Shopify Homepage Design: Principles to boost your conversion rate

Your homepage acts as an introduction to your company as well as a set of coded instructions for new and returning customers to discover what they need. All visuals should be developed toward establishing a strong first impression and encouraging visitors to make a purchase.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a homepage. However, there are some key principles, acting as a solid design foundation, you can stick to when creating your homepage layout.

Questions to be considered when designing homepage

A homepage that is ideal for one company may be ineffective for another. 

If you’re considering website design possibilities but aren’t sure which direction to take, consider the following questions to help you decide:

• Which products do you want to highlight?
• Where do you want people to click? 
• Which information do you absolutely need them to read?
• How many steps does it take you to achieve your goal?
• How much data do they require to move on to the next step?

In shortened words, you need to define your business objectives, then point out customers’ desired actions towards these goals. Once you’ve established your priorities, you may optimize the visual hierarchy by ensuring that critical parts are highlighted and less important elements are placed lower in the visual hierarchy.

Keep in mind that some elements of a website are more significant than others (forms, calls to action, value proposition, and so on), and you want those to catch more attention than the less important portions.

A good homepage should accommodate visitors looking for a specific outcome, while directing the attention of the ones who aren’t.

How to direct user experience with your Shopify homepage design and boost conversion rate?

“Above-the-fold” content that sparks visitors’ enthusiasm

When web designers refer to a section of the homepage as “above the fold,” they’re referring to what visitors see before deciding whether or not to scroll down. 

When considering what lies above the fold and how that accompanies the remainder of your homepage, focus on the actions you want the visitor to take when they first land on your site, the information they need first, and how you can help facilitate their decision.

Take The Dressbarn homepage, for example. The goal is to promote a special offer, so there is a promotional banner adorning the section above-the-fold with a clear call to action.

On this homepage, there are two quick decisions that a user can make:

1. Click to get more information about the promotional program.
2. If they find your design style attractive and want to explore other products, they can click on any category section above.

To retain new visitors on-site and familiarize them with the brand, most of the greatest ecommerce homepage designs feature headers that combine an attention-grabbing headline, convincing subtitle, and captivating visual above the fold.

However, there are a number of different ways to stimulate a customer’s interest straightaway, such as placing brightly-colored and product-focused images to direct potential customers to purchase the latest collection.

Clear navigation

Navigation determines how your visitors engage with your homepage. Is it easy for them to locate what they’re looking for on your website? Are they able to move from point A to point B on your site without experiencing any problems?

These are some of the questions you should consider while designing your Shopify homepage because they will help you provide a great user experience.

So, how can you ensure that your clients can effortlessly explore your products through homepage design?

Have a clear menu bar

The menu bar is almost always the initial point of contact for visitors to your website. As a result, the menu bar items must be precise and leave no space for misunderstanding. 

Because your visitors don’t want to waste their time attempting to figure out where your product pages are, use straightforward wording to describe the menu bar items.

• Use the most common description to make it as clear as possible what each page contains, for example: “About” for the page with your personal and company information, “Contact Us” for the page with your contact information,…
• Group your items and services into subcategories to keep your website tidy and structured. Because having all of your product pages on the navigation bar can now make your site appear cluttered.

With this arrangement, it saves so much time for your visitors and makes it easier for them to find what they’re looking for.

Here is an example from ‘Edens Garden website’ –  a place selling essential oils. Edens Garden has neatly arranged its categories so that everyone visiting the website can easily find their need-to-know information. If a fan wants to explore a new collection, she can click to “New”.  If someone visits Eden Garden website for the first time, she can click to “About” to learn more about the brand’s information. 

Besides, products of Eden Gardens are divided into subcategories, keeping the homepage tidy and structured. 

All of these create an enjoyable experience, retaining customers to stay on the website longer.

Have an intuitive search bar

To make it easier for users to locate what they’re looking for, the search bar should contain autofill and auto-suggest functionality. What’s more, having an auto-suggest function allows your visitors to see what additional products are available, allowing you to upsell and cross-sell.

The search bar should be placed in the upper right corner of your website. This makes it simple for your visitors to locate what they’re looking for quickly.

Example of Edens Garden website, the search bar is placed on the right corner and has auto-suggest functionality. It suggests the name as well as information of some products related to the search term. If such products catch the attention of the customer, the chances of their being clicked to, and maybe, added to cart are quite high.

Smartly display your products.

Highlight your most popular products

The sales of each product are not the same, there will be items that are popular and bring you more profit than the rest.

You already recognize which product your customers prefer and want to push sales for that best-selling item? So let’s place it in a way that grabs the attention of website visitors, like allowing it to appear first or putting some eye-catching icons on its image.

This can be done in a number of ways, but a common approach is to have a carousel or slider that showcases a few products at a time. If your theme doesn’t have this feature or you want to make it more professional, you can learn how to create one here or try our free Shopify product slider app.

Take a look at the way Afloral places their products. They highlight the most popular product, a black vase, by a large-size banner at the very first of the homepage. Afloral also allows the image of this vase to be displayed first in the product display line.

Don’t forget product thumbnails

Humans are intrinsically visual creatures. This is not news. UX researchers discovered that users can find items in a list approximately 37% faster when the items are paired with icons.

What’s more, images on a web page receive 94% more views than pieces of text. Images are a fundamental component of ecommerce homepage design (CXL Research study, 2020)

So if you have a place, let’s display pictures or thumbnails next to product categories.

@Aftershokz’s product thumbnails, stimulating the potential customers to click and see more.

The image quality is also an important factor to be considered. An eye-catching and clean image will make the visitors feel attracted to your brand.

An easy-to-access shopping cart

The shopping cart is an integral part of the homepage for most ecommerce websites. Making sure your customers’ shopping cart is easy to find is part of making navigation intuitive for them. A “sticky” shopping cart (also known as a “slide-out” cart) is one that remains visible and accessible throughout the browsing experience, usually in the top-right corner.

Even better, you can show how many items are currently in the customer’s cart. Customers are reminded that their purchase is still in progress and encouraged to complete their checkout with a bold, eye-catching notification from the cart, indicating the number of items currently added.

A smaller page with a shopping basket appears when you click on the item on missme.com’s homepage. This easy-to-access shopping cart can shorten a shopper’s decision-making process, encouraging her to make a purchase.

A direct call-to-action

Consider a call to action like an exit sign on the highway: it should be short and simple, easy to read, and point the right drivers down the path they need to take.

The next steps a consumer can take toward the major goals of your homepage should be aligned with your calls to action and the URLs they connect to. This might be directing people to your most recent collection or encouraging them to watch an instructional video to learn more.

Your CTA button should stand out from the rest of the design, so that the visitor understands immediately where to click. The longer it takes a visitor to identify the call to action, the more likely they may get confused and leave the page.

Alaskankingcrab’s homepage does an excellent job of moving the user down their ideal conversion path. Brilliant product imagery is used to draw the visitor’s attention, while the call to action is front and center in blue and white (Cool tones in contrast with hot tones in the background).

Nothing above the fold distracts from the main goal of the homepage: to direct the visitor to browse their menu. As the visitors scroll down, they will see more CTAs to purchase seafood.

Conclusion

Everything on your ecommerce homepage should bring customers closer to a purchase. From product arrangement, CTA button to other cart settings, all have to be displayed in a smart way that can direct the user experience.