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When choosing a new eCommerce platform for your business, there are ten key factors that are critical to a successful

Selecting a platform shouldn't be taken lightly with it being the heart of online businesses. The decision can be overwhelming, and you may not know where to start or have various questions before beginning your eCommerce journey.

To assist those looking to take their first steps into eCommerce, our 

 have produced a guide and sharable infographic explaining the key considerations when picking your eCommerce platform, making your choice easier.

infographic showing 10 key factors to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform

Your objectives and your audience are the two factors that should sit at the core of your decision. We also always advise merchants to consider the functionalities they need both now and in the longer-term, too. Taking a short-sighted approach will soon see you outgrow your solution.

Drawing upon our retail background, we can help you to get to the bottom of exactly what you need, and what your customers want as part of 

If you have a list of potential platforms and you know what your objectives are, then the next step is to weigh up the pros and cons of each one against your list of ‘must haves’.

You need to know how much you can afford to spend while remembering that this is an investment. Most eCommerce platforms will offer a different pricing structure depending on the features and support you require, and you need to decide if you're willing to spend more on the extras that your store could benefit from.

Your eCommerce platform is the foundation of your online business and having someone who can assist you should play an essential role in your decision. Do your research and compare each platform’s customer service options.

 to help you get the most from your Shopify site.

Can your platform grow with your business? Will it be able to handle higher traffic demands in the future, and even different currency or language options? Your chosen solution should be flexible and capable of supporting your future ambitions.

Security is a big concern, and a good eCommerce platform will not only protect your brand but your customers, too. Although most solutions offer robust security standards, it’s important to understand whether you’re responsible for maintaining this or not.

Consider what tools you’ll require for your store to operate the way you want it to. 

 and integrations can extend functionality and performance to create a better shopping experience for your customers, but they may come at an extra cost.

If you don’t make it easy for your customers to pay, how can you expect to make sales? Today it’s common for brands to offer a number of different payment options on site such as Klarna, PayPal and Apple Pay but not all eCommerce platforms can support these choices.

If you’re working to a tight deadline, this needs to be considered in your platform choice. Different platforms take different amounts of time to get up and running and this timescale will heavily depend on your requirements.

While you might have a brilliant looking website, if Google struggles to crawl or index it, your customers are going to struggle to find it. Look for a platform that’s SEO friendly - you want to be able to use your own domain name, gather customer reviews and add articles and blogs.

For more information on the replatforming process, designing your store, Shopify apps, integrations and migrating your data please visit 

To read more about choosing the right eCommerce platform for your business, you can download our 

infographic: 10 factors to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform.

First impressions are important for eCommerce businesses. We’ve all seen the statistics before: 

it can take just 17 to 50 milliseconds for people to form a first impression

. In eCommerce design, this can be quite the challenge so it’s important we get it right.

In this blog we discuss the role of design principles as part of the eCommerce experience and how designers can use these foundations to make the customerexperience enjoyableand hassle-free.

revolves around encouraging the user to make a purchase. A straightforward, simple user journey on an eCommerce website often follows this order:

The initial impression is made during the first stage, known as website discovery. During this short space of time, the user needs to be able to understand if your business is relevant to their needs. While this first impression is an uncontrollable, emotional reaction, the focus then switches to a cognitive process where the user decides if they want to continue their shopping journey with you. This next phase is all about fulfilment such as:

can they navigate your website with ease?

do the delivery options suit their timescales?

Each of these factors can be impacted by the quality of design on your eCommerce store. This is where design principles come into play.

the low down on ecommerce design principles

When we talk about eCommerce design principles, we’re essentially referring to best practice guidelines. These are the commonly accepted principles that designers can trust in and that shoppers expect from an eCommerce experience.

While expected design features will get you so far in creating an enjoyable shopping experience for your users, they won’t create the best result for your brand. That’s why we suggest using them to lay the design foundations of your store, before layering with research tailored to your brand. Only by doing this will you be able to truly understand what your business and audience needs to generate the optimum user experience.

Don’t underestimate just how valuable research can be. You may believe you already know what your eCommerce store needs from a design point of view. But research combined with design best practices gives you an even better chance of driving conversions with your users.

By researching and layering these three core areas, unique solutions can be formed that are tailormade for your business and your audiences’ needs:

Examples of features that shoppers expect from an eCommerce store include but aren’t limited to:

access to key information such as about the brand, refunds and deliverables

a homepage that succinctly summarises what the business sells

These are a good starting point when considering what features your audience will have become accustomed to using while engaging with eCommerce stores. However, the real research into your users is what will uncover invaluable design insight that can be translated on your website. 

Every eCommerce shopper is unique. Some users visit a store with a specific product in mind and swiftly make a purchase. Others use the store as part of their discovery process when deciding exactly what they want to buy, and some may simply browse to kill time.

While every element of an eCommerce store is important, different types of shoppers rely on different areas. So, how can you create a shopping experience with these various shopper personas in mind?

In some cases, such as when you’re a new business or don’t have the budget to conduct extensive audience research, using the 

Nielsen Norman Group’s 5 Types of eCommerce Shoppers

 is often an effective option. This research concluded that there are five main types of eCommerce shoppers:

These shoppers know exactly what they want and it’s all about speed. They aren’t looking to browse the site; they just want to find the product they need and checkout with ease. When designing for this persona, consider:

clear product images, descriptions and names

effective and fast site search functionality

Browsers are leisurely shoppers who are using your eCommerce store as a form of entertainment or inspiration. This is a good thing as it means there are plenty of opportunities to convert these browsers into shoppers. To help do this, consider elements such as:

listing new items, popular items or on sale products

providing access to new inventory or recommended products

the ability to save the products the user likes 

These shoppers plan to purchase but it might not happen today. They could simply be collecting product information and prices during their researching journey. Researchers may visit multiple sites but if your site is part of their research, you’re in with a chance of converting the user. Trust is significant to this persona so consider:

social proof such as UGC and genuine user reviews

Bargain hunters are quite simply looking for the best deal. The goal is to convert these people into repeat buyers by offering incentives to encourage a purchase such as discounts, coupons or free shipping. When designing for this persona, consider:

displaying sale items at different touchpoints

listing product prices and clearly labelling discounts or savings

allowing easy to redeem discounts at the checkout

These shoppers could be any of the above and they may come with a goal in mind of what they want from your website. However, this persona has no intention to visit the site again after the purchase has been made as they’re only looking to satisfy a one-time need. One-time shoppers usually aren’t familiar with the site they’re visiting. As such, it’s important to consider:

clear site navigation and product categories

trust signals such as recognised payment gateways and social proof

the ability to checkout without registration

By understanding the different motivations and habits each persona has when they visit a site can help you make decisions that improve performance and support user needs.

If you want to take a deeper dive into your specific users to create your own shopper personas, this can be done too. Using a range of industry tools and research methods, we conduct a number of tests to gain further insight. These include:

To really get under the skin of your audience and how they use your website, a UX workshop could be beneficial. During this process, 

website accessibility is also reviewed and considered

Understanding exactly who your competition is can be hugely beneficial to your brand. A competitor analysis is a great way of getting to know the wider landscape your business sits within as well as how user expectations are being met on similar eCommerce stores.

Combining this competitor research with customer data and insight from Google Analytics generates a clear idea of your market position, how you compete and what makes you stand out.This knowledge allows you to understand which elements of your website design need strengthening to push you ahead of competitors.

The research stage is also an ideal time to complete a UX audit to see what’s working and what isn’t so we can get to work making improvements. This process can also answer important questions such as:

when do users most commonly leave your site?

where are users getting stuck on your website?

Even when you’re following best practice design principles on your eCommerce store, it’s crucial to test the impact.

This is something we take seriously. With insight from the extensive research completed, our process involves testing the impact of our recommendations through visual designs before rolling them out across development.

During this time, it’s important to strike the balance of standing out among the competition versus your site still being usable. 

 – which is renowned in the design world - says that users spend most of their time on other sites meaning they want your site to work the same way as the other sites they know. Users will naturally transfer expectations from one familiar product to another they see as similar. This needs to be taken into account when designing to ensure the user can focus on their tasks rather than on learning new ways of using the site.

Testing can help with this, supporting you inavoiding wasting time, money and effort on design elements that don’t have the effect you wanted them to. Testing of visual design changes can be done with:

While our design methods are always underpinned by best practice and well-known eCommerce design principles, we tailor our solutions to the individual businesses we work with. Whether we carry out the design or work alongside your design agency, we can cater to your needs.

, we’re experienced at full redesigns, design refreshes and complete overhauls of the user experience to create the shopping journey your customers want. 

Get in touch to find out more about the way we work

the role of design principles within your eCommerce store.

The most celebrated digital marketing agencies gathered at Manchester Hall last night for the announcement of the annual Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies 2022, with the top spot going to Harrogate based, IDHL Group.

IDHL were already on the radar, ranking in the top ten for the last seven years and taking the number two position in 2021. Following an extremely successful few years which has included private investment and new acquisitions to the group, it was celebrations all round when the winner of 2022 was announced.

"A wonderful evening and a brilliant outcome for all the team at IDHL. We have had a very busy, but extremely successful 12 months, which has seen us welcome the brands of Fostr and Ampersand to the portfolio. To take the coveted number one spot is testament to all the hard work from our teams across the business, and so to them I would like to say, thank you."

IDHL Group consists of nine digital marketing agencies including WMG, Ingenuity Digital, equation, NetConstruct, Statement, Pinpoint, Wired Plus, Fostr and Ampersand, across four locations in the UK.

Rankings are based on information sourced from the individual organisations and verified by Companies House, these factors include the balance sheet, turnover, pre-tax profit, shareholder funds, headcount and growth.

idhl group named the no1 digital agency by prolific north.

blog post last year that shared information into the anticipated release of Shopify Markets

 and readily available to those who want to use it.

Let’s take a look at what Shopify Markets can do and how it can support your growth ambitions.

Before Markets entered the Shopify scene, merchants had to set up multiple online stores to cater for individual regions. But it has become all the more important for businesses to have the tools at their fingertips that will allow them to tap into opportunities eCommerce offers.

Designed to make this easy for merchants, Shopify Markets lets you sell to anyone online from one single store. Streamlining global expansion, Shopify Markets will make your eCommerce operations seamless including pricing, currencies and calculating duties all in one admin console.

what can you benefit from with shopify markets?

If you want to make shopping experiences easier and more familiar, no matter where your customers are browsing from, you need certain tools and functionalities that Shopify Markets offers:

currencies: Your storefront will be converted to local currencies for international customers. 

languages: The language of your store will be translated to the local language of the customers as they browse and shop.

domains: Have the freedom to create international domains optimised for search results to drive more relevant traffic to your store.

duties: Collect duties and import taxes at checkout so your global customers know exactly what they’re paying for.

payments: Provide local payment methods to increase trust and conversions with your international shoppers.

custom markets: Define relevant market areas and create a single country market or group multiple countries together.

market optimisation: Optimise on a global scale with personalised recommendations designed with specific markets in mind.

The platform has already released information on three new areas that will be coming soon to Shopify Markets:

storefront content by market: Customise the content on your storefront to connect with customers in a relevant way for shoppers in different markets. 

product catalogues by market: Customise your product offering for each market to provide a more engaging and relevant experience. 

global inventory locations: Show accurate inventory to international customers based on stock at local/preferred fulfilment locations.


taking your business global with shopify markets

If expanding is on the cards for your eCommerce business, Shopify Markets is designed to support you in creating a relevant, seamless and engaging shopping experience for your customers – wherever they are. Use it to grow your markets, boost sales, scale faster and connect with your audience.

Want to find out more about Shopify Markets or if it’s a suitable option for your ambitions? We’ve worked with the likes of 

 to grow their global presence and can do the same for you. 

shopify markets and your ecommerce store.

The growth we’ve seen in the digital industry is colossal. While this presents lots of opportunities, it can make getting started in a digital career feel hugely overwhelming.

To support this growth and young people finding their way in the digital world, 

we’ve launched a graduate development programme

. Our programme has been created to build your skill set, support your progression and help you to carve your own path to enjoy a thriving digital career.

Read our blog to find out more about what it entails, the opportunities available and how it can kick start your work path.

The graduate programme follows a structured process that allows you to gain both job role and personal skills. Welcoming digital enthusiasts twice a year in January and July, the programme was designed to last a full year giving you a real taste of the digital world.

Our digital development programme is here to help you define your path in a supported environment, opening the doors to a digital career you can be proud of. Here are just a few areas you can expect from the graduate track:

a comprehensive induction process that allows you to get started with confidence and certainty.

a dedicated mentor on-hand to aid your personal and professional development.

defined sign off points giving you something to aim for alongside regular reviews and ongoing feedback.

monthly development sessions with the wider graduate cohort.

a flexible approach to learning that recognises and supports how individuals work differently.

certifications and accreditations that are relevant to your track.

an opportunity to learn from the best and work with our experts to benefit from their experience.

Within the digital industry, there’s a big skills shortage. Like many agencies, we struggle to recruit people with the right experience in the areas we need. A graduate programme is an effective way to home grow talent to support impressive growth while also supporting the next generation of digital enthusiasts in their early careers.

Our Learning and Development Partner, Lindsey, explains why the introduction of a graduate track has been so important:

“There’s loads of benefits to our graduate track for the candidates. They’re coming into a really structured role in an industry that many students may not know a lot about. But more importantly, it's about supporting young people and students with getting into work. As a result of the pandemic, a lot of graduate roles were rescinded, and it hit students hard. We work closely with universities, and they've said that not only has it been tough for them to find roles, but their confidence levels are low too.”

Graduate tracks aren’t new by any means. Many businesses and agencies offer their own version of a graduate scheme, but many can’t offer the level of programme we can, backed by a wider group.

Our track is an IDHL Group graduate programme. With nine connected agencies at our fingertips, you will be exposed to a much wider variety of experiences and clients to help you understand where your qualities are best suited.

Alongside this, we plan to transition all candidates into permanent roles at the end of the programme. Unlike other programmes that take on a big number of candidates but can only offer a small handful of roles at the end, we have the means to offer each and every individual a role.

what structure does the graduate track follow? 

Getting your digital journey off to an all-embracing start, our programme will challenge you, expand your knowledge, provide new experiences and build your skill set to support future progression and growth.

Split down into a clear structure, you can head into each stage of the graduate track with confidence and clarity:

apply: When the roles are released, the first stage is to apply for any, or multiple roles, and send your CV. We then take the time to shortlist potential candidates – a lengthy process considering our first intake had over 600 applicants.


open day: Once shortlisting has been done, candidates are invited to attend an open day where they’ll be given the chance to meet people from the business including operation managers, managing directors and specific team members too.


first stage interview: Then comes the first stage interview completed by our in-house talent team and hiring managers. This is an informal career discussion so we can really understand what you’re looking for and the skills you have.

Once this has been done, you’ll either be offered the role, or if we want to do a second interview or a practical task, we’ll book that in.


induction: The first graduate track will begin at the end of July with a comprehensive induction that will welcome you into the agency and answer all the questions you may have to you get you started with confidence in your new position.


the day-to-day: You’ll move into your specific roleto begin your experience. In terms of support, you’ll have a day-to-day person that will look after your learning and development.

As well as this, you’ll have a mentor from a different area of the business too as we believe it’s important to have support that isn't directly related to your day-to-day role or your performance. This person is there to help you develop personally, support you career aspirations and network across different areas of the Group for a well-rounded experience.


monthly development: Each month, you’ll join together as a full graduate cohort to take part in a monthly development day. These days will cover soft skills development such as presentation skills or self-awareness training and there will also be sessions run by industry experts.


looking to the future: While the programme spans 12 months, from around the nine-month point, we’ll be looking atthe permanent role you’ll be transitioning into after successfully passing the programme. At the end of the year, you’ll have your very own sign off and celebration, a bit like a mini graduation.

Setting you up for success, our tracks are designed to help you reach expert status in your chosen discipline. As an eCommerce agency specialising in Shopify Plus, we can offer roles across development, digital design, business development and client services.

developer: Looking at a career as a developer? This track will give you the chance to understand the latest and greatest in website development technology and would be ideal for someone who’s studied Computer Science.

digital design: Want to learn UX design principles and find out how to translate briefs into user-centred web designs? The digital design track lets you jump straight into the world of UX and digital design.

business development: A core part of our offering, the Business Development track would suit those with a determination to succeed and an enthusiasm for all things customer and digital.

client services: If you're a great communicator and you’re passionate in digital, our Client Services track will give you the chance to learn all aboutdelivering high levels of customer service.

Graduate tracksare also available across PPC and SEOthrough the wider IDHL Group. Read Lindsey’s interview with our connected agency, WMG to hear more about these opportunities: 

Personality and potential are key. You may not have had any previous experience and that’s ok. Provided we can see potential and that you’re a good fit for our teams and culture, that’s what matters most to us.

If you’ve had some form of work experience, can display your competency for communicating or have a hobby that shows commitment to learning a new skill, don’t be afraid to let us know. This is what will help you stand out.

This is just the beginning of your digital career. Your progression doesn’t simply stop when the graduate track is over. Once you’ve completed the programme and moved into a permanent role, you’re then well looked after by our ongoing training and development processes.

This includes career progression opportunities, regular 121s, personal development plans, ongoing training and so on to ensure you’re well equipped to continue striving through the digital career you desire. Backed by our support, you’re empowered to make a real business impact.

Plus, as part of the wider growing IDHL Group, we have the added benefit of being able to offer more than just a handful of permanent roles. Instead, we focus on talent development, investing in you for the long term to offer clear career paths and opportunities.

There’s nothing more exciting to us than watching our people thrive in all that they do. As a rapidly growing business, with this comes significant opportunity. Setting you up for success, we want to give you the very best start to your career development. To find out more about the opportunities available to you or to discuss our graduate scheme in more depth, 

the ins and outs of our graduate programme.

How to meet user expectations with your eCommerce website. 

A Guide to eCommerce Personalisation: Driving More Orders.

How to Write Compelling Product Descriptions that Sell.

It’s easy to become so laser-focused on attracting users to your online store, that how to convert passive visitors into purchasing customers can often be overlooked.With businesses investing so much time and money into driving people to their site,making the most of this traffic is hugely important to the success of your customer acquisition strategy. 

So, how can brands encourage visitors to continue their shopping journey with them, from the point of landing on their site to conversion?


make the user experience the best it can be

When shopping online, the tactile experience of in-store browsing is lost. It’s not possible to feel the fabric, you can’t see exactly how well the colour will complement and you can’t truly picture the size of that item.

It has becomethe responsibility of merchants to overcome these barriers within the shopping experience to encourage consumers to choose your brand, your product, and your online store to shop with.

As more people opt for online shopping, crafting an intuitive and frictionless eCommerce experience is vital to meeting the growing needs of savvy shoppers.

If your online user experience is falling short of what consumers have come to expect, 

your store performance will likely be affected

 and reaching your goals becomes more difficult. No matter how extensive your initial research was pre-development, or how much testing your site went through, unexpected pain points will likely emerge over time with real usage.

Undertaking a UX auditon your site is a highly informative exercise. Analysing your store to shed light on where improvements can be made, performance issues that hinder site speed, problems with accessibility and barriers users face that impactconversionswill be uncovered.

Provided with this detailed insight, you can prioritise site changes designed to support a better user journey. 

Creating a truly tailored online experience requires you to get under the skin of your audience. With no room for assumptions, you need to understand their motivations and what they need from your website. Workshops, focus groups and user data are regularly used to do this. With the right tools,a wealth of first party consented data is available to you that can outline your customers’ behaviours and how your store is used.

To learn as much as possible about your users, we find that combining the 

 and user analysis is best. Leveraging this insight, from regions to browsing history, abandoned carts to average order size, you will be much closer to making that personalised online experience a reality.

You’ll have heard the expression, “if you try to be something to everyone, you’ll end up nothing to anyone”. When your brand messaging lacks purpose, your conversions will suffer. Armed with a greater understanding of your audience, you can create buyer personas that will see your strategy move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach.

Web analytics, shopping data, competitor research, surveys and customer service analysis can all feed into building buyer personas. But why should you use them?

Segmenting your audience by customer needs and motivations, buyer personas help you to deliver tailored messaging and communications relevant to the different stages of each group’s buying journey. Taking this approach, the shopping experience is all the more enjoyable as the user feels their needs are aligned with a brand that truly understands them. Delivering this level of personalisation also helps to build long-term loyalty between the brand and consumer.


Stopping shoppers in their tracks, ‘hidden’ links are an easily avoidable sin. When branding and design wins over practical usability, call-to-action buttons often fall victim. If your users don’t recognise that a link is there to interact with, why would they click it? 

Your CTA buttons need to be designed in a way that makes it evident they are there to be clicked. When you have strict brand guidelines to adhere to, applying subtle interactions can be a clever way to boost visibility. These could include:

Regularly check that all your links work and go to the right place too. The occasional broken link is inevitable but don’t leave users at a dead end. An engaging 404 error page could soon put shoppers back on the right track with options or related products presented.


If you fail to ensure accessibility as part of your eCommerce store, you risk alienating a substantial proportion of your target audience. In the UK alone,

4.5 percent of the entire population are colour blind

six million people are living with eye conditions that threaten their site experience.

 This is already a significant number before even considering the international impact and wider disabilities.

Building a store that holds accessibility at the forefront

 ensures that no user will face barriers that stop them from accessing, using, interacting with or benefiting from your website. To achieve this, 

familiarising yourself with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

is a great place to start. Used by both the UK and US governments, WCAG clearly outlines the accessibility criteria for reaching each of the three defined accessibility standards – A, AA and AAA.

With just three to five seconds to engage a user before you lose them, you need to ensure thatyour content resonates, and quickly. From 

real user reviews and images that give a social rubber stamp of approval

, to rich video content that shows off your product, its benefits and how it can be used, there are countless ways to communicate with your audience while adding value to their shopping experience.

Featured content is a great tactic to lead your audience through a journey too. ‘How to’ blogs, styling tips and interviews are great ways to introduce products to your audience with cross-linking made easy. Your content is another opportunity to reinforce your brand and make an impression. With your audience in mind, consider your choice of language, their needs and motivations and make sure they are all aligned. 

How often do you add something to the basket never to make it to the checkout? You’re not alone. This is what makes the mini basket a great, although easily overlooked, place for promotion.

Keep key messaging front of mind as users add the items they like to their basket. Remind them of all the reasons why they should continue to complete their purchase with you - from offers and discount codes, delivery information and free shipping, to promoting your wide range of payment solutions such as Klarna, PayPal and ApplePay; you could even use the space to display a customer testimonial.

Effective use of product filtering helps users quickly narrow down their options to meet their requirements faster. This is particularly helpful when your product category contains a large number of items.

With your products in mind, carefully consider what filters are possible, needed and helpful. Just because you could achieve a certain level of granularity thanks to your extensive product information doesn’t mean you should. Decide what level of filtering is right and logical for your business.

With your filters ready to go and the most commonly used listed first, you can monitor their usage in Google Analytics to help you further refine the options.

A sure-fire way to encourage further clicks is to suggest recommended products to users based on their viewing history. This doesn’t need to be limited to just product pages either. Your home page and checkout are also there to be tailored to the user and can be used to create an end-to-end personalised experience. Adding further personalisation through these touchpoints will help to make users feel valued. 

Expert ecommerce advice, Shopify insights and optimisation tips.css-vykmad{color:var(--chakra-colors-brand-500);}.

Expert ecommerce advice, Shopify insights and optimisation tips.