9 Inspiring Shopify Homepages And What We Learn From Them

Thinking of what to put on your Shopify homepage? Let these 9 inspiring examples from some of the best-designed Shopify stores help you!

Posted 6 years ago by Tamal Santra

Let’s face it. Shopify homepages are legendarily good at throwing you in a dilemma.

Should you stop focusing as much on the homepage as on the product pages? In fact, the homepage of your store is equally important as the product pages to convert the visitors into customers. Your homepage is the same as the storefront of a brick and mortar store. It can be inviting or repelling to the onlookers depending on how you design it.

Here are some inspiring examples with notes on what makes them inspiring, what the takeaways are (you can downright copy their tactics and no one will bat an eyelid).

Taylor Stitch

• Notice that full-width (known as full-bleed) image? I know it’s not uncommon these days for stores to feature a full-width header image but what is most important is to use only high-quality, minimal-detail images. Why? Because notice how your eye is guided automatically to – the image, the header text and the notification thing.
• Look at that notification bar on the top (if that has not caught your attention already). It’s a really smart way to instantly get the attention of the visitor – to any interesting funnel offer that you have made (discounts, free shipping over $X etc)
• Another interesting element of the homepage is a section where they have featured the stories behind their products. It works great to connect with the audience and to stick out as a brand.

Hem

• Minimalism and spartan simplicity are not for everyone but if you’ve been wanting to set up a store that is fabulously spartan, Hem (and Ugmonk) is the finest example to imitate.
• Just below the Hero banner, they have showcased their three major USPs with graphic illustrations. It’s really hard to go past the home page without noticing these USPs.
• Hover over the product photos in the “Trending Products” section. You’ll notice not the usual cost, stock, variations – but a creative “A business in <some country> bought <product name with link>” text. What a neat way to apply the concept of “social proof”!
• The spartan minimalism also has a big side-effect: you have absolutely no distractions whatsoever when browsing the home page. You know exactly what’s what.

SugarFina

Two things caught my eyes on SugarFina’s homepage.

i) The enticing texts on the CTA buttons.
ii) The beautiful color palette used for all the elements.

Another reason to include SugarFina in this list. When you scroll down their homepage, you’ll find this piece of promotion smack in the middle. It’s hard to miss – and hard not to read because the text is crystal clear and big.

The takeaways are:

You can do better with the CTA texts.
if you’ve got an offer that you really want to publicize, here’s a fantastic way to do it on your homepage.

Deckbagz

DeckBagz’s homepage is a no-nonsense design without any fancy design element.

On the top of the page It boasts fullscreen hero images containing it’s USPs, then comes it’s best selling collections.

One interesting thing to notice here, DecBagz has only showcased their best selling collections not all the collections on their homepage.

In the bottom section of the page they have a cool retro style video, to demonstrate the features of the main product, followed by a testimonial slider.

Takeaways:

Don’t just showcase all of your collections to make the homepage longer.

Use elements like testimonials and videos to build trusts with your customers.

Ugmonk

• Ugmonk is the poster boy for Shopify homepage design. It’s a great example of minimal design but what I personally like most is their branding strategy on Homepage.
  Brands like Ugmonk, for whom customer loyalty is of great importance, should craft their own stories and promote those to connect with their audience. Ugmonk does this profoundly on their homepage. Around 40% of the Ugmonk’s homepage is dedicated for promotinge their stories and content.
• Ugmonk takes it one level up: notice how there’s no sidebar – and not just that, but also, the top navigation is not sticky! That’s quite bold.

Cookbook Village

• A lot of homepages have large, full-screen header images. Others have big bannered headers. Either way, the product catalog (which effectively gets the visitor to start exploring your site) is pushed way below the fold. But notice how Cookbook Village does it (at least in this image). They use a big header but just tall enough to let a small portion of the products come up above the fold.
• Also, notice that they are creative with their titles. On the top left of the header, you’ll see “Ingredients” and the ingredients are like “$25+ Orders Ship Free”. That’s a testimony to the fact that you shouldn’t cease to be creative with your copy, images and everything on your homepage.
• The homepage is much shorter than most of the other examples we got here. It’s just three rows of products and collections, renouncing any other elements. Keeping it short and sweet, it makes sure that the visitors don’t get diverted from going to the product/collection pages.

Colossal Shop

• About 80% of the Shopify homepages you find have full-width layouts (with full-bleed header images). But Colossal Shop is an example that says it’s okay to avoid full-width and still have a fabulously laid-out website.
  Despite the compact grid layout, you’ll notice that the products and tiles are well-spaced out. Spacing plays a huge role in making your store look easy on the eye (and thus keeping the visitor longer). The layout just feels “relaxed” even though they are packing quite a bit.
• Another absolutely clean piece of design is the navigation on this store. It is perfect, clear and well-spaced.

National Portrait Gallery

• All three core components of an ecommerce homepage – featured products, search, cart – are prominent in this layout. The way they are designed and laid out is a great example to imitate (or be inspired by). Notice, especially, the white space around them. (Although, my pet peeve is that the cart and search are not sticky)
• As a Gallery, you’d think that the National Portrait Gallery shop is predestined to use a full-bleed header image but they seem to have consciously avoided that. The layout is not full-width but it’s quite clean and bold.
• Also, did you notice the three sections right on top of the featured section (and below the navigation)? That’s an interesting spot to announce free delivery and get subscribers.

Press

• What strikes as most interesting is the balance of all elements on their homepage. They put equal emphasis on “new”, “bestsellers”, their Instagram feed.
• Another important takeaway is to make it quick-n-easy for your visitors to get to the product they want to buy. An example of this in action is Press’s Instagram feed embedded in their homepage: instead of just showing the feed, they also use a plugin to link the products (via product tags) to their respective pages so visitors can quickly get more info on it (or purchase it).
• At the bottom of the page, they have showcased these logos of the publications where their store has been featured. Also, they don’t have just kept the newsletter opt-in form for the sake of having it, they have actually made it stand out with the way it’s designed (note the clever use of the bottle icon and the matching text).

Final Takeaways

i) Use high-quality meaningful images for banners. Don’t forget to have prominent CTA’s to drive the visitors to your collection/product pages.

ii) Showcase your USP’s of your products/store on your homepage. Whether it’s something about your product or the policies of your store, pick up 3-4 major USP’s and highlight them on your homepage.

iii) Customer testimonials are very useful for infusing trust in your visitors. Get a testimonial slider for your store.

iv) Use videos on the homepage to demonstrate product features, user reviews, brand stories etc. Video is the most efficient medium to convey any message.

v) Sticky header (with search and cart button) is helpful for quick navigation. Get a sticky header for your store.

vi) Feature your brand story on the homepage to connect emotionally with your visitors and stand out in the crowd.

Your turn now
Got more inspiring examples to share? Or have you crafted your own homepage to perfection? Share your thoughts (and links) with us!