because of this, I can add features without having to subscribe to third-party addons. In the long run, it has saved a lot of time, money and hassle.