Shopify Store Redesign Checklist for Established Ecommerce Brands

A successful ecommerce brand needs a website that will be able to adjust itself to the rising customer demands, larger catalogs, and growing competition. A Shopify store that used to work well previously might turn out to be outdated with time because of such issues as slow load speed, complicated navigation, lack of functionality, and inconsistencies with branding.

Website redesign is the way to solve this problem and create a new improved design for your online shop. But at the same time, it’s not only about the visual aspect – there is a number of important factors to take into consideration before making any changes. With the help of professional Shopify seo services, you’ll be able to modernize your online shop, increase its usability, and create a scalable platform.

Let’s discuss the important Shopify store redesign checklist.

Why Do Established Ecommerce Brands Need a Shopify Store Redesign?

With growth of a company, the initial design of the website becomes less and less able to satisfy its needs. Expanding the catalog of products, changes in brand identity, and rising expectations of customers require a website redesign.

Some of the symptoms that your Shopify store is due for a makeover include the following:

• Outdated design: Your website does not match the current brand image and design trends.
• Poor mobile user experience: Customers have difficulties browsing the catalog and purchasing items via their smartphones.
• Slow loading speed: Applications, pictures, and scripts slow down the process.
• Poor navigation: People have difficulties finding particular products and categories.
• Lack of functionality: The initial theme fails to add certain features to your website.
• Low conversion rate: People view the catalog but do not make purchases.

Recognizing these problems allows businesses to set priorities for redesigning their websites.

Shopify Store Redesign Checklist for Established Ecommerce Brands

1. Perform a Full Website Audit

Before you start the process of redesigning your website, make sure that you conduct a comprehensive audit of your current Shopify store.

Check your homepage, product pages, collection pages, navigation, mobile usability, and technical performance.

The audit should include:

• Checking for broken links and outdated content.
• Analyzing your current website traffic and conversion rates.
• Testing mobile usability.
• Testing website loading speed.
• Checking for unnecessary Shopify applications.
• Analyzing customer navigation.

Some useful tools in the process include Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights.

2. Set Redesign Objectives

Redesigning your website is not just about changing its appearance; it is meant to solve certain problems.

It is important to set objectives before development begins.

Clearly defined objectives help developers choose suitable design and technical solutions.

3. Update design and branding

Your website should reflect your brand and show a cohesive look.

Within your website redesign you will want to look at:

• Updating your colour scheme
• Using easy to read fonts
• Clear visual hierarchy
• Showcase important products and promotions
• Consistent padding
• Professional product images
• Clean layout

Avoid too much animation, banners and graphics to keep customers focused on shopping.

4. Improve navigation and product organisation

As your e-commerce business grows your customers may struggle to find products.

A well organised navigation will help customers find products.

Ensure that your website has:

• Products organised into categories
• Easy to understand menu names
• Dropdown or mega menu
• Search products
• Filter options for price, size, colour etc.
• Breadcrumbs

For example in a furniture shop you could allow customers to filter products by material, room, size and price.

5. Optimize product and Collection Pages

Product and collection pages are an important part of the purchasing process. Ensure that they have the right information and that it’s easy to choose products.

Ensure that your product pages have:

• Clear product names and descriptions
• High quality images and videos
• Correct pricing and discounts
• Product details and variations
• Real customer reviews
• Add to cart buttons
• Delivery and returns information
• Suggested products

Collection pages can also be improved by adding filters, sorting and introductory text.

6. Mobile friendly

A key consideration when redesigning your Shopify site should be making it mobile friendly. Customers expect your website to be easy to use on a smartphone, tablet and desktop.

Ensure that:

• Menus are working
• Product images are responsive
• Text is easy to read
• Buttons are easy to press
• Product filters are easy to use
• Shopping cart is working
• Easy to checkout

Test your redesigned store on various devices.

7. Check Shopify theme and development requirements

Your theme may not have the required functionality to help grow your business in the future.

Ensure whether you need a theme or if you need development.

Shopify Liquid, JavaScript, CSS, metafields and metaobjects can all help you create a bespoke storefront experience. By choosing the correct development method your new store will meet your current and future needs.

8. Audit Apps and Integrations

Many established e commerce brands will use a range of apps.

Before beginning your redesign process it is important to audit all the integrations you have.

Make sure you:

• Know what apps you have installed currently.
• Uninstall any unnecessary or duplicate apps.
• Ensure they are compatible with your new theme.
• Check the API connections and syncing.
• Ensure marketing and analytics tracking is working.
• Ensure inventory and order information is flowing through.

Try not to add too many new apps. As too many scripts and integrations can impact your website performance.

9. Ensure Your SEO Rankings Stay the Same

One of the main risks of a Shopify redesign is losing your organic visibility.

You may have product pages, collection pages and blog articles already ranking well in search. This means changing their URL or removing their content without considering your SEO, will impact your rankings.

Make sure you:

• Export any important URLs.
• Know which pages are driving organic traffic.
• Try to keep your URLs the same.
• Set up any relevant 301 redirects.
• Ensure any important title tags and meta descriptions have been moved across.
• Check all your headings and content.
• Ensure canonical tags and structured data is correct.
• Ensure your internal links are correct.
• Check your XML sitemaps and indexing settings.

A 301 redirect will redirect your customers to the correct place. Try not to redirect all your deleted pages to your homepage.

10. Improving Website Speed

Your new store should provide a smooth browsing experience.

Improvements to make:

• Compress large product images.
• Use up-to-date image formats.
• Uninstall any unneccessary apps.
• Reduce any unnecessary JS and CSS.
• Optimise fonts.
• Don’t use too many animations.
• Check your website speed on mobile and desktop.

Also monitor Google’s Core Web Vitals:

Use Google PageSpeed Insights to identify areas requiring improvement.

11. Testing Checkout and Payments

A complex checkout process may lead to unwanted friction and impact completed transactions.

Prior to the launch of your redesigned store, test:

• Add to Cart functionality.
• Cart quantities.
• Discount codes.
• Shipping fees.
• Payment options.
• Checkout forms.
• Order confirmation emails.
• Refunds and cancellations.

If you own an Indian ecommerce brand, check for available payment methods such as UPI, cards, net banking, and Cash on Delivery where possible.

12. Perform Quality Assurance Before Launching

Don’t ever launch a redesigned Shopify store without testing its key functionalities.

Keep a backup of your existing theme and prepare a rollback plan in case critical issues occur after launch.

How Bloom Agency Helps with Shopify Store Redesign?

A re-design of an existing e-commerce store will require a number of skills.

At Bloom Agency, we provide Shopify development services:

• Custom Shopify Theme Development
• Theme Customisation
• Responsive E-commerce
• Shopify Migration and Re-design
• Integration of Third-Party Applications
• Technical SEO
• Website Speed Optimisation

Whether you want a full website transformation or just updates to certain areas of your store, we can help ensure your Shopify store is up-to-date with your business needs. Find out more about our Shopify seo Services.

Conclusion

Investing in a re-design for your Shopify store can be a great decision for an established e-commerce brand. However, several things should be considered. Consider how your website is performing, how easy it is to navigate, optimising your product pages, ensuring your SEO rankings aren’t affected, reviewing your integrations and testing your website. Having a checklist to follow will help reduce any technical issues and will improve the overall shopping experience. With the correct development strategy, you can create a scalable, easy-to-use Shopify store that will help your brand grow in the long run.

FAQs

1. When should my e-commerce brand re-design its Shopify store?

If you are experiencing an outdated design, poor mobile responsiveness, slow loading times, low conversions or limitations on your website, then you may want to consider a re-design.

2. How long does a Shopify store re-design take?

This depends on how complicated your website is, how many products you have, how much custom functionality you want, how many integrations you have and how much content you need. A simple re-design can take a few weeks; however, if it is a complicated project it can take several months.

3. Will my SEO rankings be affected by a Shopify re-design? 

Yes, if you are changing your URLs, content, meta data and internal links. However, if you keep your important URLs and set up the correct 301 redirects, then this can help.

4. Should I go for a pre-designed theme or custom development?

If you have a standard Shopify store then using a pre-designed theme will work well. If you are an established brand looking for bespoke designs, high-level functionality and complex integrations, then custom development would be best.

5. What should I test before going live with a new Shopify store?

Navigation, product pages, mobile responsiveness, shopping cart, payment gateways, checkout, third-party integrations, SEO redirects and analytics.

6. How can I ensure my Shopify store remains fast?

Monitor your website speed, Core Web Vitals, broken links, applications, organic traffic and conversion rates. Use analytics to see what areas need optimising.