--- tytul: "E-commerce Website Design: UX and Wireframes" opis: "Online store design is work on the purchase path, not a flashy first screen. We start with wireframes of the product page, cart and checkout." adres: https://justidea.agency/en/services/e-commerce/online-stores-design/ serwis: "JustIdea Agency" jezyk: en zrodlo: automatyczny odpowiednik strony HTML, generowany przy każdym buildzie --- [Home](https://justidea.agency/en/)/[Services](https://justidea.agency/en/services/)/[E-commerce](https://justidea.agency/en/services/e-commerce/)//Store design Online stores [Our rating: 4.96 out of 5, 224 reviews on Google, Facebook and Clutch](https://justidea.agency/en/justidea-reviews/) # Online store design: the purchase path first Online store design is work on the purchase path, not on a flashy first screen. We start with wireframes of the product page, basket and checkout on mobile, because that's where purchase decisions get made and where a design mistake costs the most. A store is judged by its number of orders, so we design views in the order a customer actually sees them, and hand them over ready to build. Book a call about your store design How we work ![A store designed and built by JustIdea, catalogue view](https://justidea.agency/assets/surfinc-store.webp) ![PrestaShop Expert Partner](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/prestashop-expert-300x133-bba7abf7.webp) 3-6 wks designing a store's key views Trusted by ![LPP](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/lpp-logo-2-b64d3a02.svg) ![House](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/logo-house-c706eeae.svg) ![Toyota](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/toyota-logo-pasek.svg) ![Fame MMA](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/fame-ffb4e0d0.webp) ![Surf Inc.](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/surfinc-logo-pasek.webp) ![LyoFood](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/lyo-cb899d46.webp) ![ExpertSender](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/expert-ca00548d.webp) ![Purinova](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/purinova-217da6ab.webp) ![Mennica Gdańska](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/mennica-98166c12.webp) ![Group IB](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/group-ib-b711171e.webp) ![Smart Kids Planet](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/smart-kids-151311c5.webp) ![SuperSonic](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/supersonic-a35404fe.webp) ![Wierzynek](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/wierzynek-1-d027e7cc.webp) ![RegoBis](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/regobis-a8b446e3.webp) Technology partners ![PrestaShop Expert ★★★](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/prestashop-expert-300x133-bba7abf7.webp) ![Google Premier Partner](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/google-premier-partner-d0211fa8.svg) ![Meta Business Partner](https://justidea.agency/obrazy/meta-partner-300x172-8802cc64.webp) Starting point ## Why does a store lose orders on the product page and in the basket? The average across 49 studies puts basket abandonment at 70.19%. Not every abandonment is recoverable, but a good share comes from friction that design removes: costs shown too late, a confusing basket and form, a lack of trust. Most often in three places that get designed last, and quickly. ** ### A product page with no answers No size chart, no delivery date, no shipping cost. The customer goes back to search for the information they couldn't find with you, even though your company has known that answer for years. ** ### Filters you can't actually search by Twenty attributes in one list and none of them answer the question the customer walked into the category with. They'll pick the competitor who gets them to the product in two clicks. ** ### A basket designed for desktop On a phone, the order button hides under the browser bar, and the discount code field eats half the screen. The purchase path ends with hunting for a button. Definition ### What is online store design? **Online store design is** work on the purchase path: making the way from arrival to order short and clear. It's the store's UX, not a graphic layer tacked on at the end. It starts with catalogue architecture and the questions a customer arrives with, and ends with the states nobody likes designing: out of stock, a payment error, an empty basket. Sources: [Baymard Institute, cart abandonment](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate) · [Nielsen Norman Group, e-commerce UX](https://www.nngroup.com/topic/e-commerce/) Architecture before graphics Categories, filters and naming. The best-looking product page won't help if nobody reaches it. Phone as the primary version Wireframes are built for the narrow screen first, because that's where most of the traffic comes from. Components, not single screens Patterns your team builds the next views from, without going back to a designer for every new page. Scope ## Online store design: from catalogue architecture to wireframes - ✓ Workshop: who buys, what they look for before buying, and what sets you apart from competitors - ✓ Catalogue architecture: categories, filters and naming that get a customer to the product - ✓ Wireframes of the key views: home page, category, product page, basket and checkout - ✓ Mobile first: phones bring most of a store's traffic, so we design the key views on a narrow screen first - ✓ States most briefs skip: out of stock, payment error, empty basket, no search results - ✓ Handover to development: grid, typography, components and a description of what happens after a click ### What we build it in Figma: the clickable prototype and source file stay with you Components designed for PrestaShop or WooCommerce Wireframes checked on real phones, not only in preview Price Quoted after the workshop Designing the key views usually takes 3 to 6 weeks. If we build the store too, it's folded into the overall build quote rather than a separate invoice. Book a call about your store design Net prices. We start with a 30-minute call, and set the scope and price at a paid workshop that carries no obligation to a further project. ### What this service doesn't cover - We don't do brand visual identity here: a logo and brand guidelines are a separate service - We don't design every single page separately, only the patterns the rest of the catalogue is built from - We don't build the design into the price of the design: development is a separate stage with its own quote How it works, step by step ## From workshop to wireframes ready to build Four stages. Each one ends with something you approve or reject, so the timeline is shared, not just ours. 1. 1 ### Workshop and analysis 1 week Who buys, what sets you apart, what competitors do, and what questions come up before a purchase. Plus data from your current store, if there's anything worth reading. 2. 2 ### Catalogue architecture 1-2 weeks Categories, filters, naming and the routes to a product. This stage decides more about sales than the colour of a button. 3. 3 ### Wireframes and view design 2-4 weeks First the product page and basket on mobile, then the home page and category, and edge cases last. You approve views in batches, not all at once at the end. 4. 4 ### Handover to development a few days A file with components, the grid and a description of behaviour, plus a meeting with the team that will build it: at JustIdea or on your side. Service boundaries ## When does a from-scratch design make sense, and when is a premium theme enough? Short answer A premium theme is enough when the purchase path is typical and the brand doesn't need to stand out through looks. A from-scratch design makes sense for an unusual purchase process, a configurator, a large catalogue with its own navigation, or a brand where looks are part of the product. A store design can be ordered without a build: the wireframes, graphic design and clickable prototype are handed over to any contractor you like. If we build it too, the design is folded into the overall quote. ![A fork: a premium theme for a typical purchase path, or a from-scratch design for your own process and brand](https://justidea.agency/assets/ill-projekt-serwisu.svg) ### This is the right service - The purchase path has steps no theme accounts for. - The brand sells on looks, and a theme flattens it to the same level as competitors. - The catalogue is large and needs its own filters, not a category list. ### Start somewhere else - The process is typical and the budget should go into stock and campaigns: a build on a theme. - You have a store and want to know where it loses customers: start with a store UX audit. - You're designing a company site with no basket: that's website and store design. Other services ## Store layers a design doesn't settle A store is catalogue, technology, visibility and measurement all at once. Design settles the first layer, and the others are covered by the neighbouring services. [### PrestaShop stores Online store builds on the PrestaShop platform: migrations with no ranking loss, ERP integrations and technical support. View ›](https://justidea.agency/en/services/e-commerce/prestashop-stores/) [### Store UX audit Session recordings, click maps and the purchase funnel: we show which step customers drop out at and what stops them. View ›](https://justidea.agency/en/services/e-commerce/ecommerce-ux-audit/) [### Website and store design The same design stage for company sites and stores, when you want the design alone with no build. View ›](https://justidea.agency/en/services/creative-agency/website-and-store-design/) Order of work ## Why we design the product page before the home page ![Four sketches of store views in design order: product page, basket, category and finally the home page](https://justidea.agency/assets/ill-projektowanie-sklepow-internetowych-warsztat.svg) We don't start with the home page. We design the views closest to the purchase decision first: the product page, category, basket and checkout. In most stores we run, that's where traffic from search and campaigns lands, while the home page tends to get discussed the longest despite deciding a purchase less often. It comes last, once we already know what it needs to lead to. A second rule governs the order within a view. We design online stores starting from the states that break sales, not the ones that look good in a wireframe: an unavailable product, one unit left in stock, a variant with no photo, a basket with a single item, a validation error on a form. A store spends more time in these states than anyone assumes while designing it. The workshop's output isn't a visual to sign off, but a full set of wireframes laid out in purchase-path order, each with a description of what should happen after a click. The same file describes both the design and the build, so there's no stage of translating graphics into code. Design scope ## Store UX beyond the brief: filters, search, empty states A brief usually talks about how the home page and product page should look. These are four things we design regardless of the brief, because without them a store performs worse than it looks. ### Filters that fit your catalogue Filtering by the attributes that matter in your category, not by whatever the platform gives by default. On a large catalogue this is the most important piece of navigation, and also the one that loads the database hardest, so we settle layout and performance together. ### Internal search Suggestions as you type, typo tolerance, results for everyday names and catalogue numbers. On a large catalogue, search is one of the main routes to a product. If it can't handle a typo or a catalogue number, the customer assumes the product doesn't exist and buys from a competitor instead. ### States where something's missing An empty basket, no search results, a discontinued product, a category with a single item. A platform's default messages look like a broken store in these moments, and a customer can't tell an outage from a simple lack of stock. ### Post-purchase views Order confirmation, shipment tracking, order history, returns. A customer who's already decided to buy sees these screens, and they decide whether that customer buys a second time. Most briefs don't mention them at all. Client reviews ## Reviews from outside the portfolio, including the less comfortable ones A portfolio only ever shows what went well, because that's what a portfolio is for. The three profiles show everything anyone chose to write, including the times we weren't the right fit. 4.96 / 5 weighted average of 224 reviews across three platforms. Clients gave them, and each site links to the profile with the full text of every review. [Read the reviews](https://justidea.agency/en/justidea-reviews/) [![Google](https://justidea.agency/assets/logo-google.svg) 4.97 / 5 156 reviews on our Google Business Profile See the profile](https://www.google.com/search?q=JustIdea+Agency+Krak%C3%B3w+opinie)[![Facebook](https://justidea.agency/assets/logo-facebook.svg) 5.0 / 5 33 reviews on our Facebook page See the profile](https://www.facebook.com/justidea.agency/reviews)[![Clutch](https://justidea.agency/assets/logo-clutch.svg) 4.9 / 5 35 B2B reviews, each verified in a call with the client See the profile](https://clutch.co/profile/justidea-agency) “ > Responsiveness, an understanding of our needs and taking the initiative are what let us call our joint project a success. Magda SkórskaDigital Marketing, LPP / House “ > They were always one step ahead of the competition, optimizing campaigns in real time. Katarzyna LenartowiczE-Commerce Manager, VANDA NOVAK • Clutch 5.0★ “ > Their responsiveness and strategic approach made them a reliable and results-driven partner. Andrzej SteckiCEO, BookingHost • Clutch 5.0★ Certifications and partnerships ## Design, technology and marketing on one team A store design looks good in a presentation, and only shows its real worth after launch and the first campaigns. That's why people who know the store's engine and the traffic that will land on these views sit in on the wireframes. These are the statuses behind that. ### Top Digital Design Company, e-commerce Kraków Clutch, e-commerce design ranking A ranking of e-commerce design work. It rests on reviews Clutch verifies with a call to the author, so it speaks to the results of delivered designs, not how they look in a portfolio. ### PrestaShop Expert ★★★ PrestaShop, agency programme A product page and basket wireframe then go into a build on a specific engine. The top tier of the agency programme means we design knowing what that engine does with no core rewriting, and what needs extra work. ### Google Premier Partner Google, top tier of the Google Partners programme A view you can't measure can't be defended or improved afterwards. This status gives us Google's support in measuring the purchase path, so we judge design changes by numbers, not by impression. ### Meta Business Partner Meta, programme for advertising agencies A product page also lives in advertising: the same shot and the same promise reach the catalogue on Facebook and Instagram. Partner status gives us data on what a customer does after clicking, so we design for both entry points at once. Doubts before you commit ## What we hear when quoting a store design We answer the same way here as on a call, even when the answer means a smaller job for us. ### “We have a theme, just change the colours” That's often enough, and we'll say so. We suggest a custom design when your range needs a different product page than a theme allows for: a configurator, a size table, dependent variants. A colour change doesn't solve that. ### “A graphic designer will do it faster and cheaper” They will, if they're given the catalogue architecture and a list of states to design. Without that you get three nice-looking screens and a question at every new view after. At JustIdea, most of the work happens before the first wireframe. ### “We'll decide on the look after the build” That's the most expensive order possible. Changing a layout after coding costs many times more than the same change in a wireframe, and the development team sits waiting in the meantime. That's why we sign off the design before the first line of code. FAQ ## Price, timeline and ownership of the design: questions before you decide **### How much does an online store design cost?** We quote after the workshop, because the price follows from the number of views and how unusual your purchase path is, not from the number of pages in the store. Designing the key views alone usually takes three to six weeks. If we build the store too, it's folded into the build quote rather than a separate invoice line. **### Can the design be built by a different contractor?** Yes. We hand over the wireframes and the Figma file along with a description of components and behaviour, so any team can build it. We do this regularly and don't make it hard: the design is yours from sign-off, whoever codes it afterwards. **### How many views go into a store design?** Usually five to eight patterns: home page, category, product page, basket, checkout and content pages. The rest of the catalogue is built from these patterns. Designing every page separately raises cost far more often than it raises sales. **### How is this different from a ready-made theme?** A premium theme is cheaper and faster, and for a first store it's often enough, and we'll say so. A custom design starts paying off once your range or purchase path departs from the standard, since bending a theme to fit then costs more than designing the views from scratch. **### Do you design the mobile version first?** Yes, and it's the primary version, not a variant. In most stores we run, mobile traffic is over half, so the first wireframe is the mobile product page and basket, and the desktop version is built as an extension of it. The reverse order ends with a product page where the price and buy button sit four scrolls down. **### Which platform do you design the store for?** A specific one, otherwise you end up with a good-looking wireframe that can't be built on a sensible budget. Most often that's PrestaShop for a complex catalogue and B2B sales, or WooCommerce where the store sits alongside content and a blog. We settle the choice at the workshop, before the first view. **### What software do the designs use, and what do I get at the end?** We work in Figma, and the wireframes are clickable, so you can walk the purchase path with a mouse before a single line of code is written. At the end you get the full set of views, a set of reusable components and a description of behaviour: what happens after a click, what an error state looks like, what shows when the basket is empty. **### Does the design account for accessibility?** Yes, and it's part of the craft, not an optional extra. Text contrast, tap target sizes, image alt text, keyboard support, a correct heading order. We design for accessibility primarily for people. Some of the same practices, such as a logical content structure or image descriptions, also happen to help a search engine understand the store. ## Price, purchase path and platform for a store design ** ### What decides the price of a store design We quote online store design by the number of patterns and processes, not by the number of products or pages. A store with a hundred thousand similar products can be simpler to design than one with a hundred products sold across several different models. Cost rises wherever the range needs different layouts: a configurator, bundles, made-to-order products, extensive filters. If we build the store too, the design is folded into the overall quote, so you pay once, not separately for graphics and separately for code. ** ### Three views that decide sales Three things affect orders the most: a product page that answers pre-purchase questions, filters matched to how customers actually search, and a basket with no surprises in shipping cost. Every other view matters too, but these three are where traffic turns into orders or into an exit. ** ### Design for PrestaShop and for WooCommerce A store design looks platform-independent, but it isn't. Filters, product variants and basket handling have different limits on each platform, and a wireframe that ignores that ends in a more expensive build or a quiet simplification once coding starts. That's why we know what the store will run on before the first view. ** ### Design as the first stage of building an online store Building an online store starts with deciding how it should behave, not with code. The design sets the behaviour of every view: which payment methods the customer sees in the basket, how the warehouse integration shows availability on the product page, and what the store displays when a product is out of stock. These decisions are cheaper in a wireframe than after the build, which is why we make them at the start. This is also where SEO begins: we plan category structure, headings and URLs together with the layout, not after sales have already started. ** ### Room for campaigns, planned before launch A store lives on traffic marketing brings in, so the design allows for campaign space: promotion pages, category banners, featured-product blocks and elements the marketing team can change themselves in the panel. Reusable components mean the next campaign doesn't need a new wireframe, and the purchase path stays the same. Improving sales carries on after launch too, but it's easier in a store that's had one consistent view logic from the start. This applies to every store, on PrestaShop and on WooCommerce alike. ## Let's first check whether you need a new design or just fixes 30 minutes on a call and you'll know whether fixing a few views is enough, or whether the purchase path is worth designing from scratch. If fixes are enough, you'll hear that on this call, not after signing a contract. ![A store technical audit with recommendations ordered by priority, leading to a decision: fix the current store or build a new one](https://justidea.agency/assets/ill-sklepy-internetowe-audyt.svg) Book a call about your store design Already have a working store? UX audit: €860 net, around 10 working days. Book a call about your store design Contact ## A conversation about your numbers: 30 minutes The call is led by a new business specialist. When we get into the details of an account, the specialist for that channel joins in. We reply within one business day. A quick review of your tracking and campaignsThree priorities for the next quarterA written summary that stays with you Before the meeting we review your website, your visibility and what your campaigns show from the outside. We will not open with “so, what does your company do?”. [Our rating: 4.96 out of 5, 224 reviews on Google, Facebook and Clutch](https://justidea.agency/en/justidea-reviews/) What happens after you send it 01 within 1 business day ### We reply to your email The reply comes from the same new business specialist who will run the call. No qualification form and no call from an unknown number. 02 this week ### A 30-minute conversation We go through your numbers and your questions. If it turns out we are not the right fit, we will tell you straight away.