Why Shopify made UX central to their strategy
Ecommerce platform Shopify needs little introduction. Since launching in 2006 it has become one of the most dominant full stack Ecomm platforms for small business. With a suite of products that enable everything from website design to delivery management, they help businesses streamline their operations. At the same time they are the main touchpoint for millions of users every day, both business users and customers. Delivering products at that scale is no mean feat, they need to function but most importantly they need to be easy to user for everyone involved.
Shopify is undoubtedly one of the smoothest experiences you can have. The reason is User Experience (UX) is key to every touchpoint that Shopify has with the user. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke explains its importance ‘It’s just such an incredible discipline because, the most powerful thing that we’ve been working on in the last half century is computing and software, but none of it can be utilized to the benefit of people without actually making it sensible and approachable.”
Whilst you may not be building a technology company like Shopify there’s a lot that businesses of every size can take away from their approach.
A breakdown of the user journey for Shopify billing
As the Shopify UX blog outlines ‘Shopify wasn’t the first e-commerce software. It was designed for new brands to get their start, which was a novelty at the time when most software was designed around the big brands who already had money. Shopify made starting a business accessible to people that have never run one before, people that wanted to make their side hustles a reality. And that means it had to be built with really good UX.’
This focus on understanding their audience needs helped Shopify make UX a center point to their strategy as Lütke outlines, “We have to make something that’s approachable to the people who want to reach for independence during the lunch break.” As a result, simplicity of use is key, everything is designed to be intuitive to use.
The biggest challenge for Shopify was ensuring that as they scaled they ensured that interactions their users had across their ecosystem were all intuitive. Shopify is a vast technology platform with more than 500 employees in User Experience and over 2 million lines of code just for its UX. As they have grown they’ve developed a unique design system that ensures their experience remains uniform across the business.
The UX design system enables an almost infinite number of flexible templates that still work together
It’s this uniform nature that means a customer will experience Shopify in the same way across multiple merchants, even when they have used different templates. Most businesses don’t need to go this far in the early stages and UX Principles and guidelines are enough. These act as a way of delivering an experience that feels singular and from the same brand.
THE TAKEAWAY
Clearly define your audience and develop and experience that delivers on their needs
Establish UX Principles and Content Principles to deliver a uniform experience
GO DEEPER
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