Tips for Designing a Better Magento Website

Whether you are designing a Magento website or you are a Magento store owner, there are some important things to keep in mind in terms of your website’s design. While you already know that you want your website to look good and sell products, you might not know exactly how to go about choosing the […]

By Caitlin Mekita

Whether you are designing a Magento website or you are a Magento store owner, there are some important things to keep in mind in terms of your website’s design. While you already know that you want your website to look good and sell products, you might not know exactly how to go about choosing the best Magento theme for you, deciding how to style the theme, and how to visually prioritize important information. Design is key when it comes to the ways customers will navigate through your site, and it could make a big difference in how long they decide to stick around. Below you will find my best tips for creating the most beautiful eCommerce website that will work for you and benefit your business.

Choose your theme wisely.

There are a lot of factors that play a role in choosing the right Magento theme, and I have written more extensively on the topic in an article you can read by clicking here. In strictly a design sense, you or your designer will need to really consider how much work you want to put into your chosen theme and what kind of budget this will require. Ask your designer to take a peek at the theme’s CSS file. Keep in mind that themes that rely heavily on images to create details and gradients will take a lot more time to customize than one that relies mostly on CSS.

Get the most out of your theme.

Read your themes documentation! Designers should know, before they begin a project, how their theme handles certain factors. Does your theme have built-in CMS blocks? If so, how do you add them and where do they appear? Even with very little design experience, a theme’s documentation will be able to tell you how to set up and configure the home page, get the basic look you want, and make important changes to customize the theme for your business. Knowing all of your options will give you the freedom and flexibility to get the most out of your theme’s built-in design and functionality.

Think about informational hierarchy.

Visually organizing your information is extremely important in an online store. You will need to have a good understanding of the type of business and the types of people who are shopping online for your product. If you have a customer service team available at all times, you probably want to put that information, along with the phone number, in the website’s header. Letting people know they can contact you for help can make their shopping experience less stressful, and can keep them engaged even if they experience confusion. Other important information that you should highlight: your e-mail address, other contact info, any dowloadable catalogs, your newsletter sign-up, and your customer service information (shipping / return policy, privacy policy, etc.). Because these things are so important, they are usually found in the header and/or footer areas and thus can be accessed from any page of the website. Our client MrVentFree wanted to make sure visitors felt comfortable calling with any questions or to place an order.

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Navigation is key.

Arguably the most important thing you will design for your Magento store is the site’s Navigation. It is critical that your navigation is very clear and easy to use. Your customers need to be able to quickly find any products or services they are looking for, or to browse through your products if they do not know what they are looking for. Think about how you want to present your products initially – will you give them the option to shop all products, or would that be overwhelming? Will you immediately narrow your products down by categories or just by gender or some other characteristic?

Your navigation should also include breadcrumbs. Visitors to your website should always know exactly where they are and exactly how to get back home or anywhere else on the site. Below is an example of a well-designed and organized navigation on our client Tracking Dog Supply’s website.

Images Matter

From a design standpoint the best thing you can do for your website is invest in great images. Your products and all of your other photos should look and feel professional. Images that look like stock photos or generic will cheapen the appearance of your site, and customers can lose trust in your business if they don’t believe that the image they are seeing is an exact photo of the product they are going to get.

The difference between a professionally taken photo and a generic or stock image can make the difference of whether or not you are selling products. Great images will also give your website a streamlined, professional, and visually appealing look. Our client Kombucha Brooklyn supplied us with amazing images. These images really help make Kombucha Brooklyn’s site appear polished and professional.

Customer Success Manager