Everyone says price is why carts get abandoned. But what if that’s not the real reason?
Most ecommerce teams obsess over pricing strategies, discounts, and free shipping thresholds. But the numbers tell a different story: over half of online shoppers abandon their carts not because of cost but because of confusion. Clunky flows. Distracting layouts. Missing cues.
The truth is simple: friction, not pricing, kills conversion.
At Lazarev.agency, we’ve seen firsthand how smart ecommerce website design reduces hesitation, builds trust, and turns scrolls into sales. In this piece, we’ll walk you through high-performing design examples from Riptide, Redbrain, and Nodo showing how clear structure and intuitive UX can drive revenue faster than any promo code.
Key takeaways
- A website that loads fast and guides eyes beats glossy visuals with no path.
- Marrying ecommerce website design and branding builds instant recall that shoppers feel before they read a word.
- Modular systems let teams build ecommerce websites quickly and evolve without redesign debt.
Examples of best ecommerce websites
Every abandoned cart is a product of doubt. The price may be fair. The product may be right. But if the layout confuses or the next step is unclear, hesitation wins. And when that pause happens mid-scroll or mid-swipe, it’s already too late.
Shoppers decide whether to trust a store in seconds, and their verdict shows up in soaring abandonment numbers. Baymard Institute reports an average online cart-abandonment rate of 70.19%. More than half of the surveyed users blame “too much friction” rather than price.
When milliseconds and clarity drive revenue, ecommerce website design becomes a business-critical tool that actively shapes user behavior and reinforces brand perception.
The three case studies below — Riptide, Redbrain, and Nodo — illustrate how precise website design choices reduce hesitation, guide buyers, and lift lifetime value.
Riptide’s reinvention
Riptide, a skate brand, needed stronger mobile conversion and a unified identity after years of microsite sprawl. The redesign hinged on one idea: show the product first, then let specs sell themselves.
After launch, the new site sold out $500K in boards, pushed Riptide into the U.S. top-10 skateboard brands, and set the stage for a successful acquisition. What design moves drove that surge?
- Product-first landing — hero section blends a 4K board close-up with a looping ride clip, letting visitors grasp shape, flex, and vibe in a single scroll.
- Board comparison — R1 vs R1X models’ pages sit in the main navigation, so buyers weigh flex pattern, materials, and price without opening new tabs.
- Interactive spec hotspots reveal deck geometry, truck width, and grip pattern on hover or tap; instant feedback replaces PDF manuals.
- Mobile-first parts shop — bottom-thumb filters, a sticky mini-cart, and compressed image sets keep browsing smooth on low-bandwidth networks.
- Friction-free checkout — single-page flow with express pay buttons cuts form fatigue and builds trust through minimal steps.
This project shows how professional ecommerce website design pairs bold visuals with conversion discipline.
“Show the board first, and specs become context. That shift alone moves customers from glance to intent.”
{{Ostap Oshurko}}
UX choices like these align with benchmarks that define the best ecommerce websites — clear product focus, instant feedback, and friction-free checkout.
Big commerce web design: Redbrain’s search-first overhaul
Redbrain set out to be a “matchmaker” between shoppers and major retailers such as Nike and Walmart. To earn that role, the product had to turn massive price data into guidance users could trust from the first search.
- Search-first journey — a bold red accent ring around the “Search” button draws the eye and kicks off exploration directly from the hero section.
- Featured retailer deals on the homepage showcase discounts and new offers, nudging visitors toward discovery before they even type a query.
- Personalized catalogue — advanced filters and sorting options surface items that match user intent, while the lead product card appears larger to capture attention.
- Educational product page blends content and commerce: price-trend history, algorithmic forecasts, and a Price Alert toggle sit beside the hero image, turning raw numbers into purchase guidance.
- Wishlist comparison tool lets shoppers weigh saved items side-by-side, reinforcing confident decisions.
- Responsive design across mobile, tablet, and desktop guarantees a smooth browsing flow, no matter the device.
“Data only matters when it’s readable. By tying search, filters, and price history into one rhythm, we made decision-making effortless.”
{{Ostap Oshurko}}
The disciplined palette proves that big commerce web design can feel calm even when millions of prices update in real time.
🔍 Pro tip: Treat “no results” pages as recovery points, not dead ends. Baymard’s usability testing shows that 68% of e-commerce sites leave shoppers stranded when a query returns zero matches, leading to quick abandonment. Offer auto-corrected terms, show adjacent categories, or surface top-selling items from the same brand. Anything good that keeps the session alive and signals the catalogue still has value.
Content page design for AI‑curated catalogues
Dynamic discounts can boost urgency or bury shoppers in visual noise. Redbrain tackles that risk head-on. Price-drop badges appear under each product tile, color is limited to one highlight red, and typography stays uniform. Movement exists; chaos does not.
Filters live in a collapsible drawer that shifts to a bottom tab on mobile, preserving thumb-reach balance. Internal split-tests recorded higher click-through to partner retailers after this restrained content page design went live — proof that novelty works only when hierarchy remains instantly readable.
Retail website design: Nodo’s immersive product showcase
NODO Film Systems asked for a site that lets cinematographers feel the upgraded Inertia Wheels MAX before they ever touch the hardware. The blend of 3D, specs, and cinematic stories sets a new bar for retail website design in creator hardware.
After launch, the impact was measurable: 160 filmmakers joined the Inertia Wheels MAX waitlist, 41% of them first-time customers, and Nodo’s email list grew by 8%. Those gains stem from the design choices below:
- 3D hero showcase puts a rotatable model of the wheels upfront, backed by a concise copy that mirrors the tactile control operators crave.
- Interactive horizontal journey pairs dark gradients and linear motion to guide visitors through technology highlights and real‑life use cases.
- Educational resource hub aggregates demos, stories, and videos so prospects can explore the breadth of possibilities without leaving the site.
- Scroll‑controlled roadmap visualises the delivery schedule, advancing automatically as users move down the page.
- Smart spec layering shows high‑level details first, then unlocks deep‑dive technical sheets for engineers who need precise torque and latency numbers.
“Digital touch points should echo the hardware’s precision; otherwise, the promise feels hollow.”
{{Anna Demianenko}}
What do these website content examples have in common?
Modern product pages double as micro-magazines. By weaving short, insight-rich snippets into the purchase path, brands give visitors a reason to linger — and a reason to trust. These website content examples show how editorial layers keep shoppers engaged without adding extra clicks.
Nodo proves the point. Mid-page Product Detail “Use Case” blocks break down how cinematographers fine-tune mass and drag on the new Inertia Wheels MAX. These educational inserts keep professionals exploring specs and real-world footage in a single scroll.
Riptide applies the same principle. Their tutorials sit directly beneath deck specs, showing how flex patterns translate to carving style. Both examples turn abstract benefits into concrete motion, guiding shoppers from curiosity to checkout without detours.
Building blocks that serve brand and growth for e-commerce platforms
After Riptide, Redbrain, and Nodo shipped, one pattern stood out: every win traced back to a repeatable design system — essential if you want to build ecommerce website that evolves instead of going stale. When tokens, assets, and test harnesses are in place, teams move from “launch once” to ongoing optimization.
- Component tokens — consistent spacing, rounded corners, and shadows keep every card and promo banner on-brand as the catalogue grows.
- Edge-optimized images — the server uses lightweight WebP/AVIF files, so pages load fast and nothing shifts even during Black Friday traffic.
- A/B sandbox — a simple dashboard lets marketers change badge colors or reorder hero blocks in minutes, turning the design system into a live conversion lab.
When professional ecommerce website design meets continuous insight loops
Design systems provide the machinery, and continuous insight loops keep it firing in the right direction:
- Map discovery paths with GA4 funnels and session recordings; flag pages where users hesitate or backtrack.
- Inject brand identity early — logo flash, tone, micro-animation — so recognition builds before heavy imagery loads.
- Run monthly heat-map reviews; shift copy blocks, CTAs, and interactive elements based on real user behavior rather than hunches.
When engineering, marketing, and design all plug into the same data and component library, every iteration compounds, turning first clicks into predictable revenue.
Ready to grow your e-commerce business through UX design?
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