Ecommerce Website Design Inspiration: The Best Places to Find Inspiration for Shopify Sites

If you’re ready to start building the perfect online store, but you have no idea where to begin, the internet is packed with great resources for ecommerce website design inspiration. While you can certainly just check out competitor stores (and we definitely recommend doing this), visiting a few inspiration sites can be a great way to get your creative juices flowing.

These sites showcase examples of everything from attractive ecommerce home pages to collection page layouts, cart designs, and more. They could even give you the insider knowledge you need to enhance customer experiences on your website (and increase sales).

So, where do you begin? Here we’ll share some of our favorite resources for design inspiration.

Ecommerce Website Design Inspiration: Top Sites and Solutions

Before we start listing the websites you can use to find inspiration for your ecommerce store, it’s worth sharing some top tips on how to use these resources effectively. Great ecommerce website design is all about building trust with customers, delivering an excellent shopping experience, and making your brand stand out from the crowd.

When you’re browsing through the following sites and directories remember:

• Don’t just copy other designs: Never simply copy and paste another website’s design for your own Shopify store. Not only could you get in trouble for copyright issues, but you won’t make your brand stand out. Focus on making your design unique to your company, with custom product photography, unique branding and color palettes. 
• Expand your inspiration pool: Check out a wide range of different types of ecommerce websites, including those that aren’t linked to your industry. Look at different pages and landing pages, and learn as much as you can about which design strategies generate the best results before you begin building your store.
• Work with an expert: Ultimately, ecommerce website design inspiration will only take you so far. You also need the skills to bring your vision to life. Invest in a Shopify expert to help you create and customize the perfect themes and pages. 

With that out of the way, let’s dive into some top sources of inspiration.

1. Storetasker: Shopify Ecommerce Website Inspiration

We might be biased, but we designed the Storetasker website as more than just an educational hub, and to give freelancers and website owners an easy way to connect. We also want to inspire as many business owners as possible. That’s why we share customer stories and design tips on our blog, and regularly upload examples of expertly created pages to our website. 

Our Shopify Examples page is brimming with great instances of beautiful home pages, product pages, forms, landing pages, and more. You’re sure to find something that appeals to you here, and when you do, you can contact our team directly for help creating your own version. 

You can even subscribe to our email newsletter, and we’ll share new examples with you regularly. Whether you’re a business owner, or a Shopify website designer, these examples are sure to come in handy when you’re searching for ecommerce website design inspiration.

2. Ecommerce Showcase

Ecommerce Showcase is a website exclusively dedicated to sharing examples of some of the most impressive, branded ecommerce stores on the market. It was originally intended to be an in-house tool for the company’s creative team, but it’s attracted a lot of visitors over the years. 

You can sort through examples by platform or store type, meaning it’s easy to focus on “Shopify specific” design options. Plus, when you click on an example, you’ll get a full insight into various pages, as well as a direct link to the site so you can explore it for yourself. 

3. Dribbble

Dribbble is a platform built for designers and developers, which allows them to showcase their work, connect with new clients, take courses, and find fantastic ecommerce website design inspiration. All you need to do to use the website is search for “ecommerce” in the provided search bar, and you’ll be presented with tons of examples of store wireframes, pages, and icons.

All of the designs on the platform get ratings and reviews from other customers, so you know just how impressive they are at a glance. Plus, you can sort through options by what’s popular and what’s new. There’s even the option to focus specifically on Shopify website designs.

4. Ecomm.Design

One of the newer websites offering inspiration and guidance to website designers, Ecomm.Design is a comprehensive platform where you can find ecommerce templates, tools, insightful blog posts, and even resources to help you build your store. 

The site is constantly being updated with new site examples, so you’ll be able to stay on the cutting edge of the industry. Plus, you can filter through options by platform, category, tools used, and other factors. Clicking on an example will also show you which platform it’s built with, what technology the site uses, and even which theme the site has used. 

5. Awwwards

Awwwards.com is another multi-faceted website that combines ecommerce website design inspiration with intuitive blog posts, learning resources, and free tools. We love how easy it makes it to sort through examples of websites based on their functionality, style, or technology used. 

The company even regularly hosts award ceremonies, where it names the site of the day, month, or year, and introduces the most “highlighted” profiles of designers. Technically, the site doesn’t just focus on ecommerce, but there are more than enough great examples of online stores to get you started if you’re interested in online selling.

6. Baymard Institute

The Baymard Institute is a globally recognized research company, committed to offering insights to designers on how to improve user experience, transform website design, and enhance customer interactions. The company’s site is brimming with valuable resources, from proprietary research and reports (which you can access for free), to blog posts and guides.

It’s “free UX research” section is home to tens of thousands of ecommerce design examples, organized across different page types and use cases. You can find inspiration on everything from homepage design to navigation menus, and more.

7. Pinterest

Think Pinterest is just for home décor or shopping inspiration? Think again. This visual social media platform is a great resource for anyone who needs help choosing amazing design strategies for virtually any use case. Search for Ecommerce website design on the platform and you’ll find dozens of great examples of beautiful sites, created by professional designers. 

You can even go deeper and look for Shopify website design inspiration directly. The great thing about Pinterest is you can also “pin” all the designs you like on your account, which means it’s easy to go back to your collection and browse through everything you’ve saved. 

8. 99Designs

99Designs by Vista is a platform dedicated to helping companies find designers that can work with them on a range of strategies, from product packaging design to ecommerce design. It’s also a great site to visit if you’re looking for ecommerce website design inspiration. 

The site has its own dedicated “Inspiration” section packed with hundreds of examples of ecommerce sites and pages. Users can even rate the designs on the page, so you can see quickly how many people have “voted” for a design before you use similar tactics with your own website. Plus, you’ll be able to invite freelancers to work with you directly from the examples you view.

9. Shopify

Finally, if you’re looking for ecommerce website design inspiration and you’re particularly interested in using Shopify as your platform, the Shopify website itself is brimming with resources. With a Shopify account, you can preview any theme to see what it will look like on your own store (even if it’s a premium option). 

Plus, Shopify regularly produces blog posts and articles that offer insights into some of the best ecommerce site design trends and strategies. We definitely recommend checking out the Shopify blog whenever you want to learn more about ecommerce and UX design too.

Use Your Ecommerce Website Design Inspiration

With all of the various sources of ecommerce website design inspiration to choose from above, you should have plenty of guidance to help you launch your new store. However, if you really want to make sure your design matches your brand, and delivers the right results for your business, remember that Shopify expertise can go a long way.

Contact the Storetasker team to be matched with an expert that can bring your ecommerce vision to life. Alternatively, if you’re a website designer yourself, why not make the most of all the inspiration you just got, by joining the Storetasker community?

We’ll help to match you with clients who can make the most of your design skills and creativity.

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