Your e-commerce website needs three key elements to succeed: a clear business vision, strong brand identity and solid guiding principles. This basic information will help you make a good first impression, showcase your products effectively, and guide visitors to purchase.

At Bloom Agency, we help e-commerce brands combine creativity, strategy and functionality to create powerful online stores that convert. While every website has its own style, you can apply proven design principles to create a website that works for your business. Learn what makes website design services effective, get inspired by real website design examples, and discover the insights used by top ecommerce-focused creative agencies like Bloom to help brands grow.

 

What Makes a Website Design Effective?

 

The best websites combine attractive images with smart structure and reliable technology. They provide visitors with the information they need, engage them and encourage them to take action.

You don’t need to spend thousands on professional designers to create a good website. Even if you’re just starting out or running a small online store, you can create an effective website by following these basic web design principles:

 

• Make your design clear and consistent.
• Focus on strong visuals.
• Design for mobile devices first.
• Create simple navigation.
• Add smooth transitions and dynamic content.
• Make your site accessible to everyone.

 

These principles guide your key design decisions—from how you arrange your content to choosing fonts, color schemes, and where to place images and buttons.

12 Best Website Design Examples for Ecommerce

• ELXR
• Justin Reed
• Girlboss
• Harper Wilde
• GOODEE
• Bruvi
• Garoa
• 3sixteen
• Lacoste
• ETQ Amsterdam
• LEIF
• Caitlin Minimalist

Let’s look at how these stores use design to build successful businesses.

 

1.ELXR

 

ELXR’s skincare products champion clean, ethical, and inclusive beauty—and its website mirrors this philosophy. Designed by Shopify Partner Bloom agency, the site uses minimalist visuals, careful spacing, and considered typography that match its product packaging.

“ELXR creates a harmonized experience from the moment you land on their website to when you open their products,” says Sara Mote, creative director and cofounder of Mote. The entire online experience relies on variations of a single typeface, maintaining consistency and simplicity. Every interaction feels intentional and refined.

 

2. Justin Reed

 

 

Designed by Fashion, Justin Reed’s website sells curated vintage fashion, art and accessories. With the majority of traffic coming from Instagram and mobile devices, the site prioritizes seamless mobile browsing.

Users can filter by category, brand, color and more on almost every page – making product discovery incredibly easy.

Mote’s CEO, Rembrandt Van der Mijnsbrugghe, suggests checking your Shopify theme frequently on mobile: “Look at your Shopify analytics to see where your traffic is coming from—the answer may surprise you.”

 

3. Girl Boss

 

 

Girlboss offers career tools, guides and courses to help women succeed professionally. The site mixes e-commerce with content, including articles, newsletters, job postings and podcasts.

The modern, feminine design uses original photography and powerful messaging, creating a strong connection with the audience and reinforcing the brand’s mission-driven personality.

 

4. Harper Wilde

 

 

Harper Wilde breaks away from traditional lingerie marketing with bold typography, honest branding and inclusive representation. The cover highlights models of different body types, identities and cultures – without any unrealistic editing.

Accessibility is a priority. With the AudioEye Shopify app, users can enable keyboard navigation, screen reader and visual adaptation profiles for people with ADHD, cognitive impairment, seizure sensitivity and more.

 

5. Hello

 

Hello curates lifestyle products made by responsible artisans and brands. The site attracts conscious consumers who value openness, community and sustainability.

With warm colors – yellow, orange and beige – and high-quality lifestyle photography, the site creates a relaxing, welcoming atmosphere. Product pages emphasize craftsmanship and storytelling.

 

6. Bruvi

 

Bruvi, a sustainable coffee brewing brand, grabs instant attention by using a hero video showing their brewer, pods and coffee moment in action.

The brand demonstrates how multimedia can enhance an e-commerce site – but also reminds designers to keep performance in mind. Using compressed video formats and a reliable CDN helps maintain a fast and smooth browsing experience.

 

7. Garoa

 

 

This skincare brand’s concept site stands out with its intimate photography, responsive design and intuitive animations. Despite its artistic design, the site is easy to navigate.

A standout feature is the slide-out menu: Click the button in the top left corner and the page moves to one side to reveal clear options – Shop, Lookbook and About. Interactive scrolling elements keep users engaged as they explore.

 

8.3 sixteen

 

3Sixteen’s menswear website looks like a visual portfolio. It opens with artistic product images that reflect an advanced editorial aesthetic. As users scroll, items appear in a clean grid enhanced by subtle animations.

With three physical stores in NYC and LA, 3Sixteen balances online shopping with an offline presence. Store photography, opening hours and location details help customers seamlessly transition from browsing to meeting in person.

 

9. Lacoste

 

Lacoste’s website stays true to its iconic, elegant brand identity. The crocodile logo is prominently displayed in the upper left corner, while a clean, fixed menu frames the browsing experience.

Simple headlines, bold images and clear CTAs guide users through the different collections. The two-line menu makes navigation easy, and the signature green color links each design element to the brand’s heritage.

 

10. ETQ Amsterdam

 

 

ETQ Amsterdam exemplifies minimalist luxury. The premium menswear and footwear brand uses spacious layouts, clean lines and monochrome imagery to create a sophisticated aesthetic.

The black and white palette and generous white space highlight the craftsmanship of each product, allowing users to focus on what matters most: the details.

11. Magazine

 

Brooklyn-based LEIF brings softness and warmth to its lifestyle store’s website. A cool color palette, delicate pencil-drawn edges and a simple navigation menu create a peaceful browsing environment.

A small banner at the top keeps customers informed of promotions and announcements without distracting from the overall design.

 

12. Caitlin Minimalist

 

Caitlin Minimalist’s jewelry website shines on mobile thanks to smooth horizontal scrolling. When Mote’s team developed the website, they optimized each section for mobile behavior.

Categories such as rings, earrings and necklaces scroll sideways, allowing users to browse comfortably with a natural thumb movement. This mobile-first approach improves navigation and makes the shopping experience modern and intuitive.

 

Tips for Designing Your Business Website

 

A well-designed website can make or break your online presence. This is often a customer’s first interaction with your brand – so it needs to be clean, intuitive, fast and visually memorable. At Bloom, we help brands create websites that not only look good, but also convert. Here are the key principles every business should follow when designing their e-commerce or service-based website.

 

1. Keep Design Focused

 

A focused design helps customers understand your brand immediately. Before you start building, create clear visual guidelines that will shape the entire experience.

 

How to stay focused:

• Create brand guidelines for fonts, colors, style and images.
• Use a simple color palette – black, white and three accent colors that complement each other.
• Choose fonts that reflect your brand’s personality and create rules for headings and paragraphs.
• Maintain a consistent brand voice and visual style across all pages.
• This clarity improves user experience and ensures your brand leaves a strong, lasting impression.

 

2. Let Your Photos Do the Talking

 

Visual-first websites perform significantly better. Instead of overloading users with text, let high-quality images guide their attention.

Visual design best practices:

• Make at least 50% of your website content visual.
• Use clean, high-quality product photos for immediate impact.
• Show real people using your products to build trust.
• Optimize all images to ensure fast loading.
• Consider adding short, lightweight videos—great for storytelling and social media repurposing.

Strong visuals instantly elevate your brand and communicate value faster than words alone.

 

3. Simplify Your Design

 

Minimalism is more than a trend—it’s a proven conversion strategy. A cluttered interface distracts users, slows navigation, and lowers engagement.

How to simplify effectively:

• Stick to one primary call-to-action (CTA) per page.
• Use photos strategically to guide users through your layout.
• Add generous white space to improve readability and comfort.
• Use high-contrast colors so text and buttons are easy to see.

A simple, clean website is easier to navigate and far more effective at driving results.

 

4. Make Navigation Clear

 

UX and UI design determine whether visitors stay or leave. Your navigation should be intuitive and predictable.

Principles for clear navigation:

• Place menus, breadcrumbs, and sitemaps exactly where users expect to find them.
• Map customer journeys so visitors never feel lost.
• Prioritize functionality over fancy design elements.
• Adhere to accessibility standards so that your website can be used by everyone.
• As Bloom’s design philosophy emphasizes: A beautiful website means nothing if people can’t easily use it.

 

Final Thoughts

 

The best business websites strike the right balance between aesthetics, strategy and usability. With a focused design, strong images, simplicity and clear navigation, your website becomes a powerful tool for conversions and brand growth. Whether you’re designing from scratch or building from scratch, these principles ensure you create a website your customers will love.

 

FAQS

 

What makes a good website design?

 

A good website design looks sophisticated and professional, and provides an engaging user experience. It should be easy to navigate, visually aligned with your brand and structured to help visitors quickly find what they need. A strong website also performs well on mobile devices and follows accessibility best practices, ensuring that all users – including those with disabilities – can surf smoothly. At Bloom, we prioritize both aesthetics and functionality to create websites that convert.

 

Which is the best platform to create a website?

 

For e-commerce brands, Shopify remains one of the most reliable and user-friendly platforms. Its drag-and-drop editor, customizable themes, and built-in tools for payments, SEO, and marketing make it ideal for businesses of all sizes. The Shopify App Store gives you access to countless features, from shipping tools to accounting integrations, so your website can grow with your business. Bloom often recommends Shopify because it combines simplicity with scalability.

 

What software can you use for web design?

 

The right tool depends on your skill level, design needs and business goals:

• For beginners: easy-to-use builders like Wix, Squarespace and Weebly
• For more customization: content management systems like WordPress
• For professional designers: Advanced design tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Figma
• For eCommerce brands: Shopify offers the perfect balance between simplicity and custom design features

 

No matter which platform you choose, Bloom can help you design, refine or build a website that reflects your brand and increases conversions.