Guide · Ecommerce
Ecommerce Website Design: What Actually Matters
An online shop loses sales in two places: the product page, where the visitor cannot find out enough to decide, and the checkout, where something unexpected appears. Almost every improvement worth making is in one of those two places. Design that does not touch either — a new colour scheme, a larger hero image, an animation on scroll — changes how the shop looks and not what it earns.
By Carlos Boluda · Updated · 8 min read
Show the shipping cost before the checkout
Unexpected costs appearing at the final step are consistently among the most cited reasons people abandon a full basket, and shipping is the usual culprit. The customer has mentally agreed to a price, and then the price changes.
The problem is not that shipping costs money. It is that it was concealed until the last moment, which reframes the whole shop as something that hides things.
The fix is to state it early: on the product page, or a visible band stating the threshold for free delivery, or a calculator before the basket. Any of those beats the surprise. If your shipping genuinely cannot be calculated until the address is known, say so and give a range.
Do not force an account to buy
Requiring registration before purchase asks the customer to take on a permanent relationship in order to complete a one-off transaction. A meaningful share of them decline, and the ones who do not are now slower to check out.
Guest checkout should be the default path, with the account offered afterwards — once the order is placed, at the confirmation step, where creating one to track the delivery is an obvious convenience rather than a toll.
The usual argument for forced registration is that accounts help retention. They do, for people who already bought. They do nothing for the people who left rather than register.
Product pages have to answer the question the photo cannot
The recurring failure on product pages is a description written by someone who already knows the product, for someone who does not. "Premium quality, beautifully crafted" answers nothing a buyer is actually weighing.
What they need is specific: dimensions with units, materials, what is in the box, how it is powered, how it is cleaned, how it fits, what it weighs. For clothing, the measurements of the garment as well as the size label, because sizes are not comparable across brands.
Photographs need to do the same work. Multiple angles, the product in use for scale, and honest colour. The single most useful photo on most product pages is the one showing the item next to something recognisable, because scale is the thing customers get wrong and return items over.
Stock, delivery dates and the truth
Say whether the item is in stock and when it will arrive, in dates rather than in vague ranges. "Ships in 2–3 business days" is worse than a delivery date, because the customer has to do the arithmetic and usually wants the item for something specific.
If an item is out of stock, say when it returns rather than hiding the page. A page that disappears loses whatever ranking it had and gives the customer nowhere to wait.
Optimistic delivery estimates are a false economy. The order you win by promising Friday is the refund, the support ticket and the review you get on Saturday.
The trust pages nobody reads and everybody checks
Returns policy, contact details, and who you actually are. Most customers will not read these carefully, but a significant number check that they exist, and their absence is a reason to leave.
A returns policy in plain language — how long, who pays postage, what condition, how the refund arrives — removes the largest unstated objection to buying from a shop nobody has heard of. Hiding it does not prevent returns; it prevents orders.
A real address and a real way to reach a human do the same work. An online shop with only a contact form and no company details reads as temporary, and people do not send money to temporary.
Structured data, and where ecommerce sites break it
Schema.org's Product type carries price, currency, availability, and reviews, and it is what allows a price and stock status to appear directly in search results or in an assistant's answer.
The thing that goes wrong is drift. The markup says one price and the page says another, or availability stays "in stock" after the last one sold. Structured data is read literally, so stale markup tells the world something false with complete confidence.
If your prices change, the markup has to be generated from the same data as the page rather than written once by hand. Anything typed manually into schema on a shop with changing stock will be wrong within a month.
Where online sales are lost, and what fixes it
| Where it fails | What the customer hits | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout | Shipping appears at the last step | State it on the product page |
| Checkout | Forced to create an account | Guest checkout by default |
| Checkout | Too many steps | Fewest fields that complete the order |
| Checkout | Their payment method missing | Cards plus the local wallets people use |
| Product page | Cannot tell the size or scale | Dimensions, and a photo with something recognisable |
| Product page | Vague description | Materials, weight, contents, care, fit |
| Product page | Unclear delivery date | A date, not a range of business days |
| Product page | Out of stock, page removed | Keep it, say when it returns |
| Whole site | No returns policy | Plain language: how long, who pays, what condition |
| Whole site | No real company details | Address and a way to reach a person |
How to improve an online shop, in order
- 01
Buy something from your own shop on a phone
All the way through, paying real money, as a stranger would. Note every moment you hesitate. That list is your priority order and it costs nothing to produce.
- 02
Move the shipping cost onto the product page
Or state a free-delivery threshold prominently. Unexpected cost at the final step is the most common reason a full basket is abandoned.
- 03
Turn on guest checkout
Offer the account after the order is placed, where it reads as convenience rather than a toll for buying.
- 04
Rewrite descriptions as specifications
Dimensions with units, materials, weight, contents, care, fit. Replace every adjective that could describe any product with a fact about this one.
- 05
Add a photo that shows scale
The product next to something recognisable. Getting scale wrong is a common cause of returns, and returns cost more than the photograph.
- 06
Replace delivery ranges with dates
"Arrives Thursday 25th" rather than "ships in 2–3 business days". And keep the promise, because an optimistic date buys a refund.
- 07
Write a returns policy in plain language
How long, who pays postage, what condition, how the refund arrives. Hiding it does not prevent returns, it prevents orders.
- 08
Generate Product schema from your real data
Price, currency and availability pulled from the same source as the page. Anything hand-written into schema on a changing catalogue will be wrong within a month.
Frequently asked questions
Why do customers abandon their shopping carts?
The most common causes are costs appearing late — usually shipping — being forced to create an account, a checkout with too many steps, and their preferred payment method being missing. All four are about the checkout contradicting what the customer expected, rather than about the product or the price itself.
Should an online shop require customers to create an account?
No. Guest checkout should be the default, with an account offered after the order is placed. Forced registration asks for a permanent relationship in exchange for a one-off purchase, and accounts only help retention among people who actually completed a purchase.
What should a product description include?
Facts a photograph cannot convey: dimensions with units, materials, weight, what is in the box, how it is powered or cleaned, and how it fits. For clothing, the garment's measurements as well as the size label. Replace any adjective that could describe any product with something specific to this one.
Should I hide product pages when items are out of stock?
No. Removing the page loses whatever ranking it had and leaves the customer nowhere to go. Keep it live, mark it out of stock, and say when it returns or offer a notification when it does.
How should shipping costs be displayed?
Before the checkout — on the product page, or as a clearly visible free-delivery threshold. If the cost genuinely depends on the address, say so and give a range. The problem is not that shipping costs money; it is that concealing it until the last step makes the whole shop look like it hides things.
What structured data should an ecommerce site use?
Schema.org's Product type with price, currency, availability and reviews, which lets price and stock appear in search results and AI answers. Generate it from the same data as the page — hand-written markup on a catalogue with changing prices or stock becomes wrong quickly, and it is read literally.