You have probably heard this many times: a well-designed e-commerce site can make all the difference in sales. It’s not just a saying; it’s a fact. According to a Forrester study, a well-designed website can raise conversion rates by as much as 200%, while one that gives a great user experience can raise it by 400%.
Now, if you’re shopping for a new look for your BigCommerce store because your current one is not meeting your expectations, or if you’re looking for a new and better platform for your site, we have you covered.
In this article, we’re going to discuss at length the BigCommerce platform and the essentials of a BigCommerce store design that drives conversions.
BigCommerce Store Design: Themes
BigCommerce is a robust platform that offers a wide range of themes designed to enhance your online store’s look and functionality.
The themes are pre-designed templates that provide the foundation for creating a professional and attractive interface. They are designed to enhance both the look and functionality of your site, making it easier to create a user-friendly and visually appealing shopping experience.
If you’re looking to set up your store quickly, a pre-designed theme is the way to go. It only requires a few tweaks and customizations before you can have it up and running.
Now, here are the standout features of the BigCommerce platform and its themes:
High-quality visuals and functionality
BigCommerce themes are crafted to strike the perfect balance between visuals and functionality. Many offer appealing designs that are intuitive and easy to navigate, ensuring a seamless shopping experience for your customers.
SEO optimization and mobile responsiveness
One of the best features of BigCommerce themes is their built-in SEO optimization and mobile responsiveness, meaning they’re designed to work flawlessly on smartphones and tablets as well as they do on laptops or desktops.
BigCommerce themes also come with SEO-friendly features and support for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which not only improve load times but also enhance your site’s visibility on search engines.
The stencil framework
At the heart of BigCommerce’s design capabilities is the Stencil framework. This powerful tool allows for extensive customization, enabling you to tailor your store’s appearance to match your brand perfectly. With it, you can adjust the layout, modify colors, or add new features. Stencil makes it easy to create a unique, performance-optimized store that stands out from the competition.
Choosing the Right Theme
Now that you have a basic understanding of the capabilities of the BigCommerce platform and its themes let’s now move on to choosing the right theme.
Picking the right theme is the crucial element to crafting a successful BigCommerce store design. Do remember that the theme you choose should match your brand and business model.
Let’s break down what you need to consider:
Criteria for selecting a theme
- Brand alignment: Your theme should capture your brand’s personality. Think about the colors, fonts, and overall design that best represent your brand.
- Business model compatibility: Different themes fit different business models. Make sure the theme you choose supports your specific needs, whether you’re running a small boutique or a large retailer.
- Functionality: Look for themes with the features you need, like product filters, quick view options, customer reviews, or adaptability to add-on apps.
- Customization: Ensure the theme allows for customization so you can tweak it to fit your exact requirements.
Customizing Your BigCommerce Theme
Do you have your theme selected? The next step is customizing it. Personalizing your BigCommerce theme is essential to make your online store truly reflect your brand identity. Customization should create a cohesive look and feel that resonates with your customers and sets you apart from the competition.
A well-customized theme not only makes your store look unique but also helps in building brand recognition. Your customers should be able to recognize your brand instantly through the design elements you use, such as logos, color schemes, and fonts.
Steps to customize themes
- Color schemes: Choose colors that align with your brand’s identity. Consistent use of brand colors across your site reinforces brand recognition. BigCommerce themes allow you to easily change the color palette to match your brand.
- Fonts: Select fonts that reflect your brand’s personality. Whether it’s modern and sleek or classic and elegant, the right typography can enhance your store’s visual appeal and readability.
- Layout elements: Adjust the layout to improve user experience. Consider how products are displayed, the placement of banners, and navigation menus. A clean, well-organized layout can make shopping on your site more enjoyable and intuitive.
- Images and graphics: Use high-quality images that represent your products and brand well. Custom graphics and icons can also add a unique touch to your store’s design.
Utilizing BigCommerce’s Integration Capabilities
Personalizing your BigCommerce store design should not be limited to its visuals. BigCommerce offers robust integration capabilities that can further enhance your store’s functionality, and you should take advantage of it.
Here are a few ways to leverage these integrations:
Add-on apps: BigCommerce’s marketplace has a wide range of apps that can add extra functionality to your store, such as local delivery and pickup apps, customer review systems, and inventory management solutions.
Third-party integrations: Seamlessly integrate with third-party services like Google Analytics to track and analyze your store’s performance or social media platforms for better engagement and reach.
Custom code: If you have specific needs that off-the-shelf solutions can’t meet, BigCommerce allows you to add custom code to your site, providing virtually limitless customization options.
Enhancing User Experience (UX)
When people think of website design, they usually only think of the graphics, the fonts, and the images. However, design also pertains to structure and how the website makes it easy for the user to navigate. That’s called user experience (UX).
Creating a positive user experience is another important detail in a Bigcommerce store design because giving visitors a smooth shopping experience can turn them into loyal customers.
Here are some best practices to ensure your BigCommerce store design is user-friendly and engaging:
Clean and clutter-free BigCommerce store design
A clean, clutter-free design helps visitors focus on your products without unnecessary distractions. Keep your layout simple, use plenty of white space, and avoid overloading pages with too much information. This approach makes it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for and creates a more pleasant shopping experience.
Hierarchical navigation and intuitive user interfaces
Effective navigation is another key element to a great user experience. Use hierarchical navigation to organize your products into clear categories and subcategories. This makes it easy for customers to browse and find specific items.
Intuitive user interfaces, with clearly labeled menus and buttons, help guide visitors smoothly through your site, reducing frustration and improving overall satisfaction.
Imagery and comprehensive product descriptions
High-quality images are essential for showcasing your products effectively. Use professional photos that highlight key features and details. Pair these with comprehensive product descriptions that provide all the necessary information, such as size, color options, and materials.
Remember that your potential customers can’t touch your products and examine them, unlike they would in a traditional store, so you have to make the descriptions and images as clear and as striking as possible so that they will buy.
Summary
A BigCommerce store design that is well-executed can dramatically boost sales and enhance user experience. By taking advantage of pre-designed themes, you can quickly create a visually appealing and functional store.
Customizing these themes to reflect your brand identity, optimizing for SEO and mobile responsiveness, and focusing on user-friendly design elements are essential steps. With these strategies, you can transform your BigCommerce store into a high-converting, user-friendly shopping destination.
Skyrocket sales with a Winning BigCommerce Store Design
Epic, a leading full-service digital marketing agency specializing in BigCommerce, offers a wide selection of BigCommerce themes and custom website design services to meet your unique needs. Whether you want to choose from our high-quality themes or build a bespoke website from the ground up, our team is here to help.
We’ve also designed several add-on apps that will boost the functionality of your eCommerce store and help you sell more online.
Contact us today for professional guidance and take advantage of our free consultation to get started on optimizing your BigCommerce store design. Let’s create a stunning, high-converting online store together!
