A 101 Guide On Shopify Store Design: Step-by-step Instructions

11 min readJan 5, 2023

By LitExtension

Introduction

If you want to survive and thrive in the long run with your Shopify store, the first and foremost thing you should definitely prioritize is your Shopify store design.

Despite Shopify’s ease of use, designing a Shopify store that is uniquely stunning and high-converting has never been an easy task.

That’s why LitExtension — #1 Shopping Cart Migration Expert will walk you through all you need to know about how to design Shopify website that sells:

Let’s scroll down for more!

How to Design a Shopify Store Manually

Don’t have a Shopify store yet? Create one with us via this link for a big save.

LitExtension is Shopify’s official partner. So when you create a Shopify store using the link above, you only have to pay $1/month for the first 3 months. (the normal fee starts from $29-$299/month)

After signing up for your Shopify website, remember to import or add products to your store first, and then design everything else around your products, not the other way around. This is because, at the end of the day, it’s the products that you need to persuade your customers to add to their cart and check out.

After you add products to your Shopify store, it’s time to design your dream Shopify store. Here comes our complete guideline on Shopify store design!

💡A newbie? Then perhaps you’d want to read our comprehensive guide on Shopify first:
✅ Shopify Review — All Pros & Cons
✅ Top 10 Best Shopify Themes — Have You Got One?
✅ Shopify Tutorial: 9 Complete Steps to Get Instant Sales

#1 Choose A Responsive Shopify Theme

There are lots of sources where you can find your Shopify theme if you don’t want to use the default one. Though you could pick a theme from themeforest.net or templatemonster.com, we suggest choosing your theme from the Shopify Theme Store for the highest quality and support.

This is because in order to get their theme listed on Shopify’s official theme market, developers have to meet Shopify’s strict requirements. This includes theme responsiveness, customizability, visuality, performance, etc.

And here’s our 6-step process on how to pick your perfect theme on the Shopify Theme Store:

❇️ Step 1: Jot Down All The Customizations You Need For Your Store

To make sure you won’t pick the wrong theme, you must first list down all the features you want to add for your Shopify theme.

Ask yourself questions like:

Do you want to launch a single-product store or a store that sells a wide range of products? (This is why we told you to add your products first)
How do you want your products to be displayed?
What is the level of customization you want for your store?
Is there any particular feature that you must have for your store?

❇️ Step 2: Use Shopify Theme Store’s filter

After identifying what kind of products you’ll be selling and the basic features you need, use Shopify Theme Store’s filter to narrow your search.

Simply go to Shopify Theme Store and select ‘All themes’ on the header menu. And herein, you’ll see there’s a filter at the left-hand corner of your screen. Since each theme will be built around a different set of features and industries, check all the boxes that you find relevant.

For instance, tick ‘Color Swatches’ and ‘Mega menu’ if you want a theme that supports these 2 features natively.

❇️ Step 3: Ask For Reviews

Now that you’ve found the most relevant themes, ask for reviews from store owners who have used those themes for their businesses.

For that, we highly recommend our Facebook Community, where you can discuss Shopify store designs with hundreds of other eCommerce merchants.

💡 Further reading:

❇️ Step 4: See The Theme In Action

Make sure you see the theme in action before getting it. Click on the theme you want and select the ‘View demo store’ button.

This will give you a real-life example of what you can do with the theme, including branding, functionality, web visuality, and more.

❇️ Step 5: Check Out On Theme Support

Theme support is another important factor to consider while choosing your perfect theme. As you scale up your business, you might encounter some technical issues related to the theme code. So pick a theme that offers great and fast support.

❇️ Step 6: Let’s Do It

And last but certainly not least, if you already find a theme that impresses you, go for it instead of spending too much time finding a completely perfect theme.

This is because as you scale up, you’ll certainly need a lot of customizations that you wouldn’t know now.

Now that you’ve picked a theme that suits you the most, let us show you how to design your 3 most important pages — Homepage, Product Detail Page and Checkout Page.

#2 Design Homepage

If your potential customers arrive on your Homepage for the first time, make the first impression count. Specifically, your homepage should show visitors where to go and what kinds of actions they should take.

To design a homepage that resonates with your target audience, here’re a few things you need to make clear:

Step 1: Identify your homepage’s goals — What do you want your customers to gain after scrolling through all the content on your homepage? Making a purchase or leaving their email so you can run marketing campaigns toward them later
Step 2: Show simple copy and CTAs — Make sure the copy you write on the very top of your homepage must inspire actions and conveys your brand tone in it.
Step 3: Make clear navigation — As of November 2022, 60,28% of web traffic stems from mobile devices. So your top menu should only include 3–4 primary headers, and you should arrange the most important ones to the left.
Step 4: Showcase your best-selling items — This is the quickest way to show your customers what products sell the most to convince them to buy

Take a look at Gymshark’s homepage, which we believe hit all the right notes:

You can view Gymshark’s full homepage here for more inspiration

#3 Design Product Page

If visitors land on your product page, they have high buying intentions. So to convince them to add your products to cart and check out, you need to communicate value, trust, and urgency.

💡To design appealing product pages, you need to add products to your store and categorize them properly first. And here are some insightful articles that might help:

❇️ 1. Communicate Value

Don’t go on and on with your product’s characteristics. Tell your customers the benefits they’ll get if they make a purchase. Make them feel like they’ll get a high-quality product or a good deal (discount).

Here’s how:

Highlight the main benefits in your product description: for instance, our sunscreen protects you from sun damage; Keep you 24h moisturized, etc.
Give discounts: try offering various discounts to see which ones your customers find most appealing (we’ll discuss more discounts right below)

❇️ 2. Communicate Trust

Trust is another pillar you must enhance when your potential customers are on your website. Here’re a few things you could try:

Provide stunning product photography: show the primary product image on a clean solid background and secondary images taken from different angles.
Try adding a video: if you target a young audience group, consider adding a video to your product pages, as 85% of millennials say that they made a purchase after watching a video.
Give return & shipping policy: for example, you can highlight your money-back guarantee or free shipping

As you scale up your Shopify store, you could enhance further trust by:

Adding social feeds to your website — showcase how actual customers are happily using your products.
Add customer reviews — consumers find user-generated content x9,8 times more trustworthy than branded content

❇️ ️3. Communicate Urgency

If you run a discount campaign, you need to stir up a sense of urgency on your product pages as well.

For instance, you could incentivize your customers to take your ‘Buy $100, Get 10% Off’ deal by putting a countdown timer right below the offer.

💡 Further reading: 20+ Great Ways to Highly Increase Sales Volume

#4 Design Checkout Page

The checkout page is the last stop of your customer’s buying journey. However, if you’re not a Shopify Plus user, unfortunately, you won’t have a lot of things to do with your Shopify checkout page.

So make it as quick and easy as possible for customers to check out and offer them as many payment methods as possible. If you’re eligible, we highly recommend you enable Shopify Payments & Shop Pay to ease up your customer checkout experience.

Though you can’t do much about your Shopify checkout page, remember to:

Upload your logo for consistency between your checkout page and other pages
Change the color of your checkout elements to match the ones of your store
Use the same font as your website’s fonts

Shopify Store Design: How to Customize with Litos

So customizing Shopify themes is easy-peasy? Well, unfortunately, nope!

What we’ve just shown you above is just foundational and general knowledge to craft a basic Shopify store design. To impress, educate and convert your target audience into leads and sales, you need a credible Shopify development agency like Litos to elevate your Shopify store designs.

#1. Why Choose Litos For Your Shopify Store Design?

Here are 6 reasons why Litos should be a go-to choice for your Shopify website design customization:

Certified Shopify Experts — This is the top reason why thousands of Shopify merchants trust Litos. Litos assigns their top talents in the field to customize your Shopify store design so your website can be prettier, rank higher, and convert better.
Customized Store Design — Want to breathe holiday vibes into your Shopify store or revamp your website’s looks and feels? Litos team will customize your Shopify site and turn it into a stunning sale magnet.
Quick Store Setup & Launch — Another strong point of Litos is that they have years of hands-on experience with Shopify themes and plugins. So you won’t have to wait forever to get your store up and running.
24/7 Store Maintenance — What we really love about Litos is that they don’t build your website and then leave it. So when you choose to design your Shopify website with them, their quality control staff will closely monitor and maintain your site frequently.
On-Going Support After Launch — Litos even offers free support for any technical issues you may run into after your Shopify store is launched.
Competitive Pricing & Quality — Given their superb quality, Litos is really an affordable solution compared to other Shopify store design agencies in the market. What’s great is that they have flexible pricing plans for even small & family businesses.

#2. What Does Litos’ Shopify Store Design Service Cover?

Litos will get your back with their full-suite Shopify store design service, including:

Connect your Shopify store with a custom domain name.
Pick a suitable theme and customize it to your requests. This can be the homepage, product page, checkout page, etc.
Add products to your store & create collections. Then feature them around your Shopify website.
Based on your geo-location, they’ll set up your payment gateways using Shopify’s built-in payment gateways or add third-party providers such as PayPal.
Set up shipping rates based on the weight and destination of your products.
Install needed apps for your store. This can include apps for sales & marketing, product reviews, upsell & cross-sell, and more.

Why Is It Important to Design Shopify Stores?

“If you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail.” You might think that sounds like…a cliché. But that’s what will happen if you don’t set up your Shopify store properly — you will fail.

Still aren’t convinced? Well, here are 5 reasons why designing your Shopify store is a must, not a plus:

#1 Create A Strong Brand Identity

Designing Shopify store properly and consistently will help you create a strong brand identity — the strongest weapon to win a cutting-edge over your competitors.

According to Investopedia, with a strong brand identity, you can draw more organic acquisition, retain more customers and even charge more for the same products that your competitors are offering.

#2 Deliver Clear Website Navigation

Did you know that only 9% of your customers will stay on your site if they can’t navigate quickie and find the information they need?

So if you design your Shopify store with this in mind, you’ll deliver clearer website navigation for your target audience. This will increase their time on your site, giving your brand and products more exposure.

#3 Create A Seamless User Experience

Your web design impacts your user experience more than you think. The truth is if your store’s designs look tedious, 38% of your potential customers will stop engaging with your site.

Therefore, by designing a stunning and highly-functional website, you can create a more seamless user experience for your customers.

#4 Deliver Effective Ads & Marketing Campaign

A stunning website helps with not only long-term branding but also short-term marketing performance as well.

When customers click through your ads and land on an impressive landing page, they’ll be more likely to take action (leave their info or make a purchase).

#5 Increase Conversion Rate

The last benefit that a well-thought-out Shopify store design could bring you is higher conversions.

Clearly, when your customers are more satisfied browsing through your beautiful website, they’ll be more likely to discover more products and services. That gives you more chances to convert them into sales.

Shopify Store Design — FAQs

Is Shopify Hard To Design?

Whether designing Shopify store is hard or not depends on the level of customization and functionality you want for your store.

If you want to customize your Shopify theme by adding out-of-the-box features, then the answer is ‘Yes’.

Can I Design My Own Shopify Store?

Yes, you can totally design a Shopify store to match your brand theme. However, be noted that each Shopify theme will come with different native features.

Therefore, if you need more features than what the theme developers support, you might need to code.

Can I Hire Someone To Design My Shopify Store?

Yes, there are a lot of agencies and individual experts whom you could trust for designing your Shopify store. But many service providers aren’t worth it.

So do careful research and only hire credible agencies like Litos.

Ready To Elevate Your Shopify Store Design?

In conclusion, your Shopify store design is the first and foremost thing you should prioritize if you want to scale up your store effectively in the long run.

Apparently, it’s easy to customize your Shopify theme. But designing a store that is stunning, high-performant, and eCommerce-ready is another story.

That’s when you need the true experts to turn your simple website into a high-converting and highly-functional store.

Considering Litos for your custom Shopify stores? Book a free 1-on-1 consultation with us, and let us see what we can do to help (no hard-selling if that’s what you’re afraid of).

And join our Facebook Community if you want to befriend and learn from other eCommerce entrepreneurs like you.