A Clean Store = More Sales

How Online Cleanliness Is Just As Important As Offline

So you want to have an effective online store? Then you better keep it neat and tidy.

Graphic design plays an important role in the effectiveness of any website, and that counts all online stores. Imagine walking into a real store where the products on the shelves aren't organized, the floor is a mess and none of the aisles are labeled. It would be pretty hard to find what you're looking for, wouldn't it?

Good design goes beyond a nice layout, legible fonts and pretty graphics, though.  Though it's debatable at times, the core of good design is typically usability. The user experience is often overlooked when sites are designed, set aside by designers who are out to either impress their other designer friends or who are focused on form rather than function.  It's a delicate balance, certainly.

Let's look at some examples of good and bad online store design.

One of my favourite online stores is Threadless, an online clothing store where anyone can design a t-shirt and the community votes for the best one, and then the company prints and sells it, and shares the profits with the designer.



As you can see, there are large photos upfront, showcasing featured products, and menu navigation that is intuitive - the guys and girls clothing is split, and when you hover over a menu, it shows you the sale prices of the shirts, and gives you options to go straight to the sale or to check out the full catalog. Easy!

Now here's a particularly bad one:



Just take a minute and visit this absolute abomination of a website. You will come to appreciate all the good things you never noticed on other pages. This is a navigational nightmare, and a perfect example why websites need proper design.

The moral of the story? Keep your online store as clean as your real store, and you'll see the results you're looking for.