With Shopify powering
over 500,000 businesses across 175 countries, it's safe to say that lots of
merchants rely on this eCommerce platform to establish their online presence.
Of course, branding is an essential aspect of that.
While Shopify only comes with nine
basic themes (each of which comes with its own templates), hundreds of premium
themes are available. On top of that, users have access to an active community
that's brimming with other design-minded online store owners. All things considering,
there are plenty of resources available to help you bring your dream eCommerce
store to life.
That said, in this article, we’re
showcasing some of the best Shopify website examples. These sites
showcase innovative and memorable design choices that highlight their brands
perfectly!
So, without further ado, let’s jump
in.
Learn more: How to Start an Online Store in 15 minutes with Shopify
The moment you click on Sugargoop‘s
website, you get a flash of color. This Shopify store uses yellow and blue to
effect a bold, extreme contrast. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another website
quite like it.
Sugergoop sells sunscreen, which, of
course, explains the sunny seaside palette. We love the clear color messaging!
The blue and yellow are reflected in all the imagery—both on the product
packaging and website pictures.
The website header feels a little
90s, perfectly fitting their talk-show-inspired video header with, (who would
have thought – *gasp*), yellow daffodils.
All in all, Sugargoop's website is a
perfect example of color branding done to a tee!
The New York Times Store sells
everything from personalized gifts to branded clothing, cooking collections,
book editions, wall art, and more.
Despite their vast array of products,
their site design is very cohesive. Most noticeably, Store uses a nude color
palette comprising muted pastels that feels earthy, soft, and simple. This goes
a long way to ensure the web design and layout don't overwhelm website
visitors. Wherever the Store uses bolder colors, it serves as a booming accent
that draws your attention immediately.
In short, it's color theory done
right.
Soylent’s motto is “on the
go nutrition for an active life.” Their meal replacement is a classic, as is
their web design. Everything about Soylent’s website is simple and understated.
There's lots of white space with simple, clear text and boxes of color. Its straightforwardness
mimics the Soylent bottle itself, which doesn’t shout for attention. Everything
about Soylent's branding speaks to their core product: simple gimmick-free meal
replacements.
The user-focused content at the
bottom of the website also works well. Here you see a range of customers with
simple soylent bottles. Not only is this fabulous social proof that builds
credibility with their target audience, but it's also in keeping with their
cohesive web design – win-win!
Mayhabis sells a
specific style of shoe. The layered design promises comfort in any climate and
poses a very distinct look. Mayhabis took comfortable slippers and transformed
them into fashionable, versatile products that can be worn anywhere, in any
weather.
What’s distinct about the shoe’s
design is the horizontal layers of color. This is reflected in the website’s
design, where flat sections of grey and yellow highlight key information. The
background is also kept simple, making it easy to follow the website's color
scheme layer by layer.
Hydrant,
as the name suggests, is a brand that helps you stay hydrated. They sell energy
flavor packs you can dissolve in your water for added vitamins and a
much-needed boost.
How does the website communicate this
through design, you wonder?
Unsurprisingly, fresh pastel blue is
the website's primary color, which is complemented by yellows, reds, and
oranges. These accent colors add a necessary pop to draw attention to products
and other core website elements.
We also love the wave-shaped divider
located further down the page. This is actually an animation that wavers like
water before it settles. This remarkable effect certainly captures the eye and
provides a nice contrast to the otherwise clean, straight edges showcased
throughout the site’s design.
Learn more: Read our full Shopify Review.
The Sill sells
beautiful potted plants, plant-care kits, and flower bouquets perfect for your
window sill or a gift. The Sill uses a muted grey color scheme which, against
the colorful plants, really pops. You really get the impression that a fresh
plant could brighten up an otherwise dull space.
Another design element we admire is
the logo heading at the top of the site. The Sill separates its title into two
words, with a long, uninterrupted line between them. This almost looks like two
plants sitting on opposite ends of a window sill. Clever, right?
We also like the popup that springs
up on the homepage. Sometimes popups can be annoying, but the subtle coloring
and the offer of a 15% discount are certainly enticing!
In summary, The Sill is an excellent
example of what good product photography can do for a website when each image
perfectly complements the overall web design. The end result? A cohesive,
slick-looking aesthetic.
Have you ever seen the classic
printer logo with rainbow color swatches? That’s pretty much EU polaroid’s
website but in motion.
EU Polaroid sells
small, instant analog cameras. The rainbow boasting vibrant print colors
doesn’t only feature on its product. It’s everywhere – from the excitedly
animated header to the various product previews in different hues. You’ll find
a bold mixture of blue, red, green, and yellow everywhere throughout the site.
EU Polaroid intersperses this with
enough white space to ensure its web design doesn't appear tacky. Yet again,
product design and website design go hand in hand. In this case, the same color
scheme and font language (print-favorite Helvetica fonts) are used.
Artifox is an online
furniture store that sells elegant, artistic, and minimalist wooden furniture
products. Their products naturally showcase very warm and grand color schemes
across various wooden browns, whites, and blacks.
Artifox's site lets its products do
the talking. The website is white and very simple, ensuring nothing distracts
the visitor from its product photos. These snaps are at the very center of the
website. The second you click on through to the homepage, each product photo is
set against a simple grey background that enlarges when you hover over it.
Another nice touch is that the site
never changes its layout. As you click from one page to another, you know
exactly what to expect. The super-simple and easy-to-navigate menu remain to
the left, where it doesn’t ever change. All in all, Artifox is a sterling
example of genuinely sturdy and reliable web design.
Caldera Lab offers
green tech skincare. With nature at its core, it's no wonder its color scheme
enjoys olive greens and browns. It avoids harsher black hues, giving the site a
lovely softness alongside the modern, clear-cut design. We also like Caldera
Lab’s elegant and straightforward iconography that makes use of simple line
illustrations. The use of a testimonial and a CTA button front and center on
the homepage is also worthy of note. It draws potential customers in without
appearing overly salesy.
When you first navigate onto Fetching
Field’s website, you’re greeted with a delicious, healthy-looking
breakfast spread. There’s a bowl of honey, a wooden spoon full of cereal
crumbling onto the tabletop, and vibrant red apples just off to the side.
Nothing at first glance suggests that
you're looking at dog food.
But that's precisely what Fetching
Fields sells – human-grade, certified, organic, plant-based food for canines!
Their product aims to promote doggie wellness and activity at a quality that no
person would scoff at themselves – and they succeed at that!
Fetching Fields uses a unique and
surprising approach that subverts first expectations, which certainly earns
them a spot on this list!
Gemmist sells cosmetic
products like shampoos and conditioners. Following the trend of minimalist and
transparent cosmetics, the brand keeps things simple on their packaging, with
straightforward typography and fashionable peachy pinks and blues.
There's a quiz functionality that
generates personalized product recommendations for the best shampoo match –
which we think is a nice touch! Not only is this a clever way of boosting
visitor engagement, but it also enables the company to learn more about its
customers. They can then use this know-how to improve their products and
marketing strategies. Win-win!
Golde takes website
design standards and subtly breaks them to create a lively and exciting site.
The Latte Whisk is advertised with a
smooth, blodged color backdrop consisting of yellows, peaches, apricots, and
greens. The product packaging also reflects a similar design, featuring a
wavey, blotted design comprising greens and yellows.
Scrolling down the site, this theme
remains amazingly consistent. The same backdrop is reused for all product
images, and the white background is decorated with splashes of pastels.
Sections are divided with slightly wavey color transitions that introduce just
enough motion to keep things interesting.
We also like that Golde pairs this
color scheme with a dark brown for its main text and headings. It takes the
edge off ordinarily black text and blends in nicely with this soft, welcoming
brand design.
Harper Wilde sells
bras for ‘leading ladies', and its Shopify website design speaks volumes to
this. The site uses colors you wouldn’t initially associate with femininity.
Instead, sporty dark blues and reds sell the kind of strength, determination,
and reliability the brand looks to convey.
The site feels very dynamic, with
occasional animated banners and high-quality images that crossfade into other
shots. Another excellent detail is the under-lining of keywords that appears as
you scroll through.
Leo
et Violette’s Shopify website immediately invites you in with its
full-width feature photography. The earthy, natural colors are coordinated
beautifully across the website so that each image complements the next.
Products are manufactured in Italy,
so the sandy tones mixed with ocean blues and pictures of the sea work well to
convey the brand's roots.
Some product photos come with a
slideshow effect to showcase different angles. Also, when you hover over the
snaps, a picture of a model showing off the accessory appears – instead of the
product on its own. Pretty neat, right?
Brightland lives up to
its name with its vibrantly colored website. Golden yellows, reds, and blues
create a pleasant and robust sunset palette. The brand sells extra virgin olive
oils, so making viewers feel like they’re standing on a Mediterranean beach
watching the horizon is a perfect feeling to emulate. We just love the
exquisitely bright and lively colors contrasting against the simple
black-and-white design of the menus and paragraphs.
The site uses familiar rustic
textures and colors in its imagery, too, showing rough walls in the backgrounds
of their product imagery with apricot halves and bundles of herbs.
But where the site design really pops
is through its animations. As you scroll down, small shapes animate to align
with the text and images. It’s almost as if things fall into place as you
proceed. The motion is just enough to keep you engaged with the website and
draw your eye to headings and essential information without posing a
distraction.
Smol has developed a
high-performing laundry capsule so condensed and concentrated that it can be
posted through your letterbox. This selling point can’t be missed on the
website. To really ram home the point, Smol displays all vital product
photography in the center column of their site, where it really doesn’t take up
much space at all.
The main header video is a laundry
capsule rotating on its own in an empty white space. There's nothing to
distract your attention from the small but effective item that presents the
biggest burst of color on the page.
Smol uses gradients of green and blue
for a fresh, clean look throughout its website, with soft grey and white
writing that lets the more color-heavy product images shine.
Not Pot’s Shopify website
is unique. We're talking about the simplicity of 90s web design, with clean
fonts, nostalgic clipart, blocks, and a single block of background color.
This design choice is wholly purposeful
and is matched with clips and images of old-fashioned manga art. Not to
mention, everything is in lovely pastels.
While the site sells cannabis
products, they have found an approach that is “safe, effective, and fun.” As
such, Not Pot’s web design purposely steers away from everything you’d
typically associate with cannabis. The brand feels like it has lots of fun with
its shop and service and succeeds at standing out from its competition in
entirely unexpected ways.
Area Ware sells unique and natural
home accessories, office accessories, puzzles, and toys. Their Shopify website
design has gone for colorful product images on a clean white background, so
each image pops.
The bursts of color create a friendly
appeal that's immediately inviting for families with children. They’ve chosen a
bright yellow as an accent color, which works well to offset navigation selections.
Blume is a cosmetics and
self-care brand that uses a peachy and baby blue color palette. It follows in
the footsteps of many clean and natural cosmetic products that keep their
design very simple and non-intrusive. This goes a long way to help them appear
more authentic, down-to-earth, and transparent.
The straightforward typography and
images don't create much noise, and as such, it feels like they’re cutting
right to the chaste. The whole website is incredibly user-friendly, including
the checkout process. Within minutes you could select an item and purchase it.
Maybe while offices are shut, you
won’t be shopping with Room too soon, but their concept is an interesting one
nonetheless. Room has developed purpose-built booths that
can be set up within your office space to create custom cubicles, meeting
spaces, and more. The aim is to provide a flexible alternative to fixed
construction and spruces up traditional office design.
The eCommerce website draws attention
with a video header showcasing people working in their various “Rooms,” showing
off versatile applications, like phone booths, video conference rooms, etc.
This is incredibly eye-catching!
This dynamic theme boasts animated
blocks of color animated to support the infographics – it's incredibly engaging
and well thought out!
Counter Print shares some ideas in common with the
previously mentioned EU Polaroid. This web design is predominantly black on
white, with straightforward typography and colorful imagery. But instead,
counter Print doesn’t quite go with the boldest colors of the rainbow; rather,
they show a preferenced for slightly more subdued pastels.
Rachel Comey’s apparel
website might throw you off at first. The retailer goes so minimalistic to not
even immediately label menu items, and the homepage also tells you very little.
You’re greeted with a strongly textured image that clearly communicates what
the brand’s clothing is all about – urban, youthful, fashion.
When you check out the new arrivals,
Rachel Comey makes use of an exciting image gallery. The photography is
incredibly consistent, showing cool, stoic real-life models against a blank
grey background. As you hover over the images, you’ll see feature shots of the
design that draw you right back in – either close-ups or variant poses.
The product detail pages present you
with a full screen of images so that you can see the product in all its glory.
For more info, you have to click extra to get text details.
Rachel Comey’s web design choices
might not be for everyone. Still, it certainly dared to be different, which
match their brand perfectly.
Ugmonk sells
high-quality analog productivity items, like stationery and specially designed
notepads. The wood-themed color scheme is understated like their products, and
as such, exudes a simple yet elegant vibe.
One interesting design element is the
incredibly smooth navigation preview, which fades seamlessly as you hover from
one item to the next. Each menu item comes with more photography and a sub-menu
detailing Ugmonk's different collections. In short, everything about the
website screams luxury and sophistication.
Jackie Smith is a bold
accessory brand. This eCommerce business uses the appeal of comic books with
thick, heavy fonts and icons for its imagery, giving you that “kapow” the brand
is clearly aiming for.
You’ll commonly find heroically bold oranges,
reds, and blues that complement each other beautifully on the website. Every
image on the site works wonders, and on the product pages, hovering over images
gets you another view of each handbag.
Also, at the very bottom of the
homepage, we like the small social media icons. When clicked, these take you
straight to their social pages, making it easy for visitors to follow Jackie
Smith elsewhere.
Did You Find Your
Inspiration From These Shopify Website Examples?
If these Shopify website examples teach us anything
about online business, it's that there are loads of ways you can use Shopify to
create unique and brand-fitting stores. So many of these website examples tell
us the story of their businesses in ways no one else could. Some break the mold
of expectation entirely and turn all stereotypes on their heads.
We hope this has served as an
excellent example of how you can use customization, color, menu choices,
animations, and photography on your eCommerce sites to make your Shopify theme
work for you. Like these best website examples, you don’t need to do anything
too complicated to stand out. It just takes a clear understanding of your own
brand message so that you can communicate it clearly.
Which of these websites did you find
the most inspiring? Let us know in the comments below.
