What's one important consideration when designing websites for e-commerce businesses? Share a specific tip for optimizing the user experience for online shoppers.

Question

Discover the secrets to creating a successful e-commerce website with expert-backed design tips. This comprehensive guide covers everything from mobile optimization to streamlined checkout processes, helping you boost conversions and sales. Learn how to enhance user experience, improve site performance, and implement smart features that will set your online store apart from the competition.

Annie Everill · Answer

One of the main features we focus on when designing e-commerce websites is ensuring that the whole design and development process is adapted to mobile functionality.
A mobile-first approach is essential for e-commerce websites as most shoppers now browse and buy on their phones or tablets. Any site should use a responsive design that adapts seamlessly to smaller screens, with large, touch-friendly buttons and simplified layouts that prioritize key product information so they can find all the relevant information for their purchase. Pages must also load quickly on mobile networks, and the checkout process should be streamlined with autofill. This is important for mobile specifically, as most of the time, the customer will be carrying out their purchase at home, at work, or on the go, so they might not always have things like debit card information to hand.

Marc Bishop · Answer

We obsess over thumb zone design, especially on mobile, because reach equals revenue in high-volume categories. If your "add to cart" or "checkout" buttons live outside the natural thumb range, you're forcing friction. Small design tweaks like sticky buy bars, scrollable image carousels, and one-tap variant selections increase conversion subtly but substantially. The faster we helped shoppers act without repositioning their hands, the smoother the buying flow became. That ergonomic design insight turned mobile browsers into high-converting buyers.
Here's our tip: test your entire site with one hand on your smallest phone, then reduce tap effort. Move core CTAs to the natural scroll path and ensure they persist without blocking product discovery. The easier it is to act, the more likely someone will do it. That insight boosted mobile AOV for one fashion brand by 23 percent with no new traffic. Design for how people actually use their phones, not how your wireframes look.

Jason Hennessey · Answer

We always design product pages with real-world context in mind, not just studio-perfect product photography. Shoppers trust visuals that mirror their environment, lighting, and daily life, not just stylized perfection. We A/B tested high-gloss photos versus real-life UGC-style shots, and realism won every time for mid-price brands. Customers need to imagine ownership, not aspiration, to complete the checkout journey with confidence. Lifestyle context makes browsing feel personal, not staged, and that shift drives real emotional conversion.
One optimization tip: use side-by-side image comparisons, studio versus in-use shots, to balance credibility and relatability. That dual format improves both professional trust and emotional resonance on first click. Don't rely on one aesthetic to do all the heavy lifting. Let the product live in their world, not just your brand fantasy. That small decision doubled conversion rates on a mid-tier skincare line without changing price or copy.

Soumya Kalluri · Answer

One crucial factor in designing e-commerce websites is making the checkout process as simple and clear as possible. In one instance, streamlining the checkout flow by reducing unnecessary steps led to a 37% increase in completed purchases. Customers often abandon carts when faced with long forms or confusing navigation. For example, cutting down from five checkout pages to two and adding a progress bar made the experience smoother, encouraging buyers to finish their orders. This not only improves sales but builds trust, as shoppers feel the process respects their time.
Business leaders can take away that simplifying key interactions—especially checkout—has a real impact on customer behavior. The goal should always be to remove friction and make buying effortless, which directly boosts conversion rates. This insight comes from testing real changes and watching how user habits respond, showing that clear, user-friendly design matters far more than fancy features.

Will Melton · Answer

Look, slow-loading product pages are conversion killers, but optimizing for mobile-first design fixes this every time. When I was consulting for an e-commerce client, we compressed images and streamlined the mobile checkout flow, cutting load times from 8 seconds to 3. Their mobile conversion rate jumped 60% because shoppers actually stayed on the page long enough to complete purchases.

Evan McCarthy · Answer

One crucial consideration when designing e-commerce websites is addressing customer questions before they become barriers to purchase. Based on my experience, adding a comprehensive question-and-answer section to product pages significantly reduces customer hesitation and decreases abandoned carts. This simple addition provides shoppers with instant clarity about product features and capabilities without requiring them to contact customer service. Implementing this strategy on our website resulted in a notable increase in completed purchases as customers could make informed buying decisions with greater confidence.

Justin Christopher · Answer

Don't make customers guess about shipping charges. Unexpected shipping charges that show up just before finalizing payment are a sure way to cause potential customers to abandon the checkout process.
Instead, clearly state your free shipping offer across multiple locations on the website - homepage, category pages, and product pages. If you have a minimum purchase amount that triggers free shipping (like "free shipping on $70 orders"), it's useful to show a progress bar or message. For example, "Add $19 more to your cart for free shipping."

Keyana Kroeker · Answer

Treat Your Product Pages Like Full Sales Pages
This is one of the most common mistakes I see on DIY websites. Too often, product pages stop at the basics: a photo, title, price, add-to-cart button, and a short description. But that's just the starting point.
Give your visitors a reason to keep scrolling as they consider their purchase. Add testimonials, care instructions, product comparisons, brand photography—anything that reinforces the value of your product and builds trust.
Yes, you can absolutely create a reusable template with small tweaks for each item. But remember: every product page is a sales page, and it deserves to be treated like one.

Nassira Sennoune · Answer

Site speed and performance are the most crucial considerations when designing e-commerce websites.
No matter how intuitive your navigation or how attractive your product displays, a slow-loading website will drive potential customers away before they even see what you're selling. Our data consistently shows that fast load times directly impact conversion rates, reduce cart abandonment, and improve Google rankings.
This performance factor extends to the checkout process as well. A smooth, secure checkout experience represents the critical moment where customer intent transforms into an actual purchase. At Rhillane Marketing Digital, we've found that prioritizing technical performance builds customer trust, increases retention, and ultimately drives sales growth.
When optimizing for online shoppers, focus first on eliminating any speed barriers that stand between your customers and your products.

Jose Angelo Gallegos · Answer

When designing e-commerce websites, it's important to make navigation easy. Shoppers should be able to find what they need quickly and easily. One way to improve the shopping experience is by adding a good search function with filters. For example, letting users sort products by price, size, color, or ratings can make browsing much smoother.
From my experience, features like auto-suggestions or fixing typos in search bars can greatly boost sales by making the process easier. Also, since many people shop on their phones, it's crucial to have a mobile-friendly site. A responsive design and clear call-to-action buttons can improve navigation, create a better shopping experience, and increase sales.

John Cheng · Answer

At PlayAbly, I've discovered that adding subtle urgency elements like real-time inventory counters can boost conversions without feeling pushy. When we show shoppers how many others are viewing the same item or how much stock remains, it creates natural motivation to complete the purchase while building trust through transparency.

Brad Jackson · Answer

Anticipating and responding to shopper hesitation is one of the major considerations being made during the design of e-commerce websites. Friction is prevalent with online purchases as buyers often struggle to make a decision on whether to buy or not, especially with a brand that they are not familiar with. Another, but less common, approach is to use contextual, real-time support using predictive search.
Rather than customers being left to search for products by clicking on a search box, predictive suggestions will be triggered by customer behavior. This includes displaying related products, complementary products, or recently viewed items before they even begin to type their query. It is intuitively appealing, calms their fears of making decisions, and enhances conversion. The trick to this is to make the suggestions sound personal but not intrusive. Rather than generic, provide data insights which are hyper-targeted and relevant to their behavior.
This is an easy but very effective feature that will add value to the browsing experience, as the shopper will feel confident and in control of the decision-making process.

Vipul Mehta · Answer

One important consideration when designing e-commerce websites is minimizing friction in the checkout process. A specific tip is to offer a guest checkout option alongside account creation.
Shoppers often abandon carts when forced to register, but giving them a quick path to purchase improves conversion rates while still allowing businesses to invite account creation after the sale. This small UX choice can make the buying experience smoother and more customer-friendly.

Faizan Khan · Answer

One of the main considerations in developing e-commerce websites is frictionless navigation. Online buyers should be able to quickly and intuitively find what they need - otherwise they will leave. Specific advice: Implement predictive searches with visual autofills. Users enter text into the search panel, showing the right products that display images, prices, and categories in real time. This not only saves time, but also reduces cognitive load in the search process, allowing users to recognize what they are looking for, rather than having to remember it. This is a subtle improvement in UX, significantly increasing the frequency of interaction and conversion, especially on mobile devices.
Plus, don't lose sight of load speed and mobile responsiveness. The slickest design makes no sense if the site is slow or the elements are displayed unpredictably. Think of the shopping experience as a conversation - you're either losing customers every second or confusion interrupts them. From the first click to checkout, aim for a smooth, visual, and intuitive user experience.

Craig Flickinger BB · Answer

After more than 10 years of helping businesses with their e-commerce sites, I've observed that one issue consistently reduces conversions more than any other: **complex navigation that obscures your checkout process**. Most store owners focus on cramming every product category into their main menu, but this actually confuses shoppers who simply want to make a purchase.
The specific change that consistently boosts our clients' sales is creating a "sticky" checkout progress indicator that remains visible as customers shop. I had a Shopify client whose conversion rate increased by 34% after we added a simple cart icon displaying item count and total price that followed users down the page. Customers could see their progress toward purchase without searching for it.
We also simplified their navigation from 12 main categories to 4 essential ones, then used smart filtering on category pages instead. This reduced their bounce rate from 68% to 41% because visitors could easily find what they wanted. The key insight: your navigation should guide people TOWARD a purchase, not just showcase your entire catalog.
Think of it like a physical store layout—you want clear paths to the register, not a maze that makes people work to give you money.

Josh Qian · Answer

In designing an e-commerce website, the visual design must accurately portray the caliber of the product. For a custom, high-end business, the website serves as a virtual catalog of our craftsmanship. If the website feels mechanical, spammy, generic, cluttered, or outdated, customers will likely assume the products are as well. My objective is to construct a visual experience that is as artistically crafted as the products themselves, which is vital for positioning the perceived value of a high-ticket item.
A specific hint to enhance the user experience is to invest heavily in high-resolution and detailed product photography and video of the craftsmanship. Show more than one piece or angle. Provide multiple angles, detailed images, and short video clips of the products in use. This directly addresses the biggest hurdle of online shopping for custom goods: being unable to physically touch the product. We want to create a visually rich experience that builds trust and allows the user to see the value of what they are buying.

Ulf Longeren · Answer

You need to make it easy to buy things from you. That may sound obvious, but being able to find the product through robust search or straightforward categories, clear CTAs, copy that actually describes what you sell and why the customer should buy it, and an easy checkout process are extremely valuable.

Cyrus Partow · Answer

When I was building ShipTheDeal, I learned that clear coupon visibility during checkout is crucial - nothing kills a sale faster than shoppers discovering a discount code field but not having a code. I always recommend placing deal discovery sections prominently on product pages and auto-applying the best available coupons at checkout, which has dramatically reduced cart abandonment for the retailers we work with.

Konstantin Yalovik · Answer

When designing e-commerce websites, one of the most important things to remember is that users rarely follow a perfect path. They browse on their phones and buy on their laptops. They get distracted mid-checkout. They come back hours later expecting everything to still be there.
A good UX anticipates this real-world behavior. It's not just about speed or beautiful visuals — it's about being practical and forgiving.
One specific tip: make it easy for users to pick up where they left off. If someone adds items to their cart without logging in, save it. If they filter a product list, keep the filters when they come back. If they're inactive for a while, don't punish them with aggressive popups — just quietly preserve their progress.
The best user experiences aren't designed for ideal scenarios. They're built for people who shop while commuting, multitasking, or juggling kids at home. And when you design with those people in mind — that's when your product starts to feel human.

Vincent Carrié · Answer

I advise all e-commerce businesses to avoid making their customers think during the shopping process. Any delay in customer decision-making about where to click will result in lost sales. A particular recommendation exists for this situation. The "Add to Cart" button should stand out as a prominent element which shoppers cannot overlook. 
The client experienced an 18% increase in conversions after we moved and colored the "Add to Cart" button on their product page without modifying any text or images. The conversion rate increased by 18% through this simple button improvement without any changes to the content or images.

Tom Jauncey · Answer

Creating a user-friendly experience for your e-commerce website involves planning out the customer journey during the buying process. It is important to create designs so that your website's visitors can find what they need without actively searching.
The easiest approach is to streamline the buying process and simplify it into a single page. This will allow customers to purchase products without filling out multiple forms. It is beneficial to have direct authentication options such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Klarna. One-tap purchasing increases sales—the easier the purchase, the more sales. Ease of purchase turns users into buyers faster, and, in addition to that, the user is more inclined to do optimization and make additional purchases or engage in further monetization.

Ryan McDonald · Answer

One consideration when designing websites for e-commerce businesses is the incorporation of personalization features. By leveraging customer data and browsing history, e-commerce websites can implement recommendation engines that suggest relevant products or content tailored to each individual user's interests and preferences. The personalized experience not only helps to engage customers with the brand; it increases the chances of converting the customer and builds a closer relationship with the brand.
By analyzing the customer's previous interactions, such as what they have searched for, what they have added to the cart, or even what they have purchased, a recommendation engine can suggest new items that the user might be interested in. In other words, it crafts a personalized shopping journey for each customer. This not only informs the user about new products they might have overlooked but also helps e-commerce businesses create a closer connection with their audience.
To construct these personalized features, it involves the collection of data, analysis, and development of algorithms to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the recommendations. All these efforts will yield profitable returns for e-commerce businesses by creating an experience that is not only engaging to the customer but also user-specific, thereby improving conversion rates for the business.
Implementing these personalization features requires careful data collection, analysis, and algorithm development to ensure the recommendations are accurate and relevant. By investing in these capabilities, e-commerce businesses can create a more engaging and tailored experience for their customers, ultimately driving increased sales and customer loyalty.

Jodi McConnell · Answer

After 27+ years running Uniform Connection, the biggest e-commerce mistake I see is making customers guess about fit and sizing. In healthcare apparel, a poor fit means someone's uncomfortable during 12-hour shifts.
We solved this by adding detailed fit descriptions right on product pages - not just size charts, but actual details like "fitted through waist, relaxed through hips" or "runs large, order one size down." Our return rate dropped significantly once we started being brutally honest about how each brand fits differently.
The game-changer was adding fabric feel descriptions too. When we started describing EPIC joggers as "buttery soft, four-way stretch" instead of just listing fabric percentages, those items became our top sellers. Healthcare workers need to know if scrubs will move with them during patient care.
Mobile fitting matters even more since most of our customers shop between shifts on their phones. We redesigned our mobile product pages so fit details appear before you even scroll - right under the price. That one change increased our mobile conversions by over 40%.

Yoad Bet Yosef · Answer

At Nature Sparkle, one crucial focus in our e-commerce website design was simplifying the product customization process. We noticed that when customers had too many options scattered across multiple pages, many abandoned their carts. To fix this, we created a single, interactive customization page where shoppers could select diamond shape, metal type, and design details all in one place. Within five months of launching this streamlined feature, our conversion rate for custom rings rose by 22.7%, while cart abandonment dropped by 15.4%. Customers appreciated being able to see instant visual updates of their selections, which made the experience more engaging and less confusing. This also sped up the decision-making process, reducing average time spent on customization by 18.3%. The lesson learned is that making complex choices simple and intuitive keeps shoppers focused and confident, especially in high-involvement purchases like engagement rings. Other e-commerce businesses can benefit by cutting unnecessary steps and bringing all key options into one clear, easy-to-use interface.

Dan Grigin · Answer

Product visualization is everything in flooring retail. Customers need to see exactly how materials look in different lighting and settings. We learned this the hard way when early online samples looked different than expected. Now we provide multiple high-resolution photos showing texture, grain patterns, and room installations. The two-day free sample delivery bridges the gap between digital browsing and physical decision-making perfectly.

25 Ecommerce Website Design Tips

Table of Contents

25 Ecommerce Website Design Tips

Prioritize Mobile-First Design for E-commerce Success

Optimize Thumb Zone Design for Mobile Conversion

Balance Studio and Real-Life Product Images

Streamline Checkout Process to Boost Sales

Reduce Load Times to Increase Mobile Conversions

Add Q&A Sections to Reduce Purchase Hesitation

Clearly Communicate Shipping Costs and Offers

Treat Product Pages as Full Sales Pages

Focus on Site Speed for Better Performance

Implement Smart Search and Mobile-Friendly Design

Use Subtle Urgency Elements to Boost Sales

Employ Predictive Search for Personalized Browsing

Offer Guest Checkout to Reduce Cart Abandonment

Create Frictionless Navigation with Visual Autofills

Simplify Navigation with Sticky Checkout Indicators

Invest in High-Quality Product Visuals

Make Buying Process Easy with Clear CTAs

Auto-Apply Best Coupons to Reduce Abandonment

Design for Real-World Shopping Behaviors

Make Add to Cart Button Prominent

Streamline Buying Process with One-Tap Purchasing

Implement Personalized Product Recommendations

Provide Detailed Fit Descriptions for Apparel

Simplify Product Customization on One Page

Offer Multiple High-Resolution Product Images

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