In the past, website design was primarily a visual exercise. Design agencies dreamed of award-winning websites, and ecommerce brands went after the “coolest” designs to stand out.
But while visual appeal is valuable, it does not guarantee success. Even the most “innovative” websites can have poor usability—hurting the customer experience and hindering conversion.
Unfortunately, many retailers have learned this the hard way after redesigning their websites. Effective web design must combine performance and aesthetics to generate growth.
This guide explores how to decide when a website redesign is necessary. We’ll discuss why many redesign projects fail and how to execute an overhaul that yields results. And we’ll share real-world examples of ecommerce website redesigns to help get you started.
8 reasons to redesign your ecommerce website
Today, redesigning your online store can be tricky.
“Completely redesigning a website is just about the highest risk, [the] most wasteful thing you can do,” writes Jonny Longden, director of digital experience services at Journey Further, in a recent LinkedIn post.
“When people run A/B tests on websites, on average, 90% of those changes either don’t make any difference or have the opposite effect,” he says. “Therefore, when you redesign and change an entire website from scratch, 90% of your effort could be a waste of time or worse.”
While there’s some sound logic to Jonny’s argument, site redesigns can be worthwhile when done properly. We’ll talk about the best approach later but, first, let’s establish some valid reasons a total redesign might be in order.
Your current design is outdated
A modern website signals professionalism, shapes potential customers’ first impressions of your brand and builds trust with those shoppers. If your website looks old-fashioned, it gives the impression that what you offer and the way you do business are just as old-fashioned. This would be a huge disadvantage for your business, as consumer expectations are getting higher by the year.
You are rebranding
Site and page layout, typography, and other design elements all play a role in conveying your brand’s identity and messaging. That identity likely evolves in smaller ways all the time. While you don’t need to undertake a new redesign project for every change, you should update your ecommerce website if and when your branding takes a significantly different direction than it previously had.
Your website is slow
Slow load time or glitchy websites frustrate customers, leading to increased bounce and shopping cart abandonment rates. A 2023 study by GoodFirms found that slow speed is the top reason customers abandon a website.
A slow site is clearly a problem, but don’t forget that many changes and performance improvements can be made without a redesign. In other words, it’s likely worthwhile to see if those changes are effective before you decide to revamp your site. Then, if it’s still sluggish despite implementing recommendations from your PageSpeed Insights report, for example, that might be cause to consider a redesign.
Your user experience is poor (UX design)
Your ecommerce store should be easy to use. Intuitive interfaces and logical workflows are essential to avoid confusion and entice customers to buy. Poorly designed information architecture, unclear website navigation, or a complicated checkout process may drive customers away. While we recommend fixing those issues through iterative A/B testing, in some cases, it’s easier to start from scratch to ensure consistency in the experience sitewide.
Your website is not mobile-responsive
Today, customers are mobile-first and channel-agnostic. They will engage with your brand across multiple touchpoints, including smartphones and tablets. If your website is challenging to navigate on different mobile devices, you risk losing a significant portion of your audience.
Mobile-responsive design is critical to ensure your website automatically adjusts to different screen sizes, ensuring a consistent and optimized customer experience across devices. According to a recent HubSpot survey, 40% of marketers list optimizing for mobile as their top priority.
You want additional functionality and customization
Redesigning your ecommerce site is an opportunity to add functionality. For example, you can integrate third-party tools, add product recommendation plugins, include additional payment options, or create more customized product pages.
We should mention, though, that we don’t recommend adding functionality for functionality’s sake. If this is your reason for considering a redesign of your online store, you should have data-backed hypotheses that explain the need for certain additional features. You should also be clear on how adding functionality is likely to impact metrics that are important to you, such as average order value and conversion rate.
Your website is not optimized for search engines
A well-structured website is critical for ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). A website redesign can help address the structure and layout of your website, making it easier for web crawlers to understand your content. At the same time, you can address technical issues hurting your rankings (e.g., broken links or incorrect redirects).
Many of the above including slow site speed, lack of mobile-friendliness, and missing functionality lead to a larger problem for ecommerce brands—downward sales trends. If you’re noticing increasing cart abandonment rates, higher bounce rates, or decreasing average order value as a result, a well-done website redesign can reverse those trends.
Why ecommerce website redesigns fail
Website development requires a blend of creativity, research, and technical expertise. Yet brands often neglect some of these elements when redesigning their websites. This not only wastes time and resources but it impacts the customer experience and sales.
Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:
Insufficient research: Your target audience’s preferences and shopping behaviors should shape every element of your website design. Research is vital to ensure that your online store fits customers’ needs.
Lack of clear objectives: Key performance indicators (KPIs) provide a roadmap for designers, developers, and copywriters as they redesign your ecommerce site. Without defined goals, you risk creating a website that doesn’t align with your brand’s ethos or generate revenue.
Unrealistic timing or budget: Many brands rush into the redesign process. Without a comprehensive project scope, realistic timeline, and resource allocation planning, there’s a higher risk of delays and budget overruns. Unexpected budget constraints can also lead to compromises in quality, affecting the success of a website redesign.
Overemphasis on aesthetics: Every brand wants a drool-worthy website. But many brands make the mistake of focusing too much on the visual elements. Inadequate consideration of usability and functionality can mean a website that’s not intuitive, harming customer satisfaction and sales.
Neglecting search engine optimization (SEO): Brands often fail to consider the effects of an ecommerce website redesign beyond looks, navigation, and the like. Particularly, it can be easy to let your SEO strategy slip through the cracks. Following SEO best practices is critical for search engine rankings and traffic.
Inadequate testing: It can be tempting to hit publish on your redesigned site as soon as possible. However, neglecting the testing phase can result in broken links, functionality errors, or inconsistencies in design (e.g., button colors or fonts that vary by page). This can confuse or irritate users.
How to approach an ecommerce website redesign
It’s possible to design a website that is beautiful, aligned with the brand, and built for sales performance. Here’s how to implement an ecommerce website redesign that delivers results.
1. Research and A/B testing of your current site
Data is the backbone of redesigning a website. Weaving data into the site design process from day one is critical. At SplitBase, we approach every website redesign with our Testing Trifecta framework.
Our process always begins with quantitative research—analyzing a current website’s strengths and weaknesses. We start by looking at your current website’s metrics. Which pages receive the most traffic? What areas have high bounce rates or low conversion rates? Which elements are getting the most, or the least interactions, and which ones correlate with people purchasing? We also use heatmaps, clickmaps, scrollmaps, and eye-tracking software to understand how potential customers interact with your website.
After identifying opportunities for improvement, we move toward the qualitative phase of our research. Here, we use surveys, website polls, customer interviews, session recordings, customer service chats, and usability testing to understand the top drivers and barriers that influence customers to buy or abandon their carts.
Image description: At SplitBase, we use our Testing Trifecta framework to take a data-driven approach to web design.
In other words, quantitative research helps you identify problems with your current website, while qualitative research helps determine why these problems are occurring. Then, with A/B testing, you can experiment with data-driven solutions to optimize the customer experience before you invest in a website redesign.
These findings are critical for redesigning your website. For example, we partnered with deodorant brand Primal Pit Paste for a redesign. Now known as Pretty Frank, the brand had to redesign as part of a migration to Shopify Plus. During the conversion research process, we uncovered necessary changes for the brand’s product pages, including a new design, required content, and the order of elements. Using these findings, we were able to run tests that increased conversion rate, such as a homepage test that lead to a 21% increase.
Image description: Primal Pit Paste from Pretty Frank
2. Define key performance indicators
Use the outcomes from your research and testing to set clear objectives for your redesign. The customer demands and pain points you identified will let you know what your areas of focus should be for the redesign (and what low-impact changes you can remove from your to-do list or delay).
Additionally, the data from your A/B tests or initial conversion research will help you set realistic goals as far as percentage improvements you’re likely to see across your most important metrics. These KPIs will then act as the foundation of the redesign process, enabling you to more easily evaluate the project’s success.
3. Map out customer needs, motivation, fears, objections, and questions
When taking the conversion optimization approach to website redesigns, you'll want to map out your customer needs, motivation, fears, objections, and questions that surfaced in your qualitative research.
To do this, indicate what needs to be addressed on each page of your site. For example, all product questions that came up in the research, should be included in your plan for the product page. Customer fears should be mapped to all the areas and pages where those fears are most likely to appear - and so on. By doing this, you're planning your website content based on what will get customers to convert, instead of simply guessing what should go on each page.
4. Brainstorm the look & feel
Content needs aside, what do you want your website to look like? At this stage, determine the tone, color palette, fonts, and overall styles that you'd like your website to have. It's a good idea to create a mood board with inspiration from websites you like, including screenshots of specific elements you want to capture as part of your redesign.
5. Find solutions to conversion triggers and challenges
In step number 3, you mapped out the customer needs, motivations, fears, objections and questions to address to each page of your site. Now, you'll need to decide how to address each. Conversion optimization best practices here can be starting points, and so can researching websites within and outside your industry. How will you answer your customers' top questions on your product pages? How will you tackle their concerns? How will you motivate them to buy?
This is where working with a conversion optimization agency that specializes in conversion design can help, as not only can they help you do the conversion research required for your site redesign to be a success, but they can help you identify how to address each insight discovered in the research.
6. Generate copy and content
Identify the types of content needed for each page on the site and get to work producing them. For example, you may need product descriptions, landing page copy, blog posts, product images, videos, etc.
It’s ideal if the people responsible for copywriting and content creation have an understanding of conversion rate optimization principles so you can start seeing meaningful improvements to your metrics sooner. Conversion copywriting requires an understanding of persuasion and psychological sales principles, and is not the same as traditional content writing. If your in-house team doesn’t have this knowledge, it’s worth considering working with an agency like SplitBase with writers, designers, and developers all trained in CRO.
7. Design the user interface
Use wireframes to plan your website’s layout based on how the site copy needs to be structured to drive sales. Wireframing gives a conceptual framework of the layout, interface, and functionality without the distraction of colors or other visual elements. Optimize for smartphones and tablets during this process.
8. Test
Testing throughout the website redesign process is essential. Be sure to conduct usability testing during the design phase as a micro-validation of design decisions. Don’t forget to test functionality on various devices and browsers, including any forms and the checkout process. At the same time, gather feedback from customers, stakeholders, and employees.
9. Launch
Website launches on Shopify should be done without downtime, but what if it can’t be avoided in your case? Communicate any downtime with customers before publishing your updated website so that they’re not left hanging unexpectedly when your site is inaccessible. Ensure you have a backup of your current website and data before launching.
10. Continue to test and optimize
Monitoring website performance is critical. Not only can bugs pop up and hurt performance but the effectiveness of different design elements can wane over time. You’ll need to do regular CRO audits to make sure the user experience on your site is consistently positive, as well as to spot and fix issues quickly.
How to budget for an ecommerce website redesign
Investing in a high-quality website that values the user experience can have long-term benefits for your ecommerce business. But budgeting can be challenging. According to WebFX, the average website redesign costs $12,000 to $150,000. That’s a wide gap, and far from the limit. It’s not rare either to see large brands spend over $500,000 on a website when visuals need to be produced, the website needs to be coded from scratch, and analytics and tracking re-implemented.
In reality, the cost of an ecommerce website redesign depends on several factors, including:
Your method of redesign (e.g., hiring a freelancer or working with an agency)
Scope of your website redesign (e.g., the number of pages or new features added)
Style of your website (e.g., a minimalist design versus a website that emphasizes animations and videos)
Level of customization (e.g., using a template or building a new design from scratch)
Dividing your budget into categories can help. This includes design, development, content creation, SEO management, and domain and hosting fees. Make sure to factor in ongoing costs like domain renewals, security, and updates. These recurring expenses can affect your website’s longevity.
At the same time, brands should set aside a portion of their budget for unexpected expenses or changes in project scope. This safety net ensures that unforeseen challenges won’t compromise quality.
Choosing the right partner for your redesign
There are three options when it comes to executing an ecommerce website design. Choosing the right team depends on your budget, level of customization, and required expertise.
Do it yourself: An in-house approach is the most cost-effective if you already have all the specialties required in-house. It provides greater brand control and flexibility over the entire process. However, an ecommerce redesign is time-consuming and may drain internal resources.
Work with freelancers: Freelancers can be more affordable than working with an agency. You’ll also have direct communication with the person working on your redesign. At the same time, freelancers vary in expertise and experience. Relying on a freelancer may not be ideal for more complex projects. And, plus, no single person is great at everything.
Partner with agencies: Agencies have teams of professionals with diverse skills, so you’re more likely to get a high-quality product in the end. They also often provide services beyond design and development, such as analytics and reporting or ongoing support. But agencies can be more expensive due to more formal processes and additional stakeholders might lead to longer turnaround times.
Keep in mind, however that not all agencies are the same. A branding agency will approach a website redesign in an entirely different way than a conversion optimization agency that specializes in conversion design. The branding agency will design for looks above all else, whereas a conversion design agency will balance looks with usability and conversion performance. The best option depends on your goals.
4 ecommerce website redesign examples to inspire your own
Redesigning your website can feel daunting at first. Here are four examples to help get you started.
Lalo
Lalo is a modern baby and toddler brand that aims to transform “how you shop for your baby.” The company uses non-toxic materials and includes modular furniture that grows with your family.
Since launching in 2019, Lalo has redesigned their website several times. Here’s a before and after.
The layout makes it easy to shop by need (e.g., bath time or meal time).
The shoppable product imagery drives engagement.
Lalo’s product pages include videos and options for purchase (e.g., buy a subscription, make a one-time purchase, or add to a registry).
Peloton
Peloton is an interactive fitness platform with connected exercise equipment. The company provides at-home and on-demand fitness classes for runners, cyclists, and more. Here’s a recent iteration of Peloton’s website.
The updated design has a more consistent and cohesive color scheme.
The new website includes easy-to-follow navigation, showcasing all product categories.
The content is more engaging than the previous version. The brand uses videos to showcase how different products move in real-life scenarios.
At SplitBase, we use a data-driven approach to designing (and redesigning) ecommerce websites to make brands like yours more money. Our testing trifecta methodology guides how we approach these projects, ensuring that websites hit the mark in terms of both looks and performance.
How do I know if my ecommerce site needs a full redesign or just targeted fixes?
Start by looking at the data, not the design. If your analytics show isolated problems (a single page with a high bounce rate, one step in checkout where people drop off), you can usually fix those with targeted A/B tests without touching the rest of the site. A full redesign makes more sense when the issues are structural and widespread: your site isn't mobile-responsive, the information architecture is fundamentally broken, page speed is still poor after you've optimized what you can, or you're going through a rebrand that changes the visual identity top to bottom.
The rule of thumb is that a redesign should be the last resort, not the first instinct. Most of the time, iterative testing will get you further, faster, and at a fraction of the cost. But when the foundation itself is the problem, patching individual pages won't cut it.
How long does an ecommerce website redesign typically take?
It depends on the scope, but a research-driven redesign for a mid-to-large DTC brand usually takes three to six months from the research phase through launch. That's not padding. The research alone (analytics analysis, qualitative interviews, usability testing, and initial A/B tests on the current site) can take four to eight weeks, and that's the part most teams try to skip. The design, development, content creation, and QA phases follow from there.
Brands that rush through in six to eight weeks almost always skip the conversion research, and that's how you end up with a site that looks great but converts worse than the one it replaced. If someone promises you a full redesign in a month, be skeptical about what they're cutting from the process.
Will a website redesign hurt my SEO rankings?
It can, and it does more often than people expect. URL structures change, pages get removed or consolidated, internal linking breaks, and redirect maps get missed. All of that can tank your organic traffic if you're not careful. The fix is to build an SEO migration plan before a single wireframe gets drawn: map every existing URL to its new destination, set up 301 redirects, preserve your highest-traffic pages' URL structures where possible, and monitor rankings closely after launch.
The other SEO risk that gets overlooked is content. If you strip out the copy during a redesign and replace it with shorter, less keyword-rich content because "it looks cleaner," you can lose the topical authority you built over years. Your redesign team needs someone who understands SEO, not just design.
What's the biggest mistake brands make during a website redesign?
Treating it as a visual exercise instead of a performance exercise. The most common pattern we see is a brand hiring a design agency, spending months on mood boards and visual concepts, launching a beautiful new site, and then watching conversions drop. That happens because nobody did the conversion research upfront to understand what the current site was doing right, what visitors actually needed, and what was causing friction.
A close second is launching the entire new site at once without testing any of the changes beforehand. If you can A/B test key pages or elements on your current site before committing to the redesign, you'll have real data telling you which changes actually move the needle, and you'll avoid baking unvalidated assumptions into a site you'll be stuck with for the next two to three years.
Should I redesign my site myself, hire freelancers, or work with an agency?
It depends on the complexity and what expertise you already have in-house. If your team has strong designers, developers, a CRO strategist, and a conversion-focused copywriter, an in-house approach can work and gives you the most control. That's a rare combination, though.
Freelancers are more affordable and give you direct communication, but you'll be managing multiple specialists yourself, and no single freelancer is great at everything a redesign requires. Agencies bring diverse skill sets under one roof and can handle the full scope, but they're more expensive and the process can be slower. The most important distinction isn't really freelancer versus agency. It's whether whoever you hire approaches the redesign from a conversion performance perspective or purely from a branding and aesthetics perspective. A beautiful site that doesn't convert is an expensive mistake.
How do I measure whether my website redesign was successful?
Define your KPIs before the redesign starts, not after. The most important metrics for ecommerce are usually conversion rate, average order value, revenue per visitor, and bounce rate, broken down by device and traffic source. You want baseline numbers from your current site so you have something real to compare against.
After launch, give it time. Don't panic if the first week looks shaky, because returning visitors need to adjust to the new experience and there's always a novelty effect in both directions. Monitor performance over four to eight weeks, segment by new versus returning visitors, and keep testing. A redesign isn't a finish line. It's a new starting point for ongoing optimization.
Can I redesign my website in phases instead of all at once?
Yes, and in most cases you should. A phased approach lets you test changes incrementally, learn from real user behavior, and adjust before you've committed to a sitewide overhaul. You might start with your highest-traffic pages (homepage, top product pages, collection pages) and roll changes out from there.
This approach reduces risk significantly. Instead of flipping a switch and hoping everything works, you're validating each phase with data before moving to the next one. It also spreads the budget over time, which makes it easier to get buy-in internally. The only scenario where a full launch makes more sense is a platform migration or a complete rebrand where the old and new designs can't coexist.
What role does conversion research play in a website redesign?
It's the difference between a redesign that makes money and one that just looks different. Conversion research means analyzing your analytics to find what's working and what's broken, then doing qualitative research (surveys, customer interviews, session recordings, usability tests) to understand why those problems exist. That gives you a map of exactly what your new site needs to address.
Without this step, you're guessing. You're guessing what copy to write, what objections to address, what order to put content in, and which features matter. Some of those guesses will be right, but most won't, and you'll have no way to know which is which until you've already built the thing. The research phase is the single highest-ROI investment in any redesign project.
How do I make sure my redesigned site works well on mobile?
Design for mobile first, not as an afterthought. That means your wireframes, content hierarchy, and navigation should be built for a phone screen before they're adapted for desktop. Too many redesigns start with a wide desktop canvas and then try to squeeze everything onto mobile later, which is how you end up with tiny tap targets, buried CTAs, and product pages that require endless scrolling.
Test on real devices throughout the design process, not just in browser simulators. And pay special attention to checkout on mobile, because that's where the highest-value friction tends to hide. If 60% or more of your traffic is on mobile (which is common for most DTC brands), your mobile experience isn't a secondary consideration. It is the experience for the majority of your customers.
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