1. Simplicity

Are your Web pages as packed as a duffel bag rolling through customs at Heathrow? Time to pare down the info and play up the imagery. Do like Dior Fine Jewelry: Dedicate an entire page to a single item—providing a zoom option that blows up any given piece cinema-sized. You’ve heard the design credo “more white space!” Dior’s gray pages prove that the space around a product doesn’t have to be white, but it does have to be as blank as a doe’s stare.

 

Screen shots courtesy of Dior Fine Jewelry

2. High-Impact Slideshows and Rotators

Downward scrolling on your product pages can be done elegantly, but it rarely stokes shopper enthusiasm. Consider integrating a slideshow or rotator in the vein of the one jewelry brand Atelier Minyon features on its home page. Whether users manually click through the shots or it automatically slides or dissolves, these photographic tools make your imagery more interesting. Best of all: It’s a cheap and easy site integration.

 

Screen shot courtesy of Atelier Minyon

3. Supersized photos

By now, you know that in e-commerce, imagery is king. And the more high-quality your photos are, the more enticing your website will be to consumers. But all too often, retailers, eager to showcase the breadth of their offerings in as few pages as they can get away with, mute the fine detail of their professionally shot product images by posting them in a thimble-sized format. Take a tip from jewelry brand RFRM, a company that allows the significant detailing of its handmade pieces to shine from the very first click.

 

Screen shot courtesy of RFRM

4. Killer Videos

You don’t have to be a professional videographer to create enticing videos that, when used judiciously (and cleverly), can lend oomph to your website. Simply download these two apps to your smart phone: Instagram Video, a brand new editable app that allows you to custom-color 15-second videos; and Vine, another video app that creates instantly edited 6.5-second videos. Tip: If you’re shooting product, show it on a person, not under glass or sitting dormant on a display tray. That smiling, well-dressed 20-something behind your counter can absolutely double as a model for your new fashion jewelry collection. And in the era of the instructional video, why not film a quick tutorial on how to properly clean your engagement ring?  

 

Screen shots courtesy of Net-a-Porter and St. Laurent

5. Artful Photo Collages

Does your shop host fabulous events and designer appearances? Take a page (literally) from fashion house Rodarte and create a tab on your site to showcase event images in a stylish, uncluttered way. Add a zoom feature to the photos, link to the pages on Facebook, and watch your store’s social media activity soar higher than an eagle on Red Bull.

 

Screen shot courtesy of Rodarte

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