In the world of online retail, you can think of your homepage as being a bit like a virtual welcome mat; reassuring your visitors they’ve arrived in a friendly place, inviting them in to take a look around, offering them a nice cup of tea (theoretically speaking, anyway).
Homepage design doctrine seems to chop and change every five minutes: ‘the fold’ is no longer the usability barrier it used to be, parallax is king and the rise of visual web continues to curtail the number of words needed on a website. One thing’s for sure, though: homepage design sure has come on leaps and bounds since Microsoft’s first lol-worthy homepage from 1994 (see left).
Here are seven top ecommerce sites using beautiful imagery to do the selling.
Goodwin & Goodwin
If you visit this visual treat of a website and don’t end up wanting to buy everything single item on it then, well, you’ve done better than us.
Ambsn
The California-based surf clothing shop immediately leaves you in no doubt that vibrant prints are the name of their game.
Hard Graft
Austrian-born, UK-raised online retailer Hard Graft uses its homepage to really show off the craftsmanship that goes into its accessories.
Mawi
We defy anyone to visit the Mawi site and not be completely tranfixed for at least 5 minutes by the jewellery retailer’s beautifully slick slo-mo video background.
CROPP
Cropp’s website is one of very few words and a whole heap of bold, splashy photography.
Drop Dead
Internet culture-inspired clothing brand Drop Dead has created a website that certainly lives up to its heritage, welcoming visitors with a huge full-screen video on its homepage.
Greats
Often praised for its minimalist, image-led design, the Greats website lets pictures do the selling. And boy, do we want to buy.