Essential Features for Responsive eCommerce Web Design

Many trends for eCommerce come and go with the years, but one thing that’ll forever stay the same is the fact that online stores need to provide a top-notch user experience. This will determine how well your potential customers will be able to interact with your brand, impacting the sales of your products and services. You can improve your user experience by implementing responsive eCommerce web design best practices into your site as well as adding a few key features. Because we have worked with several of our clients to help make their eCommerce sites more responsive, we’ve decided to dedicate an entire article to the topic. Keep reading to learn all about eCommerce responsive web design! 

What is responsive eCommerce web design?

Responsive web design for eCommerce consists of a user-friendly design for an online store that anticipates the customer’s needs and provides an efficient on-page experience. Not only is eCommerce responsive web design important to make your customers stay on your site for longer and enjoy making a purchase from your store, but it’s also important when it comes to eCommerce SEO. In fact, Google has its own recommended guidelines for responsive eCommerce web design. All in all, responsive eCommerce sites attract more customers and rank better on search queries. 

5 key features to create a responsive web design for eCommerce

1. A fluid grid base: 

Websites, especially eCommerce stores, are no longer based on pixel measurements. Because there are so many different devices with various screen sizes, responsive eCommerce design starts with a fluid grid base for all sites. This arranges the elements on the screen based on each device’s screen size, creating countless variations as needed. The fluid grid allows the different elements, including typography, to adapt and resize their dimensions to fit any screen. These grids are made of different columns and have their width and dimensions scaled to be more flexible. All you need to do is embed a fluid grid on your eCommerce store’s source code and you can start laying out the ground base for a responsive eCommerce web design. 

2. Media queries:

Media queries are one of the key features for responsive web design for eCommerce because they are easy-to-use filters for CSS code that can simply create different styles according to the device. Also called breakpoints, they are great for modifying the width and layouts when there are several screen sizes to adapt your store to. They also determine the type of environment - screen size, device, or web application, that your site is currently running in for each user and make modifications to provide the best user experience. 

3. Optimized product images/graphics: 

Optimizing your product images will not only improve your site’s loading times but it will also make your eCommerce store a lot more responsive. This is because non-flexible images can not work properly on certain screen sizes or web browsers, causing users to have a poor experience with your site. Optimizing your images with lazy loading or flexible sizes will help to minimize your page abandonment rates and display your products better without having to make potential customers wait to see them. Make sure to allow images to automatically render and modify their max-width based on the screen they appear on each time to provide users with a responsive eCommerce web design. 

4. Whitespace:

Whitespace is usually referred to as an amplifier that helps potential customers and eCommerce store users focus on the sure’s content more efficiently. This eCommerce responsive web design feature has to do with padding and margins, as adding the correct Whitespace can ensure these don’t disappear on smaller screens or become too empty on bigger devices. It’s all about font sizing and line spacing, which will be up to your eyes (or those of your professional development team) to decide on the best dimensions to provide the best user experience possible. Just play around with the elements and figure out what better fits each screen size and your store’s visual aesthetic. 

5. Relative sizing of all elements:

While relative sizing might be a given for all flexible and optimized images, the other elements of every page within your online store should also boast this responsive eCommerce web design feature. A relative unit length will help you make every element in your store more responsive thanks to the way it can change sizes according to the size of the device/screen. This will help users access all features, including side bars and touch buttons, thanks to the elements adapting to each browser’s width. 

Need help creating responsive eCommerce sites?

There are different responsive web design features that can make or break an eCommerce store. They can be easy to identify but solving them can become a challenging task if you don’t have a dedicated team of IT professionals working on the back and front ends of your site. That’s why at Resolve Digital we specialize in custom eCommerce development solutions that can take your online store to the next level. Whether you need to make your website more responsive or want to build a new store from scratch, we have the talent and experience needed for any eCommerce development task. Contact us today to learn more about our services!