Shopify is a platform that has changed the way people sell, and designers have made it possible for every storeowner to reach out and cultivate relationships with their audience.
Why do you need designers? Here are the reasons why you need them to make a successful online business.
A Shopify Designer is Key to Making Your Store Unique
- You really wouldn’t want to use a theme that is already used by a different store
If you are the type of business owner that takes pride of originality and you want to make sure that there is no chance that you’re sharing the look of another branding, then getting the services of a designer would be a great idea.
- You have a unique idea and you want someone to execute it for you
If you think that you are unique, make sure that that appears on your design. Image source
If you have a great idea in mind and you already have a clear direction of how your store should look, then hiring an experienced designer will be a wise if you want your concept to be perfectly executed.
- All free and paid themes do not have the features that you want
Themes available in Shopify can only do so much for your store – since they are created for generic use and have generic functionalities, there’s a chance that they may not work out for the type of store that you have in mind.
- You want your brand to show in your shop and there’s no theme that can do that for you
Searching for themes that can accurately show the kind of branding that you want can be a very daunting task – most of the time, they do not exist. Hiring a designer can save you the trouble of having to scour the internet for a theme that you may end up paying for anyway.
- You do not want to use stock photos
Stock photos, no matter where they come from, feels unauthentic.. Image source
Shopify offers you Burst, which is a collection of stock photos that you can use for free. However, stock photos can make your store look generic and dull. It would be better for you to use original high-resolution photos instead to make your products stand out.
- You want to stand out from the rest of the stores, but still use time-tested ideas to follow the crowd
A great design has the ability to make your brand feel creative and make it look like it’s one of the kind – this is the kind of leverage that you want to get, especially if you are competing against thousands of Shopify stores that target the same niche. However, good designers also make it a point that you also incorporate styles that are proven to work when it comes to pulling the attention of your target market.
- You want to take a big step towards becoming a timeless brand
You want to be like Apple – no matter how much your brand evolves, it still leaves an impact. Image source
You want your store to be unforgettable, and no run-of-the-mill design will do that for you. Designers have the ability to create a unique branding that will make customers remember you.
- You want your store to sell for a really good value, in case you want to stop selling on Shopify
If you have a good-looking website that has the ability to get traffic, its value will multiply. Consider your website’s design as an important investment – should you decide to sell your store later on, your design will be the reason why people would want to buy it from Shopify Exchange.
A Shopify Designer Will Make Your Store More Effective and Functional
- You want to make your content more organized
Nothing turns off customers more than not being to find the information that you want. If you want to make your website easier to navigate and prevent customers from hitting the back button once they reach your store, you can use the help of a designer to organize your copy and images for you.
- You want your store to be accessible for everyone, no matter what their device is
A great design puts into consideration the types of devices use, their internet speed, and the browser that they are using. 40% of shoppers will abandon their carts when pages take more than 3 seconds to load, and mobile users are very likely to not continue shopping if a site is not optimized for their devices. If your site fails to load on a user’s browser, then you lose all chance of getting a sale from that site visitor.
- You want to know more about your site visitors
Even if you think that you are just a small store catering to your neighbors, you definitely need to know if other types of audience take the time to visit your site. Knowing who your users are will allow you to create content in order to communicate better to a growing audience. By creating a design that will allow you to observe user behaviors, you will get to know what kind of products or services you can offer to take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you by your site’s traffic.
- You want your shop to have faster loading time
A fast Shopify shop is a reliable shop – if people do not need to wait and wonder if your site has given up loading your product list or images, then you get more opportunities to get a sale.
- You want to know what users want in your shop so you can improve your store on their next visit
Every website in the world, whether it’s a Shopify store or not, should have a specific goal in mind. As an online shop or e-commerce site, you want to make sure that you are meeting your goals and know what you can offer to your site visitors in order to entice them to make a purchase. A great design will allow you to devise a measurable strategy that will allow you to know what really is on your customer’s mind. Most of the time, creating a strategy like this boils down to knowing how your website engages with your customer and understanding the customer’s journey when navigating your website.
- You want your customers to take action while in your store
Customers go to online stores because they are trying to find what they need – most of the time, they go there with the intention of actually making a purchase. An effective design will motivate customers to take the right action towards fulfilling their needs by strategically placing calls for action. Do you wonder why many websites put buttons that say Add to Cart? The reason is simple – when strategically placed, people use them and proceed to checkout.
- You want to create unique relationships
Clever designs allow you to build a special relationship with your site visitors – when you incorporate a brilliant element in your website design, such as your logo, people will remember you and humanize your brand. This will allow people to think that actual people work on your store and those are the type of people that they like interacting with, which can be a solid edge over the competition. When people begin thinking of your brand as a personality through your design, they will never forget your name.
- You want to use Shopify apps, but unsure which one will actually work
Shopify offers a variety of apps that you can use in order to maximize engagement or even link your site to other platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. However, not all apps can work well with the user experience that you are trying to offer your site visitors. A designer is more likely to know which apps you should use to make your site more functional without risking a design disaster.
- You want to start selling where your target audience is
Want to take advantage of selling via Facebook Messenger or Pinterest? Your designer can design your buyable pins or make a Facebook sales channel look more appealing.
A Shopify Designer Will Help You Save Time
- You are trying to beat a deadline
If you want to start earning from Shopify right away or if you have a timeline for your launch, you simply cannot afford to spend time trying to dabble in design. Leave the designing to experts – they can do it faster than you could.
- You would rather focus on securing the products that you want to sell
There are a billion things that you are already worried about when you run a business and ensuring that your customers will get their orders is a top priority. Designers are there to make sure that you have a functional site so you won’t have to worry about that anymore.
- You do not want to spend too much time explaining to your staff what you have in mind
Getting designers is like getting trainers as well – since your site’s design is going to be so intuitive, you wouldn’t need to brief your staff every now and then how users are going to go through the customer’s journey. If you have a well-designed store, it would be easy for everyone to figure out how they can assist customers better and how they can measure if you are meeting your goals or not.
- Hiring designers cuts development time
Awesome designers tend to work in tandem with their developers, meaning that they create design in parallel with the development in order to make sure that the frontend is working great with the backend even before the coding is finished. This frees up a lot of development time and allows your backend team to work on the site’s framework instead of having to deal with design issues.
- Designers can fix the site before it’s even broken
Most designers come up with a mockup of the website that they want to pitch to their client – they already make sure that their design is stable and has already gone tests. This will allow you to check which part of your design doesn’t work before the development even begins. This gives you the peace of mind that you will not encounter errors when you launch.
- Designers can help you understand what your shop needs
Professional designers understand that their clients may not have all the words to describe what they want in their online store – some storeowners do not even have a clear design direction in mind. This is where the designer’s experience in designing Shopify stores comes into play. Designers can discuss the strengths of their previous projects and explain why those elements worked for their previous client. These discussions will help you understand how much work your shop needs in order to be functional and user-friendly, and also set your expectations on how long design projects would take and how much they will cost.
A Shopify Designer Will Make Your Shop Hit the Right Spot in the Market
- You want all elements in your shop to be consistent
DIY shop owners usually make the mistake of creating elements that clash with each other, simply because they thought that they go well together. Designers, on the other hand, take note of the design used in different sections of the shop to make sure that they do not create a design asset that will stick like a sore thumb, or worse, contradict the branding that has already been established in other parts of the site.
- You want a design that is guaranteed to appeal to the target market that you have in mind
Designers understand customer psychology and knows the colors, images, and navigation effects that work best with different types of audiences. Their experience will lessen the chance of having to revise pallets or other elements just because they don’t seem to work.
- You want to broaden your brand
A simple change in the design can help you reach out to a different type of market without letting go of the niche that you already tapped. If you are aiming to expand your brand’s reach and you want to target an identified set of audience, getting designers will do the trick for you.
- You want to reinvent your identity
If you already have a Shopify shop and you noticed that you are not getting the results that you want, then you may need a brand new identity that communicates well to your target audience. Designers can save you from the pain of having to restart
- You want people to know what you are selling before they even see your products
The way your website is designed tells people what sort of products you are selling on your
Shopify site. Great designers can turn your brand in such a way that customers can associate your name and logo right away to the product niche that you are offering, just like people associate cars with the brand BMW.
- You want your target audience to find you easier on search engines
You want people to immediately find your shop when they try to find products and services associated to your shop. Having a design that is search-engine optimized will help your potential customers find you faster and bring in the traffic that you want.
- You want people to think that you are professional and trustworthy
Customers will always want to buy from an online shop that has credibility – most of the time, they judge a site’s credibility according to its design. If you want your customers to have the peace of mind that their personal details is secure on your site, invest in a professional design that is not only organized and functional, but also secure.
- You want content that people would love to share on social media
Having a beautiful website does not only inspire people to shop in your store but also make them feel compelled to show their entire network what they found in your shop. If you want the advantage of having free advertising from your site visitors, consider investing in producing great content that your site visitors will find irresistible.
- You want to attract people outside Shopify
Shopping does not begin and end with Shopify – people can make decisions on whether they should go ahead and purchase your goods before they even go to your online store. Having great shareable content and positive reviews about your website will produce the traffic that you want.
A Shopify Designer Lends You Tech Skills That You Don’t Have
- You don’t know HTML
Websites start with HTML – knowing this markup language allows you to create content, link photographs, and organize your content within your site without the aid of a designer. While it is not hard to learn, it will still take time for you to master this language and do the marking up efficiently. If you do not have the confidence that you can use this code to upload content on your site, better hire someone who does.
- You don’t know CSS
CSS is the language that allows you to make your website responsive to different types of screens, organize content that is written with HTML, load fonts, and basically everything else that controls the look of your website. It would take years of experience to use this language efficiently – if you do not even know basic CSS and you are perfectly aware that you can’t code a page using this language, hire someone who does.
- You don’t know Liquid
Liquid is a special programming language used to create Shopify themes, which is essentially a combination of HTML and CSS. If this is the first time you’ve heard of this, leave the coding to the experts.
- You are not technically-minded at all, and you definitely do not have time to learn a programming language
Creating a beautiful website, even on a drag-and-drop platform like Shopify, is not easy. Apart from having a great sense of aesthetics and creativity, you will need to know how design should flow naturally from one element to another. Mastering front-end development is key to achieving your goals. If you do not want to risk showing just placeholders to your audience, hire someone who actually knows how to achieve the design that you have in mind.
- You do not have any idea about user experience (UX)
UX is everything in a website – without knowing best practices on how users should navigate the site and how you can offer the best experience to your customers that are within the Shopify platform, you do not stand a chance against your competitors.
- You want your shop to be optimized, but you don’t know what that means
Optimization is all about taking in measures on how search engines can determine whether your site offers what potential customers need. It is not just about using the right product tags or labeling your photos, but also about making every component of your site work in order for search engines to think that you deserve a good spot in search engines. There are thousands of factors that control optimization and Shopify experts always put them into consideration in order to make sure that users can find your site.
- You want to customize or update a theme, but you don’t know how
Customizing a theme is simple, if you have a direction in mind and you have the essential tech skills. If you want a certain effect or feature on your website but it can’t be found on any theme, you can save time and money by getting someone to do the customization for you.
A Shopify Designer Can Help You Save Money
- You want to cut costs from having to redesign in the future
You can avoid the trouble of having to disable your store in order to fix your design if you do it right the first time. Getting help from design and branding experts early in the game can save you from possible budget and profit loss issues you may encounter later.
- You want content that you can use over and over again
Having an amazing content is something that can be very helpful when you are marketing your shop, especially if you are running out of ideas. By having a great set of photography and other shareable digital assets at your disposal, you can repurpose them again as marketing materials and guarantee that your marketing campaigns always look fresh.
- You do not want to spend too much on markups
A good design always puts consideration to the backend, meaning that there is almost no need to hire a Shopify developer if you have invested in a design that already creates a good UX. This will save you a lot of money and time.
- You do not want to spend too much on designing for marketing needs
Shopify storeowners that invest in design do not usually find themselves having to pay for marketing design. Since you already have a lot of materials to work on provided to you by your site’s designer, you can simply tap your existing files and then turn them into marketing materials.
- Your Shopify theme broke, and you do not know what to do
If you have been tinkering your websites code with the attempt to customize your theme, there is a big chance that you might break something. If your theme fails to load, do not attempt to troubleshoot. Focus on getting your site up again as soon as possible and get a person that can save your day’s profits.
- You want your shop to look good, but you have budget limitations
Designers are very aware that budget is always a concern for their clients. Reputable designers will let you know how you can stretch a reasonable budget to incorporate elements that you need on your site and create the best possible experience for your site visitors.
A Shopify Designer Can Help You Own a Store You Really Want
- You are unhappy with your store and you want to change it
If you feel that you want to do a total overhaul of your brand in order to get better returns, you are not alone – many Shopify storeowners feel the desire to start from scratch because of poor site visibility and traffic. If you want to do it right this time, getting a skilled designer will help you get the results that you want.
- You are not getting the revenue that you want from your current store
If your store has been up for quite some time now and you think that you are not generating enough profit to keep your business afloat, then you may need to consider redesigning your store.
- You want your store to be something that you would want to buy from
How do you know that you have a store that inspires your buyers to make a purchase? Ask this question: would you buy from you? If not, then you need to make some brand changes.
- You want your store to inspire you to remain in business.
Ever business owner wants to be reminded why they do what they do, and the best thing that can do that is the place where you sell. You want your store to tell people what drives you to your commitment to always deliver the best products and offer great customer service. You do not need a lot for people to remember what you can do for them. All you need is a Shopify site that can deliver the narrative.