Lessons from the Best in eCommerce

There are websites and then there are experiences. Today, we’re showing you how to achieve the latter, by studying a few of the best online shops around.

The digital world is a bendy and fickle one, and vying for customer attention is becoming increasingly challenging. Like any industry, the best learn from the best, constantly cobbling together inspiration and insight that inform real growth and changes.

Constructing an aesthetic and experience

You can dwell on page loading speeds, shopping cart plugins, chat boxes, and promotions, but without a beautifully constructed, original aesthetic, none of the minutiae will save you.

According to ContentSquare data from 2020, Ecommerce sites see an average bounce rate of 47%. Bounce rate is defined as a user landing on one page of your site and then exiting and going elsewhere. It is calculated by the number of single sessions on your site divided by the number of all sessions. 

Ideally, you want a user landing somewhere on your site, having a look around, and taking action by entering their email, making a purchase, etc.

Loeffler Randall is an NYC-based fashion collection that sells a tasteful arrangement of handbags, shoes, and accessories. Upon landing on their site, you feel as though you have been ushered into a large-format digital scrapbook of muted colors and idyllic backdrops.

Loeffler Randall places their products front and center without shoving them in your face. They do this by strategically using white space and selecting artistic images that place their products in scenes that complement one another.

The result is a minimal design that steers you effortlessly to various links and tabs. Using expansive images invites the user to scroll and become immersed in your site. It allows a consumer to see the detail in your products and positions them in a bold way.

Loeffler Randall’s site favors tones of beige, bronze, and pink along with whites and creams. The colors work together to create a silky and mellow aesthetic. 

If you want to build an experience with bold images and pleasingly minimal design, draw inspiration from Loeffler Randall.

Design and functionality

Where you place elements on a site is as important as how they look and what they say. 

You want to convey the most enticing and crucial information to consumers so they are able to move smoothly across your site and become immediately interested in your offerings. It’s imperative that a consumer quickly learns all the necessary information to make the purchase. 

Allswell is a home goods retailer that sells mattresses, bedding, and decor. On their home page, they have segmented their products into drop-down tabs. Only, instead of using standard lists, Allswell has instead placed visuals of the products in their drop-downs.

Once you have clicked on a product, you are met with a bright, airy photo of the product, clickable reviews, pricing and payment information, sizing and specs, and even a form to fill out your email to be notified if the item you’re seeking is out of stock. 

Allswell has carefully considered what the most crucial information is and then moved everything else below. Using this funnel approach keep the top of the product page uncluttered and lets consumers learn more by scrolling at their own pace.

A quick scroll reveals social proof in the form of testimonials and features and benefits of shopping with Allswell such as: free shipping and returns, a 10-year warranty, a 100-night trial, old mattress removal, and payment options. 

From here, they present the technology behind their materials accompanied by sleek visual illustrations. They also display a price comparison chart stacked up against their competitors.

Near the bottom of the page, you are met head-on with the phrase “Don’t take our word for it. Take theirs.” followed by thousands of 5-star reviews.

By this point, you could practically sell an Allswell mattress to someone, let alone know enough about it to consider purchasing one.

Optimization and integrations

With Shopify Plus, merchants can do things that were never considered before such as automating tasks, swiftly tracking orders, inventory, and shipping and updating consumers from POS to delivery, segmenting audiences, running rewards programs, customizing checkout carts, and so forth.  

Some features would benefit nearly any online shop out there. Others are more tailored to specific types of businesses. It’s important to leverage plugins and specific offerings that make sense for your business. 

If your shop sold earphones, you wouldn’t offer a subscription service to consumers and send them new earphones every month. But, you might offer referral and rewards programs so your customers can tell their friends and earn enough rewards to get an earphones case or add-ons. 

Pure Culture is a beauty and wellness brand that is delivering science-backed skincare solutions. We had the pleasure of working with them to strategize, complete UI/UX design, and build out a custom theme and app.

We leveraged Shopify customer accounts to allow users to repurchase products directly from their accounts. Because skincare products run out quicker than others, a repurchase model perfectly suits Pure Culture’s business.

Pure Culture’s site is minimal and optimized to convert with effective plugins like Afterpay which splits up payments and beautiful banners that glide across the screen. Their actual checkout cart is also very uncluttered and makes getting to the purchase frictionless.

Attention to detail will help you rise above other online shops and ultimately lead to more conversions and traction.

Did you learn a few strategies or practices that might level up your shop?