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When we think of digital interfaces, they’re usually bright and white. But dark-themed designs have a place in a more sustainable future. And this is something we care about. 

Back in 2022, Google determined that a completely white screen uses around six times the energy of an entirely black screen. You might worry that a darker design will make your website dull. But dark can be sophisticated and when complemented with muted tones or brighter colours, can really give your brand a memorable look. 

Not only are darker colour palettes better for the planet, but they also benefit your users. How? Darker designs mean a longer battery life. 

So, have a browse and enjoy our dark mode. 


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Gifting: Are You Ready for Peak?

How Shopify Scripts Can Maximise Bundling for Peak Trading.

Preparing For Peak Trading with COVID-19.

what to read next.

Peak is approaching and it’s approaching fast. After 

Shopify merchants reported record-breaking results

 last Black Friday Cyber Monday, will this year’s peak excel last year’s results or be impacted by a tougher financial climate? Only time will tell but failing to prepare for peak is one surefire way to see your profits plummet during the busiest time of year for eCommerce.

We're taking a look at how to get your Shopify store in tip-top shape to ensure your success this peak. 

how to prepare your store for the heightened demand

why communicating with your audience before peak is so important

how to integrate your peak plan with other channels

how Shopify can help you make the most of peak

If you haven’t done so already, it’s high time you began your peak preparations. The busiest trading time of the year, BFCM and Christmas shopping can put a strain on your customer experience if you’re not well prepared.

Jonathan Healey, MD at Statement, gives us his thoughts on peak amid a more turbulent financial landscape: 

“The problem with peak for many retailers is knowing how much to invest upfront in their digital landscape. Generally speaking over the last decade digital trading has been a banker and the more you invest the better the returns. But is that still the case in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and an economy on the brink of recession?

Retailers may be tempted to adopt a “wait and see” approach this year and aim to leave any investment as late as possible. The risk here is that by the time you are ready to act your agency may be fully booked and you may have missed your opportunity. My advice would be to prepare well in advance for “Gold”, “silver” and “bronze” options during peak, be ready to push the button on all of them at a moment’s notice but commit early to completing at least your bronze list. Stepping up to silver or gold might come at a premium should you decide to do it last minute, but at that point it will almost certainly be worth it.”

Now is the time to clearly define your goals and the steps you’ll take to reach them. Here are some of the top considerations you need to consider in your peak plan:

A good place to start is by looking at last year’s performance. While it’s likely changes will occur this year, by analysing your previous data, you will be able to form a better picture of what to expect and where to focus your efforts for the best return. Consider possible trends for best selling products and when they experienced high sales demand.

It’s worth looking at which channels are driving traffic to your best sellers. Is it paid, social media, email, organic? Doing so will allow you to use this channel to drive maximum traffic to the areas you want.

Without enough stock, peak trading is set to be a bust. Using data and an understanding of what your audience is interested in, you can source the right products in the right quantities.

Promotions are the backbone of BFCM. Everyone expects a deal. Promotions, events and discounts should be considered during the planning phase. What discount is both affordable to you and attractive to your customers? Have you created marketing collateral to promote your offers? Which channels are you going to advertise them on?

Providing excellent customer service plays a big role in peak success and can help you stand out from the competition, especially during busy periods. Even better, it can also drive conversions and long-lasting customer loyalty. But don’t forget that your people are just that - people. Peak season doesn’t just put pressure on your eCommerce store, it can put pressure on your team too. It’s important to spend time preparing them on what to expect, ensuring enough staff are available to cater for your customers and that everyone’s aware of peak promotions, stock availability and delivery timescales.

The sooner you plan, the more time you’ll have to firm up your strategies and prepare for success. Fortunately, the Shopify platform is built to handle large loads such as the peak shopping season and they take extra precautions to ensure their servers don’t fall short.

Slow site speed, high bounce rates and frustrated users – poor site performance can be detrimental to your peak success. Optimising your site’s performance ahead of the shopping rush will keep your customers converting and helps to prevent site crashes.

Without a reliable platform, the seasonal traffic surge can slow down or even cause your site to crash. Tests should be run in advance to ensure your store can handle peak shopping loads.

One of the top issues during busy periods are slow pages. Research shows that 

93 percent of shoppers have left a website because it didn’t load fast enough

. With figures like these, speeding up your site could make a huge impact on your conversions. Even better, you can use 

 to calculate how your conversion rates could be improved by faster site speeds.

Getting your site navigation and search functionality in the best shape possible will help customers find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. With predictive site search, you can guide shoppers to the goods they want. 

 can considerably improve the onsite customer experience.

The holiday season is prime time for hackers to target vulnerable sites. Prevent fraud from taking hold with an 

. Using a Flow template can save you money and time spent looking for fraudulent orders. Once added to your Shopify store, emails will be sent prompting a review of high-risk orders before capturing payment to ensure you’re always aware of suspicious activity.

Google’s page speed analysis tool allows you to drill down into performance issues to see what’s causing the problem. 

 can be run against any webpage and provides audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO and more.All you have to do is provide the tool with a URL to audit and a report is generated on the quality of that page containing references on how to fix the issue(s).

During the peak shopping season, customers are often in a rush to get their shopping done. The more painless you can make your checkout process gives shoppers yet another reason to love your brand and ensures they reach conversion faster.

One way to do this is by letting shoppers skip to the cart and checkout without leaving the page they’re browsing. Using 

 places a customer’s preferred and trusted payment method through a super-fast checkout process on the product page.

Dynamic checkout buttons are great for busy shopping periods when customers want to convert fast. Checkout buttons can be third-party branded such as ‘Buy with Apple Pay’ or unbranded such as ‘Buy it now’.

In the competitive eCommerce world, how do you stand out and gain the trust of your customers? Social proof. Social proof can come in the form of reviews, images, video, testimonials and social media posts.

Now is the time to start collating this social proof and sharing it across your own digital platforms. Your website is a brilliant place to display social proof with some brands such as ASOS even using real-life customers on their product pages.

Social proof continues to be one of the most persuasive and effective methods of influencing a shopper into buying a product. To encourage your audience to provide their own social proof, why not offer them an incentive such as a 5 percent discount if they write a review. Or encourage them to tag your social account or use a community hashtag to get more people to see your brand.

If you want more tricks and insights into how to use social proof to generate more sales, take a read of our blog: 

social proof in ecommerce: what is it and why do you need it?

Preparing for large sales events can be stressful and challenging. These stresses only increase two-fold when you consider how many different sales events, promotions and discounts run through the course of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas Shopping and Boxing Day Sales.

This year, you can save your team a whole lot of trouble and those late nights by using an automated promotional tool. eCommerce automation can schedule, execute and monitor events such as sales, product releases, restocks and changes to site content.

Fortunately, Shopify has a range of tools designed to take the strain out of busy sales events. Between 

, tasks can be automated and time saved to increase efficiency and productivity. Freeing up your valuable time, you can place more focus on strategy adjustments based on real-time insights to drive more revenue.

Using Shopify to automate front and back end workflows will not only save your team precious time but also make your customer’s experience easy and fast.

Don’t leave it until the day your promotions kick-off to start communicating with your audience. This should begin well in advance of peak shopping events to build anticipation with your customers.

 is ideal to help you do just this. Make it known onsite that Wishlist is available to encourage customers to ‘love’ the products they’re interested in. Doing this will allow you to email customers if one of their desired products is discounted.

Another idea is to encourage site visitors to sign up for upcoming deals without giving away what those deals will be. This approach can be used to engage with users before they’ve even shopped with your brand. An exclusive pre-sale could be run for those who sign up, providing visitors with access to stock first before it runs out.

Not only is it important to ensure your website is prepared for peak, but you should also define your wider marketing plan to capitalise on the increase of people searching for products.

Paid media, email and social platforms are all effective channels to engage with your audience. Take a read of our top considerations to build momentum and drive traffic to your site ahead of peak:

With more people than ever before shopping online, opportunities are rife to engage with an even bigger online audience during this peak season. However, increased demand also means other businesses will be more aggressive with their promotional techniques which is why it’s so important to prepare your PPC campaigns now.

It’s worth analysing last year’s performance to give you a steer on this year’s decisions. Consider which products sold well, which pages were most visited, which messaging and promotions resonated best with your audience. Jump into your Google Analytics account to understand which landing pages were most popular so they can be optimised.

One thing customers are guaranteed to look for during peak trading is a good deal. Once you’ve decided what promotions you want to run, it’s time to start promoting those promotions! Your promos form the backbone of your digital marketing and will influence your onsite messaging, ad copy, imagery and even social media calendar. You’re looking to attract people with a deal so it’s important to start telling them about them prior to peak beginning.

 Remarketing ads can target previous website visitors to encourage them to return and convert with you. Past visitors can be targeted through remarketing lists while bids can be increased for the most valuable customers. Remarketing is often cost-effective as you already have a list of leads available to use. This means purchase intent is higher, cost per click is lower and messaging can be directed towards the right person at the right time.

If you want further guidance on how to make the most of paid media during peak, our connected specialist paid media agency, equation, wrote a blog on the topic: 

preparing for peak: what do you need to consider?

Emails are still top when it comes to engaging your audience. The customer data you gather can be used to target individuals with relevant emails based on products they’ve shown interest in on the run-up to peak. As your audience will no doubt be inundated with emails, it’s important to ensure yours stands out:

Peak shopping season is a good time to capture additional customer data for future use too. Use incentives such as a 10 percent discount to encourage people to subscribe. Not only can you enjoy a boost in conversions ahead of peak, but you can even use the data to build up your email marketing list.

Your subject lines are the first thing your audience will see when it comes to your emails. Make sure your subject lines are concise, engaging and clearly state the offer that’s up for grabs. Consider 

A/B testing your subject lines as this can help you understand what performs best

In the peak shopping frenzy, customers will likely browse numerous websites and place multiple items in their shopping carts. In many cases, these carts will be abandoned as the shopper is distracted by another product or promotion. Email can draw them back to you and encourage conversion. An additional promotional incentive could also be used.

Designing emails that your subscribers want to open and click on can be challenging. A well-designed optimised email is essential for driving engagement with your audience to generate a higher ROI. 

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools today. Able to engage, communicate and promote your business far and wide, there are many platforms that can be used to support your peak trading season.

 Social proof such as reviews, testimonials and 

 can drive awareness, build trust and convert users into loyal customers. 

UGC in particular is great for both your eCommerce store and social media. Content that your audience has already created and posted featuring your products can be reshared (with permission) to your brand’s accounts. This is a tactic we deployed for 

 which helped them promote how effective their products really are with the use of real-life customers.

Once you’ve settled on those all-important promotions and sales events, it’s important to advertise them. Social media channels are effective for building excitement around an event. Through the use of stories, polls, regular posts and communications with your audience, you can get more people interested in your promotions before they even launch.

Many social platforms today offer their own, native shopping functionality built into the app. Providing your customs with more than one place to shop makes the purchasing and conversion process even easier. Selling products directly within the app allows customers to browse, research, engage and convert all in one place. Fortunately, Shopify has a whole range of 

 including ones for social media channels such as 

A common issue merchants struggle with during busy shopping periods is coping with the big influx in traffic. As a hosted platform, Shopify means your store is built to handle peak performance all year round.

Thanks to Shopify’s infrastructure, the platform is a secure and reliable option for eCommerce stores – this is one of the main reasons brands choose to switch to them. Fast and dependable with unlimited bandwidth and 99.9 percent average uptime means you can rest easy knowing your site is performing at its best during the busiest time of the year.

As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, Shopify takes care of the technology so you can focus on your business. Always striving to maximise stores powered by Shopify, they continuously improve server-side performance such as hosting, security and stability.

Make the most of the peak shopping period with a post-peak plan. With so many incentives, promotions and sales events flying around, this isn’t just a chance to drive revenue. Peak can be beneficial for your business into the new year and beyond.

By avoiding site slowdowns, connecting your customers to the products they want and letting them checkout fast, your sales are set to soar this peak season. To find out how we can support you in driving your best peak performance so far, 

get in touch with our team of eCommerce experts

get ready for peak trading.

Never ones to rest on their laurels, Shopify has come in hot with their latest 

, announcing over 100 new features all designed to up-the-ante on what the platform can do for brands and, ultimately, improve onsite efficiencies and boost conversions.

The features were announced in true Shopify style, with easy-to-digest content, an engaging user interface and the expected sprinkle of personality the platform is known for.

Want to explain the update to your 10-year old? Shopify has you covered:

‘We made over 100 new things for people to make and sell cool things for a super long time!’

How about what Editions 2023 can do for the entrepreneurs out there?

‘Introducing over 100 game-changing advancements to fuel brand growth and reach customers everywhere.’

While a welcome update with some much-anticipated new features, digesting 100+ pieces of information could overwhelm the best of us. Our eCommerce Strategy Director, Dan Conboy, has done the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.

Dan, which features are most pertinent to Shopify Plus merchants and what’s your take on them?

 already considered by many as a cut above the rest, this update makes the process even faster and with fewer steps. It’s no secret that user attention spans are dwindling and with brands fighting the curse of ‘the abandoned checkout’, this feature aims to provide Shopify merchants with an even better conversion rate. A highly-anticipated update, we’ll be watching the stats closely on this one!

Introducing the drag-and-drop checkout editor. Only available for Shopify Plus merchants, brands can now edit their checkout to fit in with their branding, with the ability to add logos and select different colour backgrounds or even add images. Additional features such as app extensions to build in things like your loyalty program to the process are also available.

While some great new additions for Shopify Plus merchants, brands need to move forward with caution and remember that simple and quick checkouts are key to higher conversion rates.

Strike a balance between customisation and over-complicating the journey for your user.

Artificial intelligence. The latest hot topic in the digital world and one that brands are quick to see the benefits of. 

 utilises the power of AI to create product descriptions, so you don’t have to. All brands need to do is provide the tool with relevant features and keywords and, hey presto, the copy is created.

While a great feature and one that could save businesses both time and resources, there’s potential for repetitive, generic copy. Think carefully about how best to harness this feature without losing your brand's tone of voice and unique identity.

Gone are the days when your site was used to simply display, and sell, your products. Consumers are looking for richer experiences on your site and are engaging with content in a different way. 

 allow you to create custom content to boost the onsite experience, with the capability to add quizzes, FAQs and much more to your store.

As content creation, brand storytelling and customer buy-in to your brand's identity are more important than ever, this update can only be a good thing as brands look to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Currently only available in the US, this new hardware recognises that in-person sales will never be a thing of the past and looks to create a seamless integration between your online store and good old-fashioned physical sales.

 allows retailers to sell and take payment from a single device. A game-changer for sure, and we look forward to seeing the international versions.

Going global doesn’t have to be a headache. This feature allows your content to work internationally, offering side-by-side comparisons of translated content. 

 also takes into consideration things like different spelling between locations, such as American-English vs British-English.

This update has been available for some time and we eagerly await what other features may be rolled out with it, such as the potential for adjusting images.

A long-time coming, product publishing allows retailers control over which products are shown in which region. This 

 allows brands to allocate set products to certain markets, and remove unwanted products from others. Shopify uses international markets and removing parcels too heavy to send as a great example of the feature in play.

market-specific order routing and fulfilment

In a bid to improve business efficiency, Shopify will be rolling out ‘Smart Order Routing.’ Designed to let brands create rules surrounding routing, and to improve stock inventory based on customer location, this update is not yet available but brands can 

With a huge range of new features released in their Editions Winter 2023, Shopify has once more proved they listen to merchants' feedback and roll with the changing tides. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the latest features rolled out by Shopify and how they can positively impact your business, why not get in touch with our 

getting the lowdown on shopify’s latest features with dan conboy.

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.

Customer Acquisition and DTC Success.

why DTC brands should focus on customer retention.

Going DTC – The Stresses and Successes: An Interview With Dan Conboy.

When it comes to DTC, there are two types of brands that are usually considering this business model:

dtc for established brands who already understand eCommerce and potentially already have a website.

dtc for brands that aren’t consumer-facing such as manufacturers and wholesalers.

For those who aren’t as familiar with eCommerce, DTC is new and unchartered territory. While these brands might know how they want to use eCommerce for going DTC, there could be concerns about whether it’s the right route and how to make it a profitable endeavour.

Some brands don’t go DTC with the objective of making it their main revenue stream. Inthese cases, you may be wondering what the point is at all. The caveat of finding a profitable route to market with DTC always comes back to: 

what’s the purpose of going DTC in the first place?


DTC brands sell directly to the end consumer, cutting out the middleman typically associated with traditional retail. When done well, a host of benefits have been found from taking this approach including:

forge closer relationships with your customers

take learnings and apply them to the rest of your business

If you’re going DTC, this is an opportunity to do it properly and make the most out of your investment. Fortunately, we have plenty of first-hand experience and insight to share on this topic. If you want to find out about what DTC is and how it can impact your business, read our blogs:

going dtc – the stresses and successes: an interview with dan conboy

why dtc brands should focus on customer retention

But for now, let’s get back to DTC and profitability.

When crafting a go-to-market strategy, it’s important to get to the bottom of why you want to go DTC in the first place and what exactly you consider as profitable.

Every business who creates an eCommerce website wants to sell products. But there are many other success metrics that you can reap the benefits of as part of going DTC. It’s about understanding if these mean enough to your business to warrant the investment. Examples of these metrics could include:

Going DTC may be to serve a functional purpose by providing customers with a different shopping channel to make more sales. If your definition of profit is unit sales and your brand sells mainstream products through multiple stockists, then generating profit with DTC could be a tall order.

Think about it from the end-consumers point of view. If you sell a mainstream beer that you can pick up in any supermarket, why would a shopper go to your eCommerce store to purchase it? Surely picking it up in their weekly food shop would be much more convenient. As such, DTC should rarely be based upon a pure unit sales model. Yes, you should aim for the venture to be profitable and commercially successful, but it must be seen in terms of what value it can bring to the table beyond sales. 

Maybe you want to go DTC to build a connection with your customers, capture invaluable feedback to inform future business decisions and create a loyal customer base.

Going DTC puts all marketing and eCommerce considerations into your hands. Communicating who your brand is, your mission and your products alongside your customer stories and content can be difficult at the best of times. But add in competitor products sat next to yours on a real or virtual shelf and it becomes all the trickier to win your customer’s loyalty.

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