How to Choose an Ecommerce Template for Your Site (And 40+ Templates to Use Right Now)

9 min read

When users land on a website, they form an opinion (usually a strong one) within the first 50 ms of exposure. The visual appeal of a website greatly influences first impressions.

What does this mean for a business owner like you?

It means you have less than a second to convince your customers that you have a trustworthy and professional online store worth browsing and buying from. Sounds like a daunting task, no? But you’re in luck: there’s an Ecwid-approved shortcut!

With Ecwid, you can choose the perfect ecommerce website template for your online store, and you’ll make quite a first impression.

What Is an Ecommerce Template?

A template for an ecommerce website (aka a shopping cart design template) is a pre-built and designed online store that business owners can use and customize for their sites.

It’s a win-win for businesses, as using shopping cart templates is way more affordable than hiring a web designer to create a whole new branded store from scratch.

An example of an ecommerce website template

Besides being a cost-effective solution, using an ecommerce template makes creating a website a breeze. Even if you’re a complete newbie without any design or coding knowledge, you can easily make your own site with pre-built designs. And that saves time. Like, a lot of time.

How to Choose an Ecommerce Template for Your Site

Here’s a checklist for choosing the perfect ecommerce template for your business:

Is it optimized for mobile?
Does it have a visually appealing, clean design?
Is it easy to navigate?
Does it load quickly? (Check on different devices)
Does it have a straightforward checkout process?
Do the product pages present your products in the best way?
Is it easy to customize?

Checked all the boxes? Looks like you’ve got yourself a top-level template for your site!

Store size, niche, and budget are also important factors to consider when choosing an ecommerce template. Some templates are better suited for bigger, marketplace-like websites, while others are crafted with apparel stores, restaurants, or services in mind.

There are even some free and awesome ecommerce templates! Don’t just choose the first pretty template you see, compare different options to see which one works best for your business.

40+ Templates for Your Ecommerce Site

By now, you might be wondering: “Does Ecwid have website templates?” We sure do!

If you’re looking for a free website with built-in ecommerce templates, consider signing up for Ecwid by Lightspeed. You’ll get access to Instant Site, a website builder with a built-in, customizable online store… And…you have over 40 ecommerce templates and various design options to choose from!

All the themes are fully customizable: you can edit texts, fonts, Call to Action buttons, images, colors, and layouts, whenever you want.

All of Ecwid’s themes match the requirements for shopping cart website templates we’ve listed above, so you have everything you need to start an online store, guaranteed.

What Are Ecommerce Website Examples?

Ecwid Instant Site templates are designed with various stores and services in mind so that you can find the one that is most relevant to your business.

Let’s have a closer look at some examples of ecommerce website templates by Ecwid. (Click “View demo site” to see how the template looks on a real website.)

Apparel (View demo site)

Health & Beauty (View demo site)

Electronics (View demo site)

Home (View demo site)

Services (View demo site)

Art (View demo site)

Jewelry (View demo site)

Food (View demo site)

These are just a few ecommerce templates for Ecwid Instant Sites. Want to see more templates? Create a free Ecwid account, then go to your Ecwid admin, Website → Edit Site → Settings → Site Templates.

You can edit any template and make it unique to your store and brand. Check out our Help Center for detailed instructions on site customizations.

Tips for Designing Your Ecwid Store

You’ve already chosen the perfect template, but still feel like something is missing? Not a problem! You can always continue editing the site and playing around with it until you are 100% satisfied. Here are a couple of ideas for creating your signature look on your Ecwid website.

Use an Eye-Catching Cover Image or Video

A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure your image portrays your brand message:

Showcase your products, share a picture of your brick-and-mortar store or the faces behind your brand
Use high-quality images only. Say no to blurry pictures with poor lighting!
Choose images that are at least 1400х1050px for the best fit.

Showing products in action or in use is always a win for a cover image

Use Flattering Typography

Besides providing information, texts on your website serve other purposes. They help deliver your brand message and identity. It’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it. Thoughtful typography can convey a message of “affordability,” “relatability,” or anything else you may want to convey. It’s a subtle art, but one worth learning.

Minimalistic fonts balance busy cover images

Follow these simple practices to convey your brand voice through typography:

Experiment with contrasts: for example — use bold and cursive fonts or tall and short ones
Combine serif and sans-serif fonts for readability
Use different fonts and sizes for your headline and body text
Stick to 2-3 fonts to avoid a cluttered look.

Here are 15 Perfect Font Pairings for Your Ecommerce Website.

To choose fonts for your cover, open the Website page and click “Edit Site.” Then go to Cover & Headline → Design. There you’ll be able to set up fonts for your headline, description, and call-to-action button(s).

Pay Attention to Category Images

If you have several product categories in your store, pay close attention to how you present them. Categories are an important part of successful store navigation. You want customers to navigate through your store and view important sections.

Zealously Handmade uses the same style for all category images

Keep this in mind when choosing and setting up category pictures:

Use large images to represent your products in the best way
Keep proportions balanced to avoid a messy look
Use the same perspective, background, and light for all category pictures
Avoid abstract category images. Stick to pictures that have direct meaning to your categories but are distinguishable from one another.

You can unfold categories and display products from these categories right on the storefront page. This layout works great for:

cafes and restaurants (it gives a menu-like storefront vibe).
online stores with small catalogs where customers can see all of your products at once.

By the way, you can also hide category images. This way, only category names are displayed.

Choose an Ecommerce Template Today

Creating a beautiful and professional ecommerce website is a piece of cake when you use predefined ecommerce templates. Why wait? Get your free online store with Ecwid today, and take your online store to the next level. We can only imagine the great storefront you’ll make with a bit of help from Ecwid.

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Jul 26, 2023

About the author

Anastasia Prokofieva is a content writer at Ecwid. She writes about online marketing and promotion to make entrepreneurs’ daily routine easier and more rewarding. She also has a soft spot for cats, chocolate, and making kombucha at home.